Chapter 18

DAELLA

Ileft Rivelin in the cave and found my own way back to Wyndale. But I didn’t stop when my feet hit the path that snaked through the buildings. Despite the warm glow of lanterns and the sweet scent of pastries drifting on the evening wind, I bypassed the cozy village and returned to the beach where I’d entered this nightmare.

Though…had it truly been a nightmare?

Sighing, I kicked off my boots and rolled up my trousers. I left them in a pile next to my satchel a few feet from the surf and walked into the sea. The water lapped at the raw skin on my ankles and toes, surging and receding like the steady beat of a drum. I dropped my head back and stared up at the inky sky. The stars were so bright, so numerous. It was like looking upon a field of fireflies.

It was so beautiful here, so unhurried, so serene. Fafnir had once been a gorgeous city, too, but it had a bustling, fraught energy about it, even in the dead of night. Until I’d spent my days trapped in a tower, I’d rarely had a moment to myself. There hadn’t been time just to sit and watch and appreciate the beauty of the world.

As the cool evening wind whipped at my face, I tried to think. What was I going to do now? I couldn’t leave the island yet unless I swam, and I definitely wasn’t a strong enough swimmer to make it all the way back to the mainland. And that was if I didn’t run into the Elding again. It would be lurking somewhere nearby.

There were other villages on this island. I’d heard Rivelin mention them. But would they accept a half-orc with no coin? I’d been lucky Rivelin had offered me a place to stay, though deep down I knew it had nothing to do with luck. He’d wanted to keep an eye on me so I didn’t discover the dragons.

Even if I did leave, then what? When the ships came, could I truly sail back to Isveig’s side and tell him about this place, about these people? About Rivelin? The ice shard throbbed painfully in my hip. Isveig had sworn not to kill anyone I found, and he was not an oath-breaker, but…

“Daella,” a now-familiar voice called out from behind me.

I closed my eyes. I should have known he’d follow me. He would do anything to protect this island, which meant he would never let me leave.

“Daella,” he repeated when he reached my side. Even though he did not have an affinity for fire like I did, I could somehow still feel the heat of him invading my senses. “Listen, I didn’t really handle that well. I’d foolishly hoped you’d set your eyes on the dragons and instantly fall in love with them. And when you didn’t, I…reacted badly. Why don’t we try this again?”

“Try what again, Rivelin?” I asked tiredly.

“Don’t ruin this place,” he said in a gruff voice that sounded pained, like the very thought of it was a knife in the heart. “Please.”

Please.The word shuddered through me.

He continued. “You know what will happen if Isveig finds this island.”

“I’m all too aware.”

“So then don’t do it. If not for me, then for Lilia. For Odel. For poor Mabel, who finally found a safe haven after Isveig took everything from her.” The ragged emotion in his voice rattled the reinforcements around my heart. “This place is all we have left.”

I lifted my eyes to his face. “And what about the dragons? Is this what you wouldn’t tell me earlier, when we were on the roof? You don’t want Isveig to find out about this place because of them.”

Sighing, he nodded. “The dragons can’t be protected the same way the folk of this island can. As they grow, they’ll start flying further and further, exploring their world. I have no control over them. None of us do. If Isveig learns they exist, he’ll wait for them to roam, and he’ll find a way to kill them all.”

I hung my head. “Draugr killed my mother and father.”

A long moment passed, the only sound the steady rush of the waves.

Rivelin finally said, “How did it happen?”

I was surprised he bothered to ask. “It was before Isveig invaded, back when Fafnir wasn’t part of his empire. Mother and Father had gone to the market. While they were there…” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Draugr attacked. Three elves who had bonded with dragons and filled themselves up with their power. They burned down the entire market. Hundreds died.”

“I heard about that. It was an awful thing that happened. You couldn’t have been more than…”

“Six years old. The king took me in after that, gave me a place in his castle. I remember his face so much better than theirs, as hard as I try to picture them.”

“I understand far better than you know.”

I frowned and looked up at his distant eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I lost my family when I was only fifteen.”

“You and Lilia…”

“We had three other siblings, and our parents, of course. Plus, cousins and aunts and uncles. Grandparents, too. They’re all gone. Only Lilia and I got away.”

“I’m sorry. You mentioned Isveig and his mercenaries before. What happened?”

The muscles around his eyes tightened. “Isveig sent murks to our city when he heard the Kingdom of Edda was planning for war. We wanted to stop him from conquering any more lands. But he attacked us before we had a chance to do a damn thing.”

I’d heard about their plans. The Elven Resistance had risen up when the world learned what Isveig had done to my kingdom. But stories of the elves had dissipated as quickly as they’d appeared when Isveig had invaded their lands, too, in retaliation.

Rivelin sighed. “And then, three years later, I tried to get my revenge. I sneaked across the border and started killing every ice giant I could find, even those not involved. I let my rage get the better of me until I was nothing but a shell of who I’d once been.”

I looked up at him, surprised. “By yourself?”

“I’ve been by myself for a very long time. If Lilia had known, she would have tried to stop me. Not that I would have listened. I would have kept going until it claimed my life, if I hadn’t wandered into the wrong village at the wrong time, where a Draugr was hiding out—a human barely holding on to consciousness. She burned herself and the whole place down. I barely got out alive.”

I shook my head. “If what you say is true, how are you so cavalier about these dragons? You’ve seen first-hand what they can do, same as me.”

“Because the dragons are harmless, Daella,” he said, suddenly reaching out to cup my cheek. I shuddered as the steam danced between us, at the feel of his strong hand against my skin. “They just want to live in peace, and they don’t want anyone to use their power. No one truly can, anyway. They run too hot. You’ll get burned just by being too near them.”

“People did it before,” I argued. “They bonded with them.”

“Using Fildur sand. No one has any of that here on the Isles.”

“Are you certain? Have you tried to bond with them without the sand?”

His hand dropped away. “I did try, but only when I first brought them here. They…chose me, I think. Infused me with some kind of protection against their heat. I was able to carry them without getting burned, but I’m unable to touch them now. They’ve gotten too big. I can go inside their cave, but I have to keep my distance.”

I thought back to everything I knew about dragons and Draugr, which wasn’t much. Most of what I knew had come from the emperor himself. Decades ago, orcs had lived in harmony with dragons, though they’d always kept their distance, choosing to live amongst the rural mountains away from civilization. They never took their fires to our people, to our lands. Until one day when elves and humans started bonding with them. That was what Isveig had told me.

“Have you ever seen someone bond with a dragon?” I asked Rivelin, uncomfortably aware that he still stood so close I could see tiny beads of water on his forehead. Not sweat, I realized. More steam, just from being so near to me. My heart pattered almost painfully.

“No,” he murmured.

“Then how can we be certain someone here won’t find a way to do it?”

He raised a brow. “We? Have you decided you’re on our side, then?”

“I…I don’t know.” I twisted away. The luscious night breeze rushed in with the waves, bringing with it dark clouds, cooling my neck and cheeks. Suddenly, I felt far too hot.

Rivelin loosed a frustrated sigh. “How can you still want to tell your emperor about us after everything I’ve told you? I thought you were fucking different, Daella.”

He moved away, and the sound of his footsteps faded as he left me there on the beach with nothing but my ruined heart to keep me company.

“Wait,” I called out, fisting my hands.

He paused at the edge of the trees.

“I don’t want to tell the emperor, but I don’t know how to keep it from him when I go back. And I am going back because I have to, or I’ll die,” I found myself saying. “He’ll find a way to get it out of me, Rivelin. I’m strong, but he knows how to break me down. And even if I manage to hold out, he’ll be curious about where I disappeared to for so long and why I don’t want to tell him much. He’ll send others here.” I sucked in a sharp breath and continued. “There’s only one way forward. You have to win the damn Games and let me leave before you ask the island to protect this place. Then no matter what he does or what he makes me tell him, he can never reach you.”

Rivelin strode across the sandy beach, his tunic rippling in the wind. “You shouldn’t have to go back there.”

“No, I shouldn’t,” I said. “But unless you know how to remove this shard, then I’m bound to him for the rest of my fucking life.”

“Have you tried?”

“Removing it? Well over a dozen times. It’s impossible.”

He opened his mouth, but he was interrupted by the crack of thunder overhead. A harsh wind suddenly blew in from the waves, more insistent than the steady breeze from before. I tipped back my head to see dark, angry clouds crackling with lightning. I’d been so focused on Rivelin and our conversation that I hadn’t noticed the storm rolling in.

“No,” I mumbled, my stomach twisting. “For the love of fate, no more water. I haven’t even healed yet from the last time. I need to get that tent out quickly.”

“Come on. Let me carry you.” He held out a hand, and his eyes held far more meaning than his words. This was an olive branch. “Elves run fast. I can get you back to Wyndale before the rain starts.”

“You can’t be serious, Rivelin. I can’t let you carry me. I’ll just wait it out in the tent until the storm passes. I’ve done it dozens of times before.”

“I want to help you.” And from the intensity of his gaze, it felt like he was talking about more than just this storm.

But what could he do? What could anyone do?

“We won’t get back in time. It’s impossible,” was all I said.

Rivelin suddenly scooped me into his arms before I could protest. His eyes were bright when he said, “Where’d all that smiling optimism go, eh?”

“You made it very clear you know all that’s a lie.”

“Perhaps it doesn’t have to be.”

Before I could find a suitable retort, he took off into the woods. He dashed through the trees with elegant speed, unleashing his full elven capabilities. The vegetation was nothing but a blur of verdant leaves and rustic brown, and loose strands of my dark hair whorled around my face. As I clung to his neck, I risked a glance at the determined set of his jaw and his eyes narrowed on the path ahead. There was a steady strength and power about him that he had not let me see until now. Rivelin, the stoic blacksmith, was a force to be reckoned with.

I had to admit it wasn’t an entirely unattractive feature.

We reached the village and the steps of his home in no time at all. And as the clouds boomed, releasing their cascade of rain, Rivelin threw open the door and deposited me inside. The warmth of his home enveloped me as the steady patter drummed the roof. I didn’t have a single speck of water on me.

“See?” Rivelin kicked the door shut and folded his arms, not even the slightest bit winded from his run. He smiled smugly. “Told you.”

“You’re going to be insufferable about it now, aren’t you?”

The door rattled as the wind gusted through the village streets. Rivelin took a step closer, the shadows of the dark house curling around his jaw. My heart rattled, and for a moment, I forgot what I’d asked him.

“Well, I need to hold up my reputation as an insufferable bastard, now don’t I?” he murmured.

A bubble of laughter popped from my throat, and I smiled.

His body went preternaturally still. “Ah. So that’s what it looks like.”

“That’s what what looks like?” I asked him.

He smiled. “Nothing. We better get to bed. Tomorrow will be a long day prepping for the next trial.”

Flushing at the sudden change in conversation, I shifted on my feet, suddenly realizing I’d left the boots back on the beach. That was the second pair I’d lost in a week, and they weren’t even mine. “All right. Night then, I guess.”

“Goodnight.”

I watched him stride into the living room, toward the couch where his pillow and blanket sat waiting for him. For a moment, I hesitated, wondering if I should offer him the bed instead. But by the time I found the words, he’d started to undress. He tugged his tunic over his head, and the pale light of the moon slanting in from the window illuminated the hard, rugged panes of his chest.

My heart thundered.

I shook my head and dashed toward the bedroom at the end of the hall. I hoped he hadn’t noticed me standing there gaping at him like a fool. It was just…his physique was particularly impressive. Anyone would notice that.

Feeling far more flustered than I had any business being, I closed the door, stripped off my clothes, and climbed into bed. It wasn’t until I was drifting off to sleep that I realized Rivelin had been talking about my smile.