Chapter 10: After the Light

We did not reach the fortress that night.

The roar had shaken the weather loose, and by dusk the pass was white with sleet.

Ilsabet found a cave above the goat track, dry inside, with an old shepherd's fire ring in the back.

I could barely feel my hands.

When I tried to light the fire with a flint, my fingers shook so hard I dropped it twice.

"Let me," Ilsabet said.

"I can do it."

"Rowan. You've been burning like a lamp for six hours."

She was right.

Gold sparks still ran under my skin whenever I moved, and each one came with a tremble in my knees.

She lit the fire with a flick of two fingers and made me sit beside it.

I stared at the flames.

The song in my head had grown louder since the roar.

It was not quite a song.

It was more like a hurt that had learned to hum.

"You're thinking about the dragon," Ilsabet said.

"It's in the Pit. It's what the guard meant. It's what's awake."

"I know."

"It's calling me."

"I know that too."

She knelt in front of me and took my face between her palms.

"Look at me instead," she said.

I looked.

Her eyes were wide and grey, and the firelight turned the edges gold.

She kissed me.

It was slow this time.

Her lips moved against mine.

I felt the shaking in my hands begin to ease.

I slid one hand into her hair and tugged the braid loose.

"I'm not a stable boy tonight," I said against her mouth.

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