5. Vale

Chapter 5

Vale

A gentle rocking pulled me from the darkness as a smokey, spicy scent filled my nose. Warm for the first time in forever, I snuggled closer for fear of losing the calming heat that eased the ache in my bones.

As a child, my mother kept a soft hammock in our sleeping quarters for me, padded with goose-down blankets and topped with thick fleece to fight against the cold nights. This felt exactly like that—safe and warm with no worries or cares, like no one or nothing could get to me, no one could harm me.

A sigh gusted from my lips, and I fought to get closer. If this were a dream, I didn't want to wake up. And if this was what death was like, I'd take it and be happy.

The last thing I remembered was screaming at a giant black dragon. The beast, with its fiery amber eyes, who decidedly had not burnt me to death, but instead, cut the ropes binding me to the stake and jumped off the side of the cliff, holding me in its massive claws.

Then again, I could have made that up.

Most likely, I'd died long before I'd hallucinated that dragon, and I was safe and warm in the afterlife, Orrus forgiving me for all my curses and showing me kindness.

Strong bands tightened around me as a deep chuckle vibrated against my shoulder and through my chest. Eyes popping wide, I realized all too quickly that the gentle rocking was not the hammock and blanket of my childhood, nor was it the calm kindness of the afterlife. No, I was on top of a horse with a complete stranger, draped across his lap, snuggling against him like a cat.

Adrenaline pumped through my system as I tried not to dump myself off the animal, while also attempting to get away from the white-haired giant of a man clutching me to his chest.

"Easy," he rumbled, his pale-blue eyes lighting with mirth as his arms tightened around me. "You're safe now."

Safe?

I'd never been safe a day in my life. Plus, "safe" wasn't the word I would use when I found myself draped over a stunningly gorgeous stranger after nearly being burned at the stake. His eyes were as clear as the summer sky, the blue so light it might as well have been gray. Those striking eyes were offset by dark, expressive brows in ultimate contrast to his long, pale hair, the top half of which had been pulled up and away from his perfect face.

The sharp angle of his jaw led to a perfectly sculpted mouth with wide, full lips curving into a gentle smile.

On anyone else, that smile might have seemed patronizing, but on him, it was almost… genuine . Not that I'd seen a genuine emotion that wasn't avarice or fear in a very long time. It was the expression on his face that really did me in. I'd seen plenty of beautiful people under the mountain. Thane himself had been technically attractive but was still the ugliest person I'd ever seen, save for his father.

This man was disarmingly gorgeous, and an unbearable heat hit my cheeks as I realized what I must have looked like to him. He'd saved me somehow. Maybe I hadn't dreamt the dragon. Perhaps it had taken me from the mountaintop, only to drop me while I was unconscious. Perhaps it didn't want to eat a dead girl, or I didn't have enough meat on my bones.

The lack of blinding agony made me pause my struggles. I'd been dying—blood flowing from a wound that was sure to kill me before the dragon came. My hand found my middle, the unbearable pain of the knife wound somehow gone. Unbidden, I lifted my filthy tunic, the fabric stiff with dried blood. The skin had knitted back together, with only a pink line of a scar to show for it.

Raking a finger over the former wound, I wondered just how long I'd been unconscious.

Weeks?

Days?

"I—I don't understand," I muttered, still staring at the healed skin while trying to place just how this all came about. "How did I get here?"

I had about a hundred more questions, but I hoped this man would take pity on me and start talking.

"Don't you remember?" A deep, sardonic voice drew my attention from the white-haired giant to another man on a horse next to us, his familiar amber eyes on me.

My breath stuttered in my chest at the weight of his piercing gaze, my heart fluttering at full speed. Just as large as the man holding me, he had tousled black hair and stubble bisected by a long, jagged scar from the edge of his ear, down the line of his strong jaw, reaching for the edge of his full lower lip.

Where the man holding me was in full black leathers, covered from his neck to his wrists, this one had only pants and a tunic, the garb ill-suited for the cold weather. His golden gaze narrowed, the color brilliant against his tawny skin, but I couldn't quite figure out where I knew those eyes from.

He didn't look cold, though. He only seemed pissed off.

At me? What did I do?

"Remember what ?" Combining my more recent memories, I couldn't find a single one with him or his friend in them. And I trusted I'd remember these two from under the mountain. I'd have to be dead not to remember them.

The cranky one rubbed at the scar on his face as if it still pained him, those intoxicating eyes nearly luring me in.

"Oh, I don't know," he muttered, shrugging. "Being tied to a stake, nearly bleeding to death from a stab wound to your middle, or?—"

"Kian, don't," the white-haired one grumbled, cutting him off. "She's had a rough go of it. Take it easy."

Kian's voice was nearly as familiar as his eyes, but I couldn't seem to place either. It sounded like…

That's enough of that. I'm not going to harm you.

My breath froze in my lungs as I nearly bucked off the back of the horse. Eyes wide, I scratched and kicked, much to the animal's displeasure. Then I was free, slipping to the ground before taking off at a dead run, ignoring the jabs of freezing cold that burned my bare feet.

Kian was a dragon.

The dragon was Kian.

Kian was a dragon .

Dragons were people .

The bulk of a leather jacket weighed on my shoulders, its length tangling in my legs and tripping me. I landed belly-first on the forest floor, the impact stealing all thought, all plans for escape. Agony ripped through me, and I curled into the fetal position, struggling to breathe through the worst of it.

I had been stabbed. I'd been healed. I'd been taken off that mountaintop by a dragon—a dragon that was Kian .

Nothing made sense anymore. How were dragons people? How could I have been healed?

And if dragons were people, how could they kill with such brutality? How could they take innocent lives? And what did that mean for me?

Nyrah. Her name echoed in my mind, the reminder of my sister cutting through the pain and turmoil and shoving me back to sanity.

Get. Up. Breathe through the pain and get on your feet. Find her.

My sister was either in the middle of this very forest or… or…

I couldn't even contemplate the "or" side of the equation. Groaning, I tried to shrug out of the jacket, shedding the layer that had tripped me, only to have a pair of solid hands yank me from the ground as if I weighed nothing.

Without looking, I knew it was Kian, a fact proven a second later when he whispered in my ear. "Careful. It took a lot of effort to keep you breathing, witch. It would be a shame to undo all our hard work now."

My eye twitched as I used a burst of strength to wrench myself from his grip, shifting to face him. I was doubled over and clutching my middle, sure, but I'd be damned if he was the one to hold me up. I would walk on my own two feet if it killed me.

"My name is not Witch ," I gasped, trying to regulate my breathing, swallowing the pain as I'd done my whole fucking life. Gritting my teeth, I stood tall. "My name is Vale."

Not that he gave a shit what my name was or why I needed to keep moving. Slowly, I backed up a step, shedding the long leather duster that had to be his and dropping it to the ground. If I needed to run again, it would only slow me down.

Still, I couldn't stop the shiver that vibrated my body as the cold seeped into my bones.

His eyes narrowed once again, and I wondered if it was his default expression. He crossed his arms, the muscles in his chest and arms rippling as he stared me down. "I don't give a shit what your name is. You're just another Luxa to be delivered to my king. Now quit being a nuisance and get back on the horse."

Luxa. He knew what I was—or rather what I could be—and he planned on delivering me to his king like a parcel.

A Luxa will wake the Beast…

A Luxa will unbind him…

A Luxa will destroy us all…

My feet drew away from him on their own, realizing quicker than I could that I'd rather burn at the stake than let him turn me over to anyone, but especially the beast of a king bound by a Luxa's power.

Hate and fear warred in my gut in equal measure. "Go fuck yourself, dragon. I'd rather die right here and right now in this forest than help a king who aided the death of my parents."

He nodded as if this was exactly what he'd thought I'd say, pursing his lips into an almost smile. Then his hand whipped out, and Kian gripped me by my throat. Lifting me off my feet for a split second, he tucked me into his side, snagging his jacket as he went in a fluid grace that I couldn't emulate if I'd tried. I hated to even think it, but while the treatment was unkind, it was almost as though he was actively trying not to hurt me.

Somehow, that pissed me off even more.

"No one asked you what you wanted," Kian growled, hauling me like a sack of grain back toward the horses, my escape pitiful against his overpowering strength. "We have a mission, and I aim to see it through. You can go willingly or hog-tied on the back of a horse—either way, we will fulfill our duty. It's your choice."

It wasn't the first time I'd had my will taken away, my future decided by a high-handed, piece-of-shit asshole with too much power and not enough sense. And just like with the guild, I had no intention of following the leader, and every intention of keeping my mouth shut, and my eyes open wide for the first chance of escaping.

I might have been freed from the Perder Lucem , but Nyrah was still out there. She could be freezing in this forest or still stuck under the mountain—either way, I would find her or die trying.

I only needed an opening.

"You're welcome, by the way," he growled in my ear, his hot breath on my skin sending a shiver down the length of my spine. "If I'd left you there, you would have died—or maybe that was your plan? If so, you sure were doing a bang-up job of it."

A long time ago, I'd learned that silence in the face of arrogant people was a virtue. They couldn't pick you apart if they had nothing to go on. Still, something about him made me want to fight, made me want to rage, so keeping my mouth shut wasn't exactly an option.

"Considering your king needs me far more than I need him, it's tough to feel gratitude. And if you're going to be an asshole about plucking me off that mountain after saving my sister's life, you can save it. I'd rather burn a thousand times than allow my sister to suffer."

Kian dropped me to my feet, the impact jarring the not-quite-healed wound in my middle. Hissing in pain, I forced myself to stand tall, staring up, up, up into those contemptuous amber eyes. It didn't matter how big he was, how beautiful, or that he'd nicked me off that mountain as if I were no bigger than a pebble.

He wouldn't win with me—not now, not ever.

"Keep that in mind, dragon. I've killed before, and I'll do it again if I have to. Now, get out of my way. I have a sister to find."

His expression grew skeptical before sharing a look with the white-haired giant I still didn't know the name of.

"How do you plan on finding her?" Kian asked, his tone both reprimanding and kind all at the same time. "Wandering the forest, screaming her name? Are you planning to storm the mountain by yourself? You can barely stand up."

The truth was that I didn't have a plan at all. As callous as his words were, the best I had was combing this stupid expanse of a forest for her. But worse? I had no idea where we were or how far we'd come. I could be as little as miles from her, or I could be in a completely different province by now.

Defeat filtered through every inch of me. It was my job to keep Nyrah safe. How could I do that if I were headed in the opposite direction? How could I keep her safe if I wasn't there with her?

Inexplicably, my eyes welled with tears. Yes, I'd saved her from Thane, but how would I save her from Arden if I didn't even know if she was still alive? Roughly, I dashed the tears away, firming my jaw.

"Maybe we're getting off on the wrong foot," the white-haired one muttered.

He slipped off the back of his horse, his towering height intimidating enough that I fell back a step. It was one thing for Kian to be that obnoxiously large, but two of them? I couldn't make it out of this forest with both of them on my heels.

An ache swelled in my chest, threatening to burst it wide open. I'd failed my parents. I'd failed Nyrah. She was alone in the world without anyone to protect her—least of all me. And they wanted me to just blindly follow them back to a king that had made that so.

The giant thrust out his hand for me to shake. "I'm Xavier, and this asshole is Kian. It's nice to meet you, Vale."

My brows pulled together as I stared at that massive paw. If I took it, he could easily overpower me and yank me onto the horse. If I didn't, I'd be the asshole. I wasn't sure I cared about politeness, though.

My gaze cut to Kian, his inscrutable expression telling me absolutely nothing. I didn't know if this was a trick, but something about Xavier loosened the band of heartbreak tightening around my chest. I placed my hand in his, and his fingers closed gently over it.

He could crush it if he wanted to, but he didn't.

"I'm sorry for the abrupt way we met, but saving your life was more important to us than niceties. I couldn't heal you completely, and I fear you'll scar, but I did what I could."

He had been the one who healed me? Obviously, he must not have scanned any other part of my body while doing the job, or else he would have figured out that I owned far more than my fair share.

"I don't care about scars. And…" I swallowed hard, hugging my arms to my chest to preserve the fleeting warmth of my body. I was alive because of them. They may want me for their king, but I owed them—at the very least—a bit of gratitude. "Thank you both. But I can't go with you."

Xavier and Kian shared a glance before Xavier gently pulled me to his side, tucking me under his arm to share the heat I desperately needed after shedding Kian's coat. Another band around my chest loosened, and I couldn't help the sigh that fell from my lips.

"I get it," he murmured. "You want to help your sister. But that isn't possible right now. You're hurt, you don't have supplies to get back, or a plan. Maybe we can talk to the king. If you help him, he will likely give you a boon. You could ask him for help in rescuing your sister."

I wasn't an idiot. I knew he was likely just telling me what I wanted to hear to get me back on that horse. They had a job, and that job was procuring me for their king. But I couldn't think of another option that didn't involve me dying in the forest or getting trussed up and forced to go.

Pulling out of Xavier's arms, I considered my options for a single long moment. Swallowing hard, I nodded reluctantly.

The weight of a coat returned to my shoulders, quelling the shivers I hadn't realized were shaking my whole body. I shot a glance over my shoulder, but Kian was already mounting his horse, his back to me.

I had a feeling he didn't want a "thank you" any more than I wanted to give him one.

Xavier graced me with a brilliant—if tired—smile. Then we were back on the horse, his big body surrounding me as he urged the animal closer to the one place I'd never wanted to go and yet was the only place I might be accepted.

His warm arm circled my middle, securing me in such a way, I knew I wouldn't be going anywhere but where they wanted me to.

Heat suffused my cheeks, and I could decide if I was better off here or back on the mountain with a knife in my gut.

I guessed I was about to find out.