Page 87 of Shadow Wings

After some insistence, the two men took a third each of therabbit.

Tyrrik took the water skin from Dyter after the old man had a few gulps. The Drae handed it to me a moment later. I guzzled back the nectar Tyrrik offered and then focused for a few seconds before passing the water skinback.

We continued our climb, our pace slowing further as fatigue settled in. Dyter puffed as he led the way, stopping to consult his compass more frequently as afternoon settledin.

“Are we going to make it?” I asked. My question wasn’t to anyone in particular, and the answer didn’t even matter, not really. The silence was driving me crazy, and I wanted something to fill it.The silence. I hadn’t noticed Tyrrik in my head since the moment by thefire.

I whirled around and stared athim.

Why aren’t you in my head?I pushed my thought at him and couldn’t help the tone of accusation that leaked with it. Usually, when the Drae was conscious, I could feel little spikes of his emotion, andusually,he spoke to me several times even when I didn’t want him in there. What hadchanged?

He lifted his head and met my gaze. His face was lined with exhaustion that made my heartache.

“It’s an invasion of your privacy for me to be in your head without your permission, and I shouldn’t have done it before now. Not without asking you if that was okay,” Tyrrik said; his sad smile touched the deep recesses of my heart. “I’m sorry, Ryn,” he said in a weary voice. “I want to say I never meant to take advantage of you, but that would be a lie because I wanted to establish a presence inside you. I forced my way in when you were vulnerable in the castle. I gave over to my mating instincts when I should have tapered them. But I . . . don’t want that to be how we start, how we might go on. Not anymore. You were right. We’re not in the castle. I’m not under a blood oath. I need to stop acting that way.” He released a shakingbreath.

I blinked. Trying to make sense of why his reasonable statement and thoughtful apology made me so unreasonably angry while simultaneously breaking myheart.

I faced forward and asked Dyter’s back, “Did you tell him that’s how Ifelt?”

“No,” theychorused.

I turned back toTyrrik.

He watched me, inky eyes pools of darkness that seemed to mirror his soul’ssecrets.

I located the source of my anger as I stared into his eyes, and it wasn’t what I’d expected. I was oddly thankful Tyrrik had forced his way in, against my better judgment, because how would I have ever opened that door between us? Now I’d experienced that mental connection, I could appreciate all the comfort having Tyrrik in my head had to offer. If the choice had been mine to speak in Tyrrik’s head first? I probably would have resisted it with everything I had. Even saying that, I knew on some level I’d clearly accepted our telepathy or I’d be fighting it still. Was that what I was doing with the mating bond? Was I resisting it just for the sake of resisting? Maybe Tyrrik’s behavior since being released from the blood oath wasn’t meant to be manipulative. Maybe he was just wary of giving his trust,too.

I opened my mouth to say something, but rational thought fled when I smelledthem. My body flooded with terror, and I whispered, “Druman.”

Tyrrik’s face blanched and his eyes widened as he inhaled me, my fear. His face hardened, his black eyes gaining a wild edge as he reacted to the terror seeping out of mypores.

I blinked, and in less than a heartbeat Tyrrik wasDrae.

He roared, a sound of defiance and challenge. Thrashing his tail, he twisted his neck and stomped as he tried to gain his footing on the mountain side. Talons clutching the boulders, he leapt into the air, whipped in a circle, and exhaled a stream of scalding fire into the trees behind us. Druman’s screams filled the air. Tyrrik bellowed his hatred into the sky, neck outstretched. Roaring flames devoured the trees, and Dyter’s loud gasp echoed in myears

Tyrrik roared again, vibrant fire poured from between his deadly fangs, but there was something off about his roar. Then the world tilted, and as I fell back, already my mind told me the feeling of disorientation wasn’t originating from me. The air around his Drae form shimmered, and a full minute later, far too long I knew, Tyrrik’s human form lay in the dirt. Agony squeezed my chest, wringing my heart until I saw him lift hishead.

Go, Tyrrik mouthed, his face white and sweating.The emperor will come.The effort of shifting to kill the Druman had completely drainedhim.

I grabbed Dyter. “Can you point me toGemond?”

I didn’t wait for him to answer. I shifted, the change rippling over me in the time it took me to exhale. I scooped Dyter into one foreclaw and Tyrrik into the other, leaping into the air using my hind legs as soon as I had themsecure.

I screamed my rage across the mountain peaks, wishing I could exact revenge on the dead Druman all over again for taking what little energy Tyrrik had. But Tyrrik’s and Dyter’s safety took precedence over everything right now. I had to get them tosafety.

Something pinched me, and I heard Dyter’s muffled voice yell, “Tootight.”

I loosened my grip on the two males in my claws and pushed higher into the air. As soon as I’d cleared the mountaintops, I realized I didn’t need Dyter to tell me the way to Gemond. I could see the kingdom fromhere.

The minutes as I bolted across the skies felt like hours. Each second, I imagined the emperor’s flames licking the back of my neck, but my initial panic about Tyrrik diminished as I studied his state through our touch. He was unconscious but still breathing. There was no gold Phaetyn poison in his pitch-black Drae; he was literallydepleted.

My fear had set him off. He hadn’t been able to resist shifting after he inhaled and my terror hit him. He’d pushed himself for me, all this time, again and again. He . . . truly couldn’t control his reaction to me. I hadn’t believed him untilnow.

Yet Tyrrik was trying to control his reaction, against his very instincts, because I had been unable to understand why he couldn’t act as human males would, as Arnik might have done, even as Kamoi would have. What did it say that Tyrrik was doing that, something which I could now see was near impossible for a Drae, all forme?

The setting sun bathed the valley of Gemond in warm golden light as I soared down the final mountainside to the valley below. The realm was surrounded by majestic peaks, and like in Verald, the castle was nestled in the center of the vale. I pushed my emotions into the recesses of my mind, locking them away to deal with later. Later, when we were safe. Later, when we weren’t being chased by Druman. Later, when the King of Gemond hopefully didn’t eat us. Later, when . . . There would never be a perfect time to discuss what Tyrrik and I needed to, so I settled on the next best thing.Later, when Tyrrik was consciousagain.

I landed outside the granite gates and bellowed my arrival before setting Tyrrik and Dyter down on the ground. Being afraid of landing with them hadn’t occurred to me which showed how stupid a thing fearwas.