Shadow of Flame

by Caitlyn McFarland

  Rhys agreed, and Kai spent the next six hours by Juli’s bed while Ashem slept on the couch. Juli seemed better—at least, she wasn’t ranting about voices—but Kai still wasn’t sure she would be okay with leaving.

  When Ashem woke up, Kai left. She almost ran smack into Deryn, who was walking through the rotunda with her hand cupped to her mouth like she was whispering into a walkie-talkie.

  “Who are you talking to?” Kai asked. She’d always known Deryn was a little nuts, but in a berserker kind of way. Conversations with invisible people was a different kind of crazy.

  Deryn stuck her hand in her pocket. “None of your sundering business. Why are you alone? Where’s Ffion? Or Jiang? Or my wind-for-brains brother?”

  Kai rocked back on her heels, not as sure about this as she had been earlier. “I’m pretty sure I’m safe here. Actually, I kind of wanted to talk to you.”

  Deryn gave her a skeptical look. “Why?”

  Kai tapped her lips. “I need to see someone. Harry someone. He’s in charge of intel, I think?”

  Deryn’s brows furrowed. “Henry Harrow? The Wingless? Why do you want to see him, and why is it so obviously a secret from Rhys?”

  Kai pressed her lips together. She wasn’t nearly sure enough about her theory to share it with Deryn. “You know what? Don’t worry about it, and I won’t tell anyone you were talking to your hand.”

  Deryn’s eyes widened, but she composed herself. “Fair enough. Come on, then.”

  She led Kai down a few sets of stairs and through a wide tunnel that opened up into the hollow heart of the mountain. The cavern smelled of stone and water and the slightly musky scent of dragon.

  Kai walked to the edge of the road-sized path, hooking her hand around a slender column to look down into the massive, open shaft. Sunlight filtered from the opening at the top of the extinct volcano, shining onto moss-covered stone and hanging vines that grew on every surface that wasn’t carved or flat. Water fell hundreds of feet into pools arranged here and there along the downward-spiraling path.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Kai turned to Deryn. She’d seen Eryri from the outside, and she’d walked around it after the pledging ceremony, but it had been dark. This was her first time seeing the interior in full light. “Is this place for real? How many dragons live here?”

  Deryn continued down the road, unimpressed. “Not as many as you might think. A lot of them live on the other islands.”

  Kai couldn’t help staring as they walked. Delicate, arching bridges spanned the middle of the cavern, widely spaced enough that dragons could fly between. There were also landing points on each level—places where the stone shelf extended beyond the road, stretching out over the void. Dragons lounged on a few of them, scales jewel-bright, blinking sleepily in the sun that pooled there, directed by mirrors.

  Beneath Kai’s feet, the stones had a worn, ancient feel. A handful of people passed them as they descended, bowing. Kai wasn’t exactly sure how to react to this, so she copied Deryn, who paused and inclined her head.

  “How long have dragons been living here?” Kai was so busy gawping that she almost walked past the side cave when Deryn turned off the main road. Kai turned to catch up and noticed a mouse-haired girl who looked little older than fourteen. When the girl saw her looking, she scurried into a side passage. Had she been following them?

  “Are you coming?” Deryn snapped.

  Kai jumped and hurried after her.

  “To answer your question,” Deryn said, taking long strides, “the Mo’o have been on this archipelago forever. Not this island—there’s another one a little farther north with miles of underwater caves beneath it. When they allied with Rhys after Owain killed our father, they gave us this place.”

  They stopped at a wide, heavy-looking wooden door, and Deryn pounded on it with her fist.

  The door opened. A tall, yawning man with a Tron T-shirt and dark-rimmed glasses that reminded Kai unpleasantly of reporter Jacobsen Starnes Smith stood in the dim entrance. It took a moment, but then Kai remembered meeting him after her pledging ceremony.

  “Highness!” Henry Harrow bowed ungracefully to Deryn, pushing his glasses back up his nose as he straightened. “What can I do for you?” He yawned again. “Sorry, night shift.”

  “Bore da, Harrow.” Deryn jerked a thumb at Kai. “The queen wants to talk to you.”

  Kai’s stomach knotted at the word ‘queen’.

  “The—” Henry Harrow squinted at Kai, then his eyes widened, and he bowed again, but his eyes went to Kai’s indicium. “So sorry, Majesty, I haven’t seen you since the pledging. How are you? Well? It has been a bit rainy lately.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been well, thanks.” Now what? “Um, I heard you’re the tech guy? I was wondering how that whole magic/technology integration thing worked.”

  He pushed hair out of his eyes and took her in from head to toe. “Of course. I don’t know that it’s a topic we can cover with you standing in the doorway—” His mobile mouth turned down and he rubbed his ear with one finger, as if it itched. “This may not be a popular opinion, but I, for one, am delighted to have a Wingless queen. You know, I was there when Ceri—”

  “Kai is a delight to us all,” Deryn drawled, cutting him off.

  Kai turned to her. “Deryn, thanks for showing me how to get down here. Why don’t I meet you in about half an hour?”

  Deryn raised an eyebrow. “Unfortunately, since you ditched Ffion and Jiang, I’m not about to leave you alone. Anywhere.”

  Kai sighed. Deryn had been the one who got the vee and the royals exempt from Ashem’s breech of privacy in the first place. She wished she’d remembered that before coming down. Maybe, if Deryn got bored enough, she’d leave. “Henry, will you show me where you work?”

  “Of course!” He ushered them in.

  “What are we doing here?” Deryn hissed as they followed Henry into a large cavern—though nowhere near as large as the ones up in Rhys and Deryn’s rooms, with only one waterfall and a small pool. Though it did have a couple of live trees growing beneath an opening in the ceiling, sunlight catching off their leaves.

  Before Kai could answer, a woman appeared out of a narrow side-tunnel. Blond and beautiful in an icy sort of way, a displeased expression crossed her face as she sank into a bow. “Ydy’ch Mawrhydi, ydy’ch Huchelder.”

  Deryn inclined her head. “Councilwoman Nerys. Bore da. Unfortunately, our queen doesn’t speak Welsh.”

  “My apologies, Majesty.” Nerys’s frosty smile was cold enough to rival Juli at her iciest. “Is there something I can do for you?”

  “No, I just wanted to speak with Henry,” Kai said.

  If possible, Nerys’s smile went even icier. “Of course. He is so useful.”

  She said it like he was an especially efficient screwdriver. Surprised, Kai looked at Henry. He wore an undisguised expression of contempt. He scratched his ear again, his face growing darker.

  Deryn rolled her eyes and gave a longsuffering sigh. “Councilwoman, do you have a moment? I’d like to discuss some changes the Draig clan has made to their financial strategies in Europe that seemed effective.”

  Nerys’s eyes lit. “Of course, Highness. Come in. Would you like something to drink?”

  The blond woman led Deryn away, and Kai shot a sympathetic look at Henry. “That’s your heartsworn?”

  He nodded, but brightened as he changed the subject. “It’s always rather nice to be rid of them, isn’t it? You said there’s something I can do for you, Majesty?”

  Unsure whether “be rid of them” meant heartsworn or dragons in general, Kai shook her head. “Just call me Kai.”

  Henry grinned. “Of course. It’s all a bit sudden, isn’t it? The way it changes and they rip you from your life. And then it’s all titles and bowing and near-immortality.”
>
  Kai felt a smile forming on her lips. “And moving to who-knows-where in the middle of the ocean.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I know where, but I’m not allowed to say. Commander Ashem might scowl me to death.”

  Kai burst out laughing. “I think that’s how the Azhdahā subdue their enemies.”

  Henry laughed, as well, a warm, honest sound.

  Henry showed Kai into a room with an entire wall of windows that looked out onto the beach. Every surface was covered in wires, half-torn-apart electronics, piles of loose gemstones and other magical-looking things.

  “Behold! My laboratory.” Henry bowed as if displaying a great treasure. He threw himself into a chair. “Now, what can I do for the human girl who suddenly found herself Queen of Dragons?”

  Kai’s mouth twisted. “Well...that depends.” She fidgeted, unsure how to broach the topic. “Um, you’re helping Ashem, aren’t you? Keeping an eye on communications in and out of here?”

  He nodded. “I am.”

  Kai tried to look confident. “Have you found anything?”

  Henry, still not looking 100 percent sure, shook his head. “No, but it’s probably not something I should be discussing with you...no offense, Majesty.”

  “Just Kai.” She thought for a minute, wondering how much she should ask of someone she didn’t know. Finally, she took a breath. “Okay, here’s the thing. I don’t really care if you’ve found anything for Ashem or not. But I need you to do something for me.”

  Henry blinked. “All right. What is it?”

  “You don’t monitor the royals though, do you? Or Ashem?”

  Henry shook his head. “Nor any of his vee. The commander does it himself, as far as I know. Or no one does. The king was raised with his vee, wasn’t he? They all trust each other. Thick as thieves.” His lips turned up, mocking.

  Kai wasn’t quite sure what to make of Henry Harrow. “Well, what if I wanted you to check on someone in the vee? Would that be possible? I want you to keep an eye on Morwenna.”

  “Morwenna?” Henry shifted. “I don’t know if Ashem would like that very much.”

  Kai folded her arms. “Who has more authority? A vee commander or a queen?”

  A smile tilted the corner of Henry’s mouth. “The queen, of course. I suppose you could command me to do whatever you want.”

  Was he flirting with her? “Good. Keep an eye on what she does. If you find anything suspicious, bring it to me right away. Preferably with evidence. Can you do that?”

  He bowed lower than he had before, the first two fingertips touching his forehead. “Majesty, for you, anything.”

  A little weirded out by this, Kai thanked him. They talked for a little longer, until Deryn came and practically dragged Kai away.

  “If I have to talk to Nerys again, I am not helping you,” Deryn declared as they headed up the winding path. “She is insufferable.”

  “Sorry.” Kai didn’t even bother trying to sound apologetic. “Those two don’t get along?”

  Deryn snorted. “Stars, no. Did you see how he constantly scratched his ear? He does that when she talks in his head. And she talks in his head constantly, just to annoy him. I think they have a lot of hate sex.”

  Kai burst into surprised laughter as she half-walked, half-ran past bowing dragons and mysterious side-caverns. “How do you know that?”

  “Gossip. There are fewer than two thousand dragons here, Kai. And we live a long, long time.” She glanced back. “Did you get what you wanted?”

  Kai gave up pretending to walk and broke into a jog. “I think I might have.”

  Maybe she could be useful as queen, after all.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Loving Enough to Kill

  Boom, boom. Boom, boom.

  Ashem had been gone for hours, but Kavar’s pulse still pounded in his temples, his head throbbing like an abused drum. After a thousand years of war, Kavar had thought himself stronger than his brother. When they came against each other in battle, after all, Ashem had only fought hard enough not to lose. Just enough not to die.

  But now...now Ashem had someone that he loved as much as he’d ever loved Kavar, and his brother had become a truly ingenious torturer. Fascinating how love fueled cruelty as often as it did kindness.

  If Kavar hadn’t already heartsworn to Juliet King, he might have had to kill her.

  As it was, he wondered if that might not be easier. And not just for him. Stars, she was suffering. He could feel her there, at the top of the mountain. Her powers had increased exponentially, and she couldn’t block anyone out. Her increased powers and the hideous intensity of the first few days of heartswearing were bending her mind. Kavar couldn’t believe it hadn’t broken. He couldn’t believe...

  She was coming.

  He sat up, the chain that connected his collar to the wall rattling as he pushed himself up off the cold stone floor, filled with a stomach-turning mix of violent rage and trembling anticipation.

  His heartsworn was coming.

  The door opened and Juli slipped inside. Unable to help himself, and despite the throbbing in his head, he strained at the end of his chains.

  “What are you doing here?” His voice was guttural, hostile. Ancients, what monster had created this thing that took a man’s mind and his agency and replaced it with this need?

  Juli stopped just outside his reach, and Kavar strained forward. If he could just touch her, if he could just, for one instant, make contact with her skin—

  Juli made an unintelligible noise, her eyes tight shut as she pressed her back to the wall. Her skin was dead white, her pale hair mussed, and she had deep, purple circles beneath her eyes.

  “Stop,” she hissed.

  “Does he know you’re here?”

  She shook her head, and the soothing smell of chamomile drifted over him, clouding his brain. “He’s asleep. I’m helping him stay that way.”

  So powerful. Kavar eased back. He could bide his time. Her need was desperate—as desperate as his—but the woman had iron control. No wonder Ashem loved her.

  Juli flinched as if Kavar had struck her, sensing his thought about Ashem. Guilt welled from her mind like blood from a pinprick.

  Interesting.

  “How many guards did you put down to get in here?” Kavar kept his voice even and quiet.

  “Several.” Her face was haggard, but her voice was clear and clipped.

  Kavar let out a low whistle. “Impressive. You’re getting stronger.”

  Juli pressed harder against the wall, hugging herself. She was holding herself back from touching him by one, thin thread. “Do you know a way out of this? If you do, tell me.”

  Kavar shrugged. He kept his body relaxed. But their minds screamed for each other. “Ask the little Draig scholar. Or find yourself a Derkin.”

  “Draig scholar?” Juli looked at him in confusion, then plucked the image of a bronze-haired, curvaceous female from his mind. “Ffion?” She frowned. “How do you even know about her?”

  “It’s my job to know.”

  Juli’s voice was breathless, like she was in the midst of running a race. “You two. Sometimes it frightens me how alike you are.” Slowly, as if she were fighting every modicum of movement, she lifted shadowed eyes to his face. Hungry for him. Ravenous.

  But she loved Ashem. He could sense that, too. Loved him so profoundly that even Kavar could feel the ache.

  For a moment, his shrieking need was drowned by the knowledge that Ashem loved this woman just as much as she loved him. It was wrong. The whole thing was wrong. His chain went slack as he backed away. “Someone is going to find you here.”

  Juli’s expression was desolate. “There are so many people. I hear them all so loud I can’t hear any of them. I just need a moment of...pe
ace.”

  Kavar laughed. “You’ll not find peace with me, Juliet King.”

  “No. But...” She frowned. “It’s quiet here, in the cell. It blocks me from hearing anyone else. And you have a quiet mind.”

  Caught off-guard by memory, her vulnerability and his own biting need, the words were out before he could stop them. “My mother used to say so.”

  “Did she?” She shifted forward. Nearly close enough that he could touch her if he moved to the limit of his chain.

  “She said that Ashem...” His breath caught as she moved forward again. So close. Close enough? “Ashem was day. Brazen. Loud. Straightforward. I was night—”

  “Subtle. Quiet. Veiled.”

  Kavar shivered as she whispered the words, plucked straight from his mind with no more effort that it might take him to pluck fruit from the lowest branch of a fig tree. Powerful, indeed.

  Juli’s gaze was faraway, but he felt something whisper through his mind like a hot breeze. It was different than the way their minds interlocked as heartsworn. He could more or less choose what to present her. But when she used the power of the Azhdahā—especially the intangible brush of a female instead of the hammer-like power of a male—he couldn’t stop her from seeing anything.

  “You weren’t subtle when you told Kai she was crunchable.”

  He lunged, seizing her wrists and jerking her close. “I am also not the boy I was before my mother died.”

  When he touched her, any resistance either of them had crumbled like sand. She raised a hand to his cheek and he turned his head, pressing against her palm. They both exhaled a ragged breath.

  “How do you do it?” Kavar whispered. “How can anyone need like this and stay sane?”

  Juli gave him a thin-lipped smile and said nothing. They both knew that she was hanging on to sanity by her fingernails.

  When she spoke, it sounded like she was trying to convince herself. “It will go away. Another day or two. It will go away. It’s worse because we haven’t been able to be close.”

  For some reason, Juli thought of Kai. The pretend queen. Ancients, if Kavar could get to her—