Page 101 of Ashborne Forged

I felt sick, mentally scrambling for something else to cling to. ‘I think I bought her some time with the bastard baby idea.’ My nerves and agitation bubbled up. ‘But what if this fucker doesn’t wait anyway? What if he punishes her—’

‘Voski, we have a great mission ahead of us, and our mates need us at our best. Do not torment yourself with the unknown. I pray she is safe. You should, as well.’

‘She would already be safe if she’d been allowed to stay with us.’

‘The shadow on your heart weighs heavily.’

I sighed. ‘Just fly, Kham. Fly as fast as you can. I need to see her, to reassure us both. I don’t understand how we haven’t reached them yet. Surely Koa is within range for you now?’

‘I can sense my mate, but she remains out of range for the link. She must still be flying away from us. Perhaps our noble is on dragonback?’

I jolted. ‘How could he be? He’s not a Furyknight. Fyrehold had so few dragons. Surely their king wouldn’t have sent Furyknights here, just for Grace? And if he did, why bring the horses?’

We tossed ideas back and forth, but Kham was convinced they had to be flying. That we would have caught up with horses by now.

Then I had a bolt of inspiration. ‘Maybe she escaped? Maybe Grace broke free and is riding her?’

But Kham shook his head wearily. ‘My mate would not fly away if they were free. She must be in pursuit of her Chosen. There’s no other explanation.’

I wanted to be angry at him for stifling my momentary hope, but I knew that wasn’t fair. So I remained quiet, thinking desperately, scrambling for any explanation other than the one that seemed inevitable.

As night descended in truth, and we were still flying, still unable to reach our mates, as my anxiety climbed higher, Kham broke into my thoughts.

‘I heard what you told Gil. I assume your goal is—’

‘I thought I’d have her already,’ I growled. ‘I thought I’d steal her away and hide her from this prick. But, Kham, I fear we may be tangled in something much deeper than I thought.’

Kham sighed, and a thrust of comfort—the kind that urged me to speak—washed from him in the link.

‘I see your thoughts,’ he said grimly. ‘I do not know.’

I nodded. I’d figured if he had more to add to this picture, he would have told me already. But I turned the events back over in my mind, just in case my thoughts would trigger something for him.

The queen had forced me to face an uncomfortable truth: It was rather convenient that I’d been sent into Fyrehold at the precise time Grace was there. And her dragon Chose her, and found Kham. It had been fortuitous for our enemies that I’d been armed with information about the plot against Donavyn just at the time he’d been forced to leave—and I would soon be forced to follow.

It was startlingly coincidental that the one time Grace slipped into the dark streets of the city, she was under the eyes of a spy—and I was the one who followed her. Able to get her out without alerting anyone, to help her overcome the shock and self-loathing.

Her mate.

And that all of this occurred just in time for Breckon to arrive and steal her away, once more.

I was called Goldfinger because everyone believed I was gifted in making plans work out.

But Kham and I knew the truth: God positioned me. He always had.

When several coincidences lined up in this way, they weren’t coincidences at all.

All of this had started with the betrayal of Vosgaardian spies and traitors, working with men of other nations to build an army to overthrow our nation. Without that scheme, and my work, Grace and I would never have met.

But I knew my mate, and saw her heart. She wasn’t a part of that evil. She didn’t walk shadows to harm. She slipped through darkness to shine light into it.

There was a niggle in the back of my mind, something about the night I helped Donavyn uncover that dark plan that crossed kingdoms. But so much had happened, I hadn’t taken the time to examine it.

It wasn’t until the queen’s suspicion that I was reminded.

Taking a deep breath, I laid the pieces out in my mind, and couldn’t deny that the one conclusion I deeply wished were not true, seemed the most likely.

There was one more coincidence that none of the others knew.