Page 443 of Kingdoms of Night

“I’m sure there is a lot more in other dragon keeper’s homes, but I haven’t been here for very long. I brought nothing with me, and I have practically lived in your cave for a month.” She was weaving too much again. He grabbed underneath her arm and brought her over to the bed. “Sit down. I’ll get you some water.”

“I don’t want water. I want to know that all my people are safe and that we don’t have to run any longer.” Her shoulders curved in and she hunched over herself as though she were expecting someone to hit her. “I am so tired of running, Rowan. So tired.”

And they hadn’t even started running yet.

He looked at the door, telling himself he should at least get some water in her because she needed to drink, but then he was reminded of what his mother would do when he was upset as a child.

So he turned away from the door. There would be time to get her to drink. There would be time for them to let her rest.

Right now, she needed a friend to stand by her and worry with her, and that’s something he could do.

Rowan sat down on the bed beside her and wrapped an arm around her curved shoulders. He drew her in tight against his side and squeezed her shoulder before he started rubbing her back. “You have a good reason to be afraid. But you know that there are many people here to help you and the other dragons. We won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Oh, Rowan.” She set her head on his shoulder and reached for his free hand. She curled her fingers through his and set his hand on her lap. “You haven’t been here long enough, but the dragon keepers are never people we expect to protect us. The dragons are your guardians and you are here to spend the rest of your days in luxury and peace while helping us through the finer details in life. That’s what we offer the dragon keepers.”

He dropped his cheek to the top of her head. “And sometimes, the keepers have to repay that. We will all fight to the death to keep this place what it is.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” she whispered. “I will lose all the dragons I love so dearly, and the guilt of all your deaths will haunt me until I take my last breath.”

She started shivering again, and it broke his damn heart. This poor dragon had been through so much already, and now she had so much more to fear. He had seen the memories that she’d been forced to watch over and over so they didn’t tangle with others. He knew the trauma that lived in her mind and the fear that came from seeing so many of her own people die throughout the centuries.

Rowan needed to lighten the mood or they both would sit here until the attack came.

He cleared his throat and patted her back. “So, when were you going to tell me you’re pregnant?”

A choked laugh startled out of her at his words. “I didn’t think it was very important for you to know.”

“Wouldn’t you think it was?” He reared back to look down into her eyes. “You’re pregnant! I should have been taking care of you a lot better than I was.”

Tanis rolled her eyes and shoved at his chest. “It’s different for dragons. The eggs take years to form, and we don’t have to lay them until we’re ready. It’s nothing like your kind. Dragons don’t worry about their clutches until they are laid. Then it’s difficult to protect them. I thought you would have seen that through the memories, or I suppose I could have told you.”

He had seen none of that in the memory crystals, and she knew it.

Dragons apparently didn’t care too much about those eggs, considering there were no memories at all of the laying process. He’d seen countless baby dragons in the memories and felt the pride that many dragons experienced when looking at their young ones.

But he’d never seen a dragon lay their eggs. No one recorded that memory.

“You know there aren’t any memories of that,” he scolded, although his words held little anger. “There are far too many memories and not a single one about this?”

She shrugged. “It’s a rather private memory, I suppose. And many of the dragon eggs are kept in secret places. Some of them will never hatch, some might in centuries to come. A dragon egg remains in stasis until someone finds it and hatches it. There are many ways to do that, I suppose, but laying the eggs is not a straightforward process.”

“And they are eggs, right?” He let go of her to hold his arms up wide. “And they’re this big? Huge, I’d imagine. Very heavy.”

She laughed at his antics, and that made his chest swell with pride. She had forgotten even for a few moments how horrible life had become for her. That’s all he could ask for in this bubble of safety they’d created.

The door swung open and Aster stepped inside. He thought maybe she would have good news, but then she closed the door behind her and he knew this would not be an easy conversation to have.

She hesitated before speaking, and that made this even worse.

“Just tell us,” he said, knowing his own cheeks were pale. “How bad is it?”

Aster steadied herself with a long breath. “They’re all refusing to change. Not a single one agreed to return to a mortal form because the crimson dragons had already seen the boats. By the time we found the others, they were already gathered on the cliffs and on the shore. The consensus was that they will all fight to protect their homeland and they will not cower in fear.”

He looked over at Tanis to see that her eyes had filled with tears.

She made a tiny noise in the back of her throat, then said, “Cower? We are protecting the last of us by changing. The mortals might not know who we are if we’re in this form. They might spare our lives.”

“They...” Aster swallowed hard. “They believe the mortals that are coming will want to kill everyone on the island. Even the dragon keepers. The others are preparing to fight as well, in case we need to protect ourselves. I don’t think anyone believes they will leave a single soul behind on this island, Tanis. We all know what is coming.”

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