Dawn of Cobalt Shadows (Burning Empire Book 2) by Emma Hamm (free novels to read TXT) 📗

Someday, she vowed they would have the time to explore each other. Time where she could ask him what his favorite meal was. How many stars he thought were in the night sky. Whether or not he thought the sky was truly blue or if it was simply a reflection of all the water they couldn’t see.

Still, that time wasn’t now. Reluctantly, she pulled away from him and stepped a few feet back.

“I flew over your armies,” she muttered, wiping a hand over her brow to mask the mist of tears in her eyes. “They seemed quite interested to know I was still alive and heading straight back for the palace. Hopefully that will cause at least half of them to return here and defend the Red Palace.”

“Smart thinking. It will give the Earthen folk a chance.”

“They can fight in their own forests, Nadir. I was trying to save the lives of your people.” Did he really think she worried about Wildewyn? They’d been fighting in those forests their entire lives. Even the children knew how to hide in nooks and crannies the Bymerians wouldn’t dream of.

Trees and forests were the domain of the Earthen folk.

Nadir raised a brow. “Do you really think peasants are a match for an army who has trained their entire lives to kill?”

“Your people have never seen a forest. They don’t know how to look up into the branches and pick out a person where they might only see leaves. The arrows which will rain down upon them will take lives.”

“My men have been hunting in your forests much longer than you realize, Sultana.” He gave her a mock bow, the glint in his eyes one she recognized very well. “Or did you think I am so foolish I wouldn’t have assassins training in your kingdom? They’ve always been there.”

She should be angry that he’d hidden people in the forests of her home. Instead, she felt a grin spread across her face. A feral look that meant she was proud of him, that she’d come to think he wasn’t quite capable of something like that.

It was good to have someone prove her wrong again.

Inclining her head, she stared into his yellow eyes and wondered why she’d ever thought to leave. “I’m glad to hear it, Sultan. But if they try to fight the Earthen folk, they’ll still lose.”

“Are you willing to wager on that, Sultana?”

A voice interrupted them, slicing through the air like a blade. “I don’t know if this is some kind of twisted flirting, or if the two of you are really sick enough to wager on the lives of your own kingdoms.”

Nadir’s brow lifted again. “You brought Camilla, I see.”

“I don’t travel without her.”

“It might be better next time if you travel on your own.” He straightened his shoulders and leaned to the side. “Hello again, Camilla. It’s a pleasure as always.”

“I wish I could say the same.”

“You could, if you tried hard enough.”

Her sister shrugged a dark shoulder. “But that would be a lie. I make it a rule to tell the truth, especially to men who think they’re so much better than they really are.”

A huff of breath expelled a small flicker of flame and curl of smoke from Nadir’s nose. “Care to test that theory?”

She’d missed this. The banter between the three of them, the strange way they’d all managed to become a family even though they didn’t trust each other. A wry grin spread across her face and she rolled her eyes. “Enough, you two.”

Camilla pointed at Nadir, jabbing her finger in the air. “He’s the reason we’re in this mess. It’s his army at our doorstep, and if he’s here then that means somehow, he’s shirking his duties. Again.”

“Camilla.”

“What’s he doing in the middle of the desert anyways? He’s out here playing house while the rest of the world is descending into madness. Why aren’t you blaming him for this?”

“Camilla.” This time, Sigrid said it with a chuckle.

“No! Don’t say my name like I’m the one who’s out of line here. There’s plenty of reasons to be angry with him and you’re just… hugging him! Like he’s an old friend.”

Sigrid took one step closer to Nadir. The heat radiating from his body felt right, somehow. She couldn’t describe the way her dragon felt just being near him. It was like she hadn’t realized there was a thunderstorm raging in her head until the moment when silence fell. Just because he existed beside her.

“Shirking his duties?” she asked.

“Yes,” her sister snapped.

“Wasn’t that what I was doing then?”

Camilla’s mouth gaped open for a second, her eyes widening in shock before she shook her head. “No. You were seeking the ancients. Providing your people with an answer to all the questions they’ve had for centuries.”

“But him being here while the armies march, that’s not the same thing?”

“Well…” she floundered. “I don’t know.”

Sigrid had made her point. She didn’t have to explain it word by word to her sister. Yet again, Nadir was the same as Sigrid in a way that only fate could have provided them.

The guilt of leaving her people while she searched for an answer to her own soul… it still lingered. She didn’t know how else to leave them in a way they would have continued to piece together their lives in a way she approved of. And Sigrid knew she was right. There was a reckoning coming for the Beastkin. They had to learn how to be human, how to share the world in a way that the humans would understand, or they would never stop the war. Everything would continue to fall apart over and over again.

She turned back to Nadir, looked up into his yellow eyes, and felt her stomach turn. “Why are you here, Nadir?”

He licked his lips, staring back at her with eyes that gradually saddened until she couldn’t see anything but their murky depths. “My mother summoned me.”

“I thought your mother was dead.”

“So