A Destiny of Dragons (Tales From Verania #2)(84)

It was easier that way.




“YOU’LL TRAVEL to the desert, then?” Vadoma asked, a glint in her eyes that I didn’t like one bit. We stood alone in the throne room per my request, though I was sure everyone was trying to eavesdrop through the Great Doors. They were nosy fuckers like that.

“I will,” I said.

“Hmm,” she said. “It seems as if we could have come to this agreement days ago.”

“And yet here we are.”

“Here we are,” she agreed. “We shall leave immediately. Time, I fear, is of the essence.”

I barely restrained the eye roll. “It’s waited a couple of decades. I’m sure it can wait a little bit longer.”

“For?”

I shook my head. “I don’t trust you.”

“So you’ve said. But no matter how you feel on the matter, you are still my blood.”

“Well, we all can’t be perfect.”

“Your tone,” she said. “I have no use for it.”

“Of that I don’t give two shits. I’m going to tell you how this is going to go.”

“Oh? Please. Enlighten me.”

I ignored that. “You will take Ruv and leave tomorrow to travel back to the desert. We will follow by the end of the week.”

“I don’t see why we wouldn’t just travel together when—”

“You’ll be on horseback, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Gary will kill you, because that’s racist.”

“How is that racist—”

“It doesn’t matter. We’ll be on foot.”

“That’ll take weeks,” she said.

“Probably,” I said. “But that’s the way it’s going to be. Think of it this way. It’ll give you time to get to the desert before us, and you can plan further ways to try and use me.”

“This is not about being used,” she said.

“Isn’t it?” I asked, daring her to be contrary. “Because that’s exactly what it sounds like to me. You’re here to use me.”

She watched me for a moment, her dark eyes assessing. “I knew not of the dark man in shadows, aside from what was shown to me. His identity has always been a mystery. The secret kept from you about him was not my doing. Do not direct your anger at me for something I did not do. And if you let it fester, if you let it boil, it will spill over until it consumes you, chava. Anger in your heart will lead only to misfortune and misery.”

I snorted. “Fortune-telling again?”

“Personal experience,” she said, and that shut me up right quick. “I agree to your terms, as long as you do not dally. It may have taken this long for us to arrive at the point we have, but there are many parts in motion right now, Sam of Wilds. You are a cog in a machine that will shred you to pieces if you do not keep up.”

She left me alone in the throne room.




I SAT on the top of a large sand dune, the sky above bright with stars. The others lay asleep near the fire below, the thin line of smoke rising up into the air. The stars seemed to be bigger out here, away from all the light and noise of the cities. And I thought maybe there were more of them, more than I’d ever seen before.

I hadn’t wished upon them in a very long time.

I hadn’t needed to.

But now?

Now I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know if the path I was taking was the right one. I didn’t know if I’d made the right choices. I didn’t know if I could trust the people that I had thought could always be trusted.

“Shit,” I said to the stars.

They blinked back at me, ever watchful and silent.

“I’m a little lost,” I told them. “Maybe more than I think I am. I don’t…. I knew my place. I knew what was expected of me. Do this, Sam. Learn this, Sam. I’m going to monologue at your face after I’ve captured you for some stupid reason, Sam. There was good. And there was evil. And nothing in between. I am a good guy. I know I am. And I try to do what’s right. Always. Even if it hurts.” I sighed. “Why does this all feel so wrong, then?”

The stars didn’t respond, of course. They never really did, at least not that I could hear.

I found David’s Dragon, the cluster of stars to the north. I watched it for a long time. It didn’t move as it had for Vadoma, if it ever did at all. I didn’t know if what I’d seen was even real.

But still.

I said, “I’ll do this. For you. But you have to do something in return for me.”

A breeze blew across my face, warm even in the cool night.

It was probably nothing.

I said, “Make me mortal. When all is said and done. I will protect my King, this one and the next. I will protect my kingdom. I will do all that you ask, but I want a mortal life for my happy ending. This is my wish.”

“Sam.”

I squawked quite loudly and fell over, sure the star dragon was right behind me and was going to eat my brains and— “Godsdammit,” I growled as I looked up at Ryan standing above me. “Don’t do that! You can’t sneak up on me because I make weird noises!”

He cocked an eyebrow at me. “As opposed to any of the other times you make weird noises?”