Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)

by Rebecca Yarros

“Sloane Mairi.” My head whips in her direction, and my heart jumps into my throat. Same blond hair, though it’s currently tangling in the breeze past her shoulders. Same sky-blue eyes. Same rebellion relic winding around her arm. Liam’s little sister.

Her expression shifts, and something that looks a lot like hatred fills her eyes as she leans down, her voice quieting so that I’m the only one who hears her say, “I know what really happened. You got my brother killed. He died for you.”

I’m considering tackling her to the ground myself when a set of wingbeats as familiar as my own heartbeat sounds behind me. And the anger consuming my every breath, overruling my emotions, turns to something deadlier—wrath.

He was supposed to visit yesterday but never showed, much to Tairn’s aggravation…and my worry.

“Popular today, aren’t you?” Nadine whispers with a smile, pivoting playfully toward the first-year. “Hi. I’m Violet Sorrengail.” She points to her purple hair. “See? Like my hair. Do you have a message for—” He grabs hold of her head and twists, snapping her neck.

“Fucking die, already,” he seethes, his voice blending into the ringing in my ears as he lowers his face to mine. There’s no air as his grip tightens on my windpipe. “Secrets die with the people who keep them,” he whispers, bringing his nose an inch from mine. His eyes are light brown but rimmed in red as though he’s on some kind of drug. Aetos.

A heartbeat before I reach for my door handle, I feel it, the familiar midnight-tinted shadow wrapping around my mind. Relief courses through me as I push open the door and see Xaden leaning against the wall between my desk and my bed, looking ready to kill someone as usual, his arms folded over his chest. “It’s been eight days,” I croak, wincing.

“You can’t go around killing cadets. You’re an officer now.” “Watch me.”

I fucking love your hair. If you ever want to bring me to my knees or win an argument, just let it down. I’ll get the point.

“Stop playing around and end it,” I say through our bond, using it for the first time since Resson. “Always so violent.”

“But I’m begging you, Violet. Don’t offer me your body unless you’re offering me everything. I want you more than I want to fuck you. I want those three little words back.”

“Silver One is done!” he shouts. “They can’t hear you,” I remind him, breathing through the pain. “Their dragons can.”

“If it’s Malek’s will that I join my brother, then so be it. Liam didn’t need help,” she retorts, but there’s a touch of fear in her eyes that lets me know most of this is bluster. “He made it on his own.” “No, he didn’t,” Imogen argues. “Violet saved his life during War Games. He fell off Deigh’s back, and it was Violet and Tairn who flew after him and caught him.”

“You. Are…” Imogen shakes her head as she catches up to me. “I see it now.” “What?” I ask. “Why Xaden fell for you.” I scoff. “Truthfully.” She puts her hands up. “You’re fucking clever. Way more clever than I gave you credit for. I bet you keep him constantly annoyed.” A smile beams across her face. “How glorious.”

“That has… How long have you been hiding this from me?” Xaden questions. “They’re not even…speaking,” Rhiannon mutters. “I haven’t hidden shit from you. I’ve simply told you selective truths.” He draws back like I’ve hit him.

“You don’t have to touch me for them to think you have a reason to be here. Everyone knows that we…” “Knows that we what? You’ve been pretty damned clear that we’re not together.”

“I really am sorry for exploding on you back there. There’s no excuse.” “Don’t be.” She offers me a sad half smile. “I’d rather you scream at me than pretend everything is all right with silence.” At least there’s one truth I can give her. “Nothing is all right.”

“I’m not a good measure of your skill,” he says against the bare skin of my shoulder, and a shiver of awareness ripples through me. “The day you can successfully block me all the way out is the day I’m dead. We’re both dead. I can’t block you out entirely, either, which is how you found me in the sublevel even when my shields were up. You might not be able to barge through, but you’re aware I’m there. Just like you can muffle Tairn’s and Andarna’s emotions but you can’t lock them out forever.”

“Maybe you’re not the one I’m reminding.”

“And I just want you to leave me the fuck alone.” I hold my knife steady right where he can feel it. “It’s not an idle threat, Dain. You will bleed out on this mat if you even think of taking a single one of my memories.”

“I told my father what I saw when I touched you—” “When you stole my memory,” I correct him.

His eyes flare with something that looks like devastation. “Your mother did it,” he whispers and slowly rises, first to his knees, removing his forearm from my collarbone, and then to his feet. “She wins,” he says as he walks off the mat. “I tap out.”

He didn’t mean that. There’s no way my mother sliced into Xaden a hundred and seven times.

“Oh shit.” My chest feels like it’s caving in as I grab hold of his good arm, halting our steps before the tunnel. “You know, don’t you?” He lifts a brow, the mage lights catching on those royally green eyes. “Why else would I be here?”

“He’ll use this opportunity to kill you for the embarrassment Tairn put him and Solas through.” “You can’t possibly know that.” “His intentions are pretty fucking clear. Trust me.”

“Join me in welcoming back your fellow rider, Jack Barlowe!”

“Are you trying to bring me to my knees? Or win the argument?” His hand flexes at my hip as his heated gaze sweeps over me. “Yes,” I answer, reaching for the ties at the small of my back that secure my armor. “I just spent eight hours terrified of what condition I’d find you in, and I’m telling you that I don’t just want you. I need you. There are your three words.”

My heart races as I grin. “Fuck.” His forehead rests against mine, our chests heaving as we fight to catch our breath. “Just when I think I can handle you, I completely fucking lose it.” “That’s my favorite part.”

Catriona. Cat. The way my stomach hollows has nothing to do with Tairn’s sudden launch into the night sky and everything to do with remembering what Bodhi said weeks ago. I’ve never seen him care like this, and that includes Catriona. Oh gods. The way she’d looked at him wasn’t just longing—it was memory.

“Oh.” Kaori nods. “That explains it. You haven’t talked to Panchek this afternoon. I turned in my expert opinion that Sorrengail not be punished for what was clearly the choice of her dragon. Her very powerful, very worried, very mated dragon. Panchek agrees. She’s clear of all charges.”

Blond hair and icy-blue eyes appear above me, and my heart plummets with the assassin’s body. Jack Barlowe. “Sorrengail?” He lunges forward, grasping my wrists with an unbreakable grip.

“Then it’s a good thing we have access to a prince who happens to hate his father.”

I take another sip of the lemonade, then glance down at the contents. The kitchen must have changed up the recipe, because it has a funny yet familiar aftertaste. “I meant what I said,” Nolon says quietly, glancing at the cream satchel I carry. Cream. Not black. My head blurs, my vision swimming momentarily as I swing my head to look at him. “Tairn—” But Tairn isn’t there. Every connection I have is fuzzy. No. Oh gods, no. But...but I’ve trusted Nolon with my life for years.

You’re not really here. You’re a hallucination from pain and dehydration. A mirage. “Maybe,” Liam says, and I open my eye just enough to see him sit on the floor beside me.

“I know,” Liam says gently. “But you’re staying strong. I’m so proud of you.”

“You think he’s not already losing his shit?” A corner of Liam’s mouth rises into the cocky smirk I’ve missed so much. “I’d bet he already knows. Sgaeyl will have felt Tairn’s panic. That dragon of yours might not be able to reach you this deep under Basgiath, but Xaden’s going to rip this place apart brick by brick. You just have to survive.”

Fuck him. “Does Solas enjoy hiding?” My voice croaks, and I cough. He blinks but quickly masks his surprise.

“I’m here,” Liam promises. “And I still don’t regret it, Vi. Not one second.” Wetness tracks down my cheeks.

Dain whips his arm back, and I wait for the forward surge, the cut, the pain, the flow of blood. It doesn’t come. Varrish staggers backward, holding his side, his eyes bulging as a roaring sound fills my ears. Dain brings the bloodied knife to the straps at my wrists, cutting one free, then the other. “I don’t know if we can fight our way out of here,” he says quickly, dropping down to cut my ankles free. “Can you move?”

“There’s nowhere in existence you could go that I wouldn’t find you, remember?”

“You want to know something true? Something real? I love you. I’m in love with you. I have been since the night the snow fell in your hair and you kissed me for the first time. I’m grateful my life is tied to yours because it means I won’t have to face a day without you in it. My heart only beats as long as yours does, and when you die, I’ll meet Malek at your side. It’s a damned good thing that you love me, too, because you’re stuck with me in this life and every other that could possibly follow.”

“Violet.” Her soft voice rattles me to my very core, and I grasp Xaden’s arm to stay upright. Relief, joy, wonder—it all weakens my knees and stings my eyes. For the first time in months, I feel whole. A smile spreads across my face. “Andarna.”

“Since she woke here in the high summer.” My heart stops sinking and flat-out plummets to the grass. She hadn’t fully extended her wing then, either, but I’d thought nothing of it, since she seemed generally… clumsy. “What else aren’t you telling me?” There’s no way he’d have cut her out of the conversation unless he was worried about my reaction to the information— or hers. “What she herself has not recognized.” He lowers his head, his great golden eyes locking with mine. “She’ll fly, but she’ll never bear a rider.”

“In the flesh.” He opens his arms. “Gods, it’s good to see you.” She draws back her fist and punches him straight in the face.

A figure dressed entirely in black. His jaw flexes, his hands curl at his sides, and his beautiful face… Well, he hasn’t looked at me with that much anger since discovering my last name at Parapet, back when he wanted to kill me. Guess I should be careful what I ask for, because I’m so fucked. “You aren’t where I left you, Violence.”

“I took the liberty of having a selection of clothing pulled from my best collection once Riorson told me you were inbound. My niece will see you properly attired, won’t you, Cat?” he calls back over his shoulder. My stomach hits the sparkly marble floor. You have to be fucking kidding me. “Of course, Uncle.”

“Reasonable?” His voice drops to that icy-calm timbre. “For looking for another way before serving you up to Tecarus? Let’s get one thing straight. If I ever see a way to keep you safe? I’ll take it.” The fuck he will. “Do you know who you sound like right now?” “Please, enlighten me.” He folds his arms across his chest. “Dain.” I shut the door in his face.

“What I should have done the second I saw you this afternoon.” His hand tightens in my hair, tugging slightly. “And probably shocked Cat enough to make her stop fucking with your head.” “What do you mean?” “She has the gift of heightening the emotions of the people around her, and she’s exceptionally powerful. If you hadn’t blocked me out all evening, I would have told you sooner.”

“At least it’s not just me you hate.” I bite back a smile at Sloane. “I don’t hate you,” Sloane says so quietly that I almost question hearing it. “It’s hard to hate you when Liam didn’t.”

“I’m all right.” He nods quickly, glancing down at the arrows, blood trickling from his mouth. No. No. NO. I scream up the cliff for the only person who can save him now. “BRENNAN!”