Page 81 of Hearts on Fire
“Nice try.” I moved along the wall to stay right below him.
Worlds had not separated Elex and me. The River of Mists hadn’t pulled us apart. There was nothing that would keep us away from each other now.
Diving under his attackers, Elex flew to me.
“Climb up.” He hovered next to the wall where I stood.
I jumped onto his shoulders, then straddled him, my legs on each side of his neck. As he took off again, I split my fire circle into two, one for each hand.
Elex turned his large head my way. For one tiny moment our eyes met. The awe in his expression was mixed with pride. His eyes twinkled.
“The one on the right is yours, my fire bender.” He breathed fire at the dragon on his left.
The moment the one on the right opened his mouth, I flicked my hand. The ring of fire slipped from my wrist like a Frisbee. Smaller and less dramatic than a dragon’s blast, it slid through the air, attracting little attention. It leaped into the dragon’s throat, making him choke. He rolled in the air, his wings wrapping into a funnel.
Before his body even hit the rocks below, the remaining dragons stood back. Making a wide circle around us, they took off, away from the Bozyr Peak.
“That’s right!” I yelled, bouncing on Elex’s neck. “Get out of here.” I tossed the remaining fire circle after them. “And don’t ever come back!”
Twenty-Four
AMBER
Acloaked figure entered the royal chamber and approached the king’s massive bed where Elex had brought Isar.
“Can you heal her, Grandmother?” he asked.
The woman fisted the folds of her worn cloak. The skin on her hands was crisscrossed by tiny fissures, like cracks in a stone. That was a sign of aging in gargoyles. Except that the hags didn’t age, I heard. Theyalwayslooked old. This woman could be my age, for all I knew. A hag’s youth and beauty were the price she paid for the knowledge unattainable for any other fae.
Knowledge gave them power. Only this woman didn’t look that powerful to me. Her back hunched over, she shuffled her bare feet, manacled together by a chain. She wasn’t the respected and powerful royal hag in the castle. She was a prisoner in the Bozyr Peak, tricked by King Edkhar into serving him.
“What will I get if I help thesalamandra?” the hag croaked from under her hood.
“Your freedom,” Elex replied simply.
She paused, startled, then demanded, “Give me your promise.”
“You have it,” he assured her. “In fact, I’ll free you right now if you tell me how. I’m sure a simple lock is not what keeps you in chains.”
She glanced down at her feet. The metal cuffs around her ankles had chafed her skin into wounds that bled. “I’m bound to the king.”
“King Edkhar is dead.”
“Is he? And are you the new king?” she asked carefully. “Because if so, my vow of service to the king would pass to you with his crown.”
Elex inclined his head, as if introducing himself to a new acquaintance. “Yes. I am the king now.”
“Your Majesty.” The hag bowed her head. “I’m in your service.”
Elex wasn’t wearing the king’s crown yet. The ruby Crown of Dakath was in the Throne Room, waiting for the official ceremony to be placed on the new king’s head. But he didn’t need to wear the crown to act like the king he was born to be.
“Let me make this right.” He kneeled at the feet of the woman and touched the chain that bound her ankles. “I, Elex, King of the Dakath Mountains, release you.”
Magic swirled through the room, stirring the frayed hem of the hag’s cloak. The chain clanked, dropping to the floor as the manacles clicked open.
“Ahhh.” The hag stood straighter, her back no longer hunched over. She rolled her shoulders, stretching her neck, as if she’d just climbed out of a cage that was too small to stand upright.
“Now, please, share your gift and your skills with us,” Elex requested. “If you help this woman, I’ll reward you.”