Page 16 of Prince of Blaze and Embers
“We’ll camp here until I decide what to do with you tomorrow.” He propped his helmet under his arm, as the rider in copper went to the prince’s side.
Bella whispered, “I don’t think I’d rather be stuck with any two other men in the world right now…”
I just nodded, my lips finally separated, hot breath squeezing out.
“I hope that feeling ends up being right,” I whispered back. “Because we are stuck with them, at least for now…”
The rider in copper went off, striding out onto the mountaintop.
We were in a flat expanse near the very top of the mountain, just above the tree line, which the rider in copper walked down toward.
The prince took down a large bag from his dragon, unbuckling it. I had to fight hard to not completely stare at him as he did so. He took the pack, walked over, and handed it to me, which I took, and it was far heavier-looking than I thought. It nearly pulled me down forward, and the prince’s perfect lips curved to a smirk, only just slightly, but enough for me to see some playfulness in there.
God help me, he’s perfect.
“There are blankets in there. Cover yourselves up. We’ll have a fire going shortly.”
My feet hit the ground, and my mind whirled in so many directions. The butterflies that fluttered in my stomach darted away. The majesty and thrill of freedom from being upon the dragon’s back high in the clouds flushed from me. New thoughts flooded my brain like the dam being burst wide open.
First, the prince had to think about what to do with us? He didn’t know? There we were on the top of a giant mountain, with no plan? I was sure he was taking us to Raven’s Bane Castle, and to the Blaze Queen. If we weren’t going there, then where?
Second, and with every passing second, the sensation and curiosity inside me compounded to an anxious thrill, and overwhelming sense of dread. The magic that poured out of me, and was somewhere deep inside, was what caused all this mess. It slumbered so deeply I couldn’t feel a thing. I never had any hint that anything was different about me until I saw that dragon coming down from the sky ready to kill everything within the reach of its awful flames.
What was it? Where did it come from? And why in the Infernal Depths was it in me?
There was never anything special about me. Hell, that’s all I’dpretty much heard since I was born. Even the way people looked at me spoke volumes about how they viewed me. The snarls, the eye rolls, lips curling down. It all spelled that I was lower than low.
I was meant to scrub, not shine.
“What’s wrong?” Bella pinched my elbow skin. Her voice was brave, showing no fear of those around the forge listening in anymore. Actually, there wasn’t anyone for miles, and I craved that feeling—the feeling of freedom.
I sighed, but she spoke again before I had the chance to.
“At least we’re together. We can get through this, as long as we have each other. I know that glowing thing on your neck changed everything. But we can figure it out. We can learn what it was and maybe even how to use it again! There’s always hope!”
That’s Bella… always looking for the sweet center to the sourest fruit.
“Yeah,” was all I managed to say.
“But for now…” she took me in a huge hug, and spun me to stand before her. “Just burn that image into your brain.”
Before us were the two dragons, still standing on their tree trunk legs, muscle rippling through them behind their thick scales. Smoke smoldered out of their black nostrils, steaming up and into the crisp mountain winds. The moonlight glistened off their massive bodies and wings like the same light that lit the ocean waves they saw through their barred windows in Bramblebash. Beyond, the world was cast under a dark veil of night. The clouds cast long shadows that crawled along the world below.
And then there were the stars. Bella came to my side and we both marveled at the infinite, pinpricked sky with millions of lights beaming in the heavens.
A deep inhale took the night air into my lungs, the thin air making the hairs on my head stiffen. That breathtaking view of the dragons and the world below would stay in my memory forever.
No matter what happened, at least I didn’t die with fresh whip marks on my back, buried in a shallow grave or cast out to sea with chains strapped to my ankles, decomposing slowly with my flesh being nibbled away until there was nothing left.
At least I had that moment, and no one could ever take that away from me.
CHAPTER 7
When I say this was the coolest fucking way I’d ever seen a fire made, I mean… the coolest!
The rider in copper threw the logs in the center of the clearing on the mountaintop. No kindling, no starter, no cotton. Just a pile of broken limbs, wind-worn and battered.
Krakos approached at the command of its rider. It arched its neck, angling its huge head down at the pile of wood.
