‘I’m going,’ he said flatly, leaving no room for discussion. My blood boiled. ‘Ava, just because you know the lands around my castle doesn’t mean the Fire Lands aren’t dangerous.’
I nodded, realising that I needed to make him realise things between us changed. For good. ‘There are people I could take who know how to fight.’
‘But they don’t know my lands,’ he countered when a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. ‘They don’t know the dangers. They will take twice as long to find the abandoned places. Look at it logically—I’m your best bet.’
Modest as ever. And annoyingly right.
‘For the sake of this conversation, let’s assume I agreed. We’d need someone else searching for the second location. Otherwise, it could take months.’
Snow-white teeth flashed in a relieved smile that sent heat pooling through my body. ‘I’ve already arranged that.’
Chapter Five
Avari
Landing in the Shadow Isles, I shook off the lightheadedness from my father’s shaky use of darkness and shot him a perturbed glance. The man stood beside me, humming something that vaguely resembled jazz and seemed unfazed by the recent events.
As he transported us back, he didn’t even break a sweat, whereas just the idea of using enough shadows to transport a dragon the size of Anya made me queasy.
‘Just what exactly are the limits of shadow-portalling?’ I asked while Anya stretched her wings, visibly disturbed by the way remnants of father’s black smoke clung to them.
His brow furrowed. Then he grinned and laughed outright. ‘The what? What did you just call it?’
I took a good look at him and suddenly understood where my brother’s inclination for mockery had come from.
I rolled my eyes despite myself. ‘Portalling?’
Father dragged a hand down his face. I inhaled slowly, trying to stop his taunting from getting to me when heannounced, ‘Miriam will get you books. I had assumed that your tutor would have taught you enough to know it’s called jumping.’
That actually made sense. It did feel like jumping through miles of distance while eternal night catapulted us through to step out somewhere entirely different.
‘He probably mentioned it, but I was a little preoccupied focusing on being entrapped, then the whole former Fire Queen kidnapping fiasco, which eventually led to the grand finale of my mother admitting she stole my powers…’
The Lord of the Isles scratched his beard, his face dropping as I went on. The way my recollection wiped the grin off his face didn’t please me as much as I hoped it would.
‘Fair,’ he started, but before he could continue, a sequence of pings coming from my pocket tore through our discussion.
Pulling out the new gift, I saw River had already taken the liberty of adding his number. Not that I didn’t expect it the moment he gave it to me “to coordinate our schedules”.
It was a load of crap, but I needed the device anyway. I should have asked for one a long time ago. Though considering the queen was on the run, perhaps it meant I could finally get hold of my funds and cease being a financial burden.
If I could ever escape everyone’s attention long enough to use River’s portal and retrieve my banking card…
Should be simple enough, right?
Maybe not.
Risking my life for money did feel a little vain.
Are you free in two days?
To explore one of the areas.
The sooner we start, the better.
Let me know.
Ugh.
