Page 129 of Flameborne: Fury
Dear God, it made me sick.
No wonder she didn’t believe I could keep myself in check if I knew his name.
Bless her, she didn’t know she’d betrayed the truth. And I didn’t want her worrying about it, so I hadn’t told her.
I also didn’t tell her because I knewexactlywhere Ruin had been sent—he’d flown on my orders. I knew what he was doing, and why. And now the question had been raised. Was it possiblehewas our mole?
Panic flashed in my chest.
Though our reports didn’t come from him directly, that team were part of our eyes and ears in Draeventhall. And if he was a man who couldn’t be trusted with the most sacred and personal relationships, who was to say he could be trusted with Furyknight secrets?
My fear of his access to our secrets tipped over to trembling with the volcanic heat of rage.
I’ll kill him for this. One way or another—
‘Donavyn. Don’t.’
I blinked.‘You’d have me leave this prick alive? Even when we know—’
‘The penalty among your kind for murder of a Furyknight isdeath.Yes, Donavyn. I’d urge you to patience—to wait until all other threats have passed, then let the Creator’s plan reveal how you can remove him without risk to yourself.’
‘He doesn’t deserve to live!’
‘No, he doesn’t. But you do.’My dragon sighed in my head.‘The easiest path is rarely the right one. We must assess this with wisdom and patience. I must watch the dragons andyou must watch the men. Together we can investigate. If he’s betrayed more than her trust, you need to know that before he’s silenced for his crimes.’
‘We won’t know that because he’s not close enough to be investigated! If we don’t call them back to Vosgaarde—’
‘Donavyn, listen to yourself. You know what you’d say if it were another Furyknight, if you were untouched by the betrayal.’
I rolled my jaw and stomped closer and closer to the Palace, turning that over in my mind and considering it from all angles.
And as the fury within me grew, my dragon became more and more concerned.
‘Donavyn, there is a shadowed corner in your heart. What do you hide from me?’
‘My mate’s wellbeing,’I muttered in return.‘As you said, Kgosi—we protect our mates at cost to anything else. And she needs to be protected in this.’
He gave a disapproving rumble and there was a sense of him snorting towards the part of my mind he now couldn’t see. Which is when it occurred to me, those fucking bastards might have hidden this from their dragons.
‘You’re right about one thing, Keg.’
‘You humble me,’he returned sarcastically.‘What is that?’
‘We do need time to learn if those boys’ dragons knew what they were doing. I’d be very interested firstly, in whether they knew of this, and if not,howtheir riders managed to hide such behavior from them.’
‘We share a question there,’he growled in return.
‘Can you imagine dragons being party to this kind of behavior?’
It took him a moment to answer, which surprised me. Kgosi rarely had to assess before he spoke.‘I do not want to imagineit… but life and the Creator’s wisdom tell me… no one is above corruption. I cannot dismiss the possibility.’
That made my guts twist. If we had dragons stepping out of their honor code, and walking with their human pairs into this kind of conduct…
‘Find out,’I growled.‘If the dragons weren’t a part of this, it means those men can hide the Kingdom’s secrets from their dragons. And if they can do that, they can hide anything from anyone. Including us.’
‘Not me,’Kgosi rumbled ominously.
‘Keg, if they were able to block that kind of knowledge, you better believe they can shroud the truth of their loyalties—or otherwise—to the King.’
