Hidden Dragon (The Treasure of Paragon Book 7) by Genevieve Jack (best book club books .txt) 📕

she had more than one? If these people saw her give anything to Willow, would they attack her for it? Steal it from the old woman’s hands?

Disappointed, she adjusted her bag on her shoulder. “Let us all pray the goddess hears us and sends help.” She gave Willow a slight bow goodbye and then allowed Sylas to lead her from the beach. Together, they entered the scorched woods.

“It stinks of death,” she said. “Charred wood. Charred life. I wonder if this is what hell smells like.” Her boots were already covered in ash. Ahead of them, Tobias carried Sabrina, who appeared to be sleeping in his arms. The disguised dragon didn’t seem to mind at all. The way he kissed her on the head, Dianthe thought he might walk across Ouros with her in his arms if he needed to.

“You did the right thing back there,” Sylas said.

They were deep enough into what remained of the Empyrean Wood that they were alone. There wasn’t another soul in sight.

“It doesn’t feel like the right thing. I’ve never seen Willow look so frail. One of my rations would have meant the world to her.”

Sylas laughed. “Willow may be old, but she’s as tough as oak roots. She’ll survive. But if you’d given her a ration, she might have been killed for it.”

“Seems as though we’ve made a lot of excuses why we can’t help lately.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she couldn’t tell if it was from the swell of emotion in her chest or the ash that floated in the air like snow around her.

“What we’re about to do—hell, what we have been doing—will help these people more than a ration or putting an Obsidian guard in his place. We’re going to end this, Dianthe. We are going to make it so that this”—he gestured around him—“never happens again. To anyone. Anywhere in the five kingdoms. We are going to end Eleanor’s reign of terror.”

“Do you really think it will ever happen?” The crushing weight of doubt compressed her chest until she could hardly breathe.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have hope.”

“Yeah.” She supposed she wouldn’t be there either if she didn’t believe they could make a difference. She’d had plenty of opportunity to back out. “Have you finally made your peace then with my participation in this mission? Aren’t you afraid I might have an errant vision that brings about our doom? The way you’ve treated me the past few days, I’m surprised the entire island of Aeaea doesn’t think I’m a snapping elderbeast.”

“That’s not fair. Neither of us knew for sure what Aborella might have done.”

Dianthe stopped, her boots kicking up ash between them. “Let’s put this to rest right now. You never wanted me to heal Aborella. I had a vision she’d help us and that vision didn’t pan out. But you helped me carry her back here. You stayed away so that I could heal her and build trust with her. And as reluctant as you might have been, you yourself invited her to join our cause. So stop this, Sylas. Stop it now. Because I did not inflict Aborella on us or on Everfield alone. We did. We did it together. And you are fully culpable, as much as I am.”

“I wasn’t the one who had the vision!”

“Raven said that even the strongest witches sometimes make mistakes. Spells fail. Magic isn’t infallible.” She shook her head. “I made a mistake, Sylas. Frankly, I was overdue. But you know what? People who love each other forgive mistakes. And they believe in each other even when it’s hard.”

Sylas’s mouth dropped open as Dianthe stormed off. Was that what she thought? That he didn’t believe in her? His jaw started to ache, and he realized he was grinding his teeth. Hardheaded female. By the Mountain, they were walking through a war zone! If she didn’t realize that he was trying to protect her from this… this… horror of an existence, he wasn’t sure what to say. It was too late anyway. She was here. There was no going back.

Still, for the next two hours, Dianthe walked beside Tobias, leaving him following alone. He was relieved when they finally broke from the Empyrean Wood and arrived at Solaris Field. Ouros’s two suns had begun to set, streaking the sky with aqua and lime green, but it was the field itself that was putting on a show. In the mounting twilight, the sunpitcher plants, charged from a day of full light, glowed bright for as far as the eye could see. Sylas emerged from a world of skeletal trees and ash into a field of stars.

Ahead of him, Dianthe reached into one of the conical flowers and plucked the glowing pollen from within. She dropped it into her mouth. The glow shone through the mahogany skin of her cheeks, illuminating the veins there, before disappearing down her throat. Beside her, Tobias set Sabrina on her feet. The vampire seemed to be more alert than before and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. His brother tried to follow Dianthe’s example and pluck the glow from the nearest flower but only succeeded at destroying the bloom.

Sylas chuckled as he caught up to the group. “Nice try, brother. Only fairies can harvest the pollen without destroying the flower.”

Tobias held up his glowing hand, the remains of the blossom stuck to his fingers like spiderwebs. “I see that now.”

Dianthe snatched his hand out of the air and lowered it to his side. “Careful,” she whispered. “We’re not alone here, and you’re supposed to be a fairy.”

A giggle reached them from across the field, and Sylas noticed the winged silhouettes of adults and children collecting pollen.

“What should we do?” Tobias asked. “We can’t go diving into the lake with an audience.”

“That won’t be a problem.” Dianthe led the way toward the lake. “No fairy would stay here after nightfall, especially not where we’re going.”

She led the way to the right, carefully navigating