Shadow of Flame

by Caitlyn McFarland

  Kai squirmed, trying to prevent him from taking it. “Please. Let me keep it.”

  With a considering look at Kai, he lifted the chain over her head. She tried to resist, but he was too strong.

  “I think I’ll give this to Jiang. A congratulations present for my mate.” He watched Kai’s face, and must have seen shock and horror and disbelief. “She is the perfect spy, isn’t she? Our communication is instantaneous and untraceable. I always know where she is. I know, intimately, that she won’t betray me.”

  He walked to the door of the small cell, leaving Kai to try and work her way through what he’d told her. “I’ll be back in a few hours. I know you’re with her, Rhys. I know you’ve been listening. Here are my terms: give yourself to me within two weeks, or I’ll kill your mate so slowly, she’ll scream in your head for years.”

  The door closed, leaving Kai by herself in the dark. But she wasn’t alone. “Rhys?”

  Like a warm river, his love enveloped her. “I’m here.”

  She settled into his presence and let it wash her terror away. It would return, but for this moment, with his mind surrounding hers, she was safe. “So. How are we going to rescue me?”

  * * *

  Rhys barely registered when Cadoc came into the tent and lowered himself into the camp chair next to Rhys’s mattress. The mattress he’d shared with Kai. He sat on his bed, clutching her pillow to his chest because it smelled like her. If he squeezed hard enough, maybe Kai would materialize in its place.

  Reality had become disjointed and disconnected. He kept thinking it wasn’t real. That she’d come up behind him and wrap her arms around his waist or say something he didn’t expect.

  Despite talking to her today until she fell into a fitful ball of sleep at the back of his mind, he still had no idea what he was going to do. Owain had him. If Rhys made a single move that even resembled rescuing Kai, Owain would kill her. If Rhys did nothing, he’d kill her.

  But if Rhys traded himself, Kai would live. Ancients, every cell in his body was screaming for him to fly to Cadarnle and make that trade. He could do it. His people didn’t need him. They had Deryn. If he died, she could take his place, and Kai would live.

  Cadoc nudged him with one foot, but his words were subdued. “You’ve the face of a man thinking dangerous thoughts, boyo.”

  Rhys glanced at Cadoc, unwilling to leave his unreal reality long enough to respond. That would mean internalizing he’d failed. That it was likely—oh, Stars, it was almost certain—that he’d never see Kai again.

  He’d watched Seren’s vision the first night he’d had Kai back in Eryri. He’d seen Owain rip out the white raven’s heart. Heard her scream.

  Sunder me. He dropped his face onto the pillow, but Kai’s spicy-sweet scent only hollowed him out further. Owain was going to hurt Kai, and Rhys couldn’t stop him. Couldn’t protect her. Couldn’t even soothe her with a touch.

  Bile rose into his throat, and the muscles of his legs twitched with the urge to stand. To run. Fly after her. But even if he took to the air at this very moment, he couldn’t stop any of it from happening.

  “Rhys.” Cadoc pulled the pillow from Rhys’s hands, then clasped him by the arm and hauled him to his feet. For once, his friend’s eyes were deadly serious. “We’re going to get her back. We’re going to save them both.”

  Seren. Ancients. His mind bounced back and forth between his missing sister and his missing mate. Owain hadn’t just cut out Rhys’s heart. He’d put out his eyes.

  Cadoc shook him. “Rhys! We can save them, but not if you lie in here staring at the top of your tent. We need you. Kai and Seren need you.”

  Rhys gripped Cadoc’s arms, wrenching his mind into the present, and with it, the pain.

  This was real.

  Owain had Kai and Seren. If Rhys wanted them back, he would have to act. He drew an unsteady breath and nodded. “We need a plan. Something simple. Something that absolutely will not fail. Where’s Ashem?”

  “I’ll get him.”

  A storm of relief passed over Rhys. At least Cadoc—the glue that held them all together—had returned. Already, Rhys felt less splintered than he had moments before.

  “Before I forget.” Cadoc held out his good hand, opening his fist to reveal a sunstone in his palm. “I went poking around where you said Demba grabbed S—the Lady Seeress. I found this.”

  Rhys took the stone, which tingled with latent magical energy. “This has a vision on it.” The last one had been horrifying enough.

  Cadoc nodded, clenching his empty hand until the knuckles turned white. A gold chain strung with a fat golden pearl was wrapped around his wrist. Something about the pearl nudged his memory, but Rhys couldn’t be bothered.

  Cadoc rubbed his bad hand. “Stars. I hope it’s something good. Maybe something to tell us why Owain’s soldiers were so sundering strong.”

  Rhys stroked the smooth orange stone. For a thousand years, he’d fought this war out of obligation. For a thousand years, his distaste for death and his fear of doing something wrong had prevented him from throwing everything he had at Owain. No longer.

  He looked up at Cadoc, and in his friend’s eyes he saw the same fire he felt tearing through him, fusing his separating pieces into some broken semblance of himself. “Get Ashem. We’ll see what’s on this, and then we’ll make plans.”

  He would rescue Kai within two weeks, or he would die.

  * * ***

  Look for the final volume in the Dragonsworn

  trilogy, TRUTH OF EMBERS, coming soon from Caitlyn McFarland and Carina Press.

  To purchase and read more books by

  Caitlyn McFarland, please visit Caitlyn’s website

  here or at https://chmcfarland.wordpress.com/the-dragonsworn-trilogy.

  Turn the page for an excerpt from

  SOUL OF SMOKE, Book One of Dragonsworn,

  now available at all participating e-retailers.

  Now Available from Carina Press and Caitlyn McFarland

  On a hike deep in the Rocky Mountains,

  Kai Monahan watches as a dozen dragons—actual freaking dragons—battle beneath a fat, white moon.

  Read on for an excerpt from SOUL OF SMOKE

  Chapter One

  The Precipice

  Kai stood at the brink of the precipice, the toes of her worn hiking boots hanging over the edge. One wrong move would plunge her down the sheer cliff face to the rock-strewn valley two hundred feet below. A shiver of adrenaline thrilled from the bottom of her feet to the base of her neck.

  She threw out her arms and inhaled the pine-spiked autumn air. It was late September, and the higher elevations of the Rockies were a motley mix of yellow, orange and deep, dusty green. Snow capped the high peaks in the distance. Not far off, a stream laughed in its rocky bed.

  Freedom.

  Grinning, Kai stepped back from the view and sauntered to a boulder ten feet from the drop-off. She shed her pack and leaned against the sun-warmed surface of the stone. Haphazard flyaways the color of soot had escaped her messy bun, and she smoothed them down with callused fingers.

  Gravel crunched behind her. Kai turned. “About time.”

  Juli emerged from behind the tall, tumbled boulders that hid the path, looking cool and composed. Her pink jacket, which precisely matched the accents on her black pants, was worn but obviously cared-for. She eyed the cliff, then Kai, brushing an escaped strand of short, white-blond hair behind one ear. “We’ve talked about this.”

  Kai shrugged away a buzz of annoyance. “I promised, didn’t I? No more almost falling off cliffs.” And she hadn’t. She’d been careful. “Where’s Charlotte?”

  Juli jerked her head over her shoulder as their roommate trudged into sight.

  “I hate you, Monahan,” Charlotte wheezed, scraping trendy brunette ban
gs off her damp forehead. “I can’t believe you talked me into coming all the way out here.”

  Kai grinned. “You’re the one who wouldn’t stop raving about that hot tub in your parents’ cabin.”

  “This—” Charlotte swept her arm out to indicate the wilderness surrounding them, “—is not the hot tub.”

  Kai swung her pack back onto her shoulders, looking up at Charlotte. Of course, being five foot two meant looking up at most people. “We couldn’t stay in it all weekend. We would’ve gotten pruney. Besides, if I wanted to sit around, I could have stayed back at the apartment watching MonsterChase with Pan.” Kai wiggled her fingers, mimicking the voice of the British voiceover guy on their fourth roommate’s favorite cryptozoology show. “Bigfoot! The Wyvern of McCauley Peak!” She laughed. “Dragons and deadly cryptids, they’re out there!”

  Charlotte was not moved. “My feet hurt.”

  Juli raised one perfect eyebrow. “I warned you about wearing new shoes.”

  “But they’re so super.” Charlotte put her best French accent into the last word and stuck out her leg to admire the shoes in question. “Outdoorsy girls are hot, right? You never know when you might need to impress a man, Juliet.”

  Juli made a disgusted sound. “I have more important things going on in my life than impressing men.” She stowed her water bottle and tightened her pale blond nub of a ponytail.

  Kai leaned the side of her face against the sun-warmed stone. “I love you for you, Char.”

  Charlotte snorted. “Obviously. I’m fabulous.” She wandered to the lookout where Kai had stood a moment before, though Charlotte stayed a solid five feet from the brink. Pushing her sunglasses onto the top of her head, she looked to the color-splashed world beyond, where the snowy tops of distant peaks tangled in hazy clouds. After a minute, she let out a resigned sigh. “It is beautiful. Do you teach next week, Kai? It could be fun. Convince me rock climbing isn’t just for skinny tomboys like you.”

  “I teach a beginner’s class every Wednesday.” Kai exchanged glances with Juli. Charlotte would never actually ruin her manicure.

  Kai rubbed a thumb over the pads of her fingers, feeling the short, rough fingernails, hard-won calluses and mostly healed splits. A lifetime of competitive gymnastics hadn’t been nearly as hard on her skin as two years of rock climbing.

  “It’s getting late.” Charlotte collapsed in the shade of a boulder. “I want the hot tub!”

  Kai twisted a carabiner on her belt and shot Juli a pleading look. They’d been climbing steadily all day. Now the summit loomed above them, so close she felt she could reach out and slip her fingers along the jagged contours of its crest. They couldn’t go back to the cabin yet. Hiking with Charlotte had meant Kai left her climbing gear at home, but this path was supposed to lead all the way to the top. After the week she’d had—two O-Chem midterms, a research paper turned in two days past due, and another blowout argument with her mother—she needed to summit this mountain.

  Juli hauled a groaning Charlotte to her feet and frowned. “Half an hour. That’s it. I won’t be caught out here after dark.”

  “Perfect.” Kai shouldered her pack, grinning again, and led them farther up. It was narrow going for a little as the path snaked between the cliff’s edge and a sharp slope of rocky scree. Charlotte clenched her teeth and scooted along sideways, and even Juli slowed to a careful, measured walk.

  Kai laughed, sucking it all in, holding it inside. The air, the song of birds and rustle of small animals, the green valley rolling away below with a lake at its center reflecting the sky. The time to do anything or go anywhere. Today was free. Today was perfect.

  After a few minutes the path turned away from the edge of the cliff. Open ground sloped gently downward, the scree becoming a sheer rock wall that loomed high above, casting sections of the path into shadow. Kai trailed her fingers along the rough gray stone, humming. Juli and Charlotte fell behind.

  The path followed the rock wall around a bend. A dozen yards ahead, a flash of blue caught Kai’s eye. She stopped. Something human-shaped sprawled in the shade at the base of the cliff. “Hey, Juli, you’d better get up here... I...” She swallowed, her throat bone dry. “There’s a girl on the ground. I think she fell from the top of the cliff.”

  Footsteps pounded as Juli raced up the path. “Where? Never mind. I see her.”

  The girl, probably eighteen or nineteen, was lying face-up. She wore a high-necked black shirt and loose, charcoal-gray pants tucked into black, thick-soled, utilitarian boots that laced to above the ankle and looked as if they’d seen a lot of wear.

  In sharp contrast to the military-like garb, the girl was draped in a ridiculous amount of jewelry. Gold armbands, rings, multiple earrings, and no less than three necklaces, all hung with crystal or polished slices of colorful stone. Her hair looked as if it had once been arranged in an ornate, braided updo.

  Juli reached the girl and knelt by her side. Charlotte squealed, took a breath, and squealed again. “Is she dead? Oh em gee, she’s totally dead!” She seized Kai’s hand and dragged her forward, but Kai resisted. Death was not her kind of thrill.

  Long auburn hair straggled across the fallen girl’s face, which was ghost-white except for the blood. It caked crimson in her hair and streaked her cheek and neck, blending with a mottled mix of purple and black bruises. The left leg of her pants was torn to the knee, exposing the girl’s calf, which was so bruised and swollen the bone had to be broken.

  Juli had two fingers on the girl’s neck and an intent expression on her face. “She’s not dead. And don’t say oh em gee, Charlotte. You’re twenty, not thirteen.” Juli whipped off her pack and dug for the first aid kit. “Her injuries have started to heal, but the blood looks fresh. That doesn’t make sense.” Frowning, she trickled a few drops from her water bottle into the girl’s slightly open mouth. No reaction.

  Kai twined her fingers in the carabiners on her belt, clicking one open and shut, open and shut. Her eyes fixed on the neck and left sleeve of the girl’s shirt, which had been covered in myriad pentagons cut from thin black leather and layered over each other in rows, making them look like scales. “What do we do?”

  Juli’s brow furrowed. “We can’t carry her.”

  “She definitely wasn’t robbed.” Charlotte indicated the girl’s jewelry. “Oooh, druzy! I love the uncut-stone thing. So natural, you know?”

  “We’ve got to get help.” Kai ignored Charlotte’s commentary on the unconscious girl’s fashion choices and looked helplessly at the empty mountains tumbling away beyond the slope. They hadn’t seen any other hikers all day, and there was no sign anyone else had been there recently.

  Juli stood and pulled out her phone. “I don’t have any reception.”

  Kai tugged her own phone from the pocket of her hoodie. “Me, neither.”

  “We have to go back to the cabin and use the radio.” Face troubled, Juli stuck her phone back in her jacket.

  “It’s a three-hour hike!” Kai protested. It had taken them twice that long to get this far, but going downhill would be faster. “Someone has to stay.”

  “We need to report her location to the rangers.” Juli dug through her pack. With the squeaky rustle of cellophane candy wrappers, she shook out a silver space blanket.

  Kai couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “We can’t leave her alone!”

  Juli tucked the blanket around the girl’s body. “There are only three of us.” She straightened. “Two stay and one goes for help, or one stays and two go for help. Either way, someone gets left alone. It’s not safe.”

  “I’m not staying,” Charlotte added.

  Kai folded her arms. “I’ll stay.”

  “I’m not leaving you.” Juli’s face was closed, her tone final.

  Kai glared. She and Juli had been best friends since they were five, and Juli could be
more dictatorial than both of Kai’s older brothers combined. It had never bothered Kai until she’d finally freed herself from her mother’s tyranny and quit competitive gymnastics two years ago. Since then, even Juli’s well-intentioned bossiness got under her skin. “I’m staying.”

  Juli let out her breath in a frustrated hiss, glaring at Kai. “No one will be able to get here until after dark. Maybe two of us should stay.”

  “No. I still have food in my bag and my own blanket. Besides...” Kai tipped her head toward Charlotte, who had all the survival skills of an ice cube on a summer sidewalk.

  “If you’re sure...” Charlotte trailed off, unaware of the silent exchange.

  Juli glanced at Charlotte. “Fine.” Her voice was frosty. “But you had better stay away from cliffs.”

  Recognizing victory, the tension between Kai’s shoulders eased. She laughed. “Come on, Jules. I promise I’ll be here when you get back.”

  Juli’s nostrils flared. “Fine. The sooner we go the sooner we’ll be back. Let’s go, Charlotte.”

  Kai waved as they walked away. With a final glance from Juli, her roommates disappeared around the curve of the mountain. Kai dropped her pack, stretched and paced, keeping an eye on the girl.

  Hours ticked by. The sun inched toward the western horizon, and Kai got bored. The girl remained unconscious, getting neither better nor worse. Though Kai had meant to sit by her the whole time, she walked to the grassy, flattish slope and amused herself by stretching and doing back handsprings. But gymnastics always left a bitter taste in her mouth, so after a few minutes she moved back to the cliff, evaluating the rock. It looked solid, so she traversed the bottom, moving back and forth no more than a few feet off the ground.

  Evening hovered closer, the warm fall day ebbing into chill twilight. Juli and Charlotte had to be back at the cabin.

  Kai checked the girl again. No change. She hugged herself, chaffing her arms for warmth, and thought about getting her blanket out of her pack. First, she decided to walk back along the trail and see if she could find fuel for a fire.