Chapter 12

A laugh of mine gets swallowed by the wind as I sweep down past the barrier of magic that's wrapped tightly round the burnt city. It's almost see-through, a shimmering veil of white, but I can't exactly see outside it even when I'm flying this close on Maeve. Her red wings glitter in the sunlight, rays shining right through them, and I smile at how beautiful she is. I follow the line of the barrier straight towards the coast, Maeve easily flying, guided by tilts of my body as we are getting used to each other. I know that this is freedom for her too. She was trapped there, unable to see anything but the inside of that mansion. We both are free now, even if Kyrell is not.

My stomach sinks as I think of him and the fact I can't get him out of the locked room with guards there twenty-four seven. He is safe, I tell myself a hundred times a day, and I will find a way to fix this. I glance behind me at Ziven's night-black dragon, who commands the sky even in the middle of the day. Brythan looks like endless darkness of a starry night as he flies fast across the air, and I watch him with a grin on my lips.

Even when they are a suitable distance away, Ziven's eyes stay fixed on me and even through the space, I can feel some buzz in the air between us. Maeve sweeps down suddenly and I nearly fall off, a near scream echoing from my throat that I refuse to let out. The first time I yelped when I actually fell off and Maeve had to catch me, Ziven laughed for the entire evening. That asshole is not getting the satisfaction. We might not be enemies anymore, but damn, he can annoy me better than anyone else.

I'm slightly getting used to the turns and manoeuvres Maeve takes, so I don't feel like I'm going to fall off at every swift dive or turn into the currents of the wind. My feet dig into her scales, holding on, as she suddenly rears up just before the water's edge of the sea. Her claws rush through the water before she flies back up into the air, heading straight back towards the mansion.

"Why do you always do that?" I question. "Touch the sea?"

Her soft voice answers me when we are getting close to the mansion. "The Twilight Dynasty lands are wrapped around by sea, and I was hatched on a beach. I miss the lands I lived in and my family, who are all gone."

Sadness nearly overwhelms me, mine mixing with her emotions. I lean down, almost lying on her back, and give her the best attempt at a hug. We don't talk often, as Ziven explained, it takes a great deal of their magic to communicate with us. "I'm sorry you lost them all. I wish…well, I wish they could have been hidden, too."

"The vampyres will pay." I smirk at the revenge in her voice, and I realise that I haven't been frightened since I became a rider and nearly died. I'm not scared of the prince finding me when the barrier is down, not now that I have Maeve as my dragon. "He will be the first one we burn until there is nothing left." I sense she can see my memories, or she somehow knows, because she often replies to me when I haven't spoken. It's something to get used to, and I don't disagree with her. Seeing him burn alive would be considered a dream come true for me. I don't like death, but some people deserve it.

My bones ache with the amount of strength I've had to use to hold on, and I'm glad for all the training Ziven made me do so I actually have muscles to hold on with. Flying every morning and evening has been one of the hardest training sessions, and I actually miss the training rooms. The training rooms are now a home for homeless fae, so it's not possible to go there. Ziven still has everyone doing laps around the forest and flight training every day. Daegan hasn't been seen flying since the day the barrier came down, and neither has his army. It's been six weeks since the mansion spell broke, but it feels like years. Six long weeks which have been nothing but political arguments and stopping Ziven from ending the lives of all the Sun Dynasty people Daegan sends with messages.

Getting out of the mansion is my only relief from the constant stares. The people are divided between following Ziven, the one who was there for them, or following Daegan. Most have sided with the Sun, and Ziven doesn't seem to particularly care, so his charming self isn't persuading many. He's not let anyone actually join the Moon Dynasty, whereas Daegan is offering up a place for anyone who's willing. Ziven's only interest at the moment is making sure Daegan stays far away from me, Hettie, and the rest of his people. I know with absolute certainty he doesn't want to deal with any of this.

I look down past Maeve's wing at the field of tents in the thick forest, so many of them that they merge into one large red fabric covering. As we start to go lower towards the clearing in the forest where most of the dragons land now, I look across the tips of the city in the distance, like I can see the fenced in area where the vampyres are and they're starving. Daegan's made it very clear no one's allowed to give them blood, and that includes the children, so they're locked in there like animals.

Most of the fae want them dead, but some of them do not. Some of them were treated kindly and cared for, like the professor was with me. Sometimes I wonder whether a death would be nicer for them at this point, because if we're trapped in here permanently, then the fae will end the vampyres out of spite and hatred. I don't know if anyone could stop Daegan if he turned his army on the trapped vampyres. The people are angry and they want revenge. Now that they're starting to learn the truth about everything, about what the vampyres did to erase our history, our royals and power…they want the world back.

It's a rebellion powered by dragons, plain and simple, but when they are free, they will burn through the world.

Maeve lands in the clearing with a ground shaking thump, and the nearly dead leaves on the trees fall off around us. Her big claws rake up mud from the ground as she lowers herself closer to the ground for me. Brythan lands as I slide off Maeve, and I stumble a few times before managing to stand straight. Maeve taps my back with her wing as she stomps over to the entrance, pushing herself up against Brythan, who walks in after her. Ziven walks over to me, and his lips twitch. I hold a finger up. "If you laugh, I swear I'm asking Maeve to eat you."

The bastard smiles. "I'm not laughing." The twitch of his lips tells me he desperately wants to. "But I'd prefer to eat you."

My cheeks burn, and he circles around me like a predator, enjoying tormenting his prey. "If I annoy you, you could leave Maeve out of this and try burning me yourself."

I cross my arms, catching the end of my braid. I quickly learnt you don't ride a dragon with your hair down unless you want to be blind and have a rat's nest on top of your head. "I told you I can't make it happen again."

This argument between us isn't going away. Training my powers has not gone well. In fact, they just don't work, and Ziven doesn't know how to train someone like me. "The princess had that magic, fire and red light that could burn. It was a power of the Twilight Dynasty."

We both don't bother pointing out there is no one alive who is from the Twilight Dynasty who could show me how to use my powers. I thought we were close to killing each other in the training before. Now, it usually ends in angry sex, and I end up wanting that outcome. He crosses his impossibly thick arms, and I rest my hands on them as I step closer to look up at him. "We'll figure it out. Maz is looking for books on the Twilight Dynasty to read over at the same time as looking for a way to help Kyrell. The answers have to be in that library."

"Maz?" Ziven hums, lowering his arms to grab my back and tug me up against his chest. "I don't like you giving other males nicknames, Storm."

The heat in his voice sends shivers down my spine, and my lips part. His eyes zero in on them, and I purposely run my tongue against my lower lip. "He isn't a threat. I only want you, Ziv."

His eyes impossibly darken and he leans down, brushing his lips against mine. "We are going back to my room, and you can call me that while I'm inside you. Again and again as you come around my cock."

Filthy, dirty-talking Moon king. I shouldn't love it, but I do. My body definitely does. A throat clears and Ziven immediately tenses. His arm links around my waist, and I swear, a flash of silver seems to take over the world, like the moon is just there waiting at Ziven's back, daring anybody to go close to me.

I know I should be independent and defend myself, but I want Ziven at my side. I actually like how he protects me. I've had devotion before from Emyr, but it was different. His devotion was desperation wrapped in what he thought was love. His need for control, yet the mixture of obsession with me, was overwhelming. He liked to see me in pain. When he realised he couldn't control me, hurting me was his way of breaking what was left of my soul so that he could have every bit of it that was remaining. Ziven doesn't do that. Yes, he's obsessed with me, but he also respects my space and only demands what he knows I will give him. He makes me whole with his actions and words. He doesn't let me break. The most important thing in the world to me is that I never feel scared when I'm with him.

I don't have to be frightened anymore.

Foster waits between two trees, the sun literally shining on his sun mark on his neck. His blond hair looks brighter than I've seen it, likely from dragon riding. He inclines his head to Ziven before turning his gaze to me. "Ziven, Story." He clears his throat. "Daegan instructed me to come and ask Story to see him in private."

"Tell him to fuck off," Ziven snarls.

Foster quickly holds his hands up. "Fuck, I'm the messenger, don't… Please don't fucking kill me." He bravely moves his eyes off Ziven. "We weren't all pretending to be your friends or lying to you when we didn't have a choice. Daegan cares about you. That wasn't a lie."

I huff. "He tried to kill me… He lied to me and made everybody in that mansion lie, too. You think any of it was real? Are you that brainwashed by him that you can't see he is a monster?"

He lowers his hands. "Fine, yes, Daegan lied to you, but he also cared. Ziven lied to you too, and he's standing right there at your side."

I arch an eyebrow. "Ziven didn't try to kill me because a magical book told him he had to. Ziven didn't play with my feelings and try to get me to fall in love with him just so he could break the spell. Ziven"—I blow out a breath—"is the king you should be bowing to, Foster. You're on the wrong side, and I don't want anything to do with the fucking Sun king."

Ziven looks at me with pure pride, and it makes my heart feel like it's going to burst. Foster clears his throat again, and Ziven's had enough. "Didn't I tell you to piss off? Want me to make you?"

Foster looks down at the ground. "We all know it's fucking complicated when it comes to them, and you are right bang in the middle, Story. Daegan, for all his faults, isn't a true monster. You know that. This isn't all black and white. It doesn't matter who's the villain in that mansion when I've listened to the lives of the fae who lived under the vampyre rule. They know what true monsters are like, and they have all suffered. Endlessly. They are our kind, our family, and at this point, neither the Sun nor Moon king deserves to be our leaders. Not while they are like this."

"Careful," Ziven warns.

But Foster's words hit me in my chest. He is right in a way. It is complicated and Daegan might be a murdering asshole, but he tried to kill me to free his people. He did it for the fae, and he isn't an inch of what Emyr is like, what most of the vampyres can be like. Foster looks right at me. "The princess was close with both the Sun and Moon. She married the Dawn and was the link between all four dynasties. She killed herself to save them all, and if you don't speak to Daegan, what was it for? Nothing?"

Maeve's emotions fill my mind, her sadness over the princess's death and the sacrifice. My shoulders drop and Ziven grits his teeth. "Don't ask me to let you go in there, Story."

Yeah, using my real name. He is mad. Foster keeps talking, completely unaware Ziven is close to going all "protective entwined mate" on him. "Anybody would go mad trapped inside that mansion for all those years. Daegan, he definitely did, but the book…things have been worse since he kept opening it. What Etena told you was true. We need your help. If you don't care about him, I get it. Don't come with me, but if there is a part of you who wants answers, please come. From what I've seen, you want to help our race become more than what you were born to be. We don't achieve that by having the two most powerful kings at each other's necks while we go to war."

Ziven growls low. "Don't you fucking dare blame her for the rift between our dynasties. Daegan was once my best friend and a brother in everything but blood. There's a lot of past here that doesn't involve Story. We will never be in any kind of agreement, but there's an alliance to make sure we don't slaughter each other, and that alliance is wearing extremely thin. If you try to guilt her into seeing your bastard king again, I will start a war by killing you."

My heart races as I link my hand with Ziven's. I don't know what happened, but I didn't know Daegan was ever Ziven's best friend. Whatever happened must have been big for them to hate each other so much now. "She's not going."

I pull Ziven aside and away from Foster. "We should see him. I don't want to go, but Foster is right. This is bigger than us. Come with me. He's not going to hurt me if you're standing right there, and you can make sure I'm safe."

"He wants you dead, Storm." He tightens his hand in mine. "It takes every bit of strength I have not to hunt him down and make him painfully pay for ever touching you."

"I don't know what he wants, but we need to get close to the book. The book is the only reason I'm willing to listen to him," I remind Ziven. "It's got to be near him, and for what it is worth…Daegan is the leader of a big army that we need and the owner of the magical book. He knows this and was waiting for us."

"He is a manipulative bastard, and I don't want him near you." He grits his jaw.

I lift my other hand and run my fingers down his cheek. He leans into the touch. "I'm not going to end up dying on you. Not when we are together."

"Stay at my side." He leans in and kisses my forehead. I didn't expect him to agree with me and make any compromise, but he did. We walk up to Foster together. Ziven straightens. "If your fuckhead king attacks her, I'm killing him and then hunting you next."

Foster pales. "U-understood. I'll walk you there."

It's hardly Foster's fault if Daegan tries anything, but it's already awkward as we head through the forest. Foster can't help but make small talk, unaware Ziven isn't a fan. "It's nice being outside, and the weather is good for riding. How has it been riding, Story?"

I elbow Ziven in the stomach before he can say a word that matches the bored look he gives Foster. "Amazing. Thank you for asking. What's it like being outside?"

"I didn't realise how trapped I felt until I stepped out. Until I rode my dragon into the skies and breathed." He sighs low. "I guess we all went mad with pretending we were fine in there."

Whether Ziven agrees with him or not, I don't know, but he doesn't stop Foster from chatting about everything from the food shortages to the tutoring lessons that the fae in the mansion have set up daily for the other fae from the city to learn about their history. I've stood at the back of a few of them, and I'm glad people are finally learning and knowing the truth. Foster stops speaking to me when we get in sight of the mansion and the doors, where a few dragon rider guards from the Sun Dynasty are standing. I don't know them, but their faces are vaguely familiar.

The silent walk back through the mansion is as exhausting as usual. I've gotten used to the feeling of eyes on me nearly all the time now since I first came here. It's a bit harrowing and unsettling, especially when so many of them definitely want me dead to escape, but Catherine's been telling me that not all of them do. Some of them were massively in disagreement about killing me, no matter what the cause was, and think my death will signal a curse—not freedom. Some of them actually idolised Atilia for keeping them safe from the vampyres, now that they're learning how bad it was outside of here. I don't want any of their attention and maybe that book is a way of getting all barriers down so I can get the hell out of here and away from all of this pressure. I'm not Atilia. I didn't choose this.

The Sun Dynasty apartments are heavily guarded, the twins in the middle who look at me once with slight wariness before they move aside. They don't give Ziven the same warm look.

"He's in the living quarters by your old room," Foster claims at the door, waving a hand forward. He pauses. "Come and catch up with me sometime. I'm glad you're alive, Story."

Ziven growls low in warning, and I tug him away before he can finish off Foster for being nice to me. "Stop being possessive."

He leans down, touching my chin with his thumb and forefinger before brushing his lips across mine. A brush that sends heat spiralling through my body, and I flush. "Never, Storm. I'm selfish, possessive and an asshole when it comes to you. I won't apologise for it. For loving you."

Every time he says it, it makes my heart jump. It makes me feel more alive than I ever have before, and I softly smile at him. Ziven lowers his hand, almost like he is remembering where we are and what we have to do. He knows his way around, because I don't have to tell him the way to the room, and we head in together. A flash of light shuts the doors behind us, leaving us in the warm lounge with a blaring fire and a betraying Sun king seated in front of it in a chair that looks like a throne.

I glance at Daegan sitting in a chair by the fire, and for a moment, all the times I trusted him flash before my eyes. Every time I let him kiss me, every time we held each other in front of fires like this, and our dates in the greenhouse. Only everything is tainted now, like the greenhouse, because it is now the place where he tried to kill me. The warm fire casts a glow over his light hair, his golden skin still looking like sunlight even when I see nothing but a monster who doesn't deserve the light at all.

When he turns to face us, I notice how he looks thinner. There's a five o'clock shadow growing across his jaw, and his clothes are looser than he usually wears them. He looks up at me with those eyes that I once thought were beautiful and kind. Now I can't see anything but darkness in the depths.

His eyes drop to our entwined hands, and something flashes across his face. It's gone too quick for me to even register it existed. "I heard you claim she was your queen. Are you mated? Do you have a moon mark hidden on you somewhere to go with the dragons?" I almost touch my dragon markings on my wrists. I never liked being marked by anyone, not when my skin is littered with vampyre bite marks. I never wanted the dragons…but I am proud of them. They are earnt and mine. If I choose to join the Moon Dynasty, that will be another mark I want. I choose. When you've never been able to choose how your body is used and marked, getting the choice is everything to me. He looks right at me and smiles like we are friends. "Did you forgive him that easily?"

My heart hurts, not because of how he hurt me, but because I trusted another male. I should have learnt my lesson with Emyr years ago. I won't be making a stupid mistake like that ever again. "That is really none of your business. Unless you have called us here to talk about the mansion, the people or something important…I. Do. Not. Want. To. Talk. To. You."

He blanches a little at the hate he sees on my face. Good. I'm not naive, I'm not a fool, and he has tricked me once before. Sunlight might shine off him, but if I look closer, I see it's nothing pure. When he doesn't say anything, I tap my foot. "You asked to see me. What do you want?"

"Story…" He stops and climbs off his seat to stand in front of us both. Ziven tenses, just slightly, and if I didn't notice just about every little detail about him, I wouldn't have seen. "I want to tell you the truth. I think we should all stop lying to each other before we destroy the dynasties for good."

"Now you suddenly care about the people?" Ziven laughs, but it's hollow and lacks any humour. "Fuck off."

Daegan grits his teeth. "Every action I have taken was for the people here! For our people, trapped for hundreds of years and never changing. Never aging, never having children or being anything other than fucking trapped because of her?—"

I cut him off. "Stop with that bullshit. I am not her! I didn't make her choices or lock you in here. You had every opportunity to just tell me the truth or use the magic book left here. You could have shown it to me?—"

"No one touches the book. Especially not you!" he snarls at me.

Silver moonlight dances around the room, and it's beautiful as much as it is deadly. Silver might be slowly becoming my favourite colour. Like snakes about to bite, the light sharply lashes at Daegan until he is surrounded by the streaks of silver light. They are the very image of Ziven's eyes, which glow with his power. The dragon markings on his hands move and glow silver too, and I struggle to even look away from him. Daegan's eyes widen slightly, and he glows a bright, warm yellow that pales compared to the beauty of Ziven's moonlight. Ziven's voice is colder than the middle of a snowy night. "If you ever raise your voice at my queen again, Sun bastard, I will rip you apart and crush your crown under my foot."

Daegan stares right at Ziven, who holds his stare. "Fine."

The moonlight fades, and the room seems less without it. "The book…I wasn't aware you knew of it, Story. It would be a bad idea to take you to it when I know it wants you." He clears his throat. "The book talks of dozens of prophecies, it talks of magic older than time itself. It talks of truths, lies and everything else that makes this world turn around. It knows languages that have never existed and should not now. Yet it asks for you. Over and over."

A shiver spreads down my spine. "What exactly did you want me here for, Daegan?"

"To warn you," he answers.

Ziven's hand tightens in mine. "That sounds like a threat. You threaten her, and you're dead. You're walking on a very thin line of sunlight right now. Careful, because there's darkness all around you, and that's where I play." He sneers at him.

Daegan steps right up to Ziven. "It's that easy for you, isn't it? You've hated me after what my brother did, and now I did the right thing with Story, and somehow you've twisted me into a monster for that too!"

Their powers seem to spin around them, and I jump out of the way of the two powerful kings who seem to have crossed a line. Or Daegan has. Ziven looks ready to murder him for good this time. "I warned you never to speak about my sister."

"It wasn't my fault!" Daegan shouts. "I am not my brother, and I did not like hurting Story!"

"Liar. You enjoyed it." Ziven cocks his head to the side. "I see through you, Sun king. Every single one of you is rotten, and rot spreads to everything you touch. You still hurt Hettie. And you still fucking tried to kill Story. I warned you. I warned you in that corridor that she is mine and not to go anywhere near her at the price of war. In the ballroom, I told you to not fucking touch her and that it was over. That I was going to tell her the truth and we could work together for a solution. You agreed with me and yet you still used Hettie as a distraction and then went after her." He shoves his hand into Daegan's chest and Daegan stumbles back. "What the fuck did you think would happen when you killed my entwined mate? I'd thank you?"

Ziven is furious, literally shaking with anger as he continues to unleash his rage. "You wanted a war, and you never would have gotten one if she hadn't survived, because I would have killed you all. The only reason you are still standing is because of her. You should be on your knees, begging for her forgiveness, and you're not. You're here, being you and assuming the world owes you a debt. Sometimes I think you're actually insane enough to push me because you want to die."

Daegan doesn't say a word, but hurt flashes across his eyes. Ziven doesn't care and I honestly don't either. Moonlight seems to trickle in from outside even in the dead of day. It might not be Ziven's time to be the most powerful he can be, but it certainly doesn't stop him. "We both lost everything once, and I won't let you doom us again. What Atilia did was because of you and you fucking well know it?—"

Physically exhausted from training, I lean against the bookcase on the wall, only to fall right back as the floor swirls around and I stumble into a new room. A secret room. The walls are all weathered stone, and it's cold. Cold enough I know I'm somehow not in the Sun Dynasty apartments, but in a place that is quite different. It smells like damp earth, and there is a darkness to the room that makes me think I am underground. I spin to touch the bookcase, but I find a stone wall and no door. No bookcase in sight. There's a magic similar to the barrier outside wrapped around the room, and I know right away I'm not alone.

Slowly, I turn and face the feeling of someone or something watching me. Right on the pillar in the centre of the room is a book. I love books; I love reading and escaping into a world I can never fully see any other place than in my mind, but this book makes me want to scream and run away. It feels wrong, on every single level, and I can't shake the feeling as I stare at it.

A strange foreign voice speaks right into my head. Loud, direct and terrifying. "I've waited for you, Story Dehana. While the Moon and Sun were distracted, I wanted your time. The Moon never lets you far from his sight or protection."

The voice in my head is female, but it sounds old, like ancient, like it's from another world. My feet are moving on their own as I walk straight up to the book, and even when I'm screaming in my head not to do it, my hands don't stop as I open the book right in front of me. Glowing, almost translucent tree branches stretch out of the book and slam straight into my arms, into my chest, but it doesn't hurt. The translucent, beautiful branches are red, like a burning star, and I stare in amazement as they sink into my body and spin around the room. Roses of the deepest black and the brightest yellow bloom off them, but the thorns are a dark orange. "Close your eyes."

I don't have control over my body, and my eyes slam shut. Suddenly I'm not in the cold room, but instead, I'm standing in front of a gigantic red tree that has roots sunk into lava that pools around the ground. The tree is so tall, so tall that I barely see even the tips of it that hide in the thick grey clouds. The bark itself bleeds something like red tears, and the leaves look like Maeve's wings. "I will bring you here when you need guidance. You have two entwined mates, and they're fighting right now to get to you, so we do not have much time. The fate of the people is in your hands, but you will die soon."

My blood runs cold. "Die? Two mates?" I shake my head.

She laughs like it's a funny matter when it's really fucking not. "Death is not final and you have a habit of rebirth at the right times. Many will die before I am united with my sister."

"The other book?" I question, wondering if that's who she means. I never thought of a book being alive and talking until now, but here we are.

"You are linked to both the Sun and the Moon, but I come from your homeland. Your blood comes from the Twilight Dynasty of my lands, and you will take me back."

I highly doubt it. "Why did you call me here? Just to scare me with promises of death?"

"Because we are linked forever. Part of your soul is in my pages, Story. I will have your soul by the end."

"You will not," I instantly reply. Sharp pain cracks down my spine like whips, and I cry out, falling to my knees in the lava. It flows around me.

"You do not tell me what I see. I am time, I am dragons, I am magic, and I made you. We will work together." I'm tempted to say or else , but she keeps speaking. "Bring me to the other book and connect us as one."

"And why would I do that?" I'm arguing with a book. A magic book, but this doesn't make me seem less mad.

"That is how you break the spell around the barrier. I fear it will be broken long before then and my sister stolen." She pauses and carries on. "Only when we are together will the fae win. Otherwise, I see futures of endless death lords."

"Vampyres?" I question, my fingers touching my stomach on instinct. Touching the scars I have.

She doesn't say yes to that, but I assume that's who she meant. "The Sun king, your entwined mate, he is within my trap and he will do anything I ask. Do you know there's a curse put on this book? Every time someone opens it, a sickness like no other comes out and claims lives to keep me powerful. Every time my sickness touches, it destroys. If you do not bring me my sister when she comes here, I will kill more with his help." My blood seems to freeze. "One of your mates is weak, the other can not touch me."

I have a million questions, but I can't voice them. Not without speaking to Ziven and Daegan. "What is the prophecy? What were the words exactly that were used to bind the barrier? And how do I break it?"

"Bring my sister to me." I am pushed straight out of the book, and it hurts everywhere the branches were, like invisible scars. I fall backwards, the surrounding temperature changing as quickly as the smell of damp earth fades into smoke. My eyes widen as I look down at the flames licking my boots. Daegan grabs my arms, pulls me straight out of the fireplace, and I stumble into his chest. "The book has never asked to see anyone but me. You lived here for months and it never bothered you. Why? How?!" He frowns, but this close up…he looks broken and sick. Etena was right, the book is doing something to him. I'm ripped out of his arms, straight into Ziven's, and he cups my face. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." My heart's racing as I tug myself out of Ziven's touch, but I don't leave his side. "You're one of my entwined mates, and you tried to kill me."

The world seems to wait. Daegan looks right at me and lies. "The book can't be trusted, and that is false."

It's not and we both know it. It explains why I trusted him when I've barely trusted anyone in my life before. Why I felt so at home when I was near him, and why I wanted to spend time with him. It's not the same connection I have to Ziven, not anything of love, but the base is there. The link between us is there. "Does it lie about the sickness?"

Every emotion on his face tells me the truth. Guilt. Shock. Disgust. I shake my head and look up at my other mate. "Did you know about him being my mate?"

"I suspected," he answers, and I clamp my teeth down before tugging my hand from Ziven's. I walk away from them both and straight towards the dragons. I need Maeve.