“What if you’re giving up a better life by going?” He strummed a few more notes on the guitar.
Kai laughed, her voice harsh. “I think I’d rather die in a few days out there than suffocate over the course of millennia in here. I can’t do it. Besides, it’s been three days. My family and friends think I’m dead. They’re suffering.”
“Who becomes heartsworn to whom—or doesn’t or cannot, in some cases—often causes suffering.” Cadoc’s voice was flat.
Kai frowned, trying to untangle what he’d said. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
He shook his head. “Nothing. Just know that this particular facet of dragon magic often causes heartache.”
Kai bit her lip. He sounded so sad that she wondered if he had been in love, and if that love had heartsworn to someone else. That thought, along with the revelation that Rhys had a second sister, made her realize how right Ffion had been. Kai had been here for days, but she didn’t know anything about the dragons or their lives outside of the cave.
Kai wanted to ask Cadoc for help. It would be so easy for him to change into a dragon and glide down through the silent night with her on his back. He could probably drop her off at the nearest city and be back before his watch was up. She could get home and fly with a dragon. Win-win, at least for her.
“Cadoc—”
“Don’t ask me, Kai. Please.”
She dropped the pack and sat hard on the ground next to him, covering her face. “For once in my life, I want to go home. I didn’t leave things well with my parents. And I miss Juli. You can’t just take me away from my life. You can’t make me be with Rhys. I don’t even know him.”
Warm hands closed over hers, pulling them gently down. Cadoc’s amethyst eyes were filled with...what? Compassion? Concern? He brushed dark strands of hair to the side and stroked her cheek with his thumb.
“Rhys is a good person, brânwen. The best. I’ll vouch for him.”
Kai tried to speak. She took one breath, then another, but words wouldn’t come. Finally, she slid sideways, burying her face in Cadoc’s shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and held her as she wept. When she finally pulled away from him, his shirt was soaked with tears.
“Thank you,” she whispered. Now that the initial wave of emotion had passed, she was embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I can’t believe all this happened because I went on a hike. Because I helped Deryn.”
“‘No good deed goes unpunished’ is the appropriate proverb, I think.” Cadoc’s mouth curved in the ghost of his usual grin. “It’s not your fault. Today was set in motion thousands of years ago. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong destiny.”
Kai laughed, a sad, hollow sound. “I don’t believe in destiny.”
He smiled, just as sad. “Something I’ve learned over the course of a long life, Kai, is that truth doesn’t care what we believe.”
Kai became acutely aware of how close he was, how he smelled like fresh-cut wood and lemon oil. There was none of the pull she felt from Rhys, none of the pressure, but he felt comfortable. There was nothing she wanted more in that moment than comfort.
Even though the sensible part of her whispered that it was wrong, that this wasn’t something either of them truly wanted, she found herself leaning in, closing the distance between them, tilting her face toward his.
His gaze dropped to her lips. In a voice filled with misery, he murmured words Kai didn’t understand. He brought a hand to her cheek, not moving toward her, but not moving away.
She kissed him. After a second, he kissed back. It was as soft and sweet as music.
Before Kai could decide if she liked it, he broke away. “I can’t—” His eyes widened.
With a jolt of fear, Kai realized the air had the heavy feeling of an impending storm.
Rhys.
Guilt crashed over her, which made her angry. She looked into the cavern, pitch black but for two neon-blue points hanging in the dark like lonely stars.
Cadoc scrambled up, pulling her with him. He gently pushed her toward the interior of the cavern, but she didn’t move. She didn’t want to face Rhys.
“Get away from the ledge,” Cadoc said.
“What—?” An enormous ball of flame erupted where Rhys had been standing. In the instant before she shielded her eyes from blinding brightness, she saw the silhouette of a man. When she could see again, Rhys was gone. She looked up, higher and higher, until she met the glowing blue eyes of the dragon.
Cadoc’s voice went very soft. “Kai, if I don’t transform now, Rhys is going to kill me.”
* * *
Rhys’s control slipped. Like a match to dry leaves, the flames of the transformation consumed him, rage burning away conscious thought until nothing but instinct was left.
“Hoffwm i ddim wyt ti ei berthyn e,” Cadoc had whispered. I wish you didn’t belong to him.
“Stop! Rhys, stop! Just listen!” Kai came toward him, her hands outstretched.
His head swayed as he drank in the sight of her. Loose hair fell past her shoulders in soft black waves, framing a frightened face as pale as milk. Tiny. So tiny, but strength coiled in the lines and curves of her petite form. To his dragon eyes a white halo surrounded her, radiating from her body.
Heartsworn. Mine.
Beyond her, heat and light exploded. The enemy had become dragon, scales like fire beneath the moon. With a roar, Rhys leaped over Kai’s head as the enemy dove off the ledge. Rhys roared again, plunging after him into the night. The traitor had broken something deeper than law, and the debt could only be paid in blood.
* * *
Her eyes wide with horror, Kai whirled to run for help and smacked into a warm, solid wall. “Griffith!”
“What happened?” His voice was sharp and hard, a startling contrast to its usual measured rumble.
“Rhys...he saw Cadoc...and me...”
Griffith growled something in Welsh and went out to the ledge. Kai didn’t know what he’d said, exactly, but she heard “Owain.”
Her heart constricted. The white dragon. He was out there, somewhere. Looking for them. Waiting, perhaps, for this. For roars that shook the night. For fire in the sky.
Kai stepped back from Griffith until her back hit the cold stone arch of the cave entrance. She pressed her knuckles to her mouth, where Cadoc’s kiss had faded in less than a breath. “Oh, my—”
Griffith bellowed for the others. His eyes glowed, radiating the brackish green color of sunlight on lake water. He pointed. “Stay there. I need room to change.”
Terrified, Kai nodded.
Griffith backed away. His image distorted and faded, as if a cloud of dust passed between them. When it settled, the massive green dragon remained. Deryn, Ffion and Ashem appeared from the sleeping room in various states of wakefulness. Griffith explained what had happened. Without waiting for them, he leaped into the sky.
They each took a bare second to look at Kai. Ffion with sympathy, Deryn with contempt, and Ashem with mixed rage and exasperation. Another fire lit the sky outside.
“Go!” Ashem growled.
They transformed and flew into the night.
Whatever happened was quick. Another plume of flame blossomed in the distance, then nothing. A few minutes later, the bulk of returning dragons blotted out the night. The others flanked a red dragon who struggled to stay in the air, though it was too dark to tell if it was Rhys or Cadoc.
The red dragon came in first, collapsing to the ground and dragging himself toward the back to make room for the others. His scales glittered like blood in the light from the wall fires.
It was Rhys.
The others landed. With rushing wind, roaring flame and a surge of magic so strong Kai felt it tingle like effervescence in her blood, they resumed their human shapes.
&nb
sp; Griffith reached out to put a hand on Rhys’s shoulder, but Rhys shrugged him off. He took two long steps toward Kai, rage and pain etched in the rigid lines of his face. “Why?”
She shrank against the wall, terror lacing her throat tight. “I—I—”
The rage fell from his face so that only the pain remained. He spun and strode into the darkness.
An embarrassed flush swept over Kai’s face. “I...um...where’s Cadoc? Did Rhys...”
Griffith’s voice was hard as iron. “He’s gone.” Reaching for Ffion, the two of them followed Rhys into the shadows of the sleeping room. Deryn spat a single Welsh word at her and left with them.
The adrenaline was wearing off, leaving Kai weak and shaking. She turned to Ashem. “Gone?”
His golden eyes flaring with tightly contained rage, he crossed his arms over his chest. “I told you to leave Cadoc alone. Rhys would have killed him if the scalebrain hadn’t flown off as fast as he did. Do you understand, now, you sundering human girl? Heartswearing has consequences. It isn’t a game. It isn’t a frivolous human relationship based on nothing but emotion.”
“This is my life!” Kai shouted, pouring every ounce of confusion and frustration and rage into the words. She pushed herself away from the stone. “I am a person. What I need is every damn inch as important as what he needs!”
To her shock, Ashem laughed, loud and humorless. Then pinned her with a narrow-eyed glare. “You’re nothing. And if you don’t heartswear to Rhys, the rest of us will be nothing, as well.” He went after the others.
Numb, Kai retrieved her pack and sat against the cavern wall, praying that Cadoc would come back. There was no way she would make it down the cliff tonight, but neither could she bring herself to sleep among dragons.
Chapter Twelve
Keep Them Safe
Rhys threw a ball of fire into the pit at the center of the room. Flames exploded from the point of impact, clinging in patches to the stone ring that surrounded it. He denied himself the indulgence of sinking to his knees, curling in on himself to contain the guilt. Maybe if he let it rage, it would burn him away.
They were all there, watching him. Waiting. Deryn paced around unrolled beds, her long curtain of auburn hair shielding her face. Griffith stood like stone, arms folded over his blacksmith’s chest. Ashem and Ffion murmured to each other.
“Does he have his communicator?” Rhys asked, still staring into the flames.
“No. And he’s not answering when I try to contact him directly.” Ashem’s voice was tight, angry with all involved.
Well, Ashem could eat shells. Rhys clenched his fists. “Where is he?”
“Almost out of range.”
“Blood of the Ancients, he hasn’t turned around?”
Ashem shook his head.
“He won’t,” Ffion said. “Not tonight. He needs time. He’s obviously attached to Kai.”
Griffith made a small noise of dissent. Rhys looked at him, but his massive friend only shrugged. “I have watch tonight. I’ll keep a lookout for him.”
Rhys rubbed his temples. “No. I’m going after him.”
Deryn stopped pacing, her eyes aglow. “You are not.”
“You think you can stop me? Owain is searching these mountains, and Kavar will rejoin him any time, now. If Cadoc is caught, he’ll be killed.” Rhys strode toward the door only to find Griffith in his way.
“Move, Griffith! It’s my fault he’s out there!”
“It’s his own fault.” Deryn got in Rhys’s face. “Give me those hellfire looks all you like, fy mrawd. You aren’t going anywhere after that love-sick scalebrain.”
Rhys stood to his full height and glared at each of them in turn. “If I want to go, I will go.”
Ashem shrugged. “You will. And then you will collapse. Unless you want to ask Kai to go with you. How far away from her did you make it before you fell out of the sky? Five miles? Eight?”
Flames sparked into life around Rhys’s fists. “We can’t just let him leave! We’re the only family he has!”
Only a heavy silence answered. Finally, Griffith said, “Our first duty is to you, Rhys. To our king.”
Rhys slammed a fist into the stone, knocking a grapefruit-sized divot into the wall. “Damn my being the king! If anything happens to Cadoc...”
If anything happened to Cadoc, the only person Rhys could blame was himself.
* * *
Cadoc landed on a summit, gulping crystalline air and trying to clear his head. His wing gave a twinge of pain, and he craned his neck to assess the damage. Singed and blistered, but not bad enough to stop him from flying, as long as he didn’t have to maneuver much. He was lucky Rhys had missed.
You screwed up good this time, boyo. You’ve made a true mess.
He scrutinized the stars, trying to get his bearings. Rhys had fallen behind twenty minutes ago, but Cadoc hadn’t been able to bring himself to stop. Bone-deep guilt and anger, not to mention embarrassment, had kept his back toward home. Women had never come between him and Rhys before. He’d been a scalebrained fool to let it happen now.
A distortion rippled across the stars that made up the Flame constellation. Cadoc stilled, watching it pass across the sky. Two other distortions followed, forming a V. Dragon soldiers in battle formation. Either it was Owain and his people, or there were rogues in the area.
Cadoc lifted his wings, preparing to return to the cave, but hesitated. It would be better if he could find out where they were camped and who exactly they were.
He followed the dragons north, away from the cave and the rest of the vee. They flew for five or so minutes before they dove out of sight below the peak of a mountain. Cautiously, Cadoc soared to the summit and landed.
Below, two Quetzals and a Naga skimming over the pines, their outlines blurred by their veils. The lead Quetzal was female; her vivid, feathered wings prismed the moonlight into pastel rainbows that scattered off of frozen rocks and patches of snow. Silent and alert, their heads swept back and forth as they scanned the mountain wilderness.
Midway up the mountain his quarry disappeared. Trying to look at the spot made Cadoc dizzy, and his eyes kept trying to slide away from it. He recognized the effect. They’d gone through a barrier, which meant Kavar was close. Or had been.
Glancing around for others, Cadoc leaped from the summit and soared to an overhang just above the place they’d vanished, making sure to stay upwind so the Quetzals wouldn’t smell him. He thought of transforming, but the inevitable flash of fire would give him away. Instead, he crouched low and inched along the top of the overhang. Finding a place where he could ease down, Cadoc descended the slope. He crept to an upthrusting of rock and felt the familiar mental tingle of an Azhdahā barrier passing over him.
He peered around the rock. A cave mouth had blinked into existence, set back on a small, gray rocky shelf in the midst of what had previously appeared to be an unbroken stand of dark green pine. The female was still standing, the male sitting back on his haunches, their bright green scales and rainbow-feathered wings standing out starkly against the muted snow and stone. The Naga, its lemon-yellow scales also standing out vividly, had wound the bottom half of its wingless, snake-like body around the thick trunk of a nearby pine. It toyed with a few bits of long, brown grass and a pinecone it had pinched delicately between two claws.
“What are you doing, Ranvir?” the female Quetzal barked. “We don’t have time for your tinkering.”
The Naga clicked its jaws lightly together, its version of an annoyed shrug. “There is more to life than blood for some of us, Izel.”
Cadoc’s blood froze. Izel. Owain’s master of torture. He’d never met her. Her reputation was terrifying enough that he’d never wanted to.
Izel snorted. “Not until the wrongs of the past are righted and the true rule
r sits on the throne in Ancient Eryri.”
The male Quetzal growled. “If Rhys is isolated and injured and Aderyn is with him, we’ll find them soon enough. Ashem can only have so many supplies. We could kill both of them tomorrow.”
Ranvir wound the grass into the minuscule grooves on the pinecone. It would have been nearly impossible for any dragon except a Naga, whose power lay in fine craftsmanship and their ability to charge inanimate objects with magic. “I’m not sure what I’d do without war, anymore.”
Izel tucked her snake-like head and nosed her feathered wings. “You’ll have plenty of war, Ranvir. Owain should have killed Rhys and Aderyn when they were children. Now they’re formidable warriors, the humans outnumber us hundreds of thousands to one, even the rogues are banding together, saying they don’t want any king at all. Our troubles only multiply the longer Owain tries to find the Sunrise Dragon instead of taking action.”
The Naga tilted his head, examining his work. “The rogues have wind for brains. The Warbringer is hardly a leader any sane dragon would follow.”
Cadoc recoiled. Warbringer? That wasn’t possible. She had been dead for nearly a thousand years.
He’d decided he’d heard enough and backed uphill. If he could reach the top of the overhang, he might be able to take off without them hearing him. But his dragon body was large, and he hadn’t been spending enough time in it lately. He backed into a sapling and it broke with a sharp crack that echoed through the valley.
“Who’s there?” Izel’s mental voice was sharp as needles.
Cadoc went very still.
“Who’s there?” Izel repeated, her voice low and menacing. Cadoc heard the slide of scales across stone coming his way. In seconds, she would be able to see around the boulder. As long as he didn’t fly straight, he should be able to avoid the dart-like poisoned spines Quetzals could shoot from joints on their foreclaws.
Steeling himself, Cadoc launched. Wind screamed past as he thrust his wings down, smoke curling from his nostrils at the protest from the blackened skin of his injury.
“Izel, there! A Fire Elemental!”
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