Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 137226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
“What the fuck?” I swear for the millionth time today, leaning into Brynla.
“You just died, take it easy,” she says, pressing her hand against my chest.
“He’s noticing the effects,” her mother says, looking me over. “It will take some getting used to, not being limitless.”
I frown. “What are you talking about?”
And it’s then that I notice I don’t have great night vision like I did before.
“Some of it will linger,” she says. “You’ll still be stronger than the average man, faster too, perhaps smarter. But it will be nothing like it was before. That was the risk Brynla was willing to take.”
I stare at Brynla for an explanation.
She gives me a wan smile. “In order to bring you back to life, she had to drain your healing suen from your body. I guess the other suen went with it, mostly anyway.” She pauses. “Suen won’t work on you going forward. You’re as normal as I am.”
I blink at her, slowly shaking my head. “You have dragon blood. You’re not normal.” Then the realization hits me in the heart. “I’m not going to be able to heal you.”
“We’ll find another solution,” she says. “It was either this or leave you for dead. And I’m sorry, but I can put up with my pains, especially with help from Steiner’s medicine, as long as I have you in my life.”
“I am sure you will find a healer in good time,” her mother says. “And speaking of time, you should return to your ship. I have a feeling that they’ll come looking for you soon.”
She steps back into the pool and Brynla runs over to the edge. “But wait,” she says tearfully. “I don’t want you to go.”
“I won’t be gone,” she says as she starts to lower herself into the lava. “I’ll always be here. Anytime you want to see me, to talk, I will be here. I hear your prayers too, you know, even the ones you don’t realize you’re saying.”
“But I love you!” Brynla sobs, dropping to her knees beside the pool. “Mama.”
“I love you, my darling,” her mother says sweetly before she’s fully submerged and all that’s left is an empty pool.
Brynla cries and I crouch beside her, putting my arm around her. “Come on, let’s get you away from the edge. You might have dragon blood, but I’m not about to test your resistance to fire.” I pull her up to her feet and for the first time I feel the full weight of her.
I have to say, I kind of like it.
She’s packed with muscle, she’s solid, she’s curvy, she’s strong.
She keeps me anchored to her, my rock.
I pull her to me and kiss the top of her head, enveloping her in my arms.
“I guess I’m going to have to start calling you dragon girl now,” I tease her. “I’m telling you, if you end up taming the Kolbecks’ dragons, there will officially be nothing that you can’t do.”
She glances up at me. “Your father is still going to hate us for not having that egg.”
“My father can go fuck himself, quite frankly,” I tell her. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
Chapter 36
Andor
I’m used to disappointing people, especially when it comes to my family.
But when Brynla and I ran into Vidar, Kirney, and Belfaust’s search party on our walk back from the slangedrage’s cave, and I saw the look on my brother’s face once I told him we’d lost the egg of immortality, it was like a knife to the fucking heart.
It didn’t seem like he cared much that I had died. Literally died. Nearly chomped in half by a deathdrage before being brought back to life by an actual goddess—one who happens to be Brynla’s mother and is made entirely out of lava. No, none of that seemed to matter to Vidar. All that mattered is that Brynla stole the egg and it got destroyed in the process, therefore negating their entire operation.
I have no right to judge Brynla. After all, I’d kept Princess Frida a secret, as well as the plan for the heist, so I suppose this makes us even. And I know now that the fates twisted our path. The egg was never meant to be ours.
I’m glad my father won’t be able to use it. Though it would have given the Kolbecks, and the army of the Elgins, the royal house, the upper hand in the long game, we’d be playing with something we don’t fully understand. I can’t help but think about the Harbringer, the way that Brynla described Lemi tearing out her throat and eating her face and how she still managed to live after that, to chase after them. Will the Harbringer be forced to remain like that for eternity? Is there truly no way out?
But that’s something we don’t have to worry about anymore. Yes, there could be more eggs. There probably are. But right now, we have to let go of that dangerous dream and concentrate on the actual dangerous dream that’s in our hands.