Violet Stormwing's Arc

Chapter 34 of 46

Violet spent two days in the forgotten valley, feeding the wild dragon and the pale wolf. Kira had gone. The waterfall filled the pool, and the huge dragon slept in the grass. Violet should have felt safe. She did not. She still wore the rose gold bracelet, the map that had led her here. Odette had given it to her. Odette would know what it had found. Every hour Violet expected the elf to step through the crack in the rim. On the third morning, she came. Odette crossed the grass without a sound. Her green hair hung to her waist. One eye was jade, the other violet, and both fixed on the sleeping dragon by the pool. She stopped and looked at it a long time. Then she looked at Violet. "You swore to leave it in peace," Odette said. Her voice was quiet. "I guided your brood to safety for that one promise. I asked for nothing else." Violet's throat tightened. The oath had bound her tongue for weeks. Now, standing before the elf she had wronged, she found she could speak again. "I broke it," she said. "I woke the dragon. I bonded it. I won't lie to you about that." Odette's jaw hardened. "Then you know what you've done. It cannot go back to sleep. It follows you now." She stepped closer. "Give me one reason not to lead Kael's men to your hollow this night." Violet had no proof of good faith. No treasure, no favor, no clever words to trade. She had only the truth. She unclasped the rose gold bracelet and held it out on her open palm. "Take it back," Violet said. "You gave me the map. I used it wrong. But look where I put the dragon." She pointed to the ringed slopes, the single narrow crack, the wolf guarding the gap. "No road. No path out. The wolf that watched it for years watches it still. I didn't take it to my hollow. I didn't chain it. I gave it a home no one can reach." Odette took the bracelet. She turned it in her thin fingers. She studied the valley again, the calm dragon, the sitting wolf. Something in her shoulders eased. "You could have hidden this from me," she said. "You told me instead." She closed her hand around the bracelet. "That is worth more than the oath you broke." Violet let out a breath. "Then we're not enemies." "No." Odette's mismatched eyes narrowed. "But hear me. This dragon is bound to you. It will not stay in one valley forever. When it grows restless, it will fly. And when it flies, Kael will see it." She turned toward the crack in the rim. "You saved your brood by trading one secret for another. Now you must keep this one hidden too." She was gone before Violet could answer. The wild dragon stirred in the grass, and lifted its great head toward the sky.