Asha saw the fear in his eyes. He’d risked so much to save her tonight. And here she was, throwing it in his face by marching back to the city alongside her brother.
“Asha.” Torwin’s voice was strained, his eyes pleading. “You don’t have to do this.”
But she did. She wanted—no, needed—her father brought to his knees.
My father must pay for what he’s done to me.
Asha turned to face her brother. “Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.”
From behind her, Torwin said, very softly, “Then I guess this is good-bye.”
When she spun to face him, he was already gone.
Thirty-Five
Asha tracked Torwin through the camp and up into the blue-black darkness of the woods, where she promptly lost him. Why hadn’t she brought a torch? Her heart pounded. She needed to find him.
She would not let that be their good-bye.
When starlight filtered through the cedars, Asha followed it to where the trees ended, giving way to the precipice Shadow had landed on. Asha stared out over the realm before her. The jagged ridges of the Rift slowly collapsed into desert, and beyond it: stars forever.
Asha stood at the edge, shivering in the cold night air, searching the skies for a dust-red dragon and its rider. With the Rift sprawled out before her and the camp nestled in the valley at her back, Asha did the only thing she could think of: she spoke an old story into the wind. One meant for the dragon darker than a starless night.
She heard his wingbeats in the distance. Saw the silhouette of his form fly across the face of the moon. Asha hugged herself to stay warm, waiting.
Finally, Kozu landed in a spiral of dirt and leaves, tucking in his wings. Asha traced the scabbed wound in his side from the spear, remembering how he’d stumbled and hit the earth. Remembering how she’d been pitched from his back.
She was afraid to try again.
Kozu swung his head around to face her. They stared at each other, the Iskari and the First Dragon, until finally Asha took a deep breath.
Slowly, her fingers felt for the bump of his shoulder bone. After grabbing hold, she swung herself up onto his back, hiking her dress up to her thighs. His scales were warm and smooth beneath her palms. She breathed in his smell: all smoke and ash.
If she let herself think of what she was about to do, she might climb down. So she didn’t think. With her tongue against her teeth, Asha clicked the way Torwin had with Shadow.
Kozu leaped off the precipice and into the sky.
Asha’s stomach lurched as the wind rushed past her face and rocky ridges rose up to meet them. She gripped Kozu’s neck and held on tight until he leveled out.
This time, something locked into place deep inside her. Something that was always meant to be.
Asha sat up, looking out over craggy outcroppings, over meadows flecked with oleander. She felt Kozu not just beneath her, a dangerous creature moving from wind current to wind current, but in her mind too. Like a dark shadow. An ancient presence. Fixed and fierce and hers.
The wind smacked her bare legs and face. It whipped her hair and stung her eyes. When her teeth started to chatter, she pressed herself against Kozu to keep from freezing. But she didn’t turn him back; she needed to find Torwin.
She needed to persuade him to stay. To fight with them against her father.
As Kozu flew, Asha searched the sky. Shivering, she watched the smoky clouds pass overhead, depriving her of light from the stars. When the clouds fled, she scanned the peaks and ridges they flew past. But there was no sign of any other dragon.
As her shivers turned more violent, Asha understood the reason for Torwin’s fitted coat and gloves. If she didn’t find him soon, she would have to head back—or she’d freeze.
It was when she looked down again that she saw a familiar shape, flying below. Asha clicked to Kozu and he dropped, making her stomach flutter. A heartbeat later, both dragons flew side by side.
Shadow’s rider looked over at Asha. His sandskarf covered his nose and mouth.
Don’t make me say good-bye to you, she thought.
Asha pitched her voice above the wind. “Where are you going?”
He didn’t answer.
Squinting into the distance, just past two rocky peaks, she saw the glassy surface of a lake, silver in the moonlight.
“There’s water down there!”
Again, he kept silent.
“I’ll race you to it!” she shouted.
Torwin didn’t have time to respond. Asha leaned close to Kozu, who knew exactly what she wanted, and together they plunged into the wind.
A feeling rushed through her as they fell: excitement, fear, exhilaration, all snarled up together and lodged in her belly. Soon, though, a sharper feeling replaced it. Asha looked from side to side, searching for Torwin and Shadow. They hadn’t followed. She and Kozu were alone.
Asha swallowed disappointment. Sensing it, Kozu started to level out, and, just as he did, a dust-red dragon and its rider plunged past them. For a moment, Asha watched them: Torwin keeping low to Shadow’s back while Shadow tucked his wings in—falling, falling. As if they’d done this thousands of times. As if it was their favorite game.
A moment later, she was falling too.
Asha clutched Kozu’s neck as the wind whipped her hair. When they righted again, Kozu was head-to-head with Shadow.
Torwin glanced their way, then clicked. Shadow sped up.
A moment later, almost lazily, Kozu caught up with them.
Above his sandskarf, Torwin’s eyes narrowed. He clicked once more. But this was the fastest Shadow could go. He was smaller and more agile, but Kozu was stronger and had more weight to thrust them forward.
Torwin and Shadow fell back. Asha turned her attention to the lake.
She thought Kozu would land beside the water. Kozu did not. As Asha focused on the bank, the dragon headed straight for the water. Asha clicked frantically, then tried to pull up on his neck, then his wings, wanting him to slow down. To stop before—
The surface of the lake broke as Kozu hit. Asha held her breath just before the water rushed up to swallow them.
Underwater, she slid from Kozu’s back. When her feet touched the bottom, she pushed up, then broke the surface. Asha spluttered and gasped. She splashed at Kozu in retaliation, but the dragon was deep underwater, swimming away from her. The lake was warmer than the night air and Asha stayed a moment, her dress floating around her as she tilted her face back to the jeweled sky above.
On the shore, Shadow landed.
Asha swam for the lake’s edge as Torwin dismounted, but the layers of her dress made kicking hard, and it took her twice as long as it normally would. She lost both her slippers. When her feet finally touched stone, Asha made her way toward the place where Torwin stood. Her bare feet slipped on the underwater rocks.
“You win,” he said, reaching down from his dry overhang.