Oh. Good thing they had cleared that up immediately. It wasn't about her personally, but about the continued existence of the dragon world. Which was completely reasonable. Nevertheless, she felt a twinge of disappointment.
"How do you know I'm really a dragon guardian? Sure, I can hear the young one in the egg, but maybe that's a coincidence, or limited to this one egg. Why should I, of all people, possess this ability? As you've already said, I'm not from here. And in my world, thereare neither dragons nor people who help care for their brood."
He shook his head. "Wrong, Ava, you must originally be from this world. Who are your parents?"
She flinched. Since everyone in the small town where she lived knew her story, no one had asked her about it in a long time.
She lifted her chin. "I don't know them."
Kilian paused, surprised. "Did they die young?"
"No, they abandoned me."
He furrowed his brow. "What do you mean by that?"
Her innermost being roiled, with old wounds threatening to reopen, and a shrill tone rang in her ears. She pushed that aside too, for it only hurt to dwell on it. "I was found when I was nine years old, wandering lost through a forest."
He paused, studying her with a strange look. "At that age, you must remember something that happened before."
"But I can't. Nothing. No one!"
"Ava..." He looked at her sympathetically. But she didn't want his pity, didn't want it from anyone, so she looked outside, her head held high and an unmistakable determination in her voice.
"I know nothing about my origins, and I don't want to know anything about them."
He understood, for he said nothing more. For a while, they sat silently side by side, looking at the stars. Ava noticed a stone lying beside her feet. It shimmered white. She picked it up, ran her fingers along its smooth surface, and put it in her pocket. Kilian observed this and broke the silence, his voice gentle.
"Who raised you?"
A hidden smile flitted across her features,reconciling her with her past. "A woman found me and took me in. She was like a mother to me, which is why I have to go back. She's old and can't manage on her own. I promised to be there for her, just as she was for me."
"She must be a good woman."
"She is." When she looked at Kilian, he was leaning back on his arms, hands spread to the sides, which somehow felt as if he were embracing her. In his gaze was no pity, but instead an intense feeling that went beyond simple sympathy.
Before the mood could get too heavy, she playfully nudged his arm. "What about you, oh notorious dragon fighter? When you were a boy, was it your goal to be the best and strongest of them all?"
His expression darkened. "Certainly not, but I've accepted my fate." He shot her a fleeting sideways glance that seemed to go deeper and say more, but she didn't understand. He stood up abruptly and pointed to a backpack leaning against the cave wall. "I brought you food."
Taken aback, Ava stood up. His reaction piqued her curiosity more than his brief answer before. What did he mean by accepting his fate? She observed him attentively, but he had locked away all his emotions behind the hard mask he'd had on when she'd first met him with. She respected it, although at that moment she would have loved to learn everything about him.
"Thanks for the food, but you didn't have to come especially for that. Allan and Rob brought us supplies."
"Now the food will last for both of you."
As if on cue, her stomach growled. She looked down at her belly. "Traitor."
The dragon rider looked at her, but the smile didn't return to his lips. Rather, it seemed that it wasmelancholy showing cautiously through the unapproachable mask. "I don't know when I'll be able to come back. Give this to Lilly from me." He held out a coin that gleamed silver.
Ava took it and examined it. The silver coin had a dragon's head on the front and a coat of arms on the back. "Is this a silver piece?"
He nodded, touched his forehead in salute, and merged with the shadows of the rocky cave so quickly that she couldn't say for certain whether he had gone out or in. But she was certain he had left. She felt it, as crazy as that might have sounded. Only his scent remained, and the wistful feeling that things weren't going the way their hearts might have wanted.
Chapter 15
After eating a piece of bread, Ava sat down next to Lilly again and watched her sleep. She looked peaceful and content. If it had been up to Ava, the little one would have slept every night from then on with the knowledge that someone was watching over her.
"Take me to you,"whispered the voice of the dragon child.
