The Thief's Mate (Wings of Gold Book 2)

Chapter 8

When Caldor came to, he was overcome with an unbearable scratching in his throat. All he could do for a moment was to cough, unable to even think as he attempted to get rid of the awful feeling clawing at him. Only once it seemed like he was about to cough up a lung did everything come flooding back to him.

As soon as it did, he was scrambling to get up, but firm hands stopped him, pulling him back down to the ground. Cal blinked, taking in the line of trees he was sitting in front of, and the small campfire happily dancing by his feet.

And Kyra, sitting right next to him and avoiding his gaze.

"How could you do that?!" he practically yelled at her, feeling panic seizing his heart. He needed to go find Idri. Immediately. The only thing that he could use to reassure himself that there was still time to save him and fix this was that Augerill wouldn't kill the dragon. The lord needed something from him, whatever it was, and as long as Idri didn't give it to him, he would stay alive.

Augerill would hurt him, but Caldor was determined to catch up before that happened.

"They would have killed you," Kyra defended herself, huffing. "Or at the very least arrest us, so they could execute us later."

Caldor shook his head, getting up. This time, Kyra didn't stop him. "So you gave them Idri instead?"

"Dragons are evil. I told you." Caldor wanted to get angry with her, he wanted to yell at her for doing this, but the pitying look she was giving him was making it impossible to say anything. "I know you don't want to see it, but it's good that he's not with us anymore. He would end up hurting you, at the very least."

"You don't know Idri," Caldor replied coldly, feeling his anger starting to build again. He could see why Kyra had done this. It would have made sense to him too if their roles had been reversed, but gods above, he was finding it incredibly difficult to not be furious with her.

"You've known him for two weeks!" Kyra snapped back, but then she immediately deflated and hugged her knees to her chest. That was enough to completely make Cal forget what he'd wanted to yell back at her.

"I'm going after him. Where did they take him?"

Kyra finally rose to her feet as well, gawking at him in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

Caldor narrowed his eyes at her. "You would do the same for Aelin."

"Yeah, because it's Aelin," Kyra argued, her voice growing ever so slightly desperate. "Idriseth isn't your Aelin, Cal."

He hated hearing her talking like this because some minuscule part of him agreed with every word she said. The part of him that, when it came down to it, didn't trust anyone or anything due to spending his entire life in the proximity of thieves and criminals. But he pushed all of this aside because Cal knew these fears were completely unfounded. Idri hadn't been lying, and their relationship wasn't just some sadistic ploy on his part. Of that Caldor was certain.

"Did those books of yours mention mating scars?"

Kyra's expression immediately changed into one of confusion. But Cal could tell by the way her eyes narrowed that she knew what he was talking about.

He didn't wait for her to say anything before pulling his tunic aside enough for his scar to be visible, prompting Kyra to stare at it with wide eyes, her mouth hanging open just a bit. Caldor hadn't wanted to show it to anyone after the incident at Zarleth's place, but this was the only thing he could think of that might convince her. Assuming that those books had described mating scars like Idri had explained them.

"He...gave you that?"

Caldor covered his scar up again, giving a firm nod. It felt strange to show it to anyone other than Idri, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel like he was showing off a badge of honor. That someone as wonderful as Idri had chosen him to be with.