He trailed off. Neither of them finished the statement, Sofia pushing back the thoughts of their flight. Thoughts of what had happened in the clearing before they’d fled.
Red blood on white snow.
Fox’s hand on her shoulder broke her from her thoughts, and she took a deep breath, swallowing down everything. Fox jumped onto Chalia’s back first, helping pull Sofia up after him. Once she was seated and he’d wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her into him, they took off.
She didn’t think, letting herself lean back into Fox’s hard chest, her head turned so she could rest her ear against his heart, letting the beat of it soothe her. His fingers traced along her temple, combing back her curls. She didn’t know if he was still angry, but at least he gave her this. They didn’t speak, the only sound the wind and the beat of Chalia’s wings.
After several minutes of flight, the familiar outcrop of rocks came into view. In the blackness of the night, Sofia could just make out thefaint glow of a fire tucked behind the rocks in the cavern beyond. It wouldn’t be visible if she hadn’t been looking for it.
“I’m going to kill him,” she said, voice raw. The words reverberated in the hollowness of her chest. She ached with them.
“I’m going to help you,” Fox said, his hand tightening almost painfully on her hip where he held her.
When Chalia landed, Javi and Micael were already standing outside the cave, wrapped in furs. Fox slipped off first, turning to help Sofia down. She stumbled, and he wrapped an arm around her even as Javi moved forward.
“Micael told me what you’d planned. You were supposed to talk to us…” Javi broke off and Sofia saw Micael’s face painted with guilt behind him.
“I didn’t—it didn’t...” she stuttered.
“What did you do to her?” Javi said, rounding on Fox. “How could either of you let her run off?—”
“I didn’t—we didn’t,” Fox said, more tired than defensive. “Calm down. We need to talk.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Javi snapped.
“Stop!” Sofia said, practically yelling to get herself heard. “Javi, stop. Let’s go inside. We have to talk.” The words were stilted and slow, but Javi listened. He let go of Fox with a look that said he would still kill Fox at the drop of a hat. Sofia almost smiled. Despite the rage and grief that had been simmering through him since his blood-mother’s death and the discovery that Dia was still alive, she didn’t think Javi had murder in him.
Javi’s hands came to cup her face, gently tilting her to look at him.
“Are you okay?” he searched her face.
“I’m—my—” she started, her voice breaking. “I need some water,” she finished after a minute, not quite ready to say the words out loud.
Javi seemed to understand, kissing her lightly across the forehead before moving to her side. Braced between Fox and Javi, they entered the warmth of the cavern, Clarita already running to fetch more snow to melt beside the fire. Javi wrapped her in a set of furs, and Fox helped take off her wet boots and socks, setting them next to the fire to dry.
Jacinta handed her a mug of steaming tea, and she sipped it with her eyes closed, savoring the herbal taste and the moment of reprieve.
Fox spoke first, a hand on Sofia’s leg, thumb rubbing up and down absently as he talked. He explained their decision to confront the chief commander, emphasizing that it had been his plan to leave the way they had. When he got to the explanation of Harlow showing up on Eha and the other dragon, Sofia watched as anger turned to horror and helplessness. Fox did her the favor of not explaining how she’d tried to surrender herself over to Harlow. But even so, the cavern went silent as he told them what had happened to Sofia’s parents—to her mother. Clarita looked gray in the firelight, and Javi’s face went red, his knuckles white as he clenched his fists.
And for just a moment, Sofia closed her eyes and let the anger and hatred simmering in the room wrap around her, protecting her from the grief that was too overwhelming on its own.
Sofia barely listenedto the fallout of Fox’s story, her eyes focused on the flames dancing in the fire. She pictured Harlow in that fire, burning as he screamed. But then she pictured her mother, the blood streaming down her neck, soaking the ground beneath her body, eyes wide and unseeing. She wasn’t sure Harlow burning would be enough. She wanted to take him apart piece by piece until he had nothing left.
She would kill him. And she would make it hurt.
“Dark heart,”Chalia said, voice soft in her mind.“I’m sorry I failed. I should have acted sooner. I should have saved her.”
“You couldn’t have,”Sofia said, closing her eyes against the burning.“You did everything you could have. You’ve done so much.”
If the other dragons had listened. If they’d been there. If they’d agreed to fight.
“My father has to know what happened. He’ll have to believe us.”
“What makes it different now?”
“Jobin saw. He flew back to them to tell them.”
“We already told him what we knew. It didn’t matter. Nothingmattered.”