Chapter Six

C HAPTER S IX

‘I said I was fine, Illias.’ I swat his hand away as he keeps grabbing my face to check for bruises.

He scowls down at me, using his Aerian maroon tunic sleeve to wipe dirt off my brow. ‘Just because you hated whenever I would try and clean your cuts up after a fight at the village doesn’t mean you can still push me away and act like it is nothing.’

I stir on the edge of my bed. Iker is staring at me from the doorway while Idris leans against the window of my room, looking out as day slowly turns into evening.

‘What happened between you and Freya for her to react this way?’ Illias asks as I take hold of his two fingers and sigh.

I shake my head to the ground, unable to erase the wounded look on Freya’s face. ‘Like I said, it was a silly argument,’ I whisper. ‘I shouldn’t have said the things I said to her.’

‘What did you say?’ The question comes from Iker.

My eyes fly in his direction, and I open my mouth, keen on saying whatever comes to mind, but I am stumped. Telling my brothers that Gus is Darius’s father will cause more chaos than there already is. They trust Gus too much.

Idris must notice the turmoil going off inside my head as he says to the boys, ‘Leave us for a moment.’

My shoulders stiffen, and I shift on the edge of the bed. Talking with Idris alone means he’s going to lecture me; and that is the last thing I need. The last time he wanted to speak to me was to chastise me for falling in love with a criminal who is also a dragon shifter.

A grimace sneaks up on my lips as I imagine how this conversation will go, but Iker scoffs, shaking his head at Idris, which startles Illias and me. And before he turns to face him, I catch a small glimpse of contempt in his eyes. A look I have rarely ever seen on Iker.

‘What is it that you have to say that you can’t say in front of us?’

Illias looks over at me, his eyes wide and knowing as if he has dealt with this too many times now. Idris doesn’t even utter a word at Iker, his stoic gaze unbreakable.

‘Come on—’ Illias tries to yank Iker away, but he is unable to move him from the spot.

Iker shoves Illias off, and I stand up with blunt force, not liking this sudden hostile situation between my brothers. ‘No, I want to know,’ he says, jerking his chin at Idris. ‘What is it, brother? The role of a father figure in our family gone to your head?’

‘Iker. Stop ,’ I warn.

‘Why is it always us two having to leave? Do you not tire of being so demanding?’ He steps into Idris’s space, squaring off as he pushes him. ‘So controlling—’

‘Enough.’ I jump between them, pressing my hands against their chests before they can enter a brawl that Illias and I will have to break up. ‘Don’t you see what is happening?’

The harsh look in both their eyes settles to something gentle as they land on me, and whatever possessed them to act this aggressively towards each other stops.

I lower my hands. ‘Nothing is right any more.’

‘Nothing has been right since you left home, Nara,’ Illias whispers, and I bob my head knowingly.

‘Yet do you believe any of this is helping us right now?’ I gesture to the whole room, metaphorical meanings and all. ‘I just got thrown through the air by my best friend. Iker and Idris clearly have something to resolve, while the previous king of Emberwell is alive and a danger to our world. I don’t know about all of you, but I am tired of this, so can we just please focus.’

The whole room lapses into silence. I know they agree with me. Too much is at stake. We are no longer in our village dealing with dragons or goblins stealing from our cottage. This is mightier than all of that.

‘Illias,’ I say, looking over as Iker’s head hangs low, his curls dangling over his forehead. ‘Take Iker somewhere else to calm down.’

As Illias nods, heading out of the room with Iker, I take a long-deserved breath before returning to reality.

‘And you!’ I spin around to look at Idris with an accusatory finger pointing in his direction. ‘What is the matter with you?’

He raises a bushy brow. ‘Shouldn’t I be asking you that, considering the incident outside?’

My head tilts, and I throw him a look as if to say that it’s a stupid question. Before Iker tried to confront him for his own reasons, I knew Idris would have asked me this either way.

‘Why do you ignore Freya?’ I say, making his eyes jump until he reverts to his stone-like expression.

‘What does that have to do—’

‘Why do you ignore her? Or better yet, what is happening between you and Iker? I have never seen him like this, so what have you done?’

As he shakes his head, he makes a noise at the back of his throat, almost like he wants to laugh. ‘You sound just like Father once used to.’

‘Why? Because I am calling you out on what I’ve witnessed lately?’

‘Because you’re quick to blame me.’

My brows pull together, and I wonder why he believes that. I might have been too young to remember specific moments between my father and Idris, but I never once felt he blamed him for anything. ‘I—’ My tone is lighter. ‘I am not blaming you, Idris. I am simply—’

‘Worried?’ he cuts in, giving me a pointed stare. ‘As am I, Nara.’

I look away, knowing he definitely thinks of me first. I cannot fault it when I have an urge to look after him too.

‘I kissed her.’

My head swings in his direction at an abnormal speed. His gaze is elsewhere, not wanting to look at me after confessing to kissing my best friend. Though I already know about it, it doesn’t mean I would have mentioned it. ‘And do you . . . regret it?’

It takes him five seconds to answer. ‘Yes.’

I scoff. ‘Liar.’

The silence between us melts into me. It is the kind where I do not know if he will answer or if he will walk out of that door like he used to do whenever I confronted him about anything. I steel myself for the second option and stare at my brother as he turns his back to me. He runs both hands through his chestnut locks, and I wait. I wait for it—

‘I do not want to commit to someone.’

My eyes struggle not to widen.

He turns to me, despair and exhaustion consuming his expression. ‘Freya is young and too full of life to have to deal with me.’

Hating how he thinks so low of himself, I shake my head frantically. ‘You are not some broken man, Idris.’

‘But I am also not ready.’ He shoots me one of those severe looks before sighing as he walks up to the window. ‘I don’t know if I ever will be, and I don’t want to keep her waiting in hope that we will be someday.’

‘And Iker?’

‘He started spending quite some time with Freya while you were away. I suppose somewhere along the way, he developed feelings.’

I suppose it would have been hard not to under the circumstances they were all in.

‘Does Freya know this?’

He shakes his head. ‘I thought Iker was being childish at first, liking her to annoy me, but something snapped in him when he saw Freya upset because of me.’ He looks over his shoulder at me. ‘We’ve argued so much ever since.’

A heavy sigh pulls out from my chest. I can see how much this hurts him. Yes, we might have all argued as a family back in the village about the most nonsensical things, but never about love. Idris knows heartbreak; he has loved and lost, and I think, in many ways, he understands me more than Illias and Iker do when it comes to Darius.

‘Miss Nara!’ Tibith’s little footsteps tap across the floor as he runs inside the room. He jumps onto my calf, hugging it tightly as he says, ‘I have missed you tre-tremendously, Miss Nara!’

I chuckle as he releases my leg, and I kneel to bop his nose. ‘As I have you!’

He giggles, rubbing his belly. He has no idea what happened with Gus or Freya, and I would like to keep it that way.

As I look up, my smile falls when I see Idris start to walk away.

‘Idris,’ I call, and stand as he turns to me. ‘Father wouldn’t blame you for any of this.’

He tries not to show any emotion, but fails as his forehead scrunches and he looks at me like he could just cry.

‘He would be proud of how great a big brother you have been to us all.’ My heart cracks open as I smile at him. ‘And even if you don’t believe it, you will be ready one day. Whoever that may be with.’

A strangled sigh comes out of him as he looks off to the side. He nods in thought before darting his gaze back to me. He doesn’t mention anything about what I have just said to him, but I understand this is his way of accepting it. ‘I forgot to tell you. When you have time, I have a gift waiting for you inside that chest box.’

I look behind me at where he points and I narrow my eyes suspiciously, heading towards it. ‘A gift? Another one?’

‘Consider it your late birthday gift.’

A gasp lodges in my throat as I pry the chest open to reveal a leather saddle. Tibith climbs up onto my shoulder as I lift the harness out of the box and run my hands over my name embossed on the side.

‘I know you are . . .’ He trails off as if he can’t quite grasp what I am. ‘But I thought you might need one, considering you have a close bond with almost every dragon here, especially Fernah.’

My eyes shoot up at Idris. I can’t stop myself from grinning. ‘You made this yourself, didn’t you?’

‘With the help of Illias and Iker.’ A note of soft laughter makes his chest shake. ‘It is the only time we did not butt heads.’

My voice cracks as I laugh too and take another look at the saddle. When I lost the dagger Idris gave me, because of Aurum, I thought he would never craft me anything else, but I should know better by now.

Too emotional to speak, I mouth ‘thank you’ to him.

‘Don’t thank me.’ He gives me a stern look. ‘Just go find Freya. I’ve already disappointed her once; don’t let another one of us Ambroses do the same.’

I don’t get another word in as he walks out the door.