CHAPTER FIFTEEN Maren 
The dragons lay side by side on the ground, large enough that they might convincingly pass for two small hills to an unobservant passerby. There was no question that these were the two we had encountered with Naava—I remembered their coloring, a matched dark green pair.
Since we couldn’t be sure of how the horse would react to being in close proximity to the dragons, we left Clem tethered to one of the only trees still standing. The dragon kit squirmed, and I let her out onto the ground. I wasn’t certain how to proceed. At least the dragons weren’t actively attacking, but it seemed that was only because they’d decided to rest—or they had run out of things to burn. They appeared to be sleeping.
The kit darted through the ash, kicking particles into the air. I coughed, my eyes smarting. After I wiped my face, I realized that she was gone.
No, not gone—she was heading straight for the dragons.
Stop! Come back!
She spared me one glance over her shoulder before trotting off determinedly once again. I chased after her as quietly as I could. She was so small in comparison. What would happen if she woke them? Forget malice—they could just as easily crush her if they rolled over in their sleep.
I lunged and missed—the kit dodged away from me and leaped, bounding until she was close enough to the other dragons to touch them. I stopped in my tracks, throwing out an arm to stop Kaia from passing me. If our motion did not stir them, they could certainly smell us at this point. If they were awake. And I very much wanted them not to be awake.
The kit stretched out her neck and sniffed at one of the dragons’ claws. Then she darted back, as if surprised by her own daring. When neither of the dragons stirred, she did it again. And then reached out a claw and poked at a tail.
Kaia let out a small cry. One large yellow eye shot open, and I clapped a hand over my mouth to stifle my own scream. My heart rate soared.
The eye fluttered almost closed—and then opened again.
The kit looked up at the dragon in awe and chirped in greeting.
The dragon lifted its head lazily. I held my breath as it leaned down to sniff the dragon kit. The kit let out another little chirp and bounced on her feet excitedly. Then she turned toward me, her tail flicking.
The older dragon turned as well. Its eyes narrowed as it saw us so close, and it spread its wings, knocking the other dragon into wakefulness. The air stilled and heated, and I knew that if I did not intervene, we were about to burn.
Please listen, I said, holding my hands out, palms up, to show that I had no weapons. I was there when Naava freed you from the Talons. Do you remember?
The dragon looked beyond me, her gaze inward. Yes, she said slowly, her voice low and musical. There was a dragon. Carrying humans. Her eyes narrowed again, and I realized that a dragon carrying humans was bound to remind her of the Talons.
I’m not a Talon, I said. I promise. Naava carried me because she chose to. And she wanted you to have that choice as well. The dragon’s wings wavered, then folded in as she considered what I’d said. This was going better than I’d feared. I took a tentative step toward her.
Then where is she? said the dragon that had been silent until now, a male. If the mother freed us, then where is she now? Why are you here instead? Why do you have a hatchling?
The dragon kit chirped again, climbing up onto the male’s tail. The scene would have been amusing were it not for how close we were to disaster.
Naava has been ill for some time. She has gone to—
There was a thin whistling in the air, and the female dragon’s eyes widened before she heaved upright, casting herself into the air.
Run! For the hatchling, RUN!
I was slow to react. Too slow. I turned, feeling as though the world was whirling while I stood still. A hot wind cast ash against my face, and I put up a hand to shield my eyes. Over the distant hill flew four Talons, their dragons screaming battle cries as they ripped toward us, spitting fire—
The male dragon swept Kaia and me backward with his tail. We flew several feet before landing hard, just as a plume of fire obliterated the ground where we had been standing. The dragon kit tumbled against my stomach. Then the dragon launched into the air, against the Talons. Kaia scrambled to her feet and grabbed my hand, pulling me up. We had to get out of here—but what about the dragons?
Go to Ilvera! I shouted to them. Find Naava.
I had no time to share anything else with them, for one of the Talons broke formation and veered off to the side, around the freed dragons. I picked up the kit, and Kaia and I ran.
How had they found us here? Had the Talons been hunting the dragons, or us?
No time to consider that now. Clem was still tethered where we had left her. I passed the dragon kit to Kaia, then grabbed the reins and swung up into the saddle. Kaia handed the kit back to me, and hoisted herself up. I wheeled around and urged the horse into a canter. But where could we go?
The village being razed meant that we could see for miles around—but the Talons could see us as well. The sun was already setting—would the coming dark give us cover? I didn’t know how well dragons could see at night.
Wait—was that a line of trees on the far side of the burnt fields?
Too late to make any other decision. We didn’t stand a chance against four Talons ready for battle. I steered Clem toward the trees and held the dragon kit steady in front of me as the horse lengthened her stride into a gallop.
Heat touched the back of my neck, and a dragon roared somewhere above me. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that one of the freed dragons had managed to block a Talon from following us.
I couldn’t look any longer, not without losing my seat. Clem galloped, crossing from the farmed fields into wild grasses, and then the trees.
Immediately the air changed around us. No longer dry summer—the air was damp and cool, the trees forming a canopy that blocked the sky almost completely. I could barely hear the dragons’ skirmish from where we were now. It was as though a curtain had come down between us and the battle we had left behind.
Kaia’s arms tightened around my waist. “Where are we?” she whispered.
“I’m not sure,” I said. Within these trees, it felt as though we had left Zefed altogether. The last place that had felt so separate from the rest of the world had been Vir’s Passage. But I wasn’t sure I was ready to bargain with ghosts again. Especially when I hadn’t yet fulfilled the oath I’d made to the last ones.
Far above us a dragon shrieked, and my body tensed. Regardless of how far removed this forest felt, I couldn’t rely on a feeling to keep us safe. The trees hid us from view, but if the Talons defeated the freed dragons in battle, they would likely come after us next. We couldn’t rely on the cover of night. We had to keep moving. I nudged the horse gently, and we rode farther into the forest.
The longer we rode the more I suspected that this was indeed no ordinary forest. For one thing, it had appeared as just a small copse of trees from the outside. But we had been riding for at least an hour, and the trees showed no signs of ending. If anything, the forest seemed to get even denser the farther we went. There had to be something otherly at work here. The dragon kit sniffed the air from her seat in front of me, peering curiously around at our surroundings.
Kaia pressed her face against my back. “I don’t like it here,” she said.
“I think it will be all right,” I said softly.
But there was a chill in the air, and she was shivering against my back. We could not continue as we were going, not for long. We needed to find shelter.
I pulled Clem to a halt.
“What are you doing?” Kaia asked.
I looked around. “When was the last time you heard a dragon cry? I think we’ve left them behind. And the Talons wouldn’t come after us on foot. We should try to find a place to rest.”
“Are you sure?” she said doubtfully.
“Yes,” I said, making myself sound more confident than I felt. “Besides, Clem needs to rest too. She’s traveled a long way today.”
We dismounted. I let the dragon kit onto the ground, and Kaia took Clem’s reins as we picked our way carefully through the trees. I wished for a clearly marked path. The tree canopy was so thick that it would be impossible to navigate by the stars. What if there was a presence here, and it was malevolent? What if the price for trespassing was being doomed to wander forever, until we died of exhaustion?
Suddenly Kaia raised a hand and pointed. “Look, there’s a light!”
I followed her gaze. She was right. There in the distance, a light shone clearly. “I’m not sure,” I said.
“What’s not to be sure about? If there’s a light, there must be people.”
Or ghosts, I thought darkly. But it seemed our best option. “All right. Let’s investigate.”
We crept as quietly as we could through the trees. After a while, the light resolved into a square of light—a window in a small house, snugly built. There didn’t seem to be any movement inside.
“Let’s wait to see if anyone comes out,” Kaia suggested.
But strangely, the house seemed warm and welcoming. I couldn’t put it into words, but I felt certain that there was no one here tonight—that somehow, this house was meant for us. “Let’s go inside,” I said.
Kaia shot me a look of pure horror. “But anyone could be in there!”
“I know,” I said. “I can’t explain it, but it feels like we were meant to come here.”
She looked skeptical but didn’t stop me as I approached the house and knocked tentatively on the door. When there was no answer, I pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The house was one large central room, with a fireplace on one side and a bed on the other. A large pot hung over the fire. I walked over and found it was filled with Zefedi porridge, heavy with dried apples and cinnamon. I inhaled and felt instantly ravenous.
“Someone was clearly just here,” Kaia said from the doorway. “We should go.”
“No,” I said. “I think we should eat.” The dragon kit chirped in agreement.
“I think we shouldn’t,” Kaia said. “We already have perfectly good food.” She held up her pack, and I frowned. While the villagers had given us fresh supplies, I didn’t know how long we would be on the road. It seemed imprudent not to take what had been offered.
“I know this sounds ridiculous, but… I don’t think we would be stealing. I think this is for us.” I looked at the table, where two wooden bowls had been set out with spoons. I wasn’t completely convinced that they had been there before I walked into the room.
There was a definite presence here. But unlike the ghosts of Vir’s Passage, this presence didn’t feel malevolent. Merely… watchful. Not for the first time, I was reminded that this land was older than the empire. There was knowledge and memory in this earth that I had no understanding of.
“I think the house wants us to eat. It wants us to feel at ease. Safe.”
“Or this could all be a trap,” Kaia said, though she still looked longingly at the food.
I took a bowl and spooned porridge into it. “You can eat our rations, if it makes you feel better. But I’m eating the porridge.”
Kaia was too hungry, or too exhausted, to hold out any longer. She sighed and took a bowl for herself, and we sat at the table and ate.
Despite Kaia’s apprehension over the mysterious porridge, nothing untoward happened while we ate. When our bellies were full and our hunger sated, we sat back against our chairs and stretched out our legs. The dragon kit ate porridge straight from my bowl, and when she was done, she dragged a small blanket off the bed and onto the floor. She patted it into a nest, turned around three times, and immediately fell asleep in front of the fire.
Kaia couldn’t help but chuckle at that, and I laughed along with her.
“I feel better,” I said, kicking off my shoes.
Indeed, it felt as though my burdens had, if not been lifted from my shoulders, at least somewhat lightened. The troubles that we had already faced and the challenges that remained ahead were somewhere outside these walls. Inside this house, it felt like nothing could touch us.
Kaia stood and took off her jacket, then folded it over the chair. She stretched her arms toward the ceiling, and a smile broke across her face as she tilted her head back. She looked relaxed, even happy. She looked like herself.
I wanted to go to her, but I felt suddenly shy. I hadn’t forgotten the argument we’d been having before the dragon attack interrupted us. It seemed like we’d circled the same fight over and over the last few days without coming to any new understanding. But she was still Kaia, and she was smiling at me.
I stood up and held out my hand. She came to me, putting her hand in mine. I raised it to my lips and pressed a kiss to the center of her palm.
“It’s going to be all right,” I said, as much to myself as to her.
She nodded, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. But when I leaned in to kiss her, she pulled back.
“What’s wrong?” I said.
“I feel—I don’t even want to ask this. But I have to know. Maren, did anything happen between you and Sev while you were traveling together?”
“What? No!” I said.
Kaia pressed further. “I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t blame you. I’m sure it was an awful situation. You didn’t know if I would still be alive, there were times when you almost died—”
“Nothing ever happened between us, Kaia. I promise. You’re my heartmate.”
But guilt still flooded through me. The Prophet had said heartmates. And I had kissed Sev in a dream. Worse than that, I’d wanted to kiss him in reality.
But no. The Prophet had been a liar, and I controlled my actions. I controlled my fate. Kaia was my heartmate. Nothing was going to change that.
“Come here,” I said, pulling Kaia into a fierce hug. We stood that way for some long minutes, letting the warmth of the house seep into our bones. “I love you,” I whispered into her ear, and I felt her smile against my cheek.
“I love you,” she replied.
I ran my fingers through her hair, then untied her robe and let it pool down on the floor. I knelt before her and pulled off her boots, then fumbled with the ties on her pants before getting them free. Then I stripped off my shirt and stagger-hopped out of the rest of my clothes as Kaia giggled. We were both smudged with ash, but she was still the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. The firelight flickered over our skin as I framed her face between my hands, leaned in, and kissed her.
The last time we had been together had been hazy and urgent. Tonight was different. Tonight I took her hand and led her to the bed, and she lay down hesitantly, waiting for me to join her. I tripped as I climbed in, catching a hand on her stomach.
“Ow, Maren!”
“Sorry! Are you all right?” I landed next to her, and we lay side by side.
Kaia held up a hand. “It’s fine.” But she made no move to pick up where we had left off.
Usually Kaia led when we were intimate. Without her taking charge, I almost didn’t know what to do.
The fire crackled, and the dragon kit snuffled in her sleep. I turned onto my side and propped up my head with one hand so that I could see Kaia’s face. She was staring at the ceiling, hands over her stomach.
“Do you just want to sleep?” I asked.
She looked at me. “No,” she said softly. “Kiss me?”
There was something she wasn’t saying, but I was afraid to ask what it was.
So instead of speaking, I did as she asked. I kissed her, and trailed my fingers across her breasts and along the curve of her hip. When I touched her, she pressed herself against me fiercely, biting my shoulder and holding my hand in place until she let out a small choked sigh and lay still, breathing quietly in the dark. She was the most precious thing, and I was inconceivably lucky that she was my own.
She was still Kaia, and I was still Maren. We were going to be all right. I would make it so.