Dragonlands(254)

Bastian and Elinor left without a backward glance. Tressa closed the door behind them. She took a deep breath, then strode over to the bedside table. She lay on her stomach, reaching her arm down between the wall and the bed, her fingers searching the small space. After a few moments, she gave up. There wasn't anything shoved down there as she'd suspected.

The morning she'd left for the fog, Tressa had found a handwritten note from Granna. The parchment had been torn from another book. Tressa had hidden the note in her pack when she’d left Hutton’s Bridge. It was the same pack she’d hidden in a tree hollow before winning her place in the Black Guard. It had been months since she’d thought of the pack, which held the note, clothes, a doll, and…

Tressa gasped.

She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten.

She had honey in her pack.

Tressa closed her eyes, thinking of the night she’d abandoned Bastian in the hidden camp with their parents. Her father had asked for honey, and she’d promised to leave him some. She had, but not all of it. She’d kept a small stash in the bottom of her bag.

Her heart raced behind her ribs. At the first chance, she would have to find the tree, her pack, and the honey.





Chapter Thirty-Nine


Bastian watched the children run around the village square, kicking a ball made of leather, stitched together with wide wool thread. They whooped and hollered, throwing arms in the air, thrilled to be back home again.

Hutton's Bridge was all any of them had ever known. There was comfort in that. Once it was a town of orphans, the adults mysteriously gone and replaced by the fog. Now it was filled with orphans again, the descendants facing a similar fate.

Connor wandered among the children, Vatra and Fotia nipping at his heels. Just children themselves, they fit in among the younglings of Hutton's Bridge. One day they would change into humans themselves. From the way the children played with the young dragons, Bastian felt they would all easily understand each other. A bond forged by the steel sword of tragedy.

"The fog will return today," Elinor said. She laid a hand on Bastian's arm, her small pale fingers squeezing lightly. "Are you ready?"

Bastian nodded. "I am. I think they are too. The fog is all they've ever known. It should bring them some peace and comfort."

"And you?" Elinor asked. "Did seeing Tressa bring you peace and comfort?"

Bastian rubbed the back of his neck. He gazed at the woman standing in front of him. She'd been open with him since the day they met. She'd given over her inborn healing talents and gifted him with invulnerability. More than that, he loved her in a way he hadn't loved other women, which was why he couldn’t stay silent. Bastian grabbed Elinor’s hand, pulling her behind a building where no one could see or hear them.

"I slept with Tressa last night," he confessed. His shame wanted him to keep it a secret, but after looking into her eyes, he knew he didn't want any secrets between them.

Elinor took a deep breath, her lips struggled to remain firm. Her damp eyes steeled.

"It just happened. It wasn't like I sought her out for sex. Connor and I went to her cottage to look for the missing pages of the book. After Connor left, Tressa told me she’d once been pregnant with our child. It was something we’d wanted for so long. But before she’d had a chance to tell me, she lost the baby." Bastian shrugged, knowing all the explanations in the world wouldn’t make what he’d done acceptable. “Neither of us plans to be together again. Neither of us wants to.”

Elinor stifled a pained laugh behind one shaking hand.

Bastian fell to his knees. He reached for Elinor's hands, but she wouldn't allow him to touch her.

"I suspected as much. Thank you for telling me instead of hiding like a coward." Elinor crossed her arms over her chest, her black dress rumpled.

"I don't love her," Bastian insisted.

"I need some time," Elinor said, her lower lip trembling.

"Of course. Anything. Whatever you need." Bastian stood, his legs suddenly feeling weak and unstable. He looked at the soil under his boots. The ground of his homeland shook underneath him, refusing to hold him up. Bastian glanced at Elinor, her anger emanating through her glare. He fell to his knees, sick to his stomach.

"We are connected, Bastian." She reached out her hand, her fingers curled, squeezing the air.

He gasped, unable to breathe, his heart screeching in pain.

Elinor clutched the air again. Bastian's heart skipped a beat.

Tears spilled from her eyes as she lowered her hand. Bastian fell to the ground, his face resting on the scratchy earth, his breath pushing dirt particles across the ground.

Elinor sank down next to him, resting her cheek on his back. "I'm so sorry, Bastian. I didn't mean to hurt you. I wanted you to love me for me. Not because I hold your life in my hands. But now that you've proven you'll never sever your connection to Tressa, I had to show you that you belong with me alone."