The Last Dragon Rider (Book 1 of Rider Series)

Chapter 25

Fear filled Sheamus's eyes when I closed the door behind him, and his face grew pale when he turned to face me while his eyes grew wide. "I-I shouldn't have said that," he said, clutching the bundle in his hands tighter. He cleared his throat and looked anywhere but my hard gaze, knowing that he was in some deep trouble with someone. "Please," he begged, flicking his gaze to me before he again looked away. "Don't ask. I-I wasn't supposed to say anything."

"What are you?" I asked, instead. I narrowed my eyes and studied him, even though I knew what he looked like and hadn't been able to pick up a magic source from him like the others I had been in constant contact with, except for Jonah for some reason.

Sheamus shrugged his shoulders and cleared his throat, shifting on his feet. "I don't know," he replied honestly. Again, he cleared his throat and licked his lips, focusing his gaze back on me. "However, I would like a safe place to talk about... "what" I am and what I am not."

I hesitated but nodded my head and gestured for him to follow while I made my way to the cellar that would become my safe haven like Sparrow's Mill. I didn't need to look back to make sure that he was following because I could sense his presence behind me, following me until I reached the spot where I placed the lantern and stopped before putting my basket down and picking up the stuff to light the lantern.

"So, where are we going?" Sheamus finally asked, stopping behind me. He cleared his throat and shifted on his feet, looking this way and that as if he was trying to find a way to escape or for someone to save him, even though we were the only two in the house. "You're... not going to hurt me. Are you?"

I paused from trying to light the lantern and looked at him with a weird expression on my face. "Seriously?" I asked, and he nodded. I raised an eyebrow and cocked my head, narrowing my eyes at him suspiciously. "Why would I hurt you?"

"Because I didn't answer your question," he replied. "I mean, you have to be curious as to what I mean unless you aren't."

I rolled my eyes and scowled before I turned my attention back to the lantern and lit it. "Well... I am curious," I replied, honestly. I stood and grabbed the lantern before I opened the cellar door and started to go down without my basket, and Sheamus followed me, closing the door behind him. "However, I know that it isn't time for me to know yet, especially since I had "found out" that I was a Dragon Rider two days ago."

Sheamus grunted a response and followed me to my father's space. He looked around and then looked at me. "It's dusty here," he pointed out, and I rolled my eyes and scowled. "Can I set this on the desk?" He held out his bundle, and I glanced at it, wondering what he had brought for me.

"Uh, ya, ya," I said, looking around the room with the lantern in my hands to see if there was a way that I could set this thing up. I saw a place to hang the lantern on a post in the room and set it there before I went desk and cleared it off. "Now, what are you again?" I asked, looking at him.

"I don't know," he replied honestly. He set the package on the table and cleared his throat. "But I know that my people had been making weapons for Dragon Riders." He opened the cloth package to reveal a row of different weapons, each one of them sharp and made from a stone that wasn't common here.

I studied the weapons, eight in all, and cocked my head when I saw that each hilt was covered in what looked like my dragon's scales. "What's the hilt made of?" I asked, the urge to pick up a weapon and test it out strong.

"Pick one up," Sheamus said, and I picked one up and noticed heat emitting from the hilt of a sword. "And it's made of leather." He watched me swing the sword around and shook his head, scowling. "Pick up another because that one didn't call you."

"Call me?" I asked, glancing at Sheamus and setting the sword down. "What do you mean by that?"

Sheamus sighed and moved a hand through his brown hair, and he looked conflicted. "I'm supposed to be able to see what type of weapon would be best suited for the Rider," he said. "However, I don't know what I am doing because you are the first Rider that I have to help. Jonah had his stuff before I met him."

I nodded my head and studied the stuff to see that they were mainly swords with a few daggers thrown in as well as an ax. I pursed my lips at the ax, knowing full well that it wasn't me before my eyes landed on a set of swords, each the same length as the other.

Taking a deep breath, I walked over to them and picked them up to see that they fit. I backed away from the table and flicked my wrists, watching as they shimmered in the lantern's soft light.

"I guess they called you," Sheamus said, nodding his head, and I pulled my gaze away from them and looked at him. "I have a sheath back at the shop for them, two of them actually. One of the sheaths straps to your back in an 'x' formation, and the other sheaths straps to your side."

I nodded my head and flicked my wrists, watching the blades catch the light of the flame and made it flicker as if it was flames itself. "What's the metal?" I asked, glancing at the male.

Sheamus shrugged his shoulder. "Your guess is as good as mine," he replied. He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes, studying me. "Though your guess might be better because of your background and what information you can find out in a short matter of time."

I held back an eye roll and looked at the blades again, feeling as if something was missing, that I had been chosen for something else. "Hold these," I said, my eyes landing on a dagger with a red stone on the hilt. I had the urge to pick it up, so when Sheamus did take the swords, I picked up the dagger and studied it.

"Strange," Sheamus said. "I've never heard of multiple weapons picking someone. You must be special, Marini."

I didn't reply while I studied the dagger with furrowed brows.

The dagger's blade was made from a red material that I had seen before somewhere in distant memory hidden from view. The blade was curved on one side and had these indents in it that acted like dragon's teeth. The other side was smooth and sharp, ready to chop whatever or be stabbed into something that needed to be killed.

It had the same turquoise hilt that the swords had, but for some reason, I knew that it hadn't always been like that. It had been black, black against the red stone and the red dagger. The hilt was designed to be unnoticeable in the dark, the red stone turning darker in the dark if needed. Like the hilt, I knew that it was supposed to have a black sheath, but for some reason, I knew that it would be turquoise.

"Mirïna," I hissed, staring into the blade and noticed two red eyes that didn't look like mine staring at me before they disappeared. They left me confused but contempt as if I had found something that I was missing long ago.

"Uhhhh, what?" Sheamus asked.

I shook my head, not knowing where that name came from, and tried to clear my mind from this fogginess that took over. "I don't know," I replied. "Do you have the sheath for this as well? I know that it comes with one." I looked at him to see that he was staring at me, confused. "What?" I asked.

He narrowed his eyes and studied me. "What are you?" he asked finally.

I raised an eyebrow, wondering what he meant by that because I knew that he should know what I was if he knew that I was a "Princess" of something. I was about to say something but stopped when I looked at the dagger in my hands. I knew that something more to me, something more than being from the Tribe and a Rider, but what was it?

What could I possibly be that had people call me a Princess? Why was I different than other Riders, and was there another reason, besides the fact that I was a "daughter of the tribe," that had people respect me and seek me out if they needed something?

I studied the dagger and mulled over his question, moving the hilt around in my hand. "A daughter of the Hargen Tribe and a Dragon Rider," I replied, finally. I looked at him and shrugged, grimacing. "Other than that, I have no idea."