Page 134 of Under Restless Skies

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to get attached, as I felt it would betray my wife.”

“What a devoted husband.” Sarcasm drips from my voice.

“A horrible husband. Then my wife got pregnant. I was ecstatic. It’s unfair, right? I already had two lovely children, but they were a sign of my shame, my weakness.” He swallows. “I realize these words might hurt you.”

He thinks I care? “I’m more than used to not having a father.”

“Fair. Anyway, my wife was pregnant with a child I could love without any shame, but then… she died.” His voice cracks, and he pauses. “Poison. From a vial of tonic bought in Sirenna. Tampered with. I had the bottle with me when I visited your mother.” He closes his eyes. “She confessed. I told that dreadful woman I would never see her again, never help her again. But I couldn’t sentence her to death. I thought about you and your brother, and I didn’t want to make you orphans. I had proof, but I never tried to get any punishment for Ruinara.”

My body trembles, disbelief and horror battling inside me, but all I do is huff. “Makes sense. Let’s leave the kids with the murderer.”

“She was your mother and would never hurt you. I let her live and raise her children. Her children. From that moment on, I decided they were not mine. But then you came to Dracolius City. Two scrawny little kids, hungry and desperate. Laristella took you in before I could do anything. Since then, I’ve been keeping an eye on you, and sending donations to the Grease & Spice.”

My fists clench beside me. “My brother and I had to work in that restaurant! Work when we were still kids!”

“It wasn’t hard work! You were learning a profession and would inherit the restaurant. You both had a good, comfortable life, a guaranteed future. What else can anyone wish for?”

His opinion about my life as a cook is pointless. “If you didn’t want me to join this place, you could have warned me.”

“Too dangerous. Dangerous for you, and even for me. Now it’s too late. You’ve seen too much, know too much to go back to the restaurant. The knowledge about the hatchlings can get you killed.”

The hatchlings. A wave of cold reaches me. “What’s going to happen to them?”

“What do you think?”

I recall Katrine talking about keeping them safe from jaws, recall the gigantic dragon approaching me. “Food? For Auranius?”

Mallor sighs and nods. “Unfortunately, yes, but they need to be bigger. The reason Katrine allowed you to stay with them is because it seems to make them healthier.”

Outrage snaps inside me. “You were just going to let me bond with the little dragons and then snatch them like that?”

“We’d give you an excuse. You can tell yourself that at least they had love in the little time they lived. Sometimes that’s the only thing we can do: alleviate our suffering.”

I’m trembling. I want to yell and throw a chair and even strangle this man before me, but if I do that, he’ll realize how much I care for Ava and Vos.

I nod. “How long do they have?”

“A moon cycle at least. We can try to push for more. The bigger they are⁠—”

“I get it.” I don’t want to hear another word.

“I’m sorry, little bug.”

The nickname claws into deep memories. “Don’t call me that.”

“I’m truly sorry. My solution now is to get you out of this kingdom.”

“If I’m caught escaping, I’ll be sentenced to death.”

“You won’t be caught.” He sounds confident.

I think about the hatchlings, think about my family, and figure there is something I can ask. “Before I leave, can you help secure an apprenticeship for my brother?”

He clicks his tongue. “Talk to him. The restaurant is a better place. A better job. He’ll be able to have a family. Merchant ships, they’re not an easy life.”

I swallow. “But if by any chance, let’s say, someone catches me escaping, or maybe someone figures out what I saw, I fear for him.”

His body stiffens, and a shadow covers his eyes. “Thantos curse. I’ll get him on a ship by the end of this week and then I’ll figure a way to get you out of here soon after.”