“Why did you save me?”
“I didn’t.” She tore her eyes from his, looking down the hall as though the beast of offense lurked in its depths.
“You did.” His hand curled around his side, touching the site of his most foolish act since he’d been on Loom. He’d risked the schematics being torn at the least, and death at the worst. Cvareh debated which would have actually been more terrible. He could be selfish and say his own death. But if he did say that, even to himself, the words would be hollow and lack conviction. In the scheme of Nova, Loom, and House Xin, the highest purpose he had was to see the schematics for the Philosopher’s Box to the rebels building a new resistance in the Alchemists’ Guild. That would be a catalyst for far greater and lasting change than him haunting the halls of Xin manor. “Leona’s claws pierced my heart.”
Arianna was visibly surprised by the news. She mulled it over for a long second. “So the red bitch is named Leona?”
Cvareh couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “You pick up fast. Though we call her the ‘King’s Bitch’ in House Xin. My sister invented the short name.”
“I can get behind it.” Ari grinned, and her flat teeth didn’t bother him in the slightest.
“I’m not surprised. I could imagine you both getting along. You’re similar,” he confessed.
Ari huffed in amusement at the notion. “I doubt there could be more than one woman like me. Otherwise I’d fear for the future of the world.”
“Luckily for us all, then, she’s not of this world.”
Arianna actually laughed. It was soft and breathy so as not to wake those sleeping. It wasn’t a pretty sound by any stretch. But it was genuine, and that added a sort of spark to it that reminded Cvareh of the Arianna he saw when he imbibed from her. Potent and heady and sparking with life at the corner of every movement.
“I like the attempt at wit, Cvareh. Don’t abandon it.”
I’ve been upgraded from just “Dragon” again.
“You still haven’t answered my question.” He braved exhausting her good will toward him.
“I haven’t,” she agreed softly. “I was more worried about Flor than I was for you. She was the one who insisted I focus on healing you rather than giving my attention to her.”
He shouldn’t have expected any different. Their relationship had been set in stone from the start. He would orbit wildly around her hatred for Dragons, her emotions preventing him from crossing her inner threshold. His path would be set by the perfect tension her moods, her eyes, her face, her mouth, her very existence held him in.
“But I’m glad she did.”
The statement was so faint that he almost asked her to repeat it. As delicate and pure as the lake waters of Shina, it was something he never imagined could come from her. He wanted to hear it again. He instantly desired to know what would make her speak like that in perpetuity. So enamored by it was he, that Cvareh didn’t even question why.
“Now, take watch, and wake me if you hear anything.” Arianna rested the back of her head on the wall, closing her eyes.
“You can trust me.”
“So it seems.”
The words should’ve made him elated. But there was a heavy note of skepticism that weighed them down from having the same effervescence as her prior declaration. It echoed in the heart she’d saved, and cast a shadow of doubt on everything that was building between them.
25. Leona
“So, what’s the plan?” Camile kicked her feet off the edge of the rooftop where they had decided to land their gliders. She picked her teeth with one of the tiny finger bones from the Fen they’d taken their frustrations out on.
“I’m still working that out,” Leona confessed, much to her displeasure. The whole night had been one catastrophic failure after the next. Leona was proud enough to feel an insatiable desire to rectify the events with the sweet solution of a vengeful rage. But she wasn’t foolish enough to run in headfirst at the next possible opportunity.
This was the White Wraith’s home. She had every advantage of skill and allies. Leona had researched Loom in depth, as had been her duty. But practical application of knowledge was always harder than attaining the knowledge itself.
“Why is she helping Cvareh?” she mused aloud.
“Who?” Camile reminded Leona that she couldn’t read her mind.
“The White Wraith.” Leona began to think aloud. “She’s the self-proclaimed enemy of all Dragons. The pale man in Dortam said she’d take any job if it hurt a Dragon or Dragon interests in some way.”
Camile hummed in agreement, rubbing her bloated stomach. The Fen flesh wasn’t sitting well with Leona either. Though the killing had been satisfying; at the very least the gray people were good for that much.
“So why help Cvareh? He’s certainly a Dragon—”
“Undeniably so.”