Chapter 65 The Truth Among Friends pt1
“Here’s what we know,” Alric begins. “Malachi came stumbling back to the fortress bloody and bruised, saying he had no memory of how he got into the volcano. Silas immediately took him under his wing and hid him, but not before it was overheard that Cinder is well…cinders.”
I chuckle wryly, leaning my back against the wyvern. She’s yet to let me even try to stand, but I’ve never felt so protected as I do with her massive tail on my lap and her head hovering over mine.
“Thorne went to look for himself and came back in a fury. He had your daggers. He broke down the door to Silas’ lair and held them at his throat demanding answers. Of course, Silas only grinned and tilted his chin up.”
“Snake,” I mutter.
“There was evidence of the dragon attack, but none of you other than your daggers and Steel’s sword, which led Thorne to him next. That's when Zaries heard everything and both captain and trainee told Thorne what transpired last night.” Alric’s eyes narrow on me, the startling blue a shock under his red and gray hair. “Do you have a death wish, Anara? It’s been incredibly hard to protect you.”
“I have my reasons…” I hedge, refusing to make eye contact. “Why are you protecting me, anyway? You said you have things to talk to me about, and I think it’s about time you tell me why you’re protecting me at all.”
“Before I tell you, there's something more important you need to know. Thorne is convinced Silas and Cinder worked together. He can’t prove it, and since Silas is the queen's brother, it would be treacherous to accuse him without that proof. We think that’s why he’s protecting Malachi.”
“Everyone and everything wants me dead, Alric. That’s not new. I want to know what you know. Now.” I give him my best menacing stare, but the older man just grins at me.
“Alright, I’ll tell you.” He chuckles, running a hand through his hair. “You’re just like her, you know that?”
“Like who?”
“Your mother.”
My heart stops beating, my breath halts. I feel like Alric just reached in and struck me from the inside out.
“What?” I croak, my mouth gone dry.
The wyvern growls again, sensing my distress.
“Anara, I’ve been looking for you for a long, long time.” Alric pauses, then reaches forward and gently takes my hand in his. “I was friends with your mother. When she disappeared that day, I just knew she went to give birth. But then…”
“Then what?” I squeeze his hand, desperate for any piece of information about the life I was meant for. About my parents. Anything.
Information I never thought I’d have.
“We found her, but she…she wasn’t alive. You were nowhere to be seen. She’d been… Anara, she’d been murdered.”
“What? Why? Who would murder a pregnant woman?” My voice is shrill, pained. I try to get up on my knees but the wyvern holds me down firmly.
“Your mother, she was important, Anara. You come from a long line of very important females, she—” Alric sucks in a sharp breath. “I can’t tell you everything right now, but just know I dedicated my entire life to proving you were still alive. Now that I’ve found you, I can take you home. I failed to protect your mother, but I will not fail to protect you. Do you understand?”
I shake my head, unable to make sense of anything this man is saying.
Searching for me? Proving I’m alive?
Home?
“What was her name?” I ask, tears suddenly clogging my throat.
“Nyxaria, that’s what she liked to be called.”
“Nyxaria…” I say her name slowly, tasting every syllable. “Wait, that’s what she liked to be called? What’s her real name?”
“Loverboy incoming!” Sylvain shouts.
My head jerks up, expecting to see Zaries, but it’s not. A murky shadow streaks across the sky led by Bane’s powerful alicorn. On his back, alone, is Oberon. His face is the picture of rage, but when his eyes land on me, the anger melts immediately into relief.
Felonious tucks his wings and dives. Before his hooves hit the ground, Oberon jumps off and races toward me. The wyvern growls, arching her neck ready to blow fire, but Oberon ignores her completely.
His hands clasp my face, his blue eyes watery pools. “Are you…”
“I’m alright. Shivvers healed me,” I whisper, covering his hands with my own.
Oberon glances at Alric. “I’d like a word with her. Alone.”
Alric’s brows twitch as his body stiffens. He opens his mouth, but I quickly jump in. “It’s okay. Oberon’s a friend.” It seems anything else Alric had to tell me is going to have to wait.
Alric glances at me, then Oberon, then rises to his feet. He mutters something under his breath, something that suspiciously sounds like, “Anyone from the Obsidian Reach court is no friend.”
He stalks away, Shivvers and Felonious trotting behind him, flanks brushing.
Oberon either doesn’t hear him or ignores him. He flicks a glance at the protective wyvern, clearly decides she’s still not a threat, and shuffles closer. “I was so worried,” he breathes.
A smile ghosts over my lips. “For a few moments, so was I.” The magic I’ve harnessed couldn’t save me. I was little more than a lamb served up for dragon dinner, already half-roasted thanks to Cinder and the volcano.
The wyvern tightens her body, the thick tail tucking me in closer as if to promise me she’ll always be here to protect me. I pull back from Oberon to run a hand over her smooth scales, marveling at the coppery color. At the right angle, in the right light, a shimmer of green ripples over their surface.
“That thing needs to go,” Oberon says sharply.
I stiffen. “Thing?” I’m already shaking my head as I raise my gaze to his, pushing away memories of the way Elsie treated the wyvern like a toy. “She saved my life, Obie. We wouldn’t be having this conversation if it weren’t for her protection.”
“That’s why I haven’t killed her yet.” He flicks a disgusted look at the wyvern. “I didn’t know they got this big. No wonder we kill them as juveniles.”
A low rumble rolls through the wyvern, powerful enough to make her scales ripple. The hint of emerald and ivy becomes more pronounced as her head lowers to glare at Oberon.
I shoot to my feet, half-noticing that there’s barely a twinge through the body that was battered and broken not long ago, and stand between Oberon and the beast who’s clearly aware she’s in the presence of a hater.
I pin Oberon with a hard stare. “She’s not to be harmed.”
His brows shoot up into his blond bangs. “Do you really think the captains or the slayers are going to be as understanding as I’ve been?”
Calling the wyvern a thing isn’t my definition of understanding, but my retort dies on my lips. Oberon’s right. Wyverns are hated because of the dragons they resemble. If any others arrive from the fortress, they’ll attack and ask questions later.
Slowly, I turned to the beautiful beast who protected me like I was her own youngling. The wyvern continues to glare at Oberon, her scaled lip rising to flash a row of sharp, pearly teeth. I can feel him stony and still behind me, no doubt glaring back. Raising my hand, I brush my palm down the thick ridges running down her maw.
She can’t stay here. It’s not safe.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “I owe you my life.”
Her reptilian eyes focus on me, unblinking as she gazes back. I can almost hear her response trickling through my mind. Now, we are even.
I nod. “It’s time for you to go.”
If Steel or Thorne were to arrive… I shudder at the thought of the bloodshed that would follow, and I have no idea whose it would be.
The wyvern doesn’t move for long seconds. Long enough for my pulse to start beating a nervous rhythm. Long enough for me to hear Oberon shift his weight behind me.
Then her body unwinds. Her wings extend. Her majestic head angles to the sky. With a powerful beat of her wings, she launches toward the sun, scattering rocks and debris. I raise my arm to protect my face from the onslaught of pebbles and harsh light, squinting as I try to watch her leave. But she’s smart—she angles straight for the blinding beams, her sinuous body twisting and weaving as if she’s braiding herself through them.
“Thank fuck for that,” Oberon growls. “That thing would’ve turned on you the moment she became hungry.”
Frowning, I turn. “She’s not a thing, and she wouldn’t—”
I’m swallowed by strong arms and then pressed against Oberon’s chest. “I’m just rattled. When you were gone…” A shuddering breath heaves through him.
My arms lift, hesitate, and then slip around his waist as I melt against him. “I’m fine.”
Thanks to a wyvern he despises. One I should’ve hated too all those years ago. Yet saving it—her—meant I could be here, breathing, healed, holding the guy whose heart rate is only just starting to settle.