Page 131 of Between Fear and Favor

Of course, the dragon I needed to convince had to be the most willful and protective of them all. I didn’t even know where to start.

Peering up at the night sky, I watched him in flight. Curving around one way, then turning another to cross back over his path, the dragon was predictable. The moment the archers were able to line up a shot, they’d take it. The only protection he had was how high he flew. Irses might have been out of range, but I wasn’t confident enough to abandon my task. If he were hurt, it would likely kill Em. If not physically, by weakening her while dealing with the Supreme, then mentally. If she even made it out of that battle.

My plan was stupid at best and deadly at worst. Though I sat upon a rooftop, I opened a rift high above the clouds. “Irses!” I shouted, instantly chilled to the bone from the wind. “Come here!”

Despite every muscle seizing from the cold, my hand clinging desperately to the chimney, I leaned forward into the open air. Creating a rift in the exact point in the sky was a near-pointless endeavor, but I was far closer than I expected. The dragon circled below me, only tilting his head the slightest bit. A large, emerald-green eye peered up at me, but he paid me no mind.

“Irses!” I threw all of my irritation into the boom of my voice, but nothing happened—until I used my wind divinity. Frustration with the stubborn beast below heated my blood along with the air as the draft of my wind carried the dragon higher.

“Irses, go home!” I commanded, and all he did was snarl as he turned and repeated the same path. Enormous stone-grey wings flapped against the wind’s current, and I knew I’d have to take my pestering even further. Despite the rift’s toll on my divinity, I summoned as much of Em’s divine fire into my hands as I could—and then I threw it at Irses. I lacked Em’s ability to manipulate the flame, but with my wind divinity working to assist me, the fire found my target.

Irses roared, flying up toward my open rift. When he ducked beneath it, narrowly avoiding slamming into the boundaries of the two locations, I summoned all my courage.

And jumped.

Scrambling for purchase, I gripped the ridges of his neck, holding on with everything I had.

“Home, Irses!” I ordered once more, using my divinity to fashion some sort of shadow halter around the giant beast’s head. With all my strength, I tugged, turning Irses toward the southeast. Towards home. He raged against it, growling and roaring and trying to shake me free from his back. This dragon, whose fierce devotion for the woman far below us mirrored my own, fought me with all the force I imagined a giant, obstinate beast could muster.

When the first bolt struck his wing, it tore the thin membrane, but sailed right through.

“Higher!” I shouted, but he wasn’t fast enough. Though Irses rolled, dodging the second bolt, my luck had run out. I desperately gripped the shadowed ropes of divinity I’d attached to lead him away. I attempted to create more, to use my wind to propel me back onto him, but nothing worked. As I tumbled from his back, turning head over foot as I fell, all I could see was bright flames and the darkness of the night as it claimed me.

Chapter 58

HONOR

“Thank you, sweetheart.”

“I told you, Evandra. I’m happy to do it,” I said, washing up in the bucket beside her bed. I turned away from the window, wiping my hands on my dress. Saski had been kind enough to send clothing for me, but this dress was beginning to look like the one I’d worn in Astana.

“No one can possibly be happy cleaning an old lady’s ugly end,” Evandra laughed, a wheeze trickling out as she exhaled.

I chuckled, turning around to fuss with her blankets. “I’m happy to take care of you. Besides, you’ll always be indebted to me. How could you ever say no to the woman who wiped your bottom?”

She barked a laugh, but it soon devolved into an echoing cough, and I felt terrible for being the cause of it. Marella and I had promptly discarded Dewalt’s order to stay within the fortress, instead helping those who were unable to leave the shadow of it. Even if they weren’t the most pleasing of chores, they kept me from being idle. Evandra was kind, and she needed my help. Besides, she had plenty of gossip to share with me after people-watching out her window all day. If anybody could help me and Marella keep an eye out, it would be her.

“Since the girl isn’t with you, tell me true,” Evandra said, grabbing my wrist with an extraordinarily strong grasp. “They said the forestborn woman was likely dead. Why am I looking for her every day?”

The way she said the word irked me.Forestborn, as if it were a curse.

“They found quite a bit of her blood; you’re right. But it’s possible she was trying to use her magick. Or perhaps it was a ruse.”

Marella hadn’t been the one to tell me, but I’d looked into what she’d said about Aida. Her blood had covered the walls, more than Raj’s had. Aida had either put up a tremendous fight or a tremendous farce, and there was no way to know which it was unless we found her. The theory within the fortress was that Raj had fought back, and Aida had run off to die somewhere. When Fletcher finally arrived, in one piece and mostly healed from our attack, he’d confirmed what one of the higher ranking soldiers had said; her elven blood was splattered everywhere, but no magick lingered.

When given leave to clean it, Marella had rubbed her skin raw to rid her father’s den of both their blood. Marella’s desire to find Aida hadn’t lessened in the days I’d been here.

“Well, if she’s got that much sense to fake it, I’d think she’d have enough sense to stay away.”

I nodded, raising my eyebrows at her in agreement. But what else was there to do? With no body and no answers, Aida was our only hope for Marella to find closure.

“Ah, it seems they’re back,” Evandra said, nodding toward the window. Shoving past the corner of the bed so I could get a better look, I stumbled to the window facing the fortress. Sure enough, a soldier was tying blue fabric to his guard station.

“I have to go,” I said, leaning over and kissing the woman on the forehead before running from the room. Out the door, down the steps, and halfway down the street, I realized I’d left my bag of supplies. But I didn’t care.

Dewalt had been gone since the day we’d arrived in Nara’s Cove, and it had been a thorn in my foot the entire time. Though I’d prepared myself for his distance, I couldn’t pretend it hadn’t hurt when he left the way he did.

I knew it was silly.

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