A Shield of Faith (BOOK 4)

Chapter 19

ADARA

Why am I listening to Yuven? What's wrong with me? I've never listened to Yuven! He's gotten into my head. Let's repeat this, we do not, under any circumstances, listen to Yuven when he has the social capacity of a mushroom. I'm going to tell him the truth, I'm going to tell Fenrer the truth and I'm going to tell him the story, I don't want to be shackled anymore. And now I can't sleep thinking about Evyriaz — Euron... and I see now what Fenrer saw at the Summit... I'm just a little girl again, cowering at the shadows and refusing to listen.

Adara looked into a wyvern's crimson and saw her own sad reflection of life's last piece of faith on the wings of luminescent twilight flames along black feathers. The Tale of the Dragon Knight clasped tight against her side, she wandered around the citadel for direction in her new life without familiar loves, trying to find a place to sort out the mess of her thoughts, the clogged river of her tears, and the home of Mother. Moonlight shed through the multiple arch windows and the domed mosaics in the large rooms, creating stories from the sky itself, ever changing.

I want to listen now.

Adara counted her steps and the many halls of Euros' beating heart. Underneath her feet, the volcano whispered with a gentle touch of flames, a reminder of the power beneath her skin. Derelicts bent to it, turned to stone from their cores and cracked with silver might. Embers gathered around her free hand when she held it out, bursting it into a little warm magelight to follow over her shoulder, casting deeper into the welcoming gray shadows through the windows. Lamps swung in the breeze along the carved walls of the caldera, where the guard towers housed the Wardens on duty through the night. I should sleep, but this place is so... Her own thought drifted out of reach as embers crinkled in the magelight and popped with flames. Movement ahead slammed her to a stop, and set the flames in her heart free when Fenrer rounded the corner with his back to her.

"Fen?" Adara took her chance when he stopped and turned to her. "I thought you'd be sleeping by now."

"Funny story, that," he said with a weak smile. "I couldn't sleep, not that that's out of the ordinary for me." He set his hands on his hips and studied her. "Am I safe to assume it's the same for you?" His eyes swept down to the book underneath her arm, his head tilting in curious confusion when he returned his attention to her. Moonlight touched the edges of the swirling spirals in his emerald irides. "Were you heading to the Annex to enjoy some late-night reading?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you."

His eyes widened.

"Though it can wait if you're tired," Adara added hastily. "I'm sure you're exhausted after Irimount."

A hum left his lips when he rubbed his brow and drew his palm down his nose. "In the amount of time I could be spending going to bed and not actually sleeping would take the same amount of time," he pointed out, his hand falling off his nose. "All I'm doing is wandering, what do you want to talk about?"

Adara held out the book of torn love in front of him. "I... I think I'm ready. For real, this time. As thanks for what you've... done for me," her voice nearly died on her lips at his silence, but his smile formed into a soft, measured expression. "At least, I want to try one more time, I don't want to keep this story to myself anymore."

"If you're certain, then I'd be happy to listen to the tale." He twisted around on his heel. "Not here though, but I think I have a spot that might help you get your frazzled thoughts straight." He wasted no time in taking the lead with one deft movement and he took her outside, underneath the wide expanse of beautiful stars and two lover moons. "It's a spot I'm fairly certain Yuven doesn't know about if you're worried about getting interrupted." He motioned with his hand once more, and they crossed the huge fields of the caldera until he swept a wall of vines out of the way. He peeked inside, then said, "It might be a bit of a trip, though."