“We didn’t find them.” The words came out rough and choked. Caelan cleared his throat and scowled at the floor. “But most of the palace for the High Luminance had collapsed. Someone might have gotten Lu out of there.”
Something about Caelan’s tone said he didn’t believe that. And neither did Drayce. He’d met Lu only once and for just a couple of minutes, but there was something about their inner strength and determination that said Lu would have preferred to die guarding the entrance to the godstone.
“Cael,” Drayce cried, and his friend was right there, pulling him tightly into his arms. Drayce sobbed on his shoulder. He hadn’t meant to hurt people. Even if they were nasty New Rosanthe soldiers who’d wanted all of them dead. There was still a chance that he’d killed innocent people.
“I know, Drayce. We’ll find a way to help Zastrad and the families of Mrtyu and Temit. Even if you hadn’t shifted, I still feel responsible,” Caelan murmured in his ear. “I’m worried the same disaster will happen here on the Isle of Stone.”
Drayce jerked away from Caelan and roughly rubbed his eyes. “What?” His heart skipped in his chest. Had the Empire followed Caelan and their friends onto the beach? Was New Rosanthe here now?
“Your father is making things difficult. He’s accusing me of trying to steal the Goddess of Fire’s power from the dragons.”
That was not better. Takahashi Masaru would never willingly give up any form of power for any reason. Even if he couldn’t bond with the goddess, he’d never allow anyone else to do it. He would sacrifice his own clan rather than give up power to anyone else.
“Once we have you free, I can focus on getting to the godstone,” Caelan continued as he helped Drayce to his feet at last.
“That’s not going to happen,” Drayce mumbled.
“What?”
“The clan leader is never going to release me. I broke the oath. I revealed myself to the world. I’m never supposed to do that unless it’s to protect your life, and even then, I’m expected to die in battle.”
Caelan placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “What—”
“He’s going to have me executed, Cael,” he spit out. His friend released him as if he’d burst into flames and stumbled several steps away from him, horror written across his face.
“His own son?”
Drayce snorted. “What’s it matter? He sent me to die in Eyra. Now he has a good excuse to have me executed here. The bonus is that it will show the other clans what a merciless bastard he really is. No one would dare question him.”
Closing the distance between them in a flash, Caelan grabbed both of Drayce’s shoulders and glared at him. “It’s not happening. I’m not letting him touch you.”
“But I broke my oath.”
Fingers bit painfully into his flesh, but he couldn’t look away from Caelan’s cold, determined stare. “You are mine. You were sent to me as my protector. You’re my dragon. Nothing is going to change that. I refuse to let anyone touch what’s mine.”
“You still want me? Even though I lied?”
Caelan pulled him in until their foreheads touched, one hand coming up to wrap around the back of his neck. Drayce gripped the front of his friend’s coat. A woodsy scent circled them with a hint of petrichor. It wasn’t Caelan’s smell, but the mark of the gods.
“I don’t care if you call yourself Takahashi Souta or Drayce Ladon. You are and always have been my best friend. You are my protector and my lover. I will face down all the gods if I must to keep you at my side. There’s no way I’m going to let some dragon steal you from me. I love you.”
NINE
Adrian Westergren
Adrian had become Mio’s pack mule. He followed her from shop to shop as she picked up different foods and various household supplies. With each visit, a new bag was added to an arm until he’d doubled in size. The other pedestrians on the sidewalk had to give them a wide berth or else risk getting plowed over.
He didn’t mind his role at all. The shopping gave him a chance to see more of the town and the dragons, while chatting with Mio provided an even deeper insight into the culture.
At that moment, Caelan was visiting Drayce in prison with Eno acting as an escort. Rayne was likely pacing Mio’s home, lost in thought over how to handle the dragons. When they gathered tonight, they’d be discussing what Caelan had learned from Drayce, and Adrian was hoping to have something useful to add based on what he’d been able to glean from his conversations with Mio.
So far, he’d largely felt like a waste of space. Caelan, Eno, and Rayne hadn’t been trying to make him feel excluded. It was simply that the three had been together for years. That history and experience meant that they understood how each other thought. They could complete each other’s sentences and had all these jokes that made no sense to him.