Of Flames & Fallacies (The Arterian #1)

by Courtney Whims

He swallows hard. “Kat, I—”

I crush myself into him, pressing my lips to his. I love you, too. He doesn’t have to say it for me to know it or feel it.

His back thuds against the door, and something falls to the ground with a ‘clink.’ He pulls away from our kiss and drops to a crouch to pick up the ring he dropped. He kneels in front of me, eyes flicking up at me. His mother’s ring in his hand. This is the moment—this is it. Something shuffles outside, and he frantically pushes back up to his feet, shoving the ring into a pocket. His chest rises with exaggerated breaths, and his eyes round.

“We have to be careful. Really careful, Kat. They can’t know you’re not my sister. There’s so much at stake. There’s so much we have to figure out—it…it doesn’t mean I don’t want to—”

“The past few months I’ve been worried for other people: my family, my squad, the towns. But since this morning I’ve only been able to think of one person. You. I’m worried about you. Because if something happens to you…I won’t be able to survive it.” He flicks a look up at me. “Not again.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to me, Cole.”

It’s all I can think of to answer him. Even if I ...

“The King was shouting last night,” one said. “Okay? So? The King shouts all the time.” “Yes, but he wasn’t shouting at anything. Anyone. I was stationed outside his door all night. And unless someone scaled the walls to the top without being caught, he was alone.” A thoughtful silence settled after the word ‘alone.’ “I…even opened the door and peeked at him. His back was to me, but he was in a full blown conversation. There was no one else there.”

Our lead called an urgent meeting, and we all gathered in the training room. Once everyone was settled, he called two names forward. I watched in surprise as the two broke from the group. The two who had sat next to me whispering. Our lead ordered them to kneel—a custom standard for promotional ceremonies. Excitement danced on their faces. It was the last thing we saw before their faces twisted in anguish as they were decapitated.

“Ok, now fly!” I call out and point to the sky.

She tilts her head with a blink but doesn’t move. I raise both of my arms above my head and flap them. The muscles above her eyes raise in question. I jump into the air as I flap, and I’m sure if anyone else saw, they’d think I’ve lost my damn mind.

“You can do it! Just like this!” I pause to see if s...

She jerks her chin up repeatedly, like a series of small nods, and pauses. Watching me. I gesture again with a flap of my arms and jump. She lifts...

I chuckle. “No, no. Not me. You. I don’t have wings.” I reach forward, delicately grabbing h...

She looks at her wings and wiggles them slightly. Her eyes round in amazement and realization that the...

“Now flap them, and fly!” I hint at the...

Daeja stills for a few moments. Her eyes focused on the lake ahead. She dips her head and charges for the water. Flapping as she goes.

“Daeja!” I bolt after her.

As her feet graze the sandy shore, she lifts into the air, flapping against the wind a...

The icy cold water sloshes against my shins as I race after her, my voice tight as I whisper, “I don’t ...

She dips and swerves, and she struggles to maintain a leveled glide. Her dark shadow grows smaller and smaller as she approaches the opposite side of the lake and toward the black silhouette of tr...

My feet catch fire, and I run for the other side of the lake. I don’t know if she knows how to stop or turn. My panic rises as I realize I don’t see her anymore. My lungs scream with each stride, my heart hammering in my ears. By the time I finally reach the other side, my cold, wet legs threaten to buckle underneath me. Daeja’s dark shadow is slumped ...

“Are you okay?” I pant as I try t...

She stands, wriggling and shaking her body, as if she were drenched with embarrassment. I pull her into me, my arms trembli...

“You...did...it!” I say between breaths, pride welling in me as I scratch her cheek. She melts into ...

Something flickers in my periphery. I turn toward it, pressing a hand to her side as I follow her stare. In the darkness, the distant trees pulse a soft glow. Not with the warmth of a fire of orange and red and light. But a cool, icy blue fla...

Is this the same blue flame Willard had mentioned all those months ago? That could have been the cure to my mother’s insanity? If it is the rumored flame, I’m not sure what it could offer me now.

Daeja’s pupils blow wide, the blue reflection of the fire bursting in her irises. Her mouth parts as she crumples to the ground. I dart forward with a cry, folding to my knees to pick her up. As I brace my hands under her cold body, something shifts. A distant thunder rumbles beneath me, and Daeja rises. I fall back onto the heels of my hands as she grows and grows. Her dark shadow casts over me, drowning me in darkness. Where she had been the size of a kitten before, she now towers above me as high as any steed would. Like a dark horse with wings.

“Why do you look so much smaller?”

“No one else is here,” the voice echoes again. Except I realize it’s not in my ears. It’s in my mind.

“You…you can hear me?”

“Yes.”

The light hint of a band that appeared around my middle finger all those months ago when I learned her name has darkened several shades. The ring is now darker than my skin tone.

“And…I can…hear you?”

“Also, yes.”

“Well, I guess you won’t be able to fit on my shoulders anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Do you feel any different? I don’t understand what happened.”

“No, not really. Last I remember, I reached down to sniff the light. My body felt cold and like it was on fire all at once. Everything was white. I couldn’t see anything. And then when I finally opened my eyes, I saw you.”

“I love the look of you between my legs. Maybe while you’re down there—”

I glare up at him and twist my grip on the dagger ever so slightly. He throws his head back with a yell and slams a fist into the arm of the chair.

“Probably should tell you to stay off your leg for a few days to let it heal. But there’s no point since you won’t listen to me anyway, right?”

“You know me better than anyone, Margie.”

“Wicked thing. For your first patient, that was impressive. Had it been me, I might have relocated that dagger into his neck if he talked to me like that.”

“Well, I guess there’s always next time.”

With his royal bloodline, one theory I had was that he was trying to resuscitate dragon riders. But why fight so abhorrently against us “dragon sympathizers” if you meant to revive dragon riders? Something told me it was a larger puzzle I couldn’t quite piece together...yet. I had to figure out where the lock was with the dragon egg.

Inside the small room, several eggs were in wooden crates. By the flickering torchlight, various colors peeked out from the gaps of the wooden cages. One egg was large and red with veins of black. One was a shiny blue, another a dull white, and a fourth egg green with dark speckles. Each dragon species was accounted for: fire, water, earth, and air.

But what caught my eye was the egg in the middle of them all. It wasn’t nearly as large as the others, but the light sheened off its smooth surface. In all of my days, I had never heard of, nor seen, a black dragon egg.

“Are you hungry?”

“Aren’t I ever! More chicken?”