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“You need to slow us,” Ari cautioned nervously, realizing he intended to land on a flat alcove just on the other side of the structure. “I’m working on it.” “Work on it more urgently.” They were coming in far too fast for such a narrow ledge. Numbers flashed through her head, estimations based on estimations, but in every scenario they were splattered against the back wall of the wide-mouthed cavern. Cvareh tugged on the handles, his magic straining in spite of his obvious will. “You want to try flying this thing?” The question was obviously meant to be rhetorical, but Arianna had to bite her
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“Trust me, Ari.” She rolled her eyes and leaned against the side wall again, arms folded across her chest to communicate her general displeasure at the situation.
sovereignty.”
The bed had no less than ten pillows. Ten. As in, the number she would have to use two hands to count to.
“I fear no Dragon, so I hold no more concern for Chimera or Fenthri. I will sing the song she wishes to hear and she will thank me for it. Then I will have my army.” Arianna rolled her eyes and pushed down the door handle. Loathing seared through her veins and she did little to temper it. She had come up to the Dragon’s world, allowed herself to be bare before strangers and treated like a simpleton. She had to draw a line somewhere. “Your song will fall flat, I fear, since I have heard the truth of its melody,” Arianna seethed by means of greeting.
Arianna rested her palm on the table and reached for her sharpest dagger. Her chest tightened. Nature fought against what she was about to do. Her mind flooded with endorphins as it fought against itself. Instinct commanded she jump from the table and drop the knife. It struggled with her hand, trying to force it to shake, wanting her movements to suffer so much that she gave up on them entirely. But Arianna was stable. She kept her churning stomach quelled. She kept her breathing even.
Cvareh laughed. It was loud and seemed to echo off the hills below and swirl like raw color in the wind. It was a different sound than he’d had down on Loom. Arianna regarded the man thoughtfully. She certainly hadn’t acted the same on Nova as she would on Loom. She was out of her element and outnumbered—an unwanted person in a foreign land. It would make sense he would’ve acted strangely on Loom in the same circumstances. Which begot a new curiosity. What was he like here on Nova? What was the real Cvareh, and which did she favor?
“Cvareh’Ryu?” His mirth was uncontrollable. “That is your name.” “It is, but twenty gods, I never thought I’d hear you address me with any formality.” “I was hardly being formal.” She’d used the title for ironic emphasis. “That much was obvious. Still, a strange treat to hear it from your lips.” A smile was in his words, one Arianna didn’t quite understand.
“Let me guess: you do it for these impractical, gaudy rags you call clothes.” Arianna picked at his love of fashion and his clothing in the same breath. He snorted. “For once, I can’t disagree with you. These are gaudy rags, nearly a full year old.” She was utterly lost as to why his clothing would have some sort of expiry.
The woman bowed, her breasts hanging erotically. Arianna kept her eyes anywhere else. The woman had a nice figure, certainly. But such a sight should be earned. If given to everyone, it held no excitement and therefore lacked interest.
She motioned to the windows. “For what?” “For why they’re spaced oddly, and circular—do you have any idea how much effort it is to make a circle that perfect architecturally?” He appeared to be really considering it, as if for the first time. “They’re prettier that way.” She was going to literally tear out her hair.
She looked away sharply, as if he would vanish because her eyes were no longer on him. He didn’t. And so she was left to gather herself to speak.
Florence was quite literally running out of foul language. She spat vulgarity with the same reckless abandon as she pulled on the throttle. The train went faster when she cursed at
Arianna spun widely around Cvareh, bringing her fingertips into his neck—a kill. Petra watched as they backed away and lunged for each other once more. The woman tripped up Petra’s brother, stumbling him and grabbing for his throat in the process—a kill. They separated again and were soon tumbling, head over heels, until the Chimera had mounted Cvareh like a broken stallion with her fingertips pressing over his heart—a kill.
“I want you for my lover, for my mate. I want to lay you down and take you to the pinnacles of delight. I want you… even while not knowing if you could ever grant me your favor.”
“Nothing, Arianna. Nothing in your world or mine, or the next, would make me want you less.” She grinned, the flat line of her Fenthri teeth showing. “You’re a fool, Cvareh.” “I am,”
Even knowing why and seeing the brightness of the sun for herself, it still amazed Arianna that Dragons and Fenthri kept the same twenty-month calendar. Harvesters had observed the patterns in the light of the moon long before the discovery of Nova—how every thirty days came a night of complete darkness, and every twenty months a day of total light. The Dragons had told Loom it was Lord Rok and Lady Luc heralding the new year with a flaming chariot that lit the night sky. She had always been skeptical but never had a better explanation. Even now that she’d lived on Nova, she still had no
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“She kissed me, for the first time, here.” Arianna held out her wrist. Upon it was inscribed: 20.9.1078. So much had happened in a mere three years. “She was vivacious, full of life and challenge and heart. She loved like a dream and she fought like a sea monster.”
“The Dragons, this notion of family… For over a thousand years we would head to the grounds of Ter.0 and induce fertility, breed as we needed, the best of the best, raise the children in the guilds.”
“Arianna, that cold and detached persona will no longer work on me.” Cvareh stood his ground, literally and proverbially. “I know you, and I know that you…”
“I love you, Arianna. And I will not stand in your way, but I will also not let you flee from this. Reject me if you must, and that will be that. Until you do, I will see my future built with space for you in it.”
“You may be the worst navigator we’ve ever seen.” Nora gave her a toothy grin. It slipped when their eyes met and Florence desperately wished she could see what Nora saw in that moment. “But so far, you seem to always get the people who stick by your side where they need to be.”
