5. Aurelia

Chapter 5

Aurelia

" F uck, am I glad to get off this boat," Hadriel said later that day as he shoved past me.

"It's a ship, dingle-dick," Nova told him.

"I don't give a shit what it is as long as it lets me off." He waded through more people to get to the gangplank as fast as possible.

"Dante, when you gonna finish that book?" Tanix called back from near the front of the line.

"I would've already finished it if you hadn't kept asking questions," Dante responded from his location back near me.

Tanix, Sixten and Niven—one of the guys I'd stuck an axe in when they invaded the village—had joined the read-through, with Hadriel occasionally sitting in, too. We'd had to start over, and then Tanix had asked questions about every plot hole he found and those he made up. We would never have been able to finish by the time we arrived, but Tanix made sure we'd only gotten halfway.

"Things need to make sense," Tanix said.

"They do make sense, you're just too dense to see that," Sixten replied.

Weston emerged near the front of the line, in the space people were leaving for the captain to make ready to depart. Everyone quieted down; they were so much more reserved when he was around. I got now why he removed himself from their company during meals and why he didn't take his leisure around them. It truly was a lonely life as a good alpha, one that respected the needs of his pack.

Weston looked everyone over, his gaze landing on me for a moment before he turned around and waited for the captain. Once everything was set, Weston disembarked like he owned the world. The sun shone on his dirty blond hair, highlighting it like a crown. His broad shoulders were pushed back, his bearing straight with measured, purposeful steps.

"He's really good at looking like he's in charge," I murmured as we followed along like a herd of cattle.

"He's had his whole life to learn." Dante grabbed my upper arm to maintain our proximity in the bustling crowd. It was clear the pack wanted to be off the ship and headed for home as fast as possible. "Here's how this is going to go. You're going to put your hands in front of you like they are bound. You're going to walk with me, keeping your hands like that, until we stop in the first village. We'll be treating you like a captive, because of both Granny's threat and because the people here won't like you very much. We need to keep up appearances until you can stand in front of the dragon royalty. Okay?"

"Weston explained this at breakfast."

"Yes, but you've been very obtuse toward him lately, and we all just want to make sure everything goes smoothly. Your life is literally on the line."

" Obtuse? " I turned to him with raised eyebrows. "That's what he said?"

Dante's grin made me huff and turn to the front.

"No," he replied. "He said ‘distant.' I just wanted to see if that axe wielder was still in there."

"Now more than ever."

"Atta girl."

The horses and supplies were already waiting, the disembarkation having been planned remarkably well. Those who were riding mounted up, and the rest of us filed in to walk near the carts. Dante would serve as my guard, so his horse was being led by Hadriel, who wouldn't let the stable hand near it.

As we waited to move, I got my first look at the dragon kingdom. Docks stretched out from the land and fine ships bobbed across the sprawling harbor, the wharf buzzing with life as people went about their day. The market lay beyond, not unlike the one I'd passed in the last port city, but the establishments and even the stalls here seemed so much... newer. Nicer. Fresh paint adorned walls; new roofs lay atop buildings. The footpaths were swept clean, no litter in sight. People wore attire ranging from decent to nice to fine, with none of the evidence of poverty I'd seen dotting the way in the last kingdom, or even in my village. It was almost as though this place was built recently.

"The first village is the farthest away from the castle in the kingdom," Dante explained as we walked. Shapes ghosted through the trees alongside us, utterly silent and only noticed because of the feeling of danger that tingled across my skin. "It's the smallest and used to be the poorest. Now it does a decent amount of trade. The queen was originally from there, so it has special significance because of her and her brother. Their family no longer lives there, of course."

"Are you my tour guide?"

"Yes. I can't walk and read or I'll trip and fall on my head. Then you'll make fun of me, so this is a safe alternative."

I laughed.

"Don't laugh," he hissed, looking around. "You're supposed to be a captive! Which means we're enemies."

"Sorry," I whispered, trying desperately to wrestle away my smile.

"We've landed later than originally planned," Dante went on, staring straight ahead. "Skirting around that storm put us behind. Factoring in the stop, it means we might not get to the castle until just after dark." He leaned in a little closer and dropped his voice. "Not to worry—this kingdom is very safe. We have patrols on the regular. If you are to be re-abducted, it won't happen now."

"Fantastic," I said in a dry tone, still wrestling that smile.

He straightened and resumed his tour guidance. "Yes. Now, if you'll turn your attention to the right, this whole area used to be called the Royal Wood. Back in the days of the Mad King, it was for use by royals and the court only. Peasants called it the Forbidden Wood. To enter for any reason would be punishable by death."

I paused and turned my head to look at him. "Are you serious?"

"Very, though I wasn't here then, or for the curse that followed the Mad King's death, so this is all secondhand." He huffed. "Stop interrupting or I'll kick you off the tour. Anyway, now the wood is open to all, but with strict requirements regarding hunting. You need to apply for licenses and whatnot so that we don't kill off all the game."

"Who owns the land on the left?"

"It's also part of the Royal Wood, but I thought it would be more dramatic if I gave you a direction in which to look." He stuck out his hand, gesturing toward a field through the trees on the left. "Ah, here we have the famous Everlass plant." The plants stood in rows, green and leafy and tended to with much more care than our gardens in the village. "It is the pride and joy of the dragons, growing wherever they live and carrying all sorts of amazing healing properties."

The name was familiar. "That's what they gave me on the ship, right? Everlass?"

"The elixir was made with Everlass, yes."

"And the one that saved me after the run-in with my drugs?"

"Your product mixed with Granny's drugs, you mean? Yes, that had Everlass, but the plant that elixir was made with was blessed by the phoenix."

"Blessed? Is the phoenix their god or something?"

Dante looked over at me in confusion. "The phoenix is the queen's brother."

Hadriel had talked about that with me. While I had been blown away, I wasn't sure I'd fully processed it, because it still didn't seem real. Phoenixes were a myth. They were in books. They didn't walk on mortal lands.

But just like Hadriel had said, apparently there was one. A real one—a walking, breathing phoenix whose magic had already saved my life not once but twice.

"Wow," I said, blown away all over again. "I honestly thought Hadriel was being overly dramatic. That's... insane."

"Yeah, right? The guy can't ever die. Isn't that wild?" He shrugged. "Moving on—well, now we've passed the Everlass field."

I let out a low whistle. "I need time to adjust to a myth coming to life anyway. You didn't even need to capture me. If you'd just told me I'd get to meet a phoenix, I would've come willingly. Holy crap. Is he hot?"

He held up a hand in exasperation. "For the love of the gods, don't ever ask that again." He dropped his hand. "Come on, let's talk about the history of the kingdom as it was told to me until we get to the village and can get your wolf pulled out. That'll give me a lot fewer headaches."

Before I could protest, he launched into specifics about the Mad King and the curse. I lost track of the miles through the woods while listening. Hadriel had been over much of this, but his accounts were told from his personal point of view, which were often crazy, colorful tales that kept my attention for different reasons. The history told to me by a nonfiction lover gave me a whole new perspective, and I was completely engrossed in his tales.

We passed another Everlass field, this one much closer to our path. Unlike the other field, people wandered through this one. Some picked leaves and placed them on the trays they carried—probably to harvest for medicine, I surmised—and others just threw the leaves onto the ground.

I asked about the latter, and Dante shrugged.

"That's how they take care of the plant. Dead leaves or something. I've never asked, mostly because I don't really care."

I blurted out a laugh as Weston took a right, looking over his shoulder at me. His eyes were still hard, no expression on his face, and I figured it was probably his "I'm the alpha and I'm very important" mode, something he hadn't often done when we were traveling. It was like looking at an entirely different person.

"Beasts used to roam this wood," Dante went on. "They were created by harvesting pain and suffering from the people in the demon dungeons. I had personal experience with that. This one time..."