The Dragons of Nova (Loom Saga #2)(72)

Just the word exploded the flavor of honeysuckle in Cvareh’s mouth.

“If something scares Yveun’Dono, why would we not use that to our advantage?”

“Yveun is a monster, you will find no objection from me on the fact. And I wish to see him dead as much as any other Xin, perhaps more for my love of you and Petra. But I do not know if it is best to slay a monster using an even more fearsome beast. A beast we are welcoming into House Xin with little consideration for what doing so could truly mean.” Cain cautioned, “What makes you think this new terror could be contained and controlled?”

Cvareh kept his answer to himself, but not well enough.

“Her fondness for you?” Cain snorted, outright laughter churning up through his stomach. “Cvareh, thinking something like love can contain a woman like that is akin to thinking you can funnel the winds in a particular direction with a cup of your hands.”

“I know her.” Cvareh felt an ugly emotion brew like storm clouds in his chest. He did not want to hate Cain. But he also did not want a woman, a Fenthri, to make him hate Cain on her behalf.

“As do I.”

“You do not.” Cvareh wouldn’t hear it.

“How much time did I spend with her because ‘you cannot trust yourself to be in her presence’?” Cain threw Cvareh’s past words from when he arrived on Nova back at him. “You never said why, but clearly it’s because you can’t handle her for longer than a few days before you would force yourself on her.”

Cvareh lunged. Cain side-stepped and Cvareh twisted to meet him. He kept his fists balled, claws contained. He wanted to pummel Cain, but he wouldn’t make his fellow Xin bleed. Not yet at least.

His fist connected with Cain’s face. The other man reeled. Claws jutted from sea foam hands. Cvareh pushed forward and slammed Cain against the tack wall, pressing him into the shelves and leathers, one hand on his wrist.

“Do not challenge me, Cain,” Cvareh snarled, his mouth wide and teeth bared.

“If I do, will you fight me in the pit, Xin’Ryu?” Cain gnashed his teeth back at Cvareh as he spoke. “Or will you send your Chimera? Will you have a woman from the land below do your fighting?”

He wanted to peel Cain’s skin off one strip at a time. He wanted to throw the man on the floor and cut down through muscle and sinew to bone. He would gnaw on his innards and feast on his heart. Cvareh had never bested Cain before in a fight, practice or otherwise. But he knew in that moment he could. Fighting for Arianna somehow made him more vicious than he’d ever been. It gave him a reason to be more dangerous than he’d ever thought possible. Dangerous enough to kill even a Xin. For her.

Cvareh threw Cain away. The man stumbled but spun, ready for a continued attack. None came.

“You have made a fool of yourself with this, Cain’Da. Abandon this folly, and return to the obliging man this House needs.” Cvareh straightened.

“You know the depth of my loyalty to our House.” Cain waited for Cvareh to challenge. He didn’t. “Do you think I would question you or Petra if I didn’t think it was in our best interest?”

His heart sang the truth of Cain’s words. Despite his means, the man worked toward an end he truly believed was best for their House. Cvareh sighed heavily. The fact would keep him alive. “I will keep this from Petra for now, for our friendship. For she would flay you for your disobedience.”

Cain had no objection. The man might think he could handle Cvareh in a row, but Petra was another force altogether. The only Dragon foolish enough to challenge the Xin’Oji was the Dono himself. They were titans among men and women.

And they both fear Arianna. Cvareh’s mind betrayed him. He snarled at the echo of Cain’s words twisting in his mind. Petra feared nothing. Petra only needed an ally.

“Return to the Xin Manor, and pray to Lord To for wisdom in this.” Cvareh threw a saddle on the boco at random, tightening it for punctuation. “And pray to every Lord and Lady you have breath for that I do not reconsider letting Petra know of your misgivings.”

A darkness lurked over Cain’s features that Cvareh had never seen before, least of all directed at him. The man had been his friend, his brother, and he was determined to dig a chasm between them so wide that Cvareh could not jump across. Cain saw one possible future, a bleak place where Cvareh would be forced to choose between his House and the woman he had come to love. He gripped the boco’s reins, leading it from the stable with a flutter of wings.

“Cvareh’Ryu,” Cain called. Cvareh should have never stopped. He should have not allowed any more of Cain’s poison words through his ears and into his mind. “That woman will be your undoing. If you wish to damn yourself with her, fine. But for the love of Xin, do not damn the rest of us by taking her into the House’s bed, too.”

Cvareh did not dignify the statement with a response.





33. Yveun


“She means to make a fool of you.” Coletta nursed a glass of wine, reclining in a chaise.

“That much is apparent to anyone with eyes.” Yveun continued to pace the room. It was large and open, with a gaping maw of a balcony and tall ceilings. It was more elegant than he wanted to admit and befitting of his station—which fed his anger further. Petra insulted him with one hand, while lauding him with the other. She toed the line finely enough that he could not challenge without seeming in the wrong to the masses.