18. EIGHTEEN

eighteen

TRAITORS

Cole snatches my hand and shifts his body in front of me. His muscles lock in preparation, his stance rigid and shoulders pinned back. Cole towers at least five inches over Carlisle, and if it came down to fighting, Cole definitely had the advantage. Outside of his naturally skilled hands, Cole’s exceptional stature would intimidate just about anyone.

But we are outnumbered here.

Several other men are lined up behind Carlisle, eyes trained on us.

Sweat coats my palms, and Cole gives my hand a quick reassuring squeeze. A subtle, nearly subconscious gesture he’d been doing for years.

“Darian has them gathered near the outlook tower,” Carlisle reports. “We are pulling the patrols and assembling the full squad.”

Cole turns toward me, releasing my hand ever so subtly. “Go back to your room,” he says with a hard swallow.

“Captain, you know the rules,” Carlisle calls from behind him.

Cole tosses a glare at Carlisle. “She doesn’t need to see this. She’s a temporary guest—”

“She is a subject of this outpost. Which means all rules apply.”

Cole stands, his body rigid and unmoving.

Carlisle’s eyes narrow. “Captain, are you saying you’re granting your sister a pass for the mandatory attendance of all the King’s military personnel?”

Cole flexes his hand into a fist, his knuckles turning white. He finally dips his head in defeat.

We gather with the rest of the squad assembled near the northern outlook tower. Shoulders brush mine as more people join the crowd. An eerie hush settles over the throng, broken up only by shuffling feet. Every face I stare at is lowered, the night shadowing their faces and grim expressions.

At the top of the stone, moss-dusted tower stands Darian, alongside several other soldiers with torches. Between the soldiers are two figures with black bags pulled over their heads. Their metal shackles gleam in the flickering torchlight.

Cole steals a glance at me, a thick well of anguish darkening his amber eyes, before his face settles into an emotionless, stone-cold mask.

He gives my hand a quick squeeze, his voice softly threaded within his breath. “Look away.”

Carlisle motions to Cole, and the two of them disappear into the throng.

Archie slides in next to me and meets my gaze. As I’m about to ask him what’s going on, Darian clears his throat from the outlook tower and the shuffling crowd falls still. Cole and Carlisle join Darian at the top platform.

Carlisle calls out across the crowd, “Today, we condemn two dragon sympathizers. Let us be reminded that our King is just, and the law is the law. To protect us from the rebels and dragons, we must uphold our laws, regardless of who they are.”

A woman farther into the crowd sinks her head into her hands with a body-shuddering sob, and the man next to her hushes her.

A soldier on the platform rips the bag off one of the prisoners. I don’t recognize the offender, but his eyes round with fear. He writhes against the soldiers as they struggle to keep him still and loop a noose around his neck.

My jaw falls open, my chest constricting. Fear locks me in place, each second ticking by painfully slow as it all unravels before me.

The prisoner cries out, “Wait! Wait, please, let me explain—”

One of the soldiers shoves something into the prisoner’s mouth to muffle his screams. They unbag the second offender, wrap the noose around his neck, and nudge the both of them toward the edge of the platform.

No.

No, no, no.

How can they not hear them out? Shouldn’t there be a trial and questioning?

I scan the crowd around me, waiting for someone to stop this. Anyone to stop this. But nobody moves, their eyes locked on the tower.

I jerk forward, tempted to stop them, before Archie catches my forearm. Glancing sideways at him, he bites his lip and shakes his head.

“On behalf of the King, you are hereby condemned to death by the noose. May the gods grant you mercy,” Darian calls.

My gaze swings back up to the tower and connects with Cole’s. Sweat drips down the back of my neck, slithering down my spine as my breath catches in my throat.

Look. Away.

A guard shoves one of the prisoners off the platform, and I rip my stare away and down to my heaving chest.

A collective gasp rolls through the crowd. But nothing can block out the wicked crack of the man’s necks snapping. Squeezing my eyes shut, I clench my hands around my ears, barely muffling the snap of the second prisoner’s neck.

A hand touches my back, and I flinch. My eyes flash open as I turn, finding Archie staring at me, his eyes soft. His lips mouth, Kat.

I slip past him and push through the crowd. Squeezing through the last row of onlookers, I burst into a sprint. I race past the outpost’s crumbling wall and into the forest, the dark shadowed trees a flash of black around me. My breath saws in and out of my chest.

It could have been me.

Or Cole.

Moonlight glitters on scattered waves as I race to the lake. Crickets sing rickety songs, and my skin prickles in the chilled night. I sink to the ground, hugging my knees to my chest as I fight to slow my breath.

Daeja’s shadowy figure slides through the trees in my direction. As she approaches, she bumps her snout into my ribs. “ What’s wrong?”

How could I possibly tell her what happened, when she’s out here all alone? When the consequences of her mere existence are so great? It would likely scare her. My mind reels with the possibilities and the endless amount of risks. The margin for errors is slim and daunting.

I fake a smile and scratch under her chin. “ Nothing.”

She nudges my side again and pauses. Pulling a deep inhale through her nose, her eyes dilate.

The chicken.

“Have you been eating?” I fish it out of my pocket.

Her eyes glow like the glinted surface of the moon against the night black scales, her head tilting to the side. “If I say no, does that mean you’ll give me the chicken you brought?”

A giggle cracks through my fear, and I toss her the pieces of meat. Figures she would have smelled it.

She snatches the pieces mid-air, gulping it down and running her tongue over her maw. “How big do chickens get?”

“Not much bigger than this.” I motion an estimate with my hands.

She slumps in disappointment.

Chuckling, I rub long strokes across the side of her face. “ One day, you’ll eat other things. Like horses, deer, and sheep. They get much bigger than chickens do. You’ll be able to hunt them in the Dragon Lands with other dragons. You’ll be able to fly freely, and you’ll never have to worry about where you can or can’t go.”

Her head perks up with an idea. “I want to show you something. I’ve been practicing flying, and I can make it to the other side of the lake.”

She circles behind me, stretching her wings out to the side.

I watch her over my shoulder. “ Show me, but Daeja, you should not be flying by yourself—”

Lowering her head, she charges right for me, shoving her snout between my legs and knocking me backwards. My breath blows out of me, and she snakes her body to roll me back down into the crook of her neck and shoulders. I fumble for something to balance myself, snatching one of her horns, and pulling myself up. Daeja bullets toward the lake, my body jostling with each of her strides.

I cling to her neck, my eyes rounding as we near the water. “ Daeja!”

The thunder of her steps ceases, replaced by her flapping wings. We lift off the ground just before we hit the water’s edge. My heart stops for a few beats as we lift higher into the air, soaring over the lake. The wind grazes my face and whips my hair behind me. I squint through my watering eyes, before squeezing them shut and constricting my legs and arms around her. “ That was not what I meant by show me!”

She hisses. “ Easy!”

“I’m going to slip, I’m going to slip, I’m going to slip.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

My eyes flash open, and I dare a peek below us at the white-crested waves of the lake racing by us. My heart thunders in my ears, my hands slick with sweat. “ It’s not you I don’t trust!”

“Stop looking down!”

I shift my gaze up from the water and straight ahead. The trees grow larger as we approach the other side of the lake.

“Hold on.”

“As if I’m not already holding on!”

Daeja banks left—hard—and I’m thrown to the right, sliding off her back and dangling from her neck.

She falters and dips lower to the water, shrieking in surprise at the sudden shift of weight.

My legs pedal pathetically below me, my arms trembling in effort to keep clasped around her neck. My sweat-slickened grip slides off her scales, and I fall backwards with a scream.

I don’t know if it’s seconds or minutes into the free fall, but as I twist to face the water quickly promising to meet me, my body is snatched in the fall. Something yanks my shirt from above me, the wind whispering against my naked back. Daeja’s breath warms my skin, the steel of her teeth pressed against the nape of my neck. I grab hold of my collar to keep myself from choking. She lifts higher into the air, the water shrinking below my feet at an alarming pace.

My chest tightens painfully, my heart hammering like a war drum beneath my skin. “ Put me down !”

“I can’t.”

“Daeja. Put. Me. Down!”

She snorts. “ Fine. As you wish .”

Her grip on me disappears. A scream rips through me as I free fall once again. I crash into the lake, swallowed by the frigid water. I fight for air, my skin stinging as I race toward the surface. When I break through and suck in a breath of fresh air, I blink water out of my eyes and scan the dark night for her.

“That was not what I meant!”

A numbness creeps into my limbs, each kick and stroke slowing with every passing second. My legs lock up, and my face dips back below the surface. A panic heats my lungs as I struggle to keep my head above the water. But I sink, lower and lower with each delayed kick, until I’m completely underwater. The slowing pulse of my heartbeat echoes around me, my eyes dragging closed.

Daeja plunges into the water beside me. She stretches forward, grabbing a mouthful of my shirt and pulling me up. We break through the surface, a strangled gasp slips from my lips. Her powerful legs swish through the water as she carries me to the shore. Dragging me out of the lake, she leaves me on the shore, my body convulsing in shivers as I pull my knees up to my chest to conserve body heat. She gathers driftwood and sets them down near me. One of the branches snaps in her jaws, and I flinch.

My mind immediately swims back to the two men who were executed.

A warm glow seeps from the back of Daeja’s throat as she unhinges her jaw.

“N—no. Please, dddon’t,” I say through chattering teeth. I can’t fathom seeing a fire right now. My throat constricts at the thought alone. That, and the light could attract unwanted attention.

My gaze sweeps over to the opposite side of the lake toward the outpost. The tree line blocks my view of camp, but a soft glow emits from its direction.

What is happening at the camp now…and who is responsible for cutting down the prisoners? Do they even get a proper burial, and their families a chance to honor their memories? What had they even been caught for, and why couldn’t Cole stop it?

My stomach churns. The prisoners likely didn’t have anything as damning as an actual dragon. If I was caught, that would be one thing. But if Cole was caught? If I were responsible for his violent death? The thought alone makes me nauseous.

Daeja curls herself around me, angling her wings to cut out the wind. The hot breath from her nose warms my skin, chasing away the shivers and cold.

When I first met her, she had been curling into me for warmth. And now I was tucked into her side for her body heat, her long neck and tail wrapping around me.

“Why did you do that?” I whisper.

“You told me to put you down.”

“Not what I meant.”

She snorts, the steam billowing in my face and warming my cheeks.

“Why did you want me to ride you?”

She shifts her body, somehow managing to edge even closer to me. “ I thought we could get to the Dragon Lands faster if we could fly there.”

I gaze up at her. “We can’t go without Cole.”

“And why not?”

“Because—” I pause, wracking my brain for my own reasoning. Because my mother said so. It sounded pathetic. When in truth…it’s because I don’t think I can do it on my own.

Because I’m scared.

“Because we need him.”

“What do we need him for?”

“What do we need anyone for?” I challenge. Perhaps it isn’t only my self-doubt. I don’t want to be separated from Cole—not again. My heart belongs to him, whether or not I still had his mother’s ring wrapped around my finger. The terrifying thought of choosing between him or Daeja lingers in the back of my mind.

“All I’ve ever known is you …” she whispers into my mind, nuzzling into my side.

I stroke her head with a shaky hand, my hand stinging from the thawed nerves. “ I know. And all I’ve ever known is him, too.”

“So we have to go with him? How do we know he isn’t a dangerous two legger?”

“Because I know him. I know Cole. And I—”

“Love him. I know. I can feel what you feel.”

“You can?” I smile at the revelation and lean into her, closing my eyes and scratching underneath her chin.

A purr thunders to life in her chest, shuddering the blood in my veins.

We lay in a silent curl of scales and skin, cold and warmth. Soaking in each other’s presence. Listening to the rise and fall of each other’s breath.

A thought whispers in the back of my mind. I try, unsuccessfully, to damper it as it rises. I drag my attention out toward the edge of Dragon’s Back Ridge etched into the night sky. It stares back: jagged, menacing, and dark.

I should take her. I should go. Before I fail and someone else dies.

But the longer I stare at the distant mountain range, the firmer my decision becomes. There’s no way I can make it on my own. Not without a map and not without Cole.

With a hard swallow, I break the peace of our quiet moment. “ I have to go back. I have to figure out a plan.”

If anyone has ever said they can sneak around in wet clothes, they’re lying. Every footstep back to camp is a squelch of water between my toes, the drip of my hair snaking streams of water down my spine. My clothes scrape and cling against each other in every stride. My skin rubbed raw and irritated by the time I pass the tree line and near the camp border.

A patrol loops around the west side I’m approaching, and I pause, sliding behind a tree. They pass by me, unnoticing, and I slip past the crumbling wall and toward the faint silhouette of my quarters. My heart skips when someone emerges from the shadows nearby.

I debate ducking and running. But it’s too late.

I’ve been noticed.

“You’re um….wet.” Darian’s rough voice cuts through the silence. His gaze outlines my clothes clinging to my frame.

I hug my arms around myself, suddenly more self-conscious than I am cold.

“Great observational skills you have,” I whisper and turn toward my room.

He slides in front of me, tilting his gaze up at the sky with a thoughtful ‘hmmm.’

I follow his line of sight. The stars glitter brilliantly above us in a cloudless night. We both look down and back at each other. A question hanging between us.

After a few moments of silence he says, “And it’s not like it’s raining.”

“I like bathing at night,” I blurt.

“And...in your clothes?”

He’s got me there. I wrack my brain for a reason as to why I’d be walking through the night dripping wet. Especially so soon after a public execution.

The moonlight glints off his disastrous smile. “Not that I mind seeing you wet. I’d just prefer…different circumstances.”

I want to pummel him for being so nonchalant after sentencing two men to their deaths earlier tonight. This fucking asshole doesn’t have a lick of remorse.

“And what are you doing out here?” I growl.

Suddenly disinterested, he turns his attention to brush something off his chest. “You know, I actually don’t really care,” he mumbles. Turning away from me, he stalks off toward the direction of his quarters.

Once I’m in my room, I peel the clothes off my skin, draping them over the back of my chair near the desk. When I change into my nightgown, I shift into bed, thankful for the warmth and dryness of the sheets.

“Tomorrow we will figure out a plan,” I murmur to Daeja as I drift into sleep.