began to heat, and oh, oh, oh, but I did like using Leonora’s magic. I couldn’t deny it. If Saxon attacked, I would have a seriously good chance of defeating him. The power at my fingertips...
One minute bled into another, indecision stamped all over his face. He closed his eyes and breathed. With a heavy exhale, he faced me—and sheathed his weapon.
My fingertips cooled, and I slowly lowered my dagger. “Now, now, girls. All will be well. The warrior isn’t going to harm us. Are you, Sax? Say the words aloud so the whole class can hear.”
He jolted at the name Sax. Then he growled, “I vow I will not harm you—as long as you do not harm me or mine.”
I knew how loyal he was. Despite everything, I trusted his word.
“Go on, go meet him,” I urged, and the dragons waddled over to give him a good sniffing.
He stood stiff and silent, letting them do it. His tension mounted when Pagan nipped at his feathers, then doubled when Pyre sniffed and licked his boot. But again, he didn’t comment.
“We will raise them together,” Saxon announced, and nodded. “They will be our dragons. Yours and mine. You will not use them against me again.”
“I would never—” I pressed my lips into a thin line. I would never use the dragons against him, but Leonora certainly would. “How can we raise them together? We’re going to part in two weeks. Aren’t we?” Did he want to stay...together?
He jerked as if I’d elbowed him in the stomach, a violent reaction I didn’t understand. “You will continue to live in the palace. I will return to the Avian Mountains, but I will visit often.”
I didn’t know what I’d hoped he would say, I just knew that wasn’t it. A keen sense of irritation sharpened. With a wry tone, I told him, “How nice of you to take over my father’s role and plan my life for me.” Did I want to live in Sevón with my dragons? I didn’t know. Did I want to see Saxon, my fated one, every day?
Yes. No thought necessary. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
Withering roses.
“You expect to live in the mountains with me?” He shoved the question past clenched teeth. “Only a fool would welcome the Burner of Worlds into their home. My people would revolt.”
Ouch. I’d known it, and I even agreed, but the insult still hurt. “I might decide to return to Fleur and only visit on holidays.” I would move wherever my dragons were safest. I was a mother now and sacrifices had to be made. I knew the terrain in Fleur, having stared out at it for years from my bedroom window. I knew the seasons and traditions. Sevón was a mystery to me.
If I believed with one hundred percent certainty that Saxon would protect Pagan and Pyre for the whole of his life, though, I would absolutely make Sevón my forever home, despite the risks.
“We’ll find a way to make our situation work. Together.” He sounded resigned, but also...lighter, as if he’d shed a boulder he’d been dragging around. “So, we’re parents now. That’s a first for us.” He eased onto the edge of the bed.
I hated to ask but... “The children you had with your wives.” The families he’d made after parting with Leonora. “If they died, how did your family line continue?”
“At least one avian with Skylair blood has always survived the turmoil, as if magically blessed in some way.” He scoured a hand over his face, leaving a glaze of shock behind. “Who else knows about the existence of the dragons?”
“The oracle and the witch, of course.” I bet he’d been an amazing father. Protective to the extreme. He would never send his child away for inadvertently hurting someone. “Maybe, um, Milo? Although, if the warlock knew, he would have told my father, who would have demanded answers.”
Still and stiff again, he quietly asked, “Why is there a chance Milo knows?”
I couldn’t tell him about the nighttime meetings. I just couldn’t. Not yet. His willingness to work with the dragons had me rethinking my never-admit-the-truth plan, but I wasn’t there yet. Especially since he admitted he believed I was different from Leonora. He’d misunderstood the details, but the concept still applied. “He’s powerful, and he could know things,” was all I said, and it was the truth without being the full truth.
Saxon didn’t relax in the slightest.
When the dragons took flight, their wrestling match revived, the avian scanned the