Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

HOPE

The temple of the mighty dragon gods is filled with bodies and mourners. Marble coffins, rows and rows of them, line the temple’s stone floor, and the cries of their families echo around like a prayer. Candlelight brightens the dark room, but it does nothing to chase away the grief that is thick in the air. I think they are lucky, the dead and alive in here…they loved someone enough to grieve. People like me…we don’t have that. The funerals for the Water Court will go on for weeks, but for now, the bodies are being kept cold by magic. There’s a place in Ayiolyn, the Death Mist, where the dead are taken, but for now the priests of the mighty dragon gods, the Twilight themselves, will watch over these lost souls.

I stand in the entrance hall, watching as a family mourns over a coffin, praying for more time that they will not be given. I won’t know what it’s like to mourn someone like that. The bitter sting of it is hard to swallow at times. I look up at the statues of the gods, sweeping dragons that fill the ceiling, watching over the dead. There are so many forms the dragon gods take. In each court, it is a little different, but this one was always my favourite. Simple dragons, no different to the hundreds of thousands of people around us. The mighty dragon gods have never done anything for me. I’m not sure I even believe in the old stories of them, but the stories stay with me.

I walk outside, done with my work for the morning, my braid hitting my back when the wind blows hard. My boots click on the weathered stone as I head down a pathway that is lined with marble pillars that stretch high up into the arched ceilings. Suddenly, cold water slams straight into me like an arrow, smacking into my back hard enough that I feel my ribs crack. I scream as I cascade through the air, only stopping when my body slams into a pillar and my head smacks hard against the stone. Dizziness heavily weighs me down as I try to rise to my feet, leaning against the pillar and wheezing.

My eyes widen in fear as ice freezes around my body, locking me in place and making it impossible to move. My fingers stretch for my dagger at my side, reaching for anything to save myself, but they freeze too until I can’t feel anything through the bitter cold. Just as the ice is crawling up my neck, a tall man steps out in front of me. A noble of the Water Court, if I had to guess from his expensive clothes and perfect dark skin. His black hair is in dreadlocks, falling around his face and dripping with water. Blue magic swirls around his hand, and his eyes match the colour of his power. I don’t know him, and I don’t have any idea why he’s attacking me. “Why?” I manage to croak out, clawing at the ice at my side with my nails. It spreads around my body, tight and strong, and fear makes me panic.

If someone doesn’t come soon, no one is going to come to save me. I don’t have anyone. There’s no one here that even likes me in this court, even if I care about some of the people I grew up around. I don’t have a family; I have no one looking after me. Nothing. It would be a while before anyone even noticed I was gone. Lysander’s mother might have looked for me, but she is wallowing in her rooms, thick in grief and sadness for those lost. “You’re the king’s mistress, or whatever they want to call you. Many of us are not in fact happy with him and his rule. He got my wife killed!”

“Not my problem, you fucking psychopath!” I snarl. “Killing me won’t get her back or even bother Lysander! You fool!”

Rage fuels him, and my words don’t help. Fuck, I’m so screwed. “She was slaughtered by that goddess, all because she decided to be loyal to King Lysander. I don’t know why she thought that was a good idea. He is not a king worth being loyal to. So, I thought I’d take what was his. He clearly likes you, kept you around, it’s well known within the court. I’m sorry.”

“Stop!” I shout at him, begging. I don’t beg for anyone, but for my life…I’ll beg right now for my life. The ice starts covering my mouth, like he can’t stand to listen to me. No, he wants to drown me. Water sharply pours down my throat, and I gasp, only making it worse as it suffocates me. I struggle against the ice holding me, choking on the water, and the man smirks, pure vengeance glistening in his eyes. Never in my life have I wanted to be something more than mortal.

Someone save me.

Please, someone.

As darkness begins to shadow my vision, I try not to close my eyes, to give up. Just when I think it’s over, that my life is done for, glowing green water wraps around the man, picking him up and slamming him upon the wall hard enough to make it crack. His power breaks on me, only enough that I can just about breathe through the thin ice. Xandry steps out of the shadows of the pillars, a black cloak falling off his shoulders, matching the darkness of his soft hair that is lacking the gel he usually uses to style it. I prefer it like this, natural and soft. Xandry, my childhood friend and former tutor, just saved my life.

Damning fury is written over his face, from his blazing red eyes to the tight line of his lips as he heads towards the man. In two steps, he is in front of the man, and he uses his power far better, far quicker than I knew possible. Xandry makes a dagger out of ice and sends it spiralling straight into his throat, locking him in place on the wall as the life drains from his eyes. Xandry wraps his hand around the hilt, pushing in further. Hot red blood pours in rivers down the man’s body and over Xandry’s hands before he lets go and leaves him there.

My heart is racing as Xandry turns to me, anger fading to pure concern. The ice finally starts to snap under his power, breaking around me till I fall straight to the floor, coughing and spluttering in pain. He picks me up, setting me on the ground, and his magic washes over my body, healing my ribs and the lump on my head in moments. “Hope, can you breathe for me? He’s dead and you are safe.”

“Safe?” I humourlessly laugh, pushing him off me. I breathlessly drop onto the stone step next to him, ignoring the look he gives me. I need a minute. I focus on the palm trees blowing in the breeze near us, the sparkling clear sand, the sound of the wind blowing through the air. “Don’t be patronising.” I look at the man behind, blood pouring into the water. I am surprised he thought it was a good idea to attack anybody in this court. He would have died for it either way. Maybe he just wanted to be with his wife and was happy to die taking me with him. I look at Xandry. “What are you doing here? You were at the spirit castle, tutor.”

He ignores my sarcasm. “The castle saved me, showing me out through a portal to this court. To home.”

“Lucky you. I got thrown headfirst into a desert,” I snap. Somehow, he made it out better than anyone. Typical Xandry. I stand up, not wanting to be around him any longer than I need to be. “I didn’t know that you were allowed to kill people in your religion. What will the Twilight say?”

He rises to his feet, towering over me. “We’re allowed to protect ourselves against attacks.”

“He was hardly attacking you.” I lift my chin, calling him on his bullshit.

He leans into my space, and I can’t help but notice how much Xandry has grown. The gangly boy has turned into a man, a thickly muscled man who is stunning. “You could just say thank you, Hope. Or have you never said those words before?” He steps further into my space, pushing me against the pillar so that I can’t escape him. “Here, I’ll teach you. Thank you,” he says, enunciating them slowly. “Two words, usually you feel gratitude with them.”

“Fuck you,” I snarl. I should push him away.

He grins, and it takes my breath away. “Why didn’t you fight him off? The Hope I knew was quicker than that asshole.”

I grit my teeth. “He surprised me. I was thinking of something else, and he got lucky.”

“Our old tutor would be pissed to see you today. Come and train with me in the mornings,” he asks. “Let me help you. We grew up in this court together, after all.” He looks into my eyes. “You can fight better than that. You know better than that, Hope.”

“And I made a mistake,” I all but shout at him. “Just stop it. I’m not training with you.” I hate that he’s bringing our past up, like I owe him anything. In truth, there was a moment where I liked him. He’s right, we did train together as kids. There was a group of twenty of us at the beginning, but most dropped out until there were just five left. All of us are orphans, parentless wards within the courts. I don’t know what happened to his parents. I never asked, but he was in the Water Court with me for years. We were the top of the class, always neck and neck in our battles. I was obsessed with Lysander even at a young age, but Xandry… I didn’t know it then, but he became my best friend for a while.

Then the asshole decided, out of the blue, that he didn’t want to be anything to anybody and chose the mighty gods. He chose to be a priest over being my friend. You can’t have a best friend, not when he serves the gods, and he left without a goodbye. For some reason, even back then, it upset me as much as it does to this day. I push away from the wall, shoving at his arm, and he clearly lets me go. I start walking away from him, and he catches up to my side. “I should walk you back to your room to continue to see that you are well.”

A woman’s scream of horror echoes out of the space behind us. “You just left a dead body pinned to the wall. You probably should go back there and sort that.”

Xandry waves a hand. “They have seen plenty of dead. I am sure another priest will come and sort out the body.”

I shake my head at him. “You have answers for everything, but not one truth. Why did you leave the training and go to the gods without saying a word to me?” I turn on him as the words blurt out.

To my horror and embarrassment, he says nothing. Nothing for so long that it hurts to breathe. Coward. I turn away from him, my cheeks burning, and leave. He carries on walking with me and changes the subject, like the last few moments were nothing. “Where have you been?”

Small talk, really? I sigh. “With the princess of the Spirit Court and learning to be a dragon rider.”

I swear there is pride in his eyes. “You have a dragon?”

“Yes.” I touch my chest, feeling that bond even now, to the dragon that I miss dearly. Maybe she can feel me calling for her. Maybe she will come to me one day, maybe she won’t. It makes me sad to think that she won’t come this far. She is a wild dragon, after all, with deep ties to the West. I do sense her close, closer than before, but she hasn’t come for me.

Xandry touches my arm, stopping me from running away, and all I can focus on is his hand against my bare skin, the burn of his touch. “I heard male priests aren’t allowed to touch females unless they are healing them.”

He doesn’t remove his hand. “Breaking the rules seems to be a theme for you and me today.”

My heart pats hard in my chest, surprising me. I haven’t felt anything like this before. “Hope, you should make sure Lysander looks after you better. Armed guards or some shit a king can order. Letting you be attacked like that is not fitting for a future queen.”

I blink. “Lysander has nothing to do with me anymore. We’re not together.”

Pure surprise laces his eyes, but he doesn’t say anything. He never says anything. Xandry drops his hand from my arm, and he walks away from me, like he did all those years ago. Yet I still feel as bitterly angry as I did back then, maybe even worse. Why does everyone walk away from me like I mean nothing?