Page 131 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
She saw it land.
For a heartbeat, he looked as though she had struck him.
And that was why she could not stay. Because if she remained another second, she might see something in his face that would undo her completely.
So she turned.
She fled down the narrow stone corridor, boots echoing against the mountain’s hollow heart. She did not look back. She did not slow.
Running was easier.
Running meant she did not have to find out whether he would follow.
…
Alina watched her dragons with undisguised delight, sunlight catching on their scales as they shifted and stretched against the wind. Pride swelled quietly in her chest. They were hers. Loyal. Terrible. Magnificent.
She turned her attention to King Siroc and the vast procession assembling behind him—banners snapping in the desert breeze, warriors mounting their colossal sand snakes, servants moving like shadows between coils of scaled muscle. It struck her as faintly absurd that they must travel together at all, yet this had been one of the king’s unwavering conditions. He would not have them beyond his sight.
So it would be thus: the king and his people gliding acrossthe dunes upon their immense serpents of sand, and Alina with her small company soaring above on her dragons.
‘We’re going to waste too much time,’ she muttered, irritation sharpening her tone. ‘The snakes are fast, but not as fast as a dragon.’ She ignored the look Mareena sent her.
‘The important thing is that wearrive,’ Mareena said softly, her fingers brushing Alina’s as though by accident. The contact was fleeting. Intentional.
‘I knowthat,’ Alina replied, folding her arms. ‘I would simply prefer to reach our destination before I turn into an old, decrepit woman.’
Mareena’s laugh followed, low and warm, and it tightened something in Alina’s chest that had nothing to do with impatience.
But she quickly shoved it down, down into that dark, quiet part of herself that no longer felt anything.
Yet Mareena found reasons to touch her whenever she could: a gentle caress at the curve of her arm, a guiding hand at her back, fingers lingering just a heartbeat too long around her own. The touches were small. Harmless.
Dangerous.
Alina enjoyed them more than she wished to admit. But beneath that quiet pleasure lay a tremor of unease. Hessa’s presence, once so sharp and insistent, seemed to fade a little more each day. The ghost no longer lingered at the edge of her vision as often. The voice did not rise so readily.
And Alina did not know if she was ready for that final goodbye.
Some part of her suspected Mareena understood. That she saw the hesitation in Alina’s silences and chose not to push. Instead, she offered space and waited.
Waiting for Alina to decide when the next stepcould be taken.
Though Alina suspected she was so broken that she was now beyond repair. And even though there was a little part of her that wanted to give in, to allow herself to feel something, anything, once again—another part wished to see it crushed, erased from existence. If she no longer felt ever again…She could no longer be hurt. And she’d become exactly what she wanted to.
Indestructible.
‘You’re late,’ Alina said the moment Kai appeared at her side, her tone cool as desert steel.
‘Were you all waiting for me?’ he drawled, raising a brow in mock astonishment. ‘I feel rather special.’
‘Where’s the witch?’
‘Her name is Dawn,’ Kai almost growled.
Alina ignored him with deliberate ease. ‘We ought to have left at least ten minutes ago.’
Kai leaned forward and flicked the tip of her nose.
