Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

SIYANA

“You know, I’m a little tired of you acting like it was entirely my fault that you almost died. You were the reason our journey lasted so long, thinking you were proving a point by getting off your horse continually.”

I ripped a piece of the cold jerky off to chew on as Theo checked through the supply packs that Lucius dropped off at some point during the night. There had been a new set of clothes for me that was better suited for our journey, consisting of thick, fur-lined pants and a matching vest and coat to wear over a tunic Theo lent me. The look was completed with new leather boots. I’d wondered how the sizing on all of the items had been so perfect, and then promptly felt a bloom of heat pricking my cheeks and chest, remembering that Theo had undressed me from my wet clothes my first night here.

Pausing as I lifted the meat to my lips, I frowned. He had a point. A point that I wasn’t going to confirm. I may have trusted him to protect me, but that didn’t mean I was going to roll over and be a sweet little princess for him. “I think we should focus on the future and not keep bringing up the past.”

I popped the savory, smoky meat into my mouth, chewing as Theo’s head swung around, eyes narrowing to pierce me with a glare. A shiver ran through me at the intensity he always seemed to carry around him like armor. I was finding that it didn’t strike fear into me, anymore, though. After last night…

The memory of the drackya atop me and the thought of Theo ripping his heart clear from his chest had my stomach souring. While I’d have preferred to never feel that level of fear in my life, something good had come from it. I wasn’t sure if I’d call what was brewing between the king and me a friendship, but there was at least a new level of comfortable tolerance between us. Our banter was more friendly and good-natured instead of the pointed, sharp attacks against each other of before.

“You’re kidding, right?” he retorted before closing up the packs. “You literally were the one that just brought it up, saying how maybe you wouldn’t die on this journey now that I’d thought to get you proper clothing.”

I hid my smile behind my hand and finished chewing.

One thing I knew with absolute certainty now was that Theo wasn’t my enemy. I couldn’t speak for the rest of the drackya, but I knew in my heart that at least this one was okay. Lucius was tentatively on the list as well, but I didn’t know him well enough to confirm just yet.

“So, did you say goodbye to your friend?” I asked before hopping off the bed and wrapping the meat back up in its cloth.

He reached out to snatch the food from me, mumbling, “That food is for the journey, yet you’re already snacking.”

I slammed my heels together, saluting him. “I had to ensure the food wasn’t poisoned for His Majesty. I’m happy to report it is perfectly safe and quite tasty.”

His cold demeanor cracked and he smirked at me, shaking his head and freeing the longer white strands he’d tucked behind his ear in the process.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a little odd?” he asked before heaving the large packs to the balcony.

Relaxing from my salute, I shrugged my shoulders and thought about it. “Nope, but there are only two people in my life who would ever know I was anything other than a perfect princess.”

Glancing back at me, he countered, “Make that three now.”

It was a simple statement, but it hit me square in the chest that he was right. Tillie and Brenson were the only people who knew me–the real me–for the entirety of my life, up until now. In my efforts to be the opposite of the perfect little wife, I’d simply just shown Theo the real me.

I nibbled on my bottom lip, unsure of whether I liked that fact.

“Anyways, what friend would I say goodbye to?” he asked in confusion, making my mouth part and my brow pinch.

“Uhm, Lucius, obviously?” My voice was tinged with disbelief. How could he not know who I meant?

A rumble sounded as he seemed to ponder my words, his brows slanted, and his eyes fell to the floor. Wow, he really had no idea.

“I suppose he’d be the closest thing I have to a friend,” he offered tentatively before looking at me once more. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a friendship like you have, though. Lucius and I wouldn’t fight to say goodbye as you and Tillie did.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes while crossing my arms against my chest. “You’re kidding, right? Lucius has continually shown up to help you and me in the short time I’ve been here. Maybe you guys don’t exchange lovey-dovey words, lamenting your friendship, but actions do speak louder than words, Theo.”

His nose did an adorable scrunch as his head reared back slightly. “I mean, he does call me brother a lot, I guess?”

My chest expanded as I took a deep breath and slapped my hand across my forehead, rubbing at the skin there. “You’re so clueless, Theo, it’s actually crazy. Not everyone in the world is out to get you, despite what your upbringing has conditioned you to believe. It’s okay to let people in when they’ve proven their loyalty.”

He hummed as his hand came up to rub at his jaw. “Who is the other person in your life besides Tillie?”

“Don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing, changing the subject off of yourself,” I stated, pursing my lips. “But to answer your question, the other person is named Brenson. We grew up together, and he was the only one willing to teach me how to use a sword and train me. He’s one of the commanders in our army now.”

Instantly, Theo’s dragon surged to the surface, his pulsating blue eye locked onto me. The veins in his neck and forehead bulged and his fist clenched at his side making my core tighten. “And this man…is one you were fighting me to say goodbye to before we left?”

Was he…jealous? No, that wasn't not possible. The drackya had literally denied my attempt to kiss him yesterday, as much as I tried to black out the memory from my mind. A part of me was relieved when I thought about it, because I had been heavily under the influence and not thinking clearly. If I was being entirely honest with myself, his words at the time weren’t completely wrong, despite the callous way he’d said them. It did hurt to be rejected so completely, as if I wasn’t good enough to be his dragon’s mate, even if I didn’t want that. At all.

I turned to grab my heavy coat from the bed as I answered, “Yes, I guess you could consider him my Lucius. He’s shown up again and again to help me, and he’s like family. He’s the one who gave me the cut on my arm you asked about.”

As I tugged the coat on, I jumped with the answering growl to my admission. After pushing my hands through the sleeves and fastening the buttons down the front, I turned on the heel of my boot to see what had ruffled the dragon’s proverbial feathers.

I found Theo pacing back and forth on the balcony with his hands clasped behind his back. “He hurt you, yet you still care for him? Why?”

It had never been as clear to me as it was now, how little Theo knew about love and friendships. It actually made me feel a sense of sadness for him.

“Calm down,” I breathed out as I approached the prickly king. “It happened during a sparring match when I wasn’t paying attention. He didn’t wound me with the intention of making me suffer. It was my own fault.”

His pacing came to a stop with my words, but as his eyes trailed up my body before landing on my face, I shivered from the wrath exuding from his tense frame and calculating eyes. “I’d like to meet this Brenson one day.”

Men.

“Alright dragon boy, let’s get going,” I said, clapping my hands together with a bit of excitement. Now that I wasn’t pissed at him anymore, my joy was palpable.

It was time to ride a dragon.

His lips thinned as they turned down in a frown and he regarded me with disgust. “I am not a boy. Stop calling me that.”

I couldn’t help but wink at him. “As soon as you stop calling me a wench.”

He had nothing to say back to that, so for now it seemed that we’d just be a dragon boy and his wench.

Well, not his wench, just a wench.

Theo began to remove his tunic and I quickly averted my gaze, giving him privacy despite the urge to peek. I focused on the room, wondering if I’d ever return here.

“Are you sure you’ll be able to get this saddle and the packs onto me?” he questioned for the umpteenth time and I bristled.

“Theo, I’m far more capable than you think! I can do this.”

Those were officially my famous last words. An hour later, I stood at the front feet of the massive silver beast who was stomping around in annoyance, it seemed. I could hardly imagine how much more insignificant and small I’d feel around a full-blooded dragon, considering the drackya were slightly smaller.

As it was, I barely came up to the bottom of his knee.

So it seemed that I may have underestimated his height and my ability to climb him while carrying the heavy saddle at the same time. The only help I had to propel me up the steep slope from his tail to his rump was from the protruding, gleaming silver spikes that ran down his spine to the tip of his tail.

“Stop looking at me like that! And stop all of your stomping while you’re at it!” I yelled, dropping the saddle to the ground as my arms shook from the exertion of hefting it for the past hour. “I’m trying my best here, and you’re not making it any easier with your little temper tantrums.”

A slitted tongue snaked out of his large mouth in my direction, and I glared. This wasn’t what I pictured at all when I’d thought of what it might feel like to stand at the foot of a dragon while I’d been sparring with Brenson. I thought it would involve a lot more fear and a whole lot less silent bullying from the beast in question as it lost its patience with me.

“Did you just stick your tongue out at me?” I asked, popping my hip out as I placed my hand on it.

I felt him prodding at my mind and I let my walls down to allow him access. Lowering my mental walls while still at the drackya’s castle wasn’t ideal, but how else could he speak to me in this form if not in my mind? He’d yet to try to do this the entire hour I’d been struggling, so I’d been left to simply yell at him and try to interpret his movements and sass.

“Are you giving up, wench?”

I threw my hands in the air. “If you would just stretch your back legs out more, I could make the climb up your tail with the saddle, but it’s too steep to not use both hands to hold onto your spikes as is. I already told you this!”

A large huff of air came from the dragon, quickly becoming a steam cloud that blew around me.

“Don’t give me that attitude. I swear you’re trying to make me fail on purpose.”

A rumble came from the dragon then, his large body shaking with his apparent mirth.

“Did you just laugh at me?” I asked in shock, staring up into the eye I had grown used to seeing in his human form, the scar that marred his face apparent in the rough skin around the eye in this form as well.

“Well, it has been amusing to watch you slip and fall onto your ass so many times in a row. As I seem to recall, you don’t like being in saddles, anyways.”

I gave him my best unamused look before walking right up to his large head with both hands on my hips. “Can we consider us even now, about me not staying in the horse’s saddle? I promise to stop bringing up how you definitely almost killed me on our journey here.”

His large head tilted, and I was painfully aware of how similar the movement was to how he reacted to me in his human form when he considered my words. A rush of wind and snow chose that moment to blow against us, causing me to lose my balance at the gale-force strength of the gusts rolling in. Soon enough, my outfit wouldn’t keep me as warm, if the blizzard that seemed to be roiling to life in the clouds kept up.

I threw my hands out to balance myself but found myself hitting a warm, scaled foot that moved to stop my fall.

A heavy sigh of exhaustion fell from me as I pushed off of his foot.

“Thanks .”

“Pick up the saddle and climb up. I will lower myself further onto the ground, just steer clear for a moment while I move.”

Relief poured through me as I grabbed the leather saddle and stepped back. His muscles bunched as he first lowered his front half onto the ground before plopping down on his backside. The large tail curled around him until the tip pointed directly at me. I squinted through the snow and nodded as the path I needed to take seemed much more manageable now.

Quickly I ambled up the flat part of his tail, hauling the saddle in one arm while using my hip to carry the brunt of its weight, considering my other hand was still tender from the bones Theo had set the night before. As I started my ascent up the back, I slowed my pace and took calculated, sure steps to ensure I didn’t slip as I moved higher. Without needing any of the spikes' assistance now, I made it up rather quickly, beaming with pride as my feet finally met the larger scales of his back.

“I did it!”

“You remember the instructions from the saddler for where to hook it in?”

“Yes, dragon boy. I read it over until I had the directions memorized.”

Keeping to the flatter stretch of scales around the spikes along his spine, I made my way across his back to where his saddle was sized to fit in front of his shoulders. I saw the smooth area the saddler had mentioned and rushed to drop the saddle down. My shoulders and biceps ached from how long I’d been lugging it around, and I was happy to be rid of it.

The saddle fit in place perfectly, with the pommel sitting just behind a large scale that curved upward. It would apparently protect me from the wind coming directly at me if we had to fight against the gusts. Anything strong from the sides, though, and I’d have to hope that the leg straps would stay in place and my hands wouldn’t slip from the pommel.

Yanking the long straps that were rolled up and fastened to the edge of the saddle, I slid on my butt to get down to the top of his shoulder where the saddler had left a small cut to fit into the correct scale. Fastening the anchor around it, I used the strap to help me climb back up and then moved to the other side. Once those were in place, I had to run back down and grab our supply packs. Tossing those over each shoulder, I was heaving with my attempts to get air into my lungs by the time I reached the saddle and clipped the tops of the bags into the designated area on the back.

“I think we’re good to go. The saddle is anchored in and our supplies are fastened.”

I wasn’t sure if he’d fallen asleep while waiting for me, but he startled at my words and lifted his head from where he’d been resting. Craning it around to look at me out of the side of his eye, he nodded after a few moments of glancing over my work.

“Get in the saddle and let me know when you’re strapped in.”

Lowering myself into the seat, a thrill ran through me. I strapped my feet into the boot-like areas and fastened them all the way up to my knees. Supposedly these would keep me in place if we had to roll upside down and I lost my handle on the saddle, but I wasn’t too keen to test them out. I moved on to the lap belt that looped around from the back of the saddle and to just below the pommel.

“All set!”

“Siyana?” he questioned in a serious tone that had my smile faltering.

“Yes, Theo?”

“Do not ever tell anyone I let you ride me.”

I cackled at that. “Oh, I’m going to tell everyone. All my friends will be ? —”

He cut me off, his words thick with dry sarcasm, “All two friends? Don’t act like you’re so popular all of a sudden.”

Before I could retort that I at least had more friends than him, he suddenly launched us into the air. I scrambled to get a grip on the pommel with my one good hand as gravity hit me like a brick wall, wanting to force me back down to the balcony.

The wind whipped my hair back, and tears pooled in my eyes before being quickly whipped away in the wind as I squinted. My calves were pressed tightly into him, and I swore a layer of skin on my face was being peeled away from the force of our ascent.

Then suddenly we were floating and my body loosened up instantly. Opening my eyes fully, I craned my head around in every direction, taking in as much as I could through the blizzard. From this vantage point, I could barely make out a cluster of buildings just on the other edge of the field I’d passed out in that first night. That had to be where the other drackya lived. I couldn’t count the number of buildings from this height and with the snow blinding me, but from the sprawling around was easily twice the amount of land that the castle took up.

Theo’s wings flapped as we glided through the air with ease, banking to the right as the mountain his castle was etched into came closer.

“We’re going to travel along the mountainside before taking a steep trip up. I’m going to keep you down here where you can breathe a bit easier for as long as I can, and I’ll warn you before we have to make the quick ascent into the alcoves.”

I nodded as if he could see me, too busy committing this moment to my memory, hoping I’d never forget the feel of such weightlessness and the sense of being one with the sky.

“It’s beautiful.”

“Yes, it is.”

My cheeks heated, and it wasn’t from the frigid temperatures biting at my skin.