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“She said to get your ashy, soot-filled cock off of her,” Kaiser deadpanned. “My cock is a regal masterpiece, I’ll have you know,” North tossed at me.
“Do not hurt her,” Kaiser said, deathly calm. “Her fear is mine to claim, not yours.”
“You shouldn’t have done this,” North spoke to Kaiser in a mutter. “She’s the enemy. She shouldn’t be tied to you or any of our people.”
Calcifiend was on his shoulder, nuzzling his chin and showing his traitorous little heart.
“She’s like your very own little torture doll. You really are fucked in the head, aren’t you Kai?”
“I bet he hasn’t even told you what he thinks I am, has he? Just like he didn’t tell you that he chose me as his Fearsire, and there are so many more secrets he’s keeping from you.” North
but at the sound of footsteps beyond the door, he sent me behind a wooden screen that concealed a copper bathtub, stowing the dagger in my jacket as I went. A beat later, I was jammed between two muscular bodies as North and Kaiser squeezed in too, ducking low to remain hidden behind the screen.
He had ice-blue eyes that looked colder than the frozen tundra that encased Never Keep, and hair as white as that very snow. His features were angular, hardened by battle and the too-clean white battle leathers he wore made him stand out starkly in the gloom of Never Keep. I knew him from all I’d heard about him; a prince of Air. Dragor Aquila.
My lips parted as my gaze caught on Calcifiend’s small form crawling up Dragor’s leg and slipping into his pocket, his back legs kicking as he disappeared inside.
I tried to put a measure of space between us, but Kaiser’s possession rippled through me and drew me even closer to him.
My teeth ground together at the feel of his hand curling against my hip, his fingers digging into the bone. A vibration ran through my skin from the contact, the power emanating from him like a toxin entering my bloodstream.
“We need to be ready. If he goes anywhere alone, Calcifiend will lead me to him,”
“Kaiser and his pet Sayer Dragon have imprinted. Their bond gives him an advantage over turtle-brained cunts like you, Raincarver, or is your mind too full of seaweed to notice how powerful he is?”
“I’m coming,” I announced, and they both looked at me in surprise. Well, surprise was stretching it when it came to Kaiser, but he was giving me a calculating look again.
“She’s coming,” Kaiser decided. “She’ll be useful if I need a magical recharge during the fight.”
“Watch your mouth, silka la vin, or I’ll consider cutting out that troublesome tongue of yours.”
“Look at that. The mark of a failed neophyte. You won’t pass the graduation trial, so you’re probably better off being Kaiser’s pet. At least you’ll be worth something in the war. Fuel to a rising legend.”
He had done this to me. He had taken everything from me and weakened me in the process. And with every passing day that I vowed to secure his death, he was no more threatened by me.
Kaiser placed a hand against my spine and the sudden touch sent an unexpected tremor rolling through my body. I glanced back at him, realising what he wanted of me before he asked it.
“I know what you’re capable of, silka la vin,”
The final archway fell in a blast of air that was pouring from Prince Dragor’s hands, his element ripping it to pieces and shattering it for good. He had destroyed every one of the portals. But how had he known they were here? And why had he come to destroy them?
“I was told I would not be disturbed.” The Cardinal Reaper, Solomon Imai, rose from where he’d been kneeling on a zodiac wheel that was carved into the floor, with beautiful birth stones embedded at each point of the star signs. He wore a navy cloak that wrapped around his tall body, a glint of its gold trim catching the firelight.
“Apologies, Cardinal Reaper,” North gushed, his head dropping in a bow. “Yes, forgive us,”
Particularly in the years which had passed since my betrothed had set off to infiltrate the air kingdom stronghold of Ironwraith.
I’d schemed and traded countless secrets to earn the coin for such a gown, but it had been a long three years awaiting my betrothed’s return, and I aimed to take him to my marriage bed as soon as possible.
Between his newly founded reputation and the connections and alliances I had been painstakingly forging for us in the Earl’s court, we were certain to be ranked among the most prestigious of families in the whole of Avanis.
It was his plan which had seen my betrothed sent to Stormfell before I had manged to make it through my nuptials.
“I apologise,” I gasped, my words falling away as I looked up into the deep green eyes of the man who had become my unwilling prop.
The Earl was tall and broad, his body not unlike the huge Manticore he shifted into on the battlefield. He was a handsome man, with dark hair which hung in loose waves to his nape, his gaze piercing with a strong jaw and a mouth I had always felt was suited to smiling, though I couldn’t say I’d ever seen him tempted into doing so. He was young for an Earl at only thirty-seven years, but his eyes always seemed so much older.
The Flamebringers had launched an attack on our people which had seen not only his parents dead but his sisters, brother, wife and two young children too.
“Can’t say I was expecting to get you on your back so early in the day, Septa, but at least I know you’re keen to make it there for me.”
“Your Earl awaits you, Alestro,”
“While disguising myself as the Skyforger, Cayde Avior, I managed to gain the trust of the Sky Witch,”
but Earl Tarlord caught my wrist to stop me and I was forced to remain in my seat, the heat of my Earl’s fingers like a brand against my skin.
“The Sky Witch was lonely,” he sneered. “She was so desperate for love that she never even suspected me at all.”
“If this is indeed the work of the Sky Witch, then not only will the magic be potent indeed but I fear it might only be broken in one way.”
But throughout it all, as the hours passed and no more words were spoken of my betrothed and the debacle of his return, a face kept company with my thoughts. The beautiful face of a woman who I only knew through tales of war and sketches I’d seen of our most powerful enemies. A woman with pink hair and cold eyes who had let my betrothed seduce her. A woman whose life now stood between me and all I had worked so very hard for. A woman whose death might just be the key to my fortunes finally changing. A woman who was, in fact, a witch.
“Everest, stop!” he cried and stars help me, the fear in his eyes melted a part of my hardened heart. I skimmed the blade past his neck, driving it into a gap between the bricks beside his head, the ringing of metal on stone punctuating my decision.
“You’re becoming more than I thought you ever could be, runt,” he murmured. “What the fuck is your Order?”
“She saw the bad things, Miss Everest. The very bad things. Now they are here again and I do not know how to make them go away.”
“It was back when I was young. Only small, four or five. I was born with legs that tried to walk opposite ways, they said. They got worse and worse until I could not walk without limping. It hurt. It hurt so bad.”
“He broke them,” he whimpered. “Tied me down and broke them, snap, snap, snap, they went, then he bound them with metal rods until I was straight again. Oh the pain, Miss Everest. I screamed and screamed. Sometimes I still scream when I dream of it.
The ink decorating his skin roamed across the expanse of his back and my gaze kept falling to it, the strong lines and bold patterns depicting stars spilling from a dark sky across his shoulders which became the backdrop for a depiction of The Tower card from a tarot deck that dominated the rest of his back.
“Your reputation however does not precede you. And in a land which has gone so long without Dragons, I have to wonder why that is? How did you stay hidden for so long? And why?”
“There aren’t words for the hell I suffered in that place,”
“There was only ever dark until…” “Until what?”
“Until you,” he exhaled, the brutality of his accusation striking me before he turned sharply away once more and continued to stalk ahead of me.
I let myself wonder if the destruction painted on this Dragon’s flesh had always been meant for me. Because I felt at one with that burning tower.
If they catch you, they will kill you.” He grabbed my hand, tugging me closer. “I cannot lose you.”
“What I’d give for one more hour in the ocean with you.”
