A Shade of Dragon 2(35)

“I’m fine,” I lied. “Go away, Michelle.”

Again, Michelle acted strangely. She did not retaliate. Instead, she placed her palm on my thigh and stroked it.

“What do you want?” I snapped. “Do you think that now, now that I’m weak, alone, sick, and single, is the best time to strike?”

Michelle grimaced. “Maybe I deserved that. I’ve just never seen you so… so…”

“So what?” Not that I cared. A kind of catatonia had taken its grip on me—after the panic attack, anyway.

“So… pathetic.” She winced, finally meeting my eyes. I glared in response.

“You think that’s why she chose him?” I demanded, within inches of grabbing her and shaking the answers out of her head. “You think he’s more of a man than me?”

“Jeez, no,” she answered, shaking her dark curls. “Truth?”

“Always,” I reminded her.

“She’s a woman,” Michelle said. “She’s probably just making the best of a bad situation. You’d be surprised how many women ‘love’ their captors… in whatever way they have to… to get by.” Her eyes became melancholy, as if she spoke of herself. “And besides, Theon,” she said, nudging my shoulder with her own. “I can’t imagine anyone picking somebody over you.”

I threw a glance her way. “That’s kind of you to say,” I allowed. I still did not know how much I could trust her. She was like a domestic cat who had been raised roughly: at times sweet, and then in an instant clawing. Beautiful things could be so treacherous that way, like fire roses. “Thank you… I think.” My gut pulled me in two separate directions when it came to Michelle Ballinger.

Michelle’s eyes, softened by the torchlight, tipped to mine, and then down to my lips. In an instant, I knew what she was thinking, and in another instant, she was leaning toward me.

I leaned toward her, too, still torn.

Had Pythia been right? Did Michelle love me more deeply and truly, in spite of her flaws, than Nell ever would? And could I find my way to love her?

“Theon!” Mother’s voice intruded on our moment.

Michelle and I reared away from each other simultaneously.

“What?” I asked, feeling caught, as if it had been Nell calling my name—but then, did I owe her anything anymore?

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” Mother went on, sweeping in front of Michelle and me. With her looming and us seated, I felt mired in a second childhood here with Michelle. Caught. “The Theon I have known my entire life has never been dependent upon the emotions of his females. Are you not a man of your own?”

“Mother—you don’t understand,” I told her, shaking my head. “You don’t understand what it’s like to think that you’re showing your future queen your kingdom… and then, when you cross the portal, you find that the entire world has been turned upside down. Even the winds themselves know no reason, and she’s robbed from you, to become the bride of the same man who would have killed your father, given time.” I pursed my lips and trained my eyes on the floor, determined not to let a single tear fall. “How did they do this to us, Mother?” I whispered, my vision blurring as the tears culminated and spilled nonetheless. “How did they rip the entire kingdom out from under our feet?”

I dared to look into her face for the answer, even though I was ashamed to have been crying. The gods knew it was not a common sight to behold, and so did she, as she seemed to go still and to harden as the gleam along my cheek caught the light.

“We would have taken it back immediately,” she whispered. She too swallowed, and I realized that the sight of my tears had weakened her own resolve to not cry. “But they have discovered the astrolabe, Theon. They have discovered the astrolabe… and they know how to use it.” She pursed her lips and broke eye contact. “They know how to plunge The Hearthlands into eternal winter, and it’s not only that.”

“My gods, Mother. What could be worse than that?”

“They have reassembled the very cosmos.”

“The cosmos?”

“The stars, Theon, and the gods. The gods have been set against us.”





Nell





We had only spent one day being unofficially engaged—with the unwilling support of Emperor Vulott, and the willing pens of Lethe’s team of scribes—and already things had shifted greatly in my favor. It was as if the “gods” themselves smiled on me, but I knew that wasn’t possible. I was more certain that Lethe had made it clear that this Earth girl, Penelope O’Hara, was the future empress of the ice kingdom, and it would do the staff well to support her in all that she did. And it showed.