Scarlett Meris's Arc

Chapter 9 of 15

Scarlett sat on the back step of the healing house with the rune-sword across her knees. The two dragons Rain had brought were bedded down in the yard behind her, breathing slow. The third, the small blue with the bad wing, was somewhere north and bleeding. She had watched the sky until it went dark and the stars did not tell her anything. Kieran came around the side of the house without a lantern. He walked the way he always walked here, hands in his coat, crown out of sight. He stopped when he saw her face. Whatever he had come to say, he set it down. "You shouldn't be out alone," he said. "Neither should you." He sat on the step below hers. Close enough that his shoulder touched her knee. The crystals set into the eaves above the door threw soft color across the yard, pink and green over the sleeping dragons. The house did not know what had happened today. It kept glowing the way it always did. "They saw you under her," Scarlett said. "They saw me let it happen." "I know." "One flew north. It won't let me near." "Then we find another way to it." He looked at his hands. The dragon-scale buttons on his cuff caught the light. "My uncle used my name to get close enough. He'll do it again. I brought him there." "You didn't pull the bolt." "I stood under her." She put her hand on the back of his neck before she decided to. His hair was damp from the ride. He went still, then leaned into her palm like a man who had not been touched in a long time. She felt the shape of him give. "Kieran." "Say it plain." "I don't know if I can trust you." Her thumb moved against his skin anyway. "And I want to." He turned his face up to her. Violet eyes, too close. "I've been coming here every night since the first one landed. Ask the old dragon inside. She stopped watching the door." "That's not the same as telling me." "It's what I have." She leaned down. He met her halfway. The kiss was short and not gentle. When she pulled back his hand was on her wrist and hers was in his coat, and the crown pressed hard against her knuckles through the lining. She felt it and stopped. He felt her feel it. He did not let go of her wrist. "The injured one that flew north," she said. "We go at dawn. Both of us. On one dragon. If a dragon will still carry you." "And if it won't?" "Then we walk." He nodded once. He kept her wrist a moment longer, then stood and went inside to the old dragon who trusted him. Scarlett stayed on the step with the sword and the crown-shaped bruise on her hand, and waited for morning.