Eona: The Last Dragoneye

even reach for Ryko’s Hua to boost my power; I could feel the islander, but he was too far away.

And last time I had nearly killed him.

I stared into Ido’s face, his taunting smile bringing a barrage of memory. I had seen the same smile as he pressed the knifeedge of his Dragoneye compass deep into his own flesh. And after the King Monsoon, when he’d hit me. And, most sharply, I had seen it when he had driven his sword through Ryko’s hand.

A dark intuition quickened within me: there was another route to his will. One that I had stumbled across only minutes ago. A call in the blood that had drawn Ido toward me. But it had also drawn me toward him. A dangerous and double-edged weapon, made of pleasure and pain. I did not entirely understand it, but somehow I knew it would defeat him. He would be at my mercy.

Did I really want to have that kind of power over Ido? Yet he was already pushing against my Hua, looking for a way to turn it against me.

I had no choice. With a sob, I released my fury through the pathways of desire so newly blazed. Ido gasped as my power rolled over his defenses, burning away the silver in his eyes. The shock rocked his body forward. He collapsed flat on to the ground, his silent scream ripping through my Hua in a backlash of pained pleasure.

Ido’s will was mine for the taking, and I took it, fusing his hammering heartbeat to mine.

“Eona!” His voice cracked; part plea, part warning.

I forced his head up, the amber eyes wide and dark.

“Call Dillon,” I said.

His command to the Rat Dragon shifted through me like a hand sliding across my skin. The power reached, searched, found its goal. I felt Dillon’s hate respond, its sharp barbs clawing into Ido like a soldier’s grappling hook, anchoring the boy to his master and pulling him inexorably toward us. Dillon and the black folio were on their way.

Then the power curled back upon me, its razor edge sending a shiver of pleasure through my body.

Abruptly, I released my hold on Ido’s will. He slumped, the rasp of his breath loud in the sudden, eerie quiet. All the birds and clicking insects around us were silent as if they marked some irrevocable event.

Ido slowly raised his head, but I turned on my heel, unable to look him in the eye. I got as far as the jasmine bush, its white blooms hanging heavily in the hot air. The cloying perfume caught in my throat. I could still feel his presence in my Hua.

“Addictive, isn’t it, Eona?”

I knew I should ignore his soft voice. Just keep walking. Yet I stopped and looked over my shoulder. He was on his knees, the back of his hand stemming the flow of blood from his nose.

“What’s addictive?” I asked.

His smile was a caress. “Getting what you want.”

As I pushed my way through the bushes toward camp, my mind was caught in a loop of horror: the pearl, Kygo, Kinra, Ido, me, all of it circling around and around the red folio’s portent. I slapped past branches, feeling the sting as they lashed back against my skin. Was Ido telling the truth? A bird flew up from the bushes at my feet, screaming an alarm. No! I had to believe he was lying. The alternative was too terrible. I ground my teeth. His presence still hummed in my blood.

“Eona, are you all right?”

Kygo stopped in front of me, sword drawn; a tall blur through my tears. I reared back and lost my balance. He caught my arm with his free hand and held me upright, the strain digging his fingers into my flesh. Behind him, Caido and Vida crashed through the scrub, swords at the ready.

“What’s wrong?” Kygo said. “Did Ido do something? Ryko felt you compel him.”

My eyes locked on the pearl. The Hua of All Men.

“It was nothing.” I pulled my arm free. “Just training.”

Kygo lowered his sword and turned to Vida and Caido, sunlight sliding across the pearl in a shimmer of colors. “False alarm,” he said.

Caido scanned the bushes around us. “We shall escort you and Lady Eona back, Your Majesty.”

“No.” Kygo waved them away. “It is only a few lengths.”

They bowed and retreated through the bushes, leaving the smell of churned earth and the green snap of broken twigs.

Kygo resheathed his sword. “Are you sure you are all right?”

I stared down at my dirt-smeared feet, away from the lustrous power at his throat. Did Kinra try to steal the pearl in order to save the dragons? It would mean that the energy beasts had been losing their strength even in her time. I was so new to the Mirror Dragon I did not even know if she was diminished. The thought that she could be fading sent a piercing pain through my spirit.

I pressed my hand against my forehead. “I’m sorry to have disturbed you, Your Majesty.”

The pearl was too close to me. He was too close. What if Ido was right?

“I wanted to speak to you anyway,” he said. “Alone.”

I lifted my head and forced my eyes past the pale glow to the sensuous curve of his mouth. The memory of his lips against mine reverberated through me. I stepped back. “Your Majesty, I beg pardon, but I am very tired.”

“It will not take long.” He cleared his throat, the hard swallow forcing my gaze back to the jewel at its base. “I have come to understand that I have offended you with my honesty about your power,” he said. “I am not accustomed—” He paused and rubbed his chin. “I mean, apart from my father, there has been no one whose opinion I was required to consider. And I’ve never had to”—his finger traced the edge of the pearl—“pursue a woman.”

Was the emperor apologizing to me?

He took a deep breath. “I cannot take back those words — we both know they were the truth — but I regret that they caused you hurt.” He reached across and took my hand. “And they did not take into account the importance I place upon your role as Naiso. Eona, you are the moon balance to my sun.”

For a moment, I could not speak. His balance? My heart ached with the trust in his words. I wanted to be his balance, but I was more likely to be his death.

“I am honored, Your Majesty,” I stammered.

“Kygo,” he corrected softly. “I am sorry I hurt you, Eona.”

His sincerity sliced through me like a knife. I tightened my hold on his hand and felt hard metal pressing into my skin; the blood ring was back on his finger. Good. He needed the protection. “You know I would never hurt you, Kygo.”

“I know.” His head tilted; a smile quickly suppressed. “Of course, you have already punched me in the throat and tried to stab me with a sword, but I know you would never hurt me.”

I closed my eyes, but it did not stop the tears. He did not know how much truth was in his jest: at the inn, I had barely held back Kinra’s murderous desire for the pearl. And that was even before I had been touched by the madness of the black folio.

“Eona, I’m only teasing,” he said. The soft touch of his fingers stopped the track of my tears.

I pressed my wet cheek into his hand, unwilling to open my eyes and see the pearl. Unwilling to see the truth. But I knew Ido was right. The pearl was the way to save the dragons. To save our power. Even as he had said it — even as I had denied it — I had known it to be true. Like a part of a wooden puzzle locking into place, creating a picture of pain.

I took a shaking breath. Kinra had not been a power-hungry traitor, after all; she had been trying to save the dragons. There was no taint of treachery in my blood. Yet that did not change the fact that she was still trying to take the pearl through me— her Dragoneye descendant — and it was endangering Kygo’s life. I was not going to be a puppet of my ancestor or the gods or whoever held the rods of this shadow play. Not without a fight. There had to be another way to save the dragons. Another way of mastering Gan Hua. And I could think of only one place it might be: the black folio.

I opened my eyes. “I know,” I said, but my gaze had already locked onto the pearl.