Page 33 of Dragon Blood

Every time he thought about leaving, be it escape or merely flying away on his own, the image of Astred’s fear filled face loomed before him. She was just distraught over her mother, who was now in the right hands. He’d helped with that, what more could he realistically do?

Kai ignored the feeling that she needed him, chalking it up to male pride and protectionism.

Why would she need him? She was the fucking heir of this place with a fleet of guardians at her command.

“Alright, I assume now is as good a time as any.” He gathered the few items he’d removed from his travel bag, zipping it closed.

Kolina reached up to her nape, unfastened a thin chain and extracted the locket hidden beneath her shirt. Hesitating, her thumb caressed the winged shield etched into its surface. The Aeleftherian symbol of strength. “I’d really hoped things could finally be different.” She looked up, eyes glassy, as she grasped Kai’s hand. “I’m sorry.”

The locket was warm and light against his palm as it settled with the chain pooled around it.

Without a thought, Kai reached for his mother, pulling her into his embrace. Something he hadn’t done since before he was fourteen years old.

She gripped him, hard and fierce, whispering. “You’ve always been my precious little boy, Kai.”

His heart pounded, hearing words he never allowed himself to dream of hearing, knowing deep down that this might be the last time he had the chance to fix things between them.

I can’t leave…

Again, and do what?

“Come with me.”

She extracted herself from his arms. “I wish I could.”

He drew a deep breath.

Here it is.

“For reasons different from before.”

“Aeleftheria comes first.” His resentment spiked from the pits of his past, unable to stop the words.

But he also understood. Her queen’s life was at risk, and Kolina Steelscale was a member of her personal guard. His thoughts slid back to Astred, then away again.

She wants nothing to do with me.

Did she suspect him, too? Did Astred believe that he would harm her mother for some political plot, in the works long before their unexpected reunion? Maybe that was why she severed contact with him after their arrival.

Kolina was right.

I have to leave.

His fist tightened on the handle of his bag.

“This way,” she gestured toward the back corner of the room, beside the grand fireplace. Sliding her fingers along the intricate carvings surrounding the rich mantle piece, a soft click released a panel from the wall.

“Astred had you assigned to this room… just in case.” She resealed the passage behind them, casting them into darkness.

Tension licked through his body at Kolina’s admission that Astred had accounted for the possibility that Kai might need a covert way out.

With a few scuffing sounds, followed by the strike of flint and whoosh of flame, Kolina lit a lamp suspended from an iron hook on the wall, then led the way through the stone corridors deep within the citadel, ever downward.

As they descended, eerie ripples coated his body, causing goosebumps to rise as the scents of earth and stone and damp filled his nose.

“There’s magic down here.”

Kolina glanced back at him, her features softening as she searched his face. “Perhaps,” she said, pausing. “But what you’re feeling—a ripple? That’s your dragon reacting to the earth’s ores. The air dragons are sensitive to changes in the atmosphere. You are a metal dragon, and we’re connected to the ores in the earth’s core.” She resumed her lead. “In a different way from earth dragons. Similar but different.”

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