I came to Ashgate cold, disillusioned, and bitter, determined to make enough gold to isolate myself from the world for the rest of my life. I was ready to use and exploit it to get to my goal. But I was not prepared for Elaine to enter my life, the woman with soft smiles, a passionate heart, and the fierce will to survive that rivaled my own.
“Elaine gave me a new purpose in life, “ I said to her yellow-haired friend. “A good, noble purpose that made me proud to be alive again. Her happiness is my life’s mission. She…” I paused, trying to find the words that would accurately describe my woman and what she meant to me. “Elaine is my light, my warmth, everything that’s good in this world. She is my…salvation.”
Dawn released a long breath, tears glistening on her light eyelashes.
“Thank you,” she exhaled, then threw herself against my chest and wrapped her slender arms around my neck unexpectedly.
Stunned by the gesture, I spread my arms wide at first, then gingerly wrapped my left arm around her, returning the hug. I kept my claws away from her, so as not to scare or repulse her.
Dawn was taller than Elaine. Her scent was different. But the feel of a human woman against my body made the memories of Elaine rush into my mind. Intense longing flooded me, and I released Dawn quickly, afraid I might crush her or worse—break into tears in front of her, the prince, and his general.
“I will bring Elaine back,” I promised Dawn. “Because I no longer know how to go on without her.”
All this time, since the moment I’d first seen her on the balcony with the prince, Dawn and Prince Rha had been attached to each other by his tendrils. Yet I didn’t notice any trace of decline in Prince Rha’s mental abilities. During thediscussion of our plan of attack, his mind remained as sharp as ever.
Dawn gave the prince a goodbye kiss and stepped away from him, and he finally retrieved his tendrils. Instead of leaving herleilathas, however, the tendrils split in the middle, then separated. Half of their lengths retreated into the prince’s arms and back. The other half…elegantly curved into the golden rosettes on Dawn’sleilathaharness.
Elaine’s friend was a human, just like Elaine. Yet she seemed to have her very own tendrils now, like the fae.
Twenty-Two
Timur
The wind screamed across the cliff face like a living thing, tearing at my wings as I banked a hard left. There was at least an hour or two left before the daybreak, but the storm didn’t wait for the sun this morning.
Below, the city of Ashgate clung to the rock like mold—tier upon tier of chipped stone patios, knotted rope bridges swaying over the abyss, and dark cave mouths smoking with shadows drifting in and out of them. Every level teemed with the city dwellers going about their dark, shady business, making deals and trading favors. I tried not to think about how many of them had bought or traded the joy of the humans held captive in the caves and shacks of this rotten city.
Rage had been simmering deep inside me. The cliff itself was a vertical battlefield, and tonight it would either fall or devour us all.
Prince Rha’s army caught up with me from the mouth of the shadow tunnel that had brought us all here. With our combined magic, the shadow tunnel turned out far greater and muchlonger than I could’ve ever conjured on my own, stretching almost the entire way to Teneris. It made our journey here faster, making up for the time spent planning.
Like a tide of menace, the shadowy wave of royal warriors flooded the desert, then flowed over the edge. The royal army was the best at dispersing into shadows. They practiced daily, with the aim to improve speed and distance of travel as well as the ability to orientate and fight right after.
Prince Rha and his army descended upon Ashgate like clouds of shadow magic, silent and deadly. Taking their solid form before their feet hit the ground, they ambushed the beach. Metal rang on metal like ice cracked by thunder, while the red of Nerifir iron sparked like bolts of lightning in the pre-dawn darkness. The crash of weapons and the gurgled curses of the dying echoed off the rock cliff and blended with the crushing of the waves.
Under the cloak of the attack, I glided over the cliff edge on my wings. Since Elaine was taken, there was no use searching for her in our cave. Yet the flash of warm beige, like the skirt she often wore, caught my attention.
Could she still be in there? Were her captors stupid enough to keep her in our home?
With a sharp turn in the air, I changed course, flying straight toward the cave where I’d spent by far the happiest days of my life.
The doors were wide open, not something I hoped Elaine would do in my absence, but also not something Mazra would do when planning an ambush. Still, I approached cautiously, holding back the wild hope that all might be as I’d left it inside, that Elaine was well and free, going about her business inside our small home, perfectly safe by some miracle.
The moment I crossed the threshold, however, I knew my hope was baseless. Every item inside the cave had been moved orupturned, the baskets emptied, the trunks opened, even the bed was ripped open, as if a band of thieves had scoured this place for some hidden riches.
Two thugs were still looting inside. One shook out Elaine’s beige skirt that I had glimpsed from the outside. The other squinted at something by the bed on the floor.
“Hey, what’s this? Gold?” He lifted Elaine’s eyeglasses for inspection.
My rage exploded.
How dare they? How could they ever fathom that they were fit to touch any of her things with their filthy hands?
They weren’t worthy of words. I didn’t yell. I roared at them.
Rising up to the ceiling, I roared like the dragon that failed to kill me. I wished them gone. Ceased to exist in an instant.
Annihilated.