It angered me.
“Change of plans.” I flung my bow behind my back and looked at the young warriors, all of them bewildered. “The Commander decided I should stay back and protect the city. Just in case.”
“You argued again, didn’t you?” Nadya asked, but mercifully closed her mouth when I slashed a warning look her way.
“We have enough protection.” Vylkor raised his brow. “As you can see.”
“Yes, he left the city and crater in good hands,” I said. “Yours–and now mine.”
Whether Vylkor and the rest wanted to accept it or not–and, honestly, I still had a hard time with it myself–once Ryker and I fulfilled that marriage contract, I would lead this place. And, yes, I had been raised to rule and strategize. They hadn’t.
They threw me the same curious, disbelieving gazes they had on that day Dax had first come here.
Back then, I’d known I could rely on Ryker’s return to quiet the waters.
Now, I was on my own to keep the whispers at bay.
My return surely didn’t do me any favors in a place where you needed to be tougher than the land to survive, but I was sick and tired of this mistrust. I’d been ready to march to war with these people.
I didn’t have time to soften my return.
Whether the outside world knew I’d gone to war or not, it was common knowledge the warriors of Solkar’s Reach had marched toward the battlefield. Our only hope was that nobody knew the crater’s defenses were down.
Vylkor didn’t know the lip of the crater had allowed Dax to enter. Maybe if he had, he wouldn’t have been narrowing his eyes skeptically at me, like I’d planned my return all along.
“Your attention should be on the sky, in case the scouts sound an alarm, not on me,” I said.
Dax rolled the daggers in his fists with such ease, it seemed he’d grown claws. Claws prepared to strike. “I’d listen to her.”
Vylkor’s nostrils flared and his eye tightened even more. I didn’t know why my return bothered him so much, but it did.
This wasn’t about recognizing me. Not anymore.
For the briefest moment, my powers stirred deep within me, ready to burst.
With a mighty grimace, Vylkor handed me the sword. I braced my muscles, but its weight still threatened to pull down my arm. It mercifully remained still and unbending as I grabbed the massive pommel, even as my ligaments screamed in pain.
No show of weakness.
Not right now, when they all expected it.
I brought the sword to my side with the confidence of someone who could actually swing it above their head, and started walking, tall as ever.
The duty of the crater’s protection now lay on my shoulders, and I planned on keeping them straight.
“Everybody back to your posts,” I said and something locked inside of me. Something familiar. Unavoidable. “We are at war.”
Chapter 37
Ryker
“The healers were right.” Zandyr twisted his fingers above Geryll’s leg, eyes closed and brows furrowed from the effort. Seeing him like this, it was easy to forget everyone else saw him as the Dragon first, and a human just like the rest of second. If at all. “The wound isn’t natural. But the body’s absorbing whatever that weapon left behind.”
I nodded and winked at Geryll, trying to calm him down. He’d been sitting still as a frightened statue since the Capital healers had left and Zandyr had come to check himself.
“You’ll be good as new in a few months,” Zandyr said.
“Th–thanks.” Geryll tried to smile, bless him, but it ended up just as a twitch.
