Page 37 of All's Fair in Lion and War
“It would be best if you don’t mind.” Novik gestured and his people grouped closer together and moved forward. “You are the first Reyleans we’ve encountered beyond the disappointing interaction with the Ka’lagh. It is good to know more than assholes survived Exodus Day.”
Saul grinned at the earth euphemism. “Is your mate a human?”
Novik shook his head. “She is a magick-bender.”
Silence fell over the group. No-one even breathed.
Col chuffed out a surprised breath. No one ever mated a magick-bender. They were priestesses. They served Fate herself. He’d never heard of a soul match with a magick-bender.
“The magick-bender of the N’ra Lowlands died keeping our portal open as long as she could.” Col’s voice was solemn and respectful. “It was a great sacrifice.”
“Not many of you made it.”
“No. The mountain began to crumble. Liquid fire filled the land. There was so much chaos so quickly. Most died before even getting close to the portal.”
Novik touched his chest with his fist. “My heart hurts for all of you. My Tribe was blessed. All of us were able to leave safely. My mate was the one who opened the portal for our valley. She’d been sent by the temple in LeeTak. I’d never met her before Exodus Day and then I had to leave Reylea without her. But she came through right before the portals closed.”
“I have never heard of a Reylean soul matching to a magick-bender.” Col’s voice carried a thready line of doubt.
“I had not either,” Novik said, gesturing to his men to move closer.
Novik stepped forward and extended his arm to Saul. Saul clasped his the same way Col had done earlier. He leaned forward and touched his forehead to the warm forehead of the dragon male.
He released Saul’s arm and stood straight, breathing deeply. Saul moved through the group of dragons, his heart squeezing his chest. It wasn’t every day he shook hands with twenty-seven slightly angry dragons. Kann followed along behind him.
They moved through the group until ever single dragon had touched and learned their scent. Now he could only hope it would keep them safer once the fighting began.
Because it would begin.
The Ka’Lagh would not give up Lorelei so easily. And if they had a magick-bender, they wouldn’t give her up without great sacrifice. This was going to be a bloody terrible fight.
“We will follow your lead, Col of Li’Vhram.”
Col tipped his chin ever so slightly, acknowledging the other dragon’s submission to his authority. “We will wait at the cabins until true dark. Then we move.”
Saul breathed a sigh of relief. It was good to be in a prince’s tribe. It was good Novik was an honorable man. That his men were honorable. At least they seemed that way. Time would tell. The fight would tell a lot.
He had so many questions for Novik’s mate.
Right now he needed to eliminate the threat. The questions could wait until Rivian had been taken care of. Hostages had been freed.
“There are at least a dozen women being held by the Ka’Lagh in various groups. It’s going to be difficult to avoid hurting them if they move on us with hostages in tow.” Kann folded his arms over his chest and stared at Novik and the other dragons.
“We will not shift. I give you my word. We are perfectly capable of fighting in this form, with or without human weapons.”
13
Lorelei
So many memories were swimming around her mind. It was like a swarm ofhidkri, but instead of consuming everything in sight, her mind was weaving everything back together.
Consciously she knew it had to be the bond growing between her and Saul helping to sort everything, but unconsciously all she could feel was pain and grief and loss building pressure inside her chest so that she wanted to scream.
She sat in a strange dimly lit room made of metal and buried underground. The other women of the tribe were here. There were infants. They’d even offered to let her hold a baby. But she couldn’t, not right now.
Her pulse raced and slowed. Her hands trembled. Her leg twitched. Her mind tumbled over memory after memory as they reappeared and filed themselves in the correct order. She didn’t have them all. Not even close. But she had enough now to see more of what Rivian had done to her. Done to his brother.
She’d been spelled to lose her memory. A magick-bender had been forced on pain of death to make it so that she forgot everything every day. So that her last true memory was of being with Tallix. Being at home. Being safe. And then every day she would wake up and realize she’d lost everything.
