I awoke to a racing heart, my breath catching in my throat as if I was choking. The entire room was lit up, and I saw Adilyn’s startled face. She was sitting in human form on the bed opposite me.
The sword was alight, lying completely naked beside the scabbard. It had burned clear through the covers, and smoke hung in the room.
Adilyn looked at me, and said, “What the…?”
I rolled to a sitting position and grabbed the sword, shoving it back into the scabbard. Darkness returned to the room, and Adilyn reached over to switch on the light.
“Sorry for waking you up,” I said.
“Waking me up? You almost burned the place to a crisp. I thought it was morning. And then I smelled the smoke.” She tilted her head. “Were you dreaming? You were muttering things. Names.” Her eyes dropped to the weapon. “And what are you doing with Riggs’s sword?”
“He’s decided he doesn’t want it,” I said.
“Sid says that’s a special sword.” She still sounded annoyed, but now also confused.
I wondered just how much Sid had told her. But then, he didn’t know who Riggs really was. “I think sleeping beside it gave me nightmares.”
“Well, keep it wrapped up in that scabbard. I’m not rooming with an effing firebug.”
I felt I owed her an explanation for almost burning down our room. “It has an energy that helps me control the Ice Drake inside me,” I said. “But I won’t go to sleep with it unsheathed again. I didn’t know it would burn through the covers.”
She didn’t look entirely reassured, and I couldn’t blame her. But it wasn’t the sword’s power that had me so unsettled.
It was the dream. Mostly because I was pretty sure it wasn’t a dream.
It was a damned vision.
30
Riggs
I spent the night on the roof.
Odd that I would be more comfortable up here than in my room. Was it a holdover from when I used to be a Dragon? Or just a sign that I didn’t want company?
In fact, I certainly didn’t want company. Or rather, I did, but the one I most wished to be with was someone I needed to think long and hard about.
Rising, I walked to the parapet and turned my face into the wind. At moments like this, with it dancing over my skin, I could almost imagine flying. Wings beat at the edges of my consciousness, but they were mere ghosts of what I’d once been.
Breana resonated through my fractured soul, and if one believed in Fate at all, she represented my future. But what could I possibly offer her? I didn’t even remember who I was. And if I ever did regain my memories—there were those that wanted me to die in a much more permanent manner. I was looking at a lifetime of watching my back.
And then there was the blasted sword. It spoke to her, gave her strength where she most needed it. It was connected to her, too. Could I turn my back on it, and not her?
It wanted me to be something I could not be.
My mind spun away from that and focused on that Tez dude. He had drawn the sword.
And Breana had dreamed of him.
I wasn’t prepared for the rage that coursed through me.Whoa.It seized hold, and for a moment, I just wanted to tilt my head back and roar to the clouds above.
But it would solve nothing. I could do better—I needed tothink.I paced from one end of the roof to the other, forcing myself to breathe, to engage my damaged brain.
Cara had said bearing the sword wasn’t always about becoming a leader. Which was good, because I just wasn’t Emperor material. I may not have my memories, but even the thought of running the Empire instilled complete panic within me. The fierce joy I’d experienced when on the rescue mission, and when I’d fought Talakai, had proved I was still someone who craved action. Emperors might order it done, but they did not directly chase down underworld criminals or lift their swords against them.
I envisioned running the Empire as akin to wearing chains. Freedom was not an option.
What if that was what Fate had in store for me? If my family, and my people, required it of me?
