46

“Don’t you think I would’ve done that were it so simple?” she asked. Then she raised her hand again. “Draunar keeps my powers limited. I can’t access them. And even if I could, opening a portal is not innate to Fae—it requires elemental materials.”

“Like what?” I asked.

She sighed. “I need two scales from a dragon,” she said. “One to remove this ward, and another to use in the spell. The draconic scale helps me channel the power of fire. Then I need something to help me channel the earth.”

“We’re in a cavern,” I said. “Is that not earthy enough?”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “The cavern lacks life,” she said. “It has to be something that lives, or once did.”

“Like an animal,” I said.

“Mm. And no animals come into this cavern. It’s just me and Sini.”

“You can’t—”

“Sini is a being of water,” she said.

“Then…” I pressed my lips together.

Finally Corinne looked up. She looked mildly interested, but defeated at the same time. She looked like she’d felt defeated for a long, long time.

“What about me?” I asked.

“What about you?”

“Would I work?”

She raised her eyebrows. “As the channel?”

“Not like this, of course,” I said. “Not in this form.”

Corinne sat up. “You mean as a wolf.”

“Would it work?”

“I don’t know,” Corinne said. “I’ve never tried to create a spell using a shifter. I don’t know if your power would work.”

“Can you check?”

Corinne tilted her head.

In response, I stood up, pulled off my robe, then let my wolf surge forward easily. I shifted gracefully, then shook out my white pelt and peered at Corinne. In this form, I thought I could smell the magic still buzzing, trapped, under her skin.

She stood up from her relaxed position sunken into the cushion, then stepped closer. She held out a hand. “Can I touch you?” she asked. “To better understand if this would work?”

I nodded, then lowered my head, baring the back of my neck to her touch.

Delicately, she set one hand at my neck, working her nimble fingers into my thick fur. Her touch was firm and strong, despite how weakened she was. Then, magic sparked over my skin, and something deep inside me surged awake and rushed to meet it. It was a strange, disorienting experience—it was similar to the way I felt during a full-moon run, powerful and animalistic, but drawn out of me by force instead of by the light of the moon. It made me dizzy, and I yelped quietly and shook off her hand.

She nodded, eyes wide. “Yes,” she said. “This will work. If we can get the scales—this will work.”

15

F

our more days passed. I was about to try to break down the door to the hoard and thus the cavern entrance myself when finally, finally, I felt the air crackle with Draunar’s presence.

Corinne felt it, too. “He’s here,” she murmured. She climbed out of the bath and dressed in a hurry, then disappeared into her quarters without even a second glance back at me.

I waited in the dining room with my pulse pounding. I heard him rumbling around his hoard, and the weight of his steps and the prickle of magic on my skin suggested he was still in dragon form. My throat felt dry with anticipation. Would he be thrilled? Upset? He was still alive, which was good—and bad. Did the palace still stand?

Was Elias alive?

Draunar stormed into the dining room, eyes blazing as hot air spewed from flared nostrils. He folded his wings against his body as his gaze landed on me. He shifted back into his human form in a crackle of energy. It’d only been just over a week, but it looked like he’d been at war for months. His face was sallow, and his skin tanned from the sun. Even though he was in his human form, his shoulders were dotted with scales, and his eyes glowed bright still. His dragon was close to the surface.

He bared his teeth in a cruel grin and said nothing.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “The king—”

“I am the king,” he growled. “I am the only king. And soon I will be the King of Frasia, too.”

Soon, I thought. That meant Elias was still alive.

My heart swooped in relief, but I didn’t let it show on my face.

He sneered, then dropped down into his ornate seat at the table and ripped into a crust of bread. “That fucking mutt,” he growled, more to himself than anything else. Then he set his gaze on me. “All you wolves will pay for the trouble he’s caused me. Irritating bastard.”

Again I said nothing, but bit back a smile. Draunar had not expected how tenacious Elias and his wolves could be. As much as I’d hated the thought of war—I loved the thought of the wolves causing the dragons a lot of trouble.

“I need rest,” Draunar snapped. “Do not interrupt me.”

I nodded and stepped out of the doorway. Draunar brushed by me, clearly still enraged, and stormed through the bathing hall toward his quarters. He turned the corner toward the door, and though I couldn’t see him, I recognized the rumble of the cavern floor under my feet. He was dispelling a mirage, or a ward, the same as Corinne had. Then the movement stopped.

I crept back toward our quarters and pushed open Corinne’s door. “What do we do now?” I whispered.

I closed the door behind me. Her quarters were exactly the same as mine, but with sheepskins worn thinner from her footsteps over gods-knew-how-long. Corinne was curled on her own mattress, thumbing disinterestedly through a book. She looked up. “We get the scales.”

“How?” I asked.

“Depends,” she said. “Did he have any on him?”

I nodded. “A lot, it looked like. All over his shoulders.”

“That’s good.” She sat up, looking a little more alert. “That’s why he’s back.”

“What do you mean?”