I’d heard about their plans. The Elven Resistance had risen up when the world learned what Isveig had done to my kingdom. But stories of the elves had dissipated as quickly as they’d appeared when Isveig had invaded their lands, too, in retaliation.
Rivelin sighed. “And then, three years later, I tried to get my revenge. I sneaked across the border and started killing every ice giant I could find, even those not involved. I let my rage get the better of me until I was nothing but a shell of who I’d once been.”
I looked up at him, surprised. “By yourself?”
“I’ve been by myself for a very long time. If Lilia had known, she would have tried to stop me. Not that I would have listened. I would have kept going until it claimed my life, if I hadn’t wandered into the wrong village at the wrong time, where a Draugr was hiding out—a human barely holding on to consciousness. She burned herself and the whole place down. I barely got out alive.”
I shook my head. “If what you say is true, how are you so cavalier about these dragons? You’ve seen first-hand what they can do, same as me.”
“Because the dragons are harmless, Daella,” he said, suddenly reaching out to cup my cheek. I shuddered as the steam danced between us, at the feel of his strong hand against my skin. “They just want to live in peace, and they don’t want anyone to use their power. No one truly can, anyway. They run too hot. You’ll get burned just by being too near them.”
“People did it before,” I argued. “They bonded with them.”
“Using Fildur sand. No one has any of that here on the Isles.”
“Are you certain? Have you tried to bond with them without the sand?”
His hand dropped away. “I did try, but only when I first brought them here. They…chose me, I think. Infused me with some kind of protection against their heat. I was able to carry them without getting burned, but I’m unable to touch them now. They’ve gotten too big. I can go inside their cave, but I have to keep my distance.”
I thought back to everything I knew about dragons and Draugr, which wasn’t much. Most of what I knew had come from the emperor himself. Decades ago, orcs had lived in harmony with dragons, though they’d always kept their distance, choosing to live amongst the rural mountains away from civilization. They never took their fires to our people, to our lands. Until one day when elves and humans started bonding with them. That was what Isveig had told me.
“Have you ever seen someone bond with a dragon?” I asked Rivelin, uncomfortably aware that he still stood so close I could see tiny beads of water on his forehead. Not sweat, I realized. More steam, just from being so near to me. My heart pattered almost painfully.
“No,” he murmured.
“Then how can we be certain someone here won’t find a way to do it?”
He raised a brow. “We? Have you decided you’re on our side, then?”
“I…I don’t know.” I twisted away. The luscious night breeze rushed in with the waves, bringing with it dark clouds, cooling my neck and cheeks. Suddenly, I felt far too hot.
Rivelin loosed a frustrated sigh. “How can you still want to tell your emperor about us after everything I’ve told you? I thought you were fucking different, Daella.”
He moved away, and the sound of his footsteps faded as he left me there on the beach with nothing but my ruined heart to keep me company.
“Wait,” I called out, fisting my hands.
He paused at the edge of the trees.
“I don’t want to tell the emperor, but I don’t know how to keep it from him when I go back. And I am going back because I have to, or I’ll die,” I found myself saying. “He’ll find a way to get it out of me, Rivelin. I’m strong, but he knows how to break me down. And even if I manage to hold out, he’ll be curious about where I disappeared to for so long and why I don’t want to tell him much. He’ll send others here.” I sucked in a sharp breath and continued. “There’s only one way forward. You have to win the damn Games and let me leave before you ask the island to protect this place. Then no matter what he does or what he makes me tell him, he can never reach you.”
Rivelin strode across the sandy beach, his tunic rippling in the wind. “You shouldn’t have to go back there.”
“No, I shouldn’t,” I said. “But unless you know how to remove this shard, then I’m bound to him for the rest of my fucking life.”
“Have you tried?”
“Removing it? Well over a dozen times. It’s impossible.”
He opened his mouth, but he was interrupted by the crack of thunder overhead. A harsh wind suddenly blew in from the waves, more insistent than the steady breeze from before. I tipped back my head to see dark, angry clouds crackling with lightning. I’d been so focused on Rivelin and our conversation that I hadn’t noticed the storm rolling in.
“No,” I mumbled, my stomach twisting. “For the love of fate, no more water. I haven’t even healed yet from the last time. I need to get that tent out quickly.”
“Come on. Let me carry you.” He held out a hand, and his eyes held far more meaning than his words. This was an olive branch. “Elves run fast. I can get you back to Wyndale before the rain starts.”
“You can’t be serious, Rivelin. I can’t let you carry me. I’ll just wait it out in the tent until the storm passes. I’ve done it dozens of times before.”
“I want to help you.” And from the intensity of his gaze, it felt like he was talking about more than just this storm.
But what could he do? What could anyone do?
“We won’t get back in time. It’s impossible,” was all I said.
Rivelin suddenly scooped me into his arms before I could protest. His eyes were bright when he said, “Where’d all that smiling optimism go, eh?”
“You made it very clear you know all that’s a lie.”
“Perhaps it doesn’t have to be.”
Before I could find a suitable retort, he took off into the woods. He dashed through the trees with elegant speed, unleashing his full elven capabilities. The vegetation was nothing but a blur of verdant leaves and rustic brown, and loose strands of my dark hair whorled around my face. As I clung to his neck, I risked a glance at the determined set of his jaw and his eyes narrowed on the path ahead. There was a steady strength and power about him that he had not let me see until now. Rivelin, the stoic blacksmith, was a force to be reckoned with.
I had to admit it wasn’t an entirely unattractive feature.
We reached the village and the steps of his home in no time at all. And as the clouds boomed, releasing their cascade of rain, Rivelin threw open the door and deposited me inside. The warmth of his home enveloped me as the steady patter drummed the roof. I didn’t have a single speck of water on me.
“See?” Rivelin kicked the door shut and folded his arms, not even the slightest bit winded from his run. He smiled smugly. “Told you.”
“You’re going to be insufferable about it now, aren’t you?”
The door rattled as the wind gusted through the village streets. Rivelin took a step closer, the shadows of the dark house curling around his jaw. My heart rattled, and for a moment, I forgot what I’d asked him.