Page 120 of A Kingdom Restored

He also saw with blinding clarity what hedidn’twant. He didn’t want to spend his life pulled between two camps, trying to bring them together while never feeling like he truly belonged in either. The king had valued him because he was perceived to be without magic, and had readily turned on him when he showed himself to have allegiances elsewhere. Even his cousins, his own flesh and blood, had frozen him out when they decided he was in the “other” camp in their constant, exhausting conflict.

He didn’t harbor any bitterness—he understood all the factors that had brought them to where they were. But it wasn’t how he wanted to spend his life. For someone who was supposed to have magically enhanced sight, he’d certainly taken a long time to see the beautiful simplicity of it.

“Reka,” he said, stepping out of the line of extended royals, and ignoring the ongoing formalities. “Got some time?” He shed his outer layers, a delicious shiver going over him in the frigid air.

“I have all the time you could comprehend,” Reka said in his gravelly voice, swiveling to face Heath. He glanced over Heath’s form. “Will you not be cold without your coverings?”

Heath grinned. “Not where we’re going. Up for a flight?”

A smile stretched across Reka’s thin reptilian lips.

“For you, my dragonfriend, always.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Merletta strode confidently up the beach, exaggerating her steps to make the movements easier to follow.

“Like this, you see?” She turned to the half dozen faces bobbing in the shallows, staring at her in astonishment.

Sage flicked her tail clumsily up around her, pushing herself up as soon as her feet took shape.

“You’ll get used to it,” she said blithely, her smile a little cheeky as she met Emil’s eyes.

With a deep breath, the young merman copied her gesture, his expression mildly alarmed as the transformation took place.

“Wow,” Merletta said. “That’s an impressive reaction for your first time drying out.”

“He is pretty remarkable,” Sage said, sounding a trifle smug.

Merletta was prevented from mocking her friend’s lovesickness by Andre’s shout of excitement as he threw himself onto the sand beside Emil, flopping around like a fish thrown onto a rock. A moment later he rose on shaky legs, his eyes wide with enthusiasm.

“This is amazing!” he cried, trying to take a step and promptly falling over.

“Slow and steady, Andre.” Eloise’s calm voice cut through the friends’ laughter as she rose gracefully from the water. “It will take time to master this new skill.”

Merletta left others to help Indigo and the rest, turning a calculating look toward the tree line.

“There’s a clearing not far through there,” she said, to no one in particular. “The ruins are probably too far gone to salvage, but I don’t think it will be that hard to clear them, and it’s a good site for a sort of receiving hall, I think.”

Excitement swelled in her as she thought about the future. She’d been waiting for this day ever since the dragon attack was turned back, but there had been so much else requiring her attention—and everyone else’s. Now, after the somber but very important memorial the day before, honoring the memory of those killed by the dragons, it felt like others than just her were finally ready to look ahead.

She received no response to her words, the whole group freezing at the sudden sound of rushing wind. Merletta saw fear flash across many faces, but her heart soared up into her throat. Surely not! She hadn’t even dared to hope!

But sure enough, when her eyes searched the sky eagerly, she was met with her very favorite sight. The reptilian shape descending, sunlight glinting off his yellow scales, with a lithe, tousle-haired burden in his talons.

“Heath!” Merletta cried, sprinting across the sand and throwing herself against him before he’d had a chance to get his footing. The two of them tumbled into the sand, rolling into the shallows before Merletta righted herself, laughing. “I thought it would be too much to hope for.”

“Are you mad?” Heath demanded, sitting up as well and grinning as he lifted a dripping rope of hair from her face. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you since we parted. The moment I saw you heading here, there was nothing in all the world that could have kept me from following.”

Merletta raised an eyebrow, her laugh dying a little. “Nothing?” she challenged.

But Heath didn’t falter, his eyes warm as he continued to smile at her. “Nothing,” he repeated, his voice changing somehow, softening.

All at once the moment felt intimate, and Merletta was suddenly acutely aware both that they were still tangled up in the sand, and that they weren’t alone.

“We need to talk,” she said, struggling to her feet and holding out her hand. Heath took it, and even after everything, her heart skipped a beat as he drew up beside her, standing close enough that she could feel his warmth, his eyes boring down into hers.

“I have all the time in the world,” he told her, a simple intensity in the words that took her breath away.

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