Page 66 of Spar of Hearts

Any more slip ups, and your cousin will take your place as our heir.

Roderick took a step back and cleared his throat. She’d been staring silently at their joined hands. But it was more of a statement than a question anyway, wasn’t it?

“I should catch a little shuteye before sunup. But first, do you mind if I?” He hung on the last word, gesturing to the apple on the baluster.

“By all means. Help yourself. I’m not hungry anymore.”

Anya stole a glance as he bit into the apple. The juices wet his lips and fangs as he tore a piece away. She failed to stifle a shiver as he chewed and swallowed, throat bobbing slowly.

“I can’t possibly take this from you.” He flashed that infuriatingly handsome, crooked smile and set the apple back down. “I think you’ll change your mind once you taste the real thing.”

Chapter 24

Roderick Bryson

Roderick laid in an expanse of cool grass, with a sea of stars surrounding him. As he rose to his bare feet, the grass sunk in, then fell away into the darkness. The cosmos around him was thick like water, yet he could move and breathe as freely as a fish. He swam up toward the brightest constellation, the only one he knew by heart: Lupus, the wolf.

With every stroke, Lupus seemed to run from him, bounding effortlessly toward the moon. Its diamond tail swung back and forth, leaving a trail of auroras in its wake. It stopped every few leaps and bounds, looking back at him with sparkling eyes of gold, gauging his progress.

I’m coming! he answered, but only bubbles came from his mouth.

The celestial wolf became smaller and smaller as the space around him became colder and thicker, slowing his every movement.

Please wait! he shouted, swiping at the stream of bubbles.

The wolf paused, then threw its head back and howled. Its coat dissolved into shimmering dust, swirling toward the crescent moon. The dust gathered and ignited into a blinding aura. He shielded his eyes until the light faded to a gentle glow.

Anya, clad in a nebulous purple dress, sat in the curve of the glowing crescent moon, kicking her legs playfully back and forth as she called out different constellations.

Pegasus. Vulpecula. Delphinus. Cygnus.

He was transfixed by her beauty. With her golden hair floating in space, he’d nearly mistaken her for a star herself. She smiled down at him, eyes scrunching behind her spectacles as the joy reached the heights of her soft cheekbones.

She leaned down and extended a hand to him, finally within his reach.

Come. Watch the stars with me. Her tone was a whisper, but carried on like the sweet song of a harp. His anxieties melted away as her alto voice caressed his senses.

The moment his fingers met her claws, manacles clanged around his ankles and yanked him into the inky void.

Please! Let me see her! The ability to breathe in the strange space vanished as he gasped, drawing lungs full of gelatinous muck. He dropped like a stone as the substance hardened and choked out his cries—but there was still room for the despair that swirled in his chest as Anya faded from his sight.

His eyes sprung open.

I can’t breathe, he thought, clutching his chest. I can’t breathe. Every breath was fast and shallow, taking far more than it gave. Seabirds called from the cross mast, orienting him to here and now.

Come under my wing. Yomira grumbled and lifted her membranous wing, hiding him in plum shadows. He moved from the spiral of her tail and slid down against her flank. Her warm scales, bellowing breath and hidden shelter of her wing slowly calmed him. The Rhodias took time to adjust to. Sleeping by Yomira helped keep his mind from wandering as he fell asleep, but it couldn’t stop the bizarre dreams.

Breathe, he repeated to himself. Just breathe.

Yomira cocked her head, a single ruby eye peering at him. It looks like you’re breathing to me.

He managed a weak chuckle between heaving breaths. “You…you know what I mean.”

After several minutes, he rose to his feet with a grunt, pushing up on Yomira’s wing. She acquiesced, holding it high above him as he stretched. It was time to dust himself off and get on with the day.

The dream with Anya wasn’t a nightmare, per se. But it did scare him. He was charging straight into the dragon’s lair with a defenseless heart.

Dragons? Yomira perked up.