Page 38 of Prince of Blaze and Embers
My gaze slid to the side, looking down at the back of my hand as it rubbed the soft sheets. Hours prior, magic poured out of my fingers like water flinging from a bucket. My arms felt as if weighed down by lead, and my vision fogged.
“You must have the wrong person. I can’t be the one you’re talking about. I can’t do those things. I can’t fight the queen. I couldn’t even protect myself from my masters in Bramblebash. How could I ever do anything like that? Sure, I killed a man. But just barely. I could’ve died there in the Faewood.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Fine. Rest up this eve,” he said in a hollow voice as I watched him slowly vanish into the air, half-translucent. “Tomorrow night we will continue your training. Until then… just try to stay alive. And here in the Faewood, as far away from Emberveil as possible.”
With that last word, the tortoise disappeared completely, leaving me in the room with a head full of worry and anxiety. The thing that calmed my nerves was the memory of that wonderful, exhilarating, wild kiss.
CHAPTER 17
The afternoon sun bit down hard on me, reflecting off the ground beneath our feet as the incredible, magical dragons came. Their wings gusted huge swaths of hot wind and dust into our faces as we watched. It bit at my skin as the smoldering smell of hot dragonfire returned to my nostrils.
Cade rode Krakos first, with Hunter behind on Talonor. Both dragons landed with a ferocity that would cause most to soil themselves. Their wings swept wide, shaking off the dust before recoiling into their immense bodies. They snarled, and their huge mouths showed their vicious teeth as they lowered their bodies, and both riders jumped down.
It was midway into the day, after we’d had breakfast, and I filled Bella in on everything. Rosa always worked closely, always with an ear pointed my way.
Cade gave me a glance that pierced my heart more than it filled it. He was either fighting hard to not make eye contact, or I had done something to piss him off so badly he wouldn’t acknowledge my existence. My stomach felt as if a ball of iron was twisting in it, grinding harder with every step the prince took while ignoring me.
Hunter looked at both of us, bowing his head slightly, then rushed off after the prince.
I bit my lip to not yell out after him as Cade stormed by. There was an intense energy shadowing him.
“C’mon,” I finally whispered to Bella, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her. “He may not want to talk to me, but I need to know what the hell is going on.”
Cade and Hunter were in front of Rosa, both clad in their brilliant royal armor, and both with their capes flapping madly behind.
“Hey.” I had to force the word from my nervous throat.
Hunter turned with an upraised eyebrow, and a slight upturn of the corner of his mouth. Cade turned with stark irritation; the shadow encompassing him darkened. He glared at me out of the very corner of his eye.
“What’s going on?” I asked, releasing Bella and holding both my hands out wide. My heart thumped hard in my chest, half-worried about annoying Cade, half-furious about the secrecy he kept. “While you’re out playing ride the dragons, we are here, not knowing anything, trying to pretend that we are safe here. Well, we aren’t. And I don’t have a clue where you’re going, or doing, or thinking, or hiding. And it’s about time you start treating me like I’m involved in the decision making that you’re secretly trying to make. I may belong to you, but this is my life, and if you’re going to take me to the queen, then why don’t you just tell me now so I can plan on dying?”
That got his attention.
He spun, with his huge shoulders framing me. I staggered back a step. Hunter grinned, about to laugh, but then cleared his throat, regaining his composure as he stood at the prince’s side.
“I don’t owe you anything,” Cade said, his voice steaming. “I got you out of that hellhole of a town, and got you away from that slob. Isn’t that enough?”
“I know more than you think I do.” I took a terrifying stepforward, folding my arms over my stomach as a gust of wind shot through—not so much wind, with the dragons stirring alive at the way I confronted Krakos’ rider.
“Is that so?” Cade asked, folding his arms as well. Rosa covered her mouth nonchalantly as she was brimming with appreciation for my dramatic callout of the prince. “What do you know?”
I coughed, not expecting to be called out myself. “You, you want me to tell you, now?”
“You brought it up. So do us all a favor and tell me what you, a Mist from some nowhere village in the southern slums, know. Go ahead. We’re waiting.”
I brought it up with my smart ass, always getting me into way too much trouble. I swallowed hard. I dug deep for my courage, which when I looked into the prince’s glower, welling deep behind that perfect face, I found it.
“I know I have the Rune Spirit. I know about the Gilded Radiance magic that’s inside of me. I know that I’m the only one with the rune on the side of my neck in Allovan, and I know that the queen wants me more than anything. There’s something about the Gilded Radiance that she wants for herself. And you’re the one who was charged to find me and bring me to her. I know that if you take me there, then I’m most likely dead. What I don’t know is why she sent another hunter after me. My best guess is that you’re taking too long, or she’s worried about your allegiance, so she’s sending others after me too. I know about the Sythers that were with Rone, and I assume there’s no good reason you wouldn’t have just taken me to her immediately unless there was something else going on. That’s what I want to know.”
I decided to keep some juicy bits to myself—like Cornelius, me being an Aquafae, and the thing that spoke to me in my head on the beach. And oh yeah, my burning desire to rush up to theprince and press my lips against his, shoving my hands under his armor, grabbing at his hard abs.
He cocked an eyebrow, thinking hard about what to say.
Rosa tossed her face all the way to the side to hide her excited cackle. Hunter turned to face the prince, folding his hands together before his belt buckle. He also waited with interest in the prince’s reaction.
