Page 225 of A Dance of Water

Her lips parted, but no words came. Shaky and wide-eyed with fear, she could only stare at Graves.

From above, a loud rumble of thunder shook through the sky. She wondered how the sound was able to permeate through the mountains—weren’t they deep underground?

Graves’s throat worked as he swallowed. "I must leave."

"But… wait." She reached for him as his hands left her, her fingers grazing the air, unable to grasp what he had just revealed.

"He will not hurt you." Graves’s deep blue eyes fell to her body, tracing the stiff hem of her shift, tickling her upper thighs. "Quite the opposite."

The thunder grew louder.

A gloved hand snaked under the folds of his cloak. She saw a flash of silver from the chain of his amulet as he held the stone. Feathers rustled as the raven flew up above. Those keen eyes bore into hers as he ascended, disappearing into the shadows, out of sight. The only trace of him, the singular feather left on the stone ground.

Luella touched her tingling lips, eyes falling onto the feather. She felt compelled to take it, so she did, bending as her hands closed around the quill end.

"Where did you go?" she asked, the soft question echoing around her as she stared up at the ceiling.

Her answer came in the form of an ear-splitting rumble of thunder.

The scant flames in the room danced, threatening to blow out from a harsh gust of wind.

That breeze she thought was without origin?—

She had been wrong.

What she assumed was a rounded ceiling, so high above that the shadows in the cavern blended with the night sky, was actually ahole.

There was a hole above her, revealing the dark sky, covered with clouds.

She gasped and huddled near the side of the room, hands over her head as the thunder grew louder.

But the rhythmic pattern revealed the truth.

Not thunder.

"No," Luella breathed, the sound swallowed up by the noise of wingbeats.

From her huddled position near the wall, she nearly missed the stone door opening as a Temple Mother entered, cloak blowing in the powerful wind.

Dangling from the Temple Mother’s hands, a length of rope.

The wingbeats did not grow louder as the dragon waited somewhere above, just out of sight. The Temple Mother stood by the stone pillar in the room, waiting.

And in Luella’s head, the barest whisper resounded, filled with calm urgency:Go. Now.

She found herself standing and walking forward, as if in a daze. The Binding mark on her chest pulsed, but the voice had not sounded entirely like King Vale, but more carnal, possessive, even. Laced with a fiery hiss like water evaporating off molten rocks…

The wingbeats made her hair whip around her.

Be still.

She froze.

The Temple Mother unfurled the rope, placing a hand on her shoulder, and pressed her against the pillar. Luella’s back hit the cold stone, and she trembled, legs desperate to move, but unable to due to the command.

The rope was wrapped around her, the Temple Mother disappearing behind her as she finished tying it off, forcing Luella to gasp as it dug into her waist.

"Wait…" Luella struggled against the rope, terror filling every bit of her as the dragon’s wingbeats grew louder. "Wait!"

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