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

the Bymerians and it still hurt her heart to think that she’d become exactly what they’d always feared she would become.

Nadir pulled back and forced her to look at him again. “Fly home with me.”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea? The last time I flew over your country—”

He pressed a finger to her lips, forcing her to stop speaking. “I think you’ll find many things have changed within the Red Palace. They’re used to me now. They’ve seen me as a dragon more times than I can count, and they haven’t been afraid of what I could do. There’s no reason for you to be so afraid, Sigrid.”

Why were his eyes slitted? That was the man speaking to her, but the dragon that existed within his soul.

She narrowed her gaze on him. “What has changed? You don’t seem like yourself.”

Nadir shook his head. “I’ll tell you everything that happened soon. First, we have to get back to the palace. We can speak with the remaining advisors, tell them to send messengers to return the army.”

“You still think that’ll work? After everything that has happened, you think the advisors care at all about our people? Mine or yours?”

He bent down and pressed his forehead against hers. “I still have faith that the people of both our countries have a shred of decency within them. We have to believe in them. Otherwise, why are fighting so hard to keep them safe?”

Gods, why was he always right? He’d changed so much in a year. He wasn’t the boy who didn’t care about anything. He was a man who wanted to fight, to learn, to discover, and she’d missed every moment of the transformation, because she’d been with her own people. Forgetting what it was like to be with someone whose intellect matched her own.

Sigrid blew out a breath. “Then let’s go to the palace.”

He released her, striding out into the sand and changing into the giant red dragon she remembered so well in her dreams.

Something inside her winced the moment she saw the claws tipping his back feet. Even the twin claws at the joint of his wings had sliced through her scales so easily. She’d almost forgotten how much they hurt.

He was so powerful in this form, and the dragon inside her was still slightly afraid that he wanted to hurt them.

Camilla stepped to her side, pressed a hand on her shoulder, and shoved her forward. “Go on then.”

“What? You’re coming with me.

“Not with this one.” Camilla pointed at Eivor who had crumpled back to the ground at the sight of the huge male dragon. “She needs to be taught how to act around people. You can’t show up with her at your side when the palace already is afraid of you. I’ll take care of it.”

“We’re in the middle of a desert.”

“Right next to a city of people who want to help the future of this world.” Camilla grinned. “You know I’ve always been good at making friends. I’ll find my way to the palace soon enough. Just give us some time.”

“You know, I rarely say how lucky I am to have you as my sister, but I am.”

Sigrid didn’t know how else to say it. Sometimes, she was afraid she used the woman at her side too much. That someday Camilla would wake up and realize she was done with all this. That, above all else, was her greatest fear.

“I know you’re lucky,” Camilla replied, snorting and shoving at Sigrid’s shoulder again. “Go on. Go with your man and head back to the city. We’ll follow along behind. Besides, I’m sure he’s leaving some important people behind just so that he can fly around with his favorite person.”

“I’m not his favorite person.”

“You’re fooling yourself if you think that. Go on with you. I’ll do the cleanup.”

Sigrid stepped away from her sister, gesturing her gratitude before making her way out into the sands. If there was a hero of this story, of saving Bymere and Wildewyn, she wasn’t so certain that hero was her. In fact, she was almost certain the real hero of this story was Camilla.

Nadir lowered his head and chuffed at her. The blast of air pushed her back a little bit, but she grinned. This was what she had been waiting for. The returning feeling of elation when it was just her and the only other person in the entire empire who knew what she felt like. Who could understand the rush of power that came from existing within their scales.

She let her body melt away, becoming something more. Something so strong it frightened her sometimes.

Scales unfurled down her arms, and she grew ten times larger than her human form. The sun reflected off her scales like a precious gem. Horns grew from her skull and leather skin spread from her arms to create wings.

A deep grumble echoed in her mind. It wasn’t anything that Nadir had said out loud, but now, they had more of a connection than ever before.

His voice deepened, gruff with emotion she’d never heard while he was human. “You’re beautiful,” he said.

There was a layer of two voices in the words. One she recognized, and the other which was decidedly new.

The second voice was terrifying and wondrous all at the same time. She couldn’t focus when it was speaking with her in rumbling tones that made something inside her shiver. Not in pleasure or any human emotion, but with a desire for freedom and the wind under her wings.

She inclined her head, flexed her wings, and launched into the air. She didn’t want to think of all these emotions running through her when she didn’t know how to process them.

It shouldn’t feel like this. She hadn’t seen him in such a long time. There should have been some kind of awkwardness in their meeting.

Instead, she felt very much as though they were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while. The time between them was nothing more than