The Alchemists of Loom (Loom Saga #1)(19)
Her eyebrows rose.
“Yes, I know you. Many have heard of you on Nova. The White Wraith is infamous for making organs disappear and helping traffic Dragons into illegal harvesting rings.” That’s right, he reminded himself, I should hate this woman. Whatever sparkle she had for her ward was overshadowed by the cloud of guilt she should bear for all the lives she had submitted to the torture of the harvesters. “Why do you think Dragons never—how did you put it?—grace Dortam?”
“Then it seems like I’ve done my job.”
“Enough, both of you.” The black-haired girl pushed herself between them, pulling Arianna away. “What’s done is done. You said you’d get him to the Alchemists’ Guild, Ari. There are King’s Riders outside our door. I think we have more pressing matters than tallying up who’s who and who’s done what.”
He didn’t expect to find sense from the youngest among the three of them, but that was where it lay.
“Fine.” Arianna pointed in his face, close enough that he could’ve bitten her finger clean off if he wanted. “Florence is right. It doesn’t matter who we are. But I cannot take you to the Alchemists’ Guild if you don’t tell me what else I may be up against in getting you there.”
“You seem to have the overview.” He held out his palms in a ‘nothing up my sleeves’ gesture that was only half true. Cvareh still had the entire deck squirreled away. She just didn’t need to know that.
“You’re not being helpful.” She pulled her hand from his face and began tearing through the room. Wood chips and shavings flew as she rummaged through crates. “Will I need a large revolver, or a small cannon?” Arianna stacked weaponry of varying shapes on the boxes as she continued her tirade. “Am I to assume they’ll leave when they’re done demolishing Mercury Town?”
“They could be at it for a while.” The Riders would toy with Loom for a bit just because they could.
“Dragon—”
“They said they were after you because you descended illegally,” Florence interjected before the argument spiraled out of control again.
“Flor.” Arianna’s voice audibly shifted when she addressed the girl. She went from ice to restorative broth within the space of a breath. “Descending illegally is a matter for their constabulary, not the King’s Riders,” she thought aloud. When she returned her attentions to him, the warmth completely vanished once more. “Why does the Dragon King want you?”
She continued to handle herself with an utter absence of grace and tact, but the question was sincere. She’d again put aside whatever grudge fueled her. Cvareh closed his eyes with a sigh.
He could have answered with a hundred things. He could’ve made up a lie, told a half truth, concocted almost any reason and—from what he knew of her—Arianna would’ve accepted it at face value just for the sake of ending the conversation. But Cvareh did none of those things. He told the truth.
“Because I want to help overthrow him.”
“What?” The entire spectrum of color exploded across her magic.
“The Riders want me because I am working to overthrow the Dragon King.”
“You lie,” she whispered.
“Why else would the Riders be after me?” He sighed again, growing even more tired of the woman. He avoided her questions, and she throttled him. He was smart with her, and she drew her blades. He told her the truth, and she acted like he’d told the most boldfaced lie she’d ever heard. There was literally nothing he could say or do around her that didn’t end with her maiming or insulting him.
“I could think of a number of reasons.”
“And none are better than the explanation I just gave you,” he insisted.
“Why would a Dragon want to overthrow his King?”
His cheek tensed as he struggled to keep his mouth from curving into a condescending smile. A Fenthri could never understand the plight of the Dragon houses. They saw all Dragons as one—one enemy, one overseer, one force to overtake. Even the most enlightened Fenthri would grapple with understanding nearly two thousand years of infighting and power struggles.
“Why are you the White Wraith?” Answering her question with a question annoyed her all the more.
Ari opened her mouth, rising to his challenge as he knew she would. And then her lips clamped shut, smothering the words she’d been about to say. She chewed them over and swallowed them along with every expectation he had for her reaction. Her face was as stony as her skin when she spoke, “Fine, we’ll go with your earlier assessment, Dragon. We don’t need to know anything real about each other.”
Arianna stalked over to him. The woman was almost tall enough to look him in the eyes. She’d be average height for a Dragon, making her unnaturally tall among Fenthri. “But if you have some knowledge that will interfere with my ability to fulfill this boon…”
Cvareh took a sharp inhale, overwhelmed by her scent as she took one step closer and crossed the threshold into his personal space. Her magic assaulted his. It made him hungry for her. He’d had a taste of this woman and now all he could think of when she was so close was the feeling of her, the rush of power as her magic encapsulated his. Yes, there were so many reasons why imbibing from the living was an awful idea.
“If it’s something that’s going to put Flor in harm’s way again…” She was talking. Cvareh struggled to focus on her words, to focus on anything other than the urge to grab her and sink his teeth into her flesh again. “I expect to know.”