Bloodlines: Dragon Rider Book 2

Chapter 51: Cry of Decay

She throws a wall of ice between us, but it's not strong and sturdy. It's chipped, crumbling into a mound of soft ice barely taller than her. Norah heaves.

Adam cringes, lips pulling back. "Ew."

I whack him behind the head, hard enough for it to ache but not hard enough to truly hurt him. He meets my scowl and his eyes widen, hands clamping his mouth. "We forgot the relic! Oh my gods, we have to go back."

"We can't just leave Norah here," Easton says firmly, his brows and fingers twitching as Norah heaves again. The boy doesn't know when to stop helping, doesn't know when to ignore his instincts. But he's learning.

"You really want to go back into the city with her like that?" Dagen asks flatly.

Norah rounds her crumbling ice wall, her skin ghostly pale and eyes sunken. She wraps her arms around herself, careful to avoid the points of metal scales. She looks down at Squirm by her feet, curling his tail around her foot.

"We have what we need. Let's just go." Her voice has the emotions of a corpse. But I sense she isn't lying as Adam questions her. He doesn't get much out of her, and she doesn't heave again as we make our way back through the tunnels and to our dragons.

Galeur is telling me what's happened the moment I am within our connections range. The first thing he asks about is Norah and I tell him what's happened. "Rima was dead," he says and I can almost hear the pain in his voice. "She just collapsed and stopped breathing."

"How is she now?" I know how my dragon would have reacted, exactly what I would have done if Norah died. I don't let myself think into it, not when she's in front of me, alive.

"Pacing."

But she isn't moving when we reach them, she's staring at Norah with attentive, burning eyes. Norah glances at her and walks deeper down the tunnel. Slowly, her dragon joins her side with Squirm keeping pace beside them. Neither of them say anything but understanding hangs between them.

None of us mention it.

--------------------------------

Adam braces his hands on the back of the chair, rocking back and forth on his heels. He stares at Norah, wide-eyed, and mouth hanging open. "A God?" He asks slowly, for the fifth time. "You talked to a God?"

"Khalixis," Easton says from the small bed, rubbing the ever-growing beard. I shaved mine off the minute we rented the room. "The Goddess of Dragons," he explains to Adam, eyes lit. "The Goddess who created Andis, who created our faction, and our island. I can't believe it."

His eyes slide to Norah, sitting in the center of another bed, resting her head and arms on her knees. Squirm is curled next to her, watching her every movement with those black eyes.

Easton waits patiently. Norah has done very little talking since Aros.

"Sure," she mutters, staring at the dresser Dagen sprawls on top of. He sharpens his daggers, his cloak a black waterfall beneath him.

Adam gapes at her, patting his cheeks until they flush. "Sure? You talked to a god, saw everything they've ever done for us, hundreds of thousands of years worth of history, and all you can say is sure?"

"Yeah." She sighs heavily, muttering, "he won't stop singing."

None of us say anything, though we give her a look, even Dagen stops his work to stare at her. Rima said she hasn't slept for three days. She barely moves. Hasn't eaten much since Clarika and even less since Aros, yet she still runs to the bathroom to heave.