6. Tahlia

The milky light of pre-dawn streamed from the high window and poured over Marius’s well-muscled chest. Tahlia skimmed her fingertips across his body, her head full of delicious dreams. She lifted her cheek from Marius’s shoulder, and he smiled down at her, looking like a completely different version of his normally stern self. His hand cradled her face, his skin warm and perfect. She had definitely perished and moved on to a glorious afterlife.

A knocking sounded through Marius’s chambers, and Tahlia growled, sitting up.

“You sound like me,” Marius said, laughter in his storm-gray eyes. He slipped out of bed and drew on a pair of linen trousers he had folded by his armoire. “I’ll take care of it. You rest.”

Tahlia rubbed her face as Marius left the bedroom. “Punch that person for me, please.”

A chuckle echoed from the outer chamber, then the door creaked open. Low voices spoke in quick sentences.

Tahlia scrambled out of bed, pulling a small woolen blanket around her and peering out the half-open bedchamber door. The male at the door wore the commander’s sigil of the crescent moon and sword.

“Commander Gaius requests your presence immediately. Both of you, High Captain, Lady Tahlia.”

Marius faced Tahlia and gave her a meaningful look, pursing his full lips slightly.

She waved a hand. “It’s all right. Let’s go. I don’t want to cause any more problems that might result in you standing in front of a dragon and waiting for the flame.” She still could hardly comprehend he had risked that for her.

The messenger nodded to Marius and left.

Marius shut the door and eyed Tahlia. “Yes, you do.”

“Do what?” she asked.

Marius passed her, dropping a kiss on her forehead. “Cause more problems. It’s your favored pastime, I believe.”

Tahlia giggled. “It really is.”

Shaking his head, Marius dressed in his leathers and Tahlia did her best to keep her hands off him. Once she was dressed as well, they walked hurriedly down the corridor, past a few other knights and staff.

“So he asked for me too?” Tahlia smoothed her hair back—a lost cause. It was tangled into a knot at the back of her skull. “Do you know what this might be about?”

“No. It could simply be mission information and he heard we were together last night.”

“Together.” Tahlia grinned and rubbed the spot where Marius’s whip had been wound around her wrist. “In so many ways.”

He gave her a very Marius look, cold and formidable. She shivered, delighted.

“Lady Tahlia, I must insist you hold your tongue.”

“On your?—”

Fara and Remus, Marius’s squire, rounded the corner and nearly mowed them down.

“Apologies, sir, lady!” Remus bowed low.

Fara’s purple face flushed. She grimaced and curtseyed repeatedly. She thought Mist Knights walked around constantly on the verge of murder. Courage wasn’t her strength. But loyalty was and Tahlia couldn’t have become a dragon rider without her.

“All is well.” Marius lifted a hand, dismissing their apologies.

“We were at the stables working and heard you were called to see the commander, so we wanted to check if you needed us to do anything or to accompany you,” Remus said.

Marius glanced at Tahlia, who shrugged. “Walk with us,” he said, facing Remus and Fara again. “We’ll see if the commander requires specific actions.”

The males dropped back to discuss the plan Titus had suggested yesterday concerning the upcoming pirate raids in the north.

Fara popped her knuckles and looked at Tahlia, the whites of her eyes showing all around her slitted irises. “How was the tavern? Please only tell me the good parts. And slow down and let me do something with this hair of yours.”

“The tavern was good. Except for a few grouches.”

Braiding and pinning Tahlia’s locks. Fara bent close to her ear. “Are you still certain you want to be a Mist Knight? Because I truly believe we could open up a vicious Leatherworker shop in town.”

“Exactly how could making purses and satchels be vicious?”

Fara patted Tahlia’s finished braid, then came up beside Tahlia. “We would slay the competition.”

Tahlia snorted. “Not literally?”

“No, you blood-thirsty miscreant. With our high-quality skills.”

Tahlia tilted her head and clicked her tongue. “Skills neither of us have.”

“We will have them.”

“I’m not giving up dragons for arts and crafts, Fara.”

“Come on. It’s cozy in town. Less wind. Fewer things that want to eat you.”

“Bluewing doesn’t want to eat us,” Tahlia said, thinking of yet another possible name for her Seabreak dragon.

Fara wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think that’s the name. Did you ask her about Stormwave?” She meant had Tahlia asked the dragon. The Seabreak did have a way to communicate with Tahlia. Because they were almost fully bonded, just a head nod or a snort could tell Tahlia what the Seabreak was thinking.

“She didn’t go for it.”

Fara narrowed her eyes. “Maybe your dragon should try to be less picky.”

Tahlia leaned closer to Fara and whispered, “I’m not sure what this little meeting will entail.”

“Maybe he uncovered information about who poisoned you?” Fara glanced at Tahlia as they kept on down the corridor where the sunrise was just beginning to cast pink and orange over the windowsills, the walls, and the floor. Fara’s pupils were fully slitted because her blood was almost completely Fae, like Marius. Tahlia’s were not quite the same shape because she was half-human. During the competition to become a Mist Knight, that human blood had resulted in someone poisoning her and had landed her in front of the execution dragon to be roasted. Thankfully, she had come through after a twist-turn of events.

“I would love it if the commander had some information.” An uneasy feeling crawled through Tahlia’s stomach. She wanted to find out, but if it hadn’t been a competitor who was now long gone, off the mountain, then the poisoner was still here.

The corridor opened into the keep’s foyer. The home to the Order of the Mist Knights was more mountain than hand-built structure. Towers rose from rough stone and massive crystals—some as clear as a summer day and others of rosy pink, sage green, ocean blue, gold, and indigo—crowned the castle at various entrances and balconies.

The stained glass and crystals scattered light across the foyer’s tapestries and wide stone steps. The rose-hued crystals had given Marius and Tahlia some delightful trouble toward the end of the competition. An earthquake in the valley had activated them. Since Marius and Tahlia had a natural attraction to one another, the crystals’ mating magic, which was usually reserved for dragons, had poured over Tahlia and Marius, bringing them together more quickly than was normal.

Tahlia didn’t regret it one bit.

Beyond the keep’s foyer, the great hall bustled with activity. The water clock chimed the hour as they crossed the tiled floor and headed for the first of three corridors. Two guards opened double doors leading to the platform that worked on a pulley system to reach the commander’s chambers.

The guards nodded in respect to Marius and Tahlia. The taller of the two glanced at Remus and Fara. “Only the High Captain and Lady Tahlia have been invited.”

“I’ll see you at the stables?” Fara asked Tahlia.

“Sounds good,” Tahlia said.

Fara gave them each a curtsey, then left.

Remus gave Marius and Tahlia a bow and followed Fara.

As soon as the squires were gone, Tahlia asked the question burning her tongue. “Do you think the commander has information about the poisoner?”

Light from the passing floors blinked across the small space.

“That is my dearest wish, I assure you,” he said. “It would make sense considering he has invited you.”

“But it could be about…” Tahlia wiggled her eyebrows.

“Perhaps,” he said, looking straight ahead as the platform trembled slightly and lifted them higher and higher.

He had his serious face on again, back to being the High Captain.

She slid a hand over his thigh and watched the next floor pass by. He tensed, and in her periphery, he shot her a reprimanding look. It was only encouraging really. She dragged her palm higher on his leg. His large fingers closed over hers, sending sparks up her arm, then he moved her hand to her thigh. She fought a smile. Breaking through his orderly way of life was her second-favorite activity. Of course, dragon riding was number one.

A memory of the first time they’d met flashed through Tahlia’s mind. Marius had been standing with Ragewing in the arena, his Fae-white hair lifting slightly in the breeze, the muscles along his exposed arms rolling under his sun-touched skin. His gaze had been that of a hawk’s, focused and deadly serious. Immediately, the urge to ruffle his feathers, to break that concentration, had surged inside her. She’d wanted to see him undone a little and that was even before she knew that he was the great Shadow of the Shrouded Mountains, a figure that meant death for anyone who dared to cross the border without good cause and the male who had ripped apart scores of pirate crews and their ships with his exacting strategy and fierce courage. Once she’d realized he was the High Captain, that urge had only grown stronger.

The memory of the first time they’d shared a bed shot heat from her heart to her core. Closing her eyes briefly, she pulled in a shaky breath. Images of his hawk-like gaze near her inner thigh flickered behind her eyes. I promised punishment for your impertinence, he had whispered teasingly over her skin as a spark of mischief lit his stormy eyes.

A shiver of desire had crashed over her like a wave. And what did you have in mind, High Captain? she had said back. The warmth of his hand sliding up her stomach to cup her breast had been divine, and the way he’d cradled the back of her head and spoken ever so softly into her ear…

The platform came to a stop. Two more guards stood at the door. They bowed their heads as Marius and Tahlia exited, leaving the platform and its echoing shaft. Tahlia glanced at Marius, who gave her a quick wink. She couldn’t fight the wide smile that tugged at her lips.

The guards, dressed in Gaius’s crescent moon and sword livery, opened the commander’s door and stood back for Marius and Tahlia to enter. Tahlia removed her gladius and sheath from her belt and stowed them by the front entrance near a decorative amphora mounted into a wooden frame. Sitting for any length of time with a sword attached to one’s waist was awkward. Marius kept his on. Of course, he was used to wearing it since he’d been in the order for years.

Commander Gaius sat in a low-backed, velvet-upholstered chair by the thick glass of his large window. The window looked out on the grounds—the courtyard beyond the foyer, the wall where Marius had first kissed Tahlia under the crystals’ influence, and the manicured lawn that led to the cliff edge that the knights sometimes used for takeoff.

Gaius stood as they approached, and they bowed and curtseyed. The commander’s normally flushed face was oddly pale, but his hair was still as full as ever, mostly covering his dramatically pointed ears. He nodded to them.

“I understand today is your free day,” he said, “so I won’t take up much of your time. To put it bluntly, I have a personal request.”

Personal? Tahlia glanced at Marius, but his focus was on the commander.

Gaius paced, the sunlight washing over the black tunic he wore when not on duty. “It’s Ophelia.”

Tahlia’s gut twisted. Ophelia, Gaius’s daughter, rode in Tahlia’s unit, but she’d been out of action ever since Marius reprimanded Ophelia for using spiked gloves on her Green-flanked Terror. And there was also the whole Tahlia-inadvertently-broke-up-their-engagement thing. Tahlia shifted on her feet, but Marius remained as still as stone.

“My daughter still hasn’t properly bonded with her dragon, but that moment is not far off.”

Marius’s eyes and mouth twitched like he wanted to argue, but he held his tongue.

Gaius halted his pacing and stared Marius down even though he was shorter than him. “She remains unhappy with the way your engagement ended, Marius. I can’t say that I blame her.”

“I apologize for the way I handled that,” Marius said to Gaius, his tone sincere.

Marius then glanced at Tahlia, but she wasn’t about to say anything close to sorry.

He must have been able to tell she wasn’t going to apologize because he squeezed his eyelids shut. The muscle in his jaw worked the way it did when he was frustrated, but his eyes opened to show the smallest twinkle of amusement.

She hadn’t planned to fall for Marius, and Ophelia had done her best to keep Tahlia from the order. Ophelia was probably the one who had poisoned her, though Tahlia had zero proof of that. Plus, Ophelia had been cruel to her dragon. Anyone who treated animals poorly deserved to die in Tahlia’s not-so-humble opinion.

“I accept your apology,” Gaius said to Marius, “but I request that you two keep yourselves, how should I say this… I request that you hold off on your potential mating bond until Ophelia has had time to work through this difficult time.”

Potential mating bond. Tahlia wanted to jump in the air and sing a song. But did Marius feel that way toward the idea of their future?

It was silly that Gaius was asking her and Marius to keep a distance. Ophelia was no delicate flower. Was she truly struggling? Tahlia couldn’t imagine the proud full Fae female who rode one of the most terrifying creatures in the world being broken by anything.

“Of course, sir,” Marius said.

“As you wish, Commander,” Tahlia said.

“I must ask,” Marius started, “have you gleaned any information about who poisoned Lady Tahlia from your informants?” His nostrils flared, his quiet rage trying to burst through his disciplined exterior. He didn’t seem to be too keen on Gaius’s request either.

Gaius pressed a fist against his mouth, then let his hand fall as he gazed at Tahlia. “I thought we had a lead on who meant you harm, Lady Tahlia, but I’m afraid I don’t yet know. I will send you any information I gather the moment it arrives.”

“Thank you,” Tahlia said.

“I appreciate this. Both of you, thank you very much,” Gaius said.

They nodded in unison, then left the chamber and entered the now empty platform shaft.

“Oh, wait,” Tahlia said, recalling her gladius. “Hold on. I forgot my sword.”

“I’ll go on.” Marius studied her face like he was gauging how she would respond to the order they had been given.

“How long do you think he will ask us to stay apart?”

Marius lifted a hand like he wanted to reach for her, but he let his arm fall. “Not an extensive period, I’m sure.”

“All right. Fine. I’ll see you later, then, I guess.”

“Tahlia, you are the light in my day. We will get through this to whatever waits for us on the other side.” He took her hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb.

A smile tugged at Tahlia’s frown and a shiver danced over the place where he touched her. “And you’re the storm I like to rouse just to see the lightning, High Captain.”

He smiled in full, rang the bell for the guards below to work the pulley, and disappeared.

Tahlia returned to the commander’s chamber, hoping to slip in and out without notice. She didn’t want any more awkward chats with Gaius about Marius or Ophelia. The guards nodded to her and permitted entry.

Inside the front entrance, she bent to retrieve her gladius. A shadow flickered in her periphery. She glanced up to see Ophelia emerge from another room, blue-green hair tightly woven around her head. Ophelia headed toward the back corridor of the apartment. She didn’t seem to have noticed Tahlia, thank the Old Ones. Dark swirls and star-white sparks spun along Ophelia’s left hand, and an odd floral scent wafted through the chambers. Tahlia blinked and rubbed her eyes. When she looked again, the swirls and sparks were gone. Had she just hit her head too hard in training yesterday? Surely. There wasn’t any magic that appeared like that, was there?

She attached the sheathed gladius to her belt and took her turn on the platform, her mind whirling with thoughts of Ophelia, poison, and the fact that she wouldn’t get her hands on Marius anytime soon. Gritting her teeth, she headed toward the dragon stables to find Fara and update her on all the goings-on before they had to start on their laundry.

Maiwenn caught her at the entrance to the stables. “Since we are free today, you’re going to train with me.”

Damn it. She had hoped Maiwenn had forgotten. “Unfortunately, I have laundry to do. I know, so domestic.”

Unblinking, Maiwenn didn’t crack a smile. “We aren’t doing the cliff climbing. I have something else in mind. Meet me in the arena. Now.”

Ugh. And this day had started so nicely…