AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I finally glanced around, taking in our surroundings, making sure I kept one eye on the dragon at our side. I had never personally been to Voara. Mountains towered into the sky all around us, the distant peaks dusted with snow. Sunlight glistened off the ivory encrusted slopes with puffy clouds licking at the furthermost tips.
We were standing on some kind of building that was built into the side of one of the mountains. No, not built into it,carvedfrom it. Luscious green grass, sparse with trees, filled the valley within the mountain range, the Eckterre Mountains. The air was thinner here, and a brisk autumn wind caused my hair to ruffle and bit at my skin. It was already so much cooler being this far north. But I didn’t pay attention to that. Not with the awe-inspiring view before me.
Odarum suddenly appeared next to where we stood. I gritted my teeth.
“So what, I go off with another Spirit and you get jealous then finally show up?”I snapped.
“No. I told you I would be back. We had a gathering in our realm,”he responded.
“Gathering?”I tilted my head slightly.
“Yes.”That was all he offered. He pinned his ears back and flared his feathered wings at Theron, who bared his teeth. I watched them curiously as they seemed to converse with each other silently.
“I told you he doesn’t like anyone,” Ryker said after a moment.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “So much is happening right now.” I looked up. “Let me get all this straight, you have a Spirit… What did you call it?” I asked, trying not to visibly shake from the cold seeping into me.
“Dragon,” Ryker said with a nod.
“Right. You have a Spirit dragon, Odarum has been at some gathering on Hylithria, you know where the book is, and you had Theron bring us to Voara.” I gestured to the land around us.
“Yes. We are on the top of the Oryn Palace.”
“Well as much as I love the scenery, can we please go inside and you explain in there? It’s freezing out here.” I wrapped my arms around myself. The side of his mouth lifted, and he placed his arm around my shoulder. I leaned into his warmth as he led us to a spiraling staircase at the other end.
“We’ll talk later?”I glanced at Odarum.
“Yes. We have much to discuss.”He bobbed his head.
We descended the stairs and came to a balcony with a set of paneled doors that Ryker opened and ushered me through. I was thankful to be relieved of the bitter cold and I relaxed a bit. We stood in a wide corridor lined with large windows on one side overlooking the valley below and the gray mountains around it. Unlit sconces lined the opposite light-colored stone wall and we stood on a beautiful ornate rug.
“It’s just a hallway, but welcome to my home,” Ryker said, smiling sweetly at me, a smile that made all the cold in me melt away. He placed a hand at the small of my back and I welcomed his touch as he led me down the corridor and around several corners.
I didn’t know what I expected Ryker’s home to look like, not that I had really given it much thought, but I hadn’t expectedit to be so bright and warm and open. We passed several rich wooden doors and a few stairs leading down to lower floors.
“Where is everyone?” I asked. I could feel movement several floors down but none up here.
“What do you mean?” He pulled me slightly closer to him, his hand wrapping around my waist.
“I mean, don’t you have people here? Workers and servants?”
“There are noservants,but yes, people do work here. They will all be downstairs. This is the upper-most-floor, the living quarters. And since it’s just me, I’m the only one who comes up here besides those who come up to clean.”
It dawned on me that I had only recently ended things with Cade. It was possible that Ryker was involved with someone. He’s been a Lord for over three hundred years. I wasn’t ignorant to the possibility of it, but we hadn’t discussed it.
“So you live here alone?”
“I do.”
“No family or…friends?” I was dancing around the question of any females that might have shared his bed before our bond enacted, but I didn’t want to outright ask. The last thing I wanted was to run into an ex like he did with Cade.
“No.”
“Hmm. And have you always lived alone?”
He looked at me for a moment.
“My father lives in a house farther north in the mountains. He and my mother lived here for awhile, but haven’t in years. My brother lives in the city and has never lived here. And nofriendshave ever lived here either.” He hesitated for a moment, then pulled me to a stop. “I haven’t had any of those kinds offriendsfor some time now, not since long before the Trial. Yes, I have a past just as you do. But I can assure you, you have no one to worry about. Do I?”
