Page 41 of House of Ashes
Although most of my plans had revolved around eventually making my way to their eyrie, I still was unsure of their allegiance, or why they’d give a damn about a traitor’s child.
I looked up to find Rhylan and Kirana exchanging glances, communicating silently in the way of siblings.
“Sera…most of Akalla believes you are dead,” she said delicately.
I stared at her.
“The plan is to upstage whatever Yura and Tidas have planned at the First Claim by revealing Drakkon Nasir’s eldest daughter to be alive, well, and mate bonded to another royal dragon. Shock and awe.” Rhylan’s lips pulled into the cocky grin that used to melt my heart. “No amount of intimidation on their part will rival that. It’ll completely change the stakes for all the Houses—your House is ancient and godsdamned wealthy, and as his firstborn, you have the rightful claim as his heir.”
His words slid right through my ears. They’d all believed me to be dead?
I had wondered why no one had retrieved me, or sent so much as a single message after my mother had died. Once she was in the ground, my sentence should have been over, or at least given second thought.
I’d crept into Farpost not long after burying her, spending my last three stolen half-moons to send a brief message to Koressis Eyrie, informing the Drakkon of her death.
But no one had come for me. No one had responded.
That message had turned into two more years of loneliness, of fear and heartache and homesickness, of barely clinging to life at times by the tips of my claws…because my father did not want to acknowledge that I still lived.
“That’s why no one came for me,” I said, my lips numb. Everything was numb. “That’s why I was left alone in that hellhole.”
Rhylan’s smile slipped, and he reached for me. I darted out of reach, hugging myself. “Did you know?”
“The Drakkon himself claimed you were dead,” Kirana said quickly, her eyes darting between me and her brother. “And we all believed it until three weeks ago, when he made his deathbed confession. We, and the Jade Leaves, were the only ones who were told otherwise. We weren’t permitted to retrieve you, Sera. It was a direct order of the Drakkon that you remain on Mistward Isle until his last breath…and he said to leave you there, if we could.”
Gods, my chest hurt. If a clawed fist punched its way through my ribs and gripped my organs, it couldn’t hurt worse than this.
I turned and fled the map room, blindly bouncing off walls as I ran anywhere but there.
“This way,” a shadow whispered in a chorus of voices. Erebos surrounded me, a cloud of smoke and scales that herded me down corridors until I found myself standing in my borrowed bedroom.
I couldn’t find the voice to thank him. The Ascendant vanished, leaving me blessedly alone.
I slammed the door shut and locked it, bracing my back to the wood and sliding to the floor.
My cruel, hateful father…the Nine Hells were not cold enough for him.
Had he hated me so much that he couldn’t stand to see me alive? Why not simply order the execution, instead of allowing me to die slowly?
I buried my face in my hands, but no tears came. I simply felt empty.
“Serafina.” The soft voice on the other side of the door belonged to Rhylan.
I bared my teeth against my palms.
The door creaked as a weight pressed against it from the other side. There was the soft sound of cloth sliding against wood, and when Rhylan spoke again, his voice sounded closer.
He was sitting back to back with me, on the other side of the door.
“It was strictly forbidden,” he said. His voice was quiet, but the silence in the eyrie was almost deafening; I heard every word clearly. “It was the one order I’ve ever seen him enforce with pure viciousness. When you were first sent away, I wanted to go after you, and…your father threatened to cut off my wings if I tried.”
To threaten to cut off a dragon’s wings was one of the worst threats anyone could make. Even death was preferable.
He must have truly despised me. I clutched my stomach, willing the stabbing pains to go away.
“He told me you died shortly after that. I spent years believing you had perished out there. And after he took ill, he shocked us all when he told us you’d been alive this entire time…and told us, that if by the grace of the gods you had made a life for yourself on Mistward…that we were to leave you there.” Rhylan was silent for a long moment. “I wasn’t given a reason for that. We made our plans while we waited for him to die, and I left as soon as I heard that last breath. I was determined to bring you back before the news arrived on Mistward, but the damn ferrymen were just as quick. I had to search for you, you see. I had no idea where you would be, so I went into the tavern hoping to dig for information. But when you walked by me in there, I smelled you, and I knew—”
He stopped himself. I listened to the sound of his even breaths.