Page 130 of Enchanted Shadows
Oh right. He thought I meant with Kessara. Awkward. I gestured toward Zaire, “I meant with Zaire, not with your sister.”
Keir ran a hand down his face. “Must you flirt witheverything?”
“I just say the words, you’re the one that goes there.”
“You take us directly to the cliff, then are surprised when we dangle there?” he argued.
“The dragon is waiting,” Kessara urged.
Zaire snorted as if in agreement, but I knew he loved to banter with the rest of us. He had mellowed out entirely since being healed, since helping both Dra Skor and Agria heal.
Keir opted to fly himself, leaving Kessara and me to fly on Zaire together. Her whole body was tense, as she gripped one of his protruding scales for dear life.
Zaire beat his wings hard, rising up to the top of the tree line, and I had to reach and hold onto Kessara’s waist, making sure to keep both of us on.
But by the time we landed in the only clearing close to the ship, still a hundred yards from the docks, Kessara was looking wind-blown and happy. I understood entirely. I didn’t think I stopped smiling a full day after my first ride on a shifter. The adrenaline high gave way to pure happiness. Riding a dragon. Who would have dared to dream it?
“Thank you,” I told Keir and Zaire. “And thank you for showing up for us today.”
“You avoided a war today, Owen. It was a solid plan,” Keir complimented.
“Now get for home before the wings inflict terror on the people,” I told them. Agria was more accepting of Dra Skor than ever before because of Keir’s efforts healing them, but still. All things considered, everyone needed to get the hell out of Agria. Agria was about to denounce one heir before the other returned home.
See you soon,Zaire said as he lifted back into the air.
“Not too soon,” I jested.
“Love you, brother,” Keir told me before saying to Kessara, “See you soon, sis.”
“Bye,” Kessara said quietly with a little wave.
It was just the two of us, the Wylan ship off in the distance. A stressful, but otherwise successful day behind us.
“I am sorry,” I said immediately, though she still wasn’t even looking at me. “Kess, I understand why you are mad. I wish I would’ve told you, I just didn’t want you to stay with me because of our attraction to one another if the throne was really something you wanted. So I had to offer it. With other people present so I couldn’t use my lips and body to convince you of all the reasons to stay with me. So I couldn’t be selfish.”
“Owen—”
“I meant what I said back there. I want you. In every space. With all of me.”
“Owen—” she said again sounding more panicked.
But she needed to hear this. “Do you not understand that there’s not a thing in the entire damn realm I wouldn’t do for you? Thatthisis so damn real to me?”
“Owen!”
It was then, as her eyes locked onto mine, that I understood she hadn’t been looking around me to avoid my eyes. I’d been so desperate to make things up to her, it’d been lost on me that she’d been scanning our surroundings.
My magic flared, traveling up my forearms.
“It’s Calix and Damek’s men,” she whispered. “I sense them.”
Before she was even done speaking, she called the shadows to her and threw them around us just as more shadows came at us from every possible angle.
CHAPTER 41
Kessara had her head tipped back, eyes closed, as she held her hands at her sides, opened wide as the shadows grew thicker and thicker around us. We were in a clearing, yes, but there were far too many shadows close by for all of them to utilize. Agria was naturally crawling with them.
There was a crashing noise heard to my right as one of the men’s shadows tried to throw something at Kessara’s barrier.
