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

a small blip. They continued on as if nothing had happened.

But it had.

So much had happened between them that her head was spinning. She’d destroyed his city. He’d marched on her country and renounced everything he was. Everything he loved. How could she ignore that? How could she move past that knowledge?

Clouds parted as she soared through them. Beating her wings, she rose above them until all that was beneath her was a sea of rolling white.

What would it be like if they just continued to fly? Was there more out there in the great ocean surrounding their empire? Were there more countries that might be more accepting of them and their differences? Sadly, she had a feeling they’d only find a vast nothingness. The world was empty other than the judgement and hatred of their own people.

A caress of soft leather touched the tip of her wing. She glanced over to see Nadir flying beside her, his wing barely touching hers, but there nonetheless.

They glided through the air together, silence filling their minds. No, there was more than that, she realized. There was the utter sense of relief pouring off both of them like fine wine at a noble’s dinner table.

He was so happy she was there. It radiated off him in waves through their connection and she… Gods, she was so pleased to finally be able to be herself and not worry that someone was afraid of her.

The horns on his head reflected the sunlight. The deep burgundy was far more reflective than she remembered, and his scales were far harder. It would make sense that his dragon had aged with him. Perhaps what they’d seen of each other back then was still the teenage version of themselves.

She wondered how much she had changed.

A deep chuckle echoed in her mind. “You are more beautiful,” he said. “Your tail is longer, and the spines along your back are like glass.”

“You’re harder,” she replied. “Where you were once weak, you’ve grown stronger. Your horns are far more impressive, decidedly more deadly, and you look more like a battering ram than the dragon I remember.”

Again, he chuckled. “Good. That will serve us well in the coming battles.”

“I don’t want to fight, Nadir.”

“I don’t think we have a choice in that, wife. Our people have already made that decision without us. Now, we can only hope to protect them from themselves.”

Maybe that was their reason for living after all. She turned her face toward the Red Palace that appeared on the horizon. Sigrid had spent so much time trying to find the reason for her being here, and maybe it had been hidden right in plain sight.

She curved her wings in, diving lower and lower toward the city with him at her side. He glanced at her once, a smile on his dragon face, then dove straight for the city.

Sigrid waited for the screams. They couldn’t react well to a dragon flying straight at them. That would only make them remember all the things she’d done.

But no screams echoed at his approach. Instead, all she heard was a few murmurs of people who pointed up at Nadir, then continued on their day.

She did a lap around the city, flying high enough that anyone who saw her would merely think it was a stirring of the clouds above them. She would blend into the sky like this. Perhaps her fear was nothing to concern herself with. Maybe, he was right. Maybe they had really changed and were more accepting of the Beastkin.

Somehow, she doubted it.

Sigrid was careful to fly as close to the gardens of the palace as possible. Here, she would be hidden from most people’s prying eyes. She dropped out of the air mid-change, landing lightly in a crouch behind a rather large bush of roses she didn’t remember growing there.

They provided the perfect cover for her to catch her breath. The furs on her shoulders made her stand out even more than just changing from a dragon into a woman. They would see her as something even more otherworldly.

She waited until she heard the tell-tale crunch of feet on gravel before she slowly straightened. She knew that gait anywhere, although it made her uncomfortable to admit she still remembered the way he walked. It had been a year. Shouldn’t she have forgotten that dancing pace?

“Sigrid?” he called out.

She blew out a breath. She could do this. They weren’t going to be afraid of her. There wasn’t a chance he would let them attack her anyways. What was going to happen if they were afraid? They’d flinch away? She’d deal with that her entire life. She could do it again.

Walking toward him was one of the hardest things she’d ever done. Guilt rode her shoulders and pressed down on her lungs. She could do this, no matter how afraid of it she was.

Nadir held his hand out for her to take. “There aren’t many people here, wife. They won’t see you unless we want them to.”

“Do we?”

“That’s up to you.” The softness in his gaze encouraged her to set her shoulders and jaw. “I can take you through the hidden routes, if that makes you feel better.”

“There are hidden routes?”

“It’s a palace. Or did you think I didn’t notice there were crevices in Greenmire Castle as well?” He quirked a brow. “Every noble home has holes in the walls and passages where others can snoop if they wish.”

“Hopefully not in the concubines’ rooms, or I’ll consider you more a peeping tom than a husband.”

He shrugged. “I can’t say there aren’t. I suspect they’re more often used by serving boys than anyone else these days.”

“These days?” Sigrid reached out and placed her hand in his.

“My brother and I might have used them when we were younger.” He drew her closer, eyes shifting into the dragon. “Can you blame us?”

“For sneaking into the women’s quarters so you could watch them undress? Yes. I can blame you for that.”

He chuckled, tucked her underneath his