Chapter Twenty

C HAPTER T WENTY

The clouds part as Fernah’s dragon wings lift me into the sky. With a grin stretching from ear to ear, I turn to check whether Darius is around.

His chuckle can be heard as he rides through the fog on top of an Ardenti that is breathing fire. My smile doubles, and I glance behind me, seeing Tibith strapped in his own leather saddle, excitedly warbling.

Fernah swerves left, right and centre in the wind before disappearing below the clouds. I tilt my head back and grin like we’re in a race as Darius and his dragon trail behind. It’s almost as if up here, we don’t need to be scrupulous about the horrors we face on land. I can breathe and not feel as though I am suffocating.

It’s freedom. My freedom.

‘This is so much fun, Miss Nara!’ Tibith yells, and I laugh.

In the distance, I can see the grassy cliff where Gus has previously taken me for training. Fernah swoops down towards it as a shadow falls over my head. The sight of Darius racing ahead motivates me to outrun him, and I call out Fernah’s name. She speeds up, creating a rhythmic sound with her wings.

My sight homes in on the cliff, passing training grounds and forests.

We make it within a second of Darius almost beating us. Fernah’s soft landing pushes some grass up off the ground as I unclip myself from the saddle and jump down, making sure to grab Tibith.

As I set him on the grass, he wobbles on his feet, looking unsteady after the ride, before he ends up falling flat on his bottom. I turn to look at Darius as his feet land on the ground. His hair is windswept, which makes me want to run my hands through it and mess it up even more.

Grinning, I say to him, ‘I win.’

He chuckles, peeling the leather gloves I gave him off his fingers. ‘So, how did you learn to ride a dragon?’

I rub Fernah below her snout and she purrs. ‘I didn’t until I came here. I had only ever ridden a dragon once before Fernah.’ My gaze shifts over to Darius. ‘And that dragon was you.’

He lifts a brow, giving me an expectant look as he smirks.

I roll my eyes. ‘Glad to know that your shameless thoughts have never left.’

‘Well, did you enjoy it?’ he asks, and my cheeks flame bright red. His grin is the most mischievous I have ever seen come from him as he crosses his arms over his broad chest, the muscles practically ripping his shirt apart. My heart quickens. ‘When I took you out flying, I mean.’

I cough, attempting to clear my throat. It hardly works. ‘You dropped me,’ I deadpan. ‘On purpose.’

He finds the thought thoroughly amusing as he tips his head back and laughs. The vision soothes me, and I chuckle alongside him. It is like we are back to our old selves for just a short second. One in which Darius has his memories back, and I’m content with him.

I storm up to him and try to smack him across the chest, but he captures my hand and rests it against his heart. I swallow back my laugh, almost choking as I stare up at him.

Darius watches my reaction and gorges on it like it is a feast as I glance at the position of our hands and feel the soft beat of his heart beneath my palm.

Am I lying now, Goldie?

The night before his capture back in Emberwell slips into my mind, just as it has done so many times in the past. He would do this whenever he wanted to prove something. Now, I do not care what he has to prove because all that matters is that I can feel it, that I can touch him and know he is real; he is here with me, and he is trying.

He closes the gap between us with a single step. My hand stays on his chest, but my breathing stops as he hooks his finger around the coin necklace and stares at it.

It’s your birthday gift.

I was irreversibly in love with you. I am irreversibly in love with you, Nara.

My body shivers at his attention and the crease along his forehead as he studies the coin. It is a similar look to the one he gave me the first day he was here. The look where he knew this meant something more than his mind was letting him remember.

‘It’s not just any coin,’ I utter, my mouth parched as his gaze flicks up to meet mine. ‘It’s a gold coin.’ I offer a smile, hoping he recalls the significance from all those years ago when I handed him this very coin.

The corner of his mouth starts to lift, and I can’t help but mirror his expression.

‘Shit.’ My smile falls as soon as I spot Gus shifting into human form at the edge of the cliff and marching towards us, looking as if he is ready to kick up a storm with me. The added wind surrounds him as it blows his shawl and hair, reminding me of the times Idris would show up with the same furious expression.

Darius goes to take a step in front of me, but I stop him with a shake of my head.

‘Do you have any idea how worried I was when I went to check the cells and found the door open and you and Darius both gone?’ Gus is seething, completely, utterly mad.

‘I know—’

‘Idris is this close to forming a fleet to return to Emberwell, thinking you are there.’ His thumb and forefinger, barely touching as he shows me, are enough to imagine.

‘You needn’t worry,’ Darius says, a smirk moulding his lips. ‘She is in safe hands.’

Gus’s gaze shifts from me to Darius, his brows rising in disbelief. ‘Safe hands?’ he scoffs. ‘Please, you are hardly to be trusted right now.’

Darius clicks his tongue, touching his heart as if to say Gus’s comment wounded him. Yet it’s clear that this is his way of playfully messing with him.

Gus looks sternly at him, and I tug at his arm, ushering us away from Darius as I guide him to the cliff’s edge.

He is shaking his head by the time we stop walking and I face him. ‘Whatever your reason may be—’

‘He is making progress,’ I tell him quietly, glancing back at Darius to check on him as he crouches down to talk to Tibith. Clearing my throat as I see him staring at us, I say to Gus, ‘I think the reason why he might stop himself from wanting to remember is that Aurum’s influence is too strong.’

Gus looks at me with a deep frown. ‘Have you mentioned this to Leira?’

I nod. ‘She thought that would be the case if Aurum had full control over Darius’s powers.’ I bite my lower lip in thought as Gus remains silent. ‘What if the answer is you?’

His back goes rigid.

‘You’re his father, Gus. Maybe there is a way you can—’

‘Nara.’

His warning tone irks me.

‘Would you, for once, put aside your fears of how he would react around you, and help him?’

The sigh that escapes him resonates with a mix of aggravation and shame. He pinches the bridge of his nose, and as my eyes return to Darius, I watch as he throws his head back in laughter, engrossed in whatever Tibith is saying.

‘If it meant saving your son,’ I whisper, my focus still on Darius, ‘would you not at least try, despite the consequences?’

No response comes, and even when I tear my gaze away from Darius to look at Gus, his eyes are elsewhere.

His chest rises with a deep breath. ‘I should take you back to the garrison. Your brothers are waiting there.’

I make no effort to conceal my disappointment at the sudden shift in conversation. ‘And Darius?’

Regret grips him by the throat as he lowers his voice and looks at me. ‘You know it is not my choice, Nara.’

That means he is going to take him back to the dungeons.

Frustration slithers its way up my spine. ‘He is not a threat any more.’

‘I know,’ he says, and that frustration turns into anger as my eyes well up with furious tears, and I turn the other way to face the view beyond the cliffs. The vast expanse below reveals valleys veiled in mist and rolling hills painted in hues of green and gold. For once, I hate how beautiful it looks, how even as Gus’s footsteps fade behind me, I wish for nothing but to be up in the air again.