Wings of Fire (Godstone Saga 4)

Adrian flopped into the empty chair and motioned with one hand toward Drayce. “You never told me you were a dragon!”

Drayce scooted to the edge of the sofa and leaned forward like he was going to jump up. “They would have killed me if I told you. They already cut off my wings!” Drayce motioned to the empty space behind him.

The tension in the room instantly became so thick Rayne couldn’t even drag in a breath. His gaze darted around to see Eno frozen and Caelan’s expression painfully stricken. But Adrian didn’t hesitate. Didn’t miss a single beat.

He shifted to the edge of his seat and tugged the sleeves of his shirt so they covered his hands. “Man! I was a thief. If anyone found out, they would have cut off my hands.” He held up his arms with his hands hidden inside his shirt and shook them. “How am I gonna hold a sword with no hands?”

That was not true at all, but a choking noise escaped Drayce, as if he were fighting to hold in a laugh.

The dragon glared at Adrian, but it was a pathetic glare as his lips kept twitching, failing to hold in his smile. “Draw?”

Adrian nodded with a regal air.

“Since you were a thief, does that mean you cheated every time we played cards?” Drayce pressed.

Adrian snorted and popped his hands out of his shirt before stretching in his chair. “I could have, but I didn’t. No need. You’re horrible at cards.”

“What?” Drayce squawked.

“It’s true. You suck at cards,” Eno chimed in.

Drayce dramatically flopped on the sofa, hand on his forehead as he sighed.

“You’re all idiots,” Caelan muttered, but it was with a smile Rayne had seen far too infrequently on his king’s face the past several months.

“Well, now that we’ve got that settled, we should get down to business,” Rayne announced, trying to move them along to more important matters.

Adrian gave a sigh worthy of Drayce. “Look what you did. You made Rayne serious.”

Drayce snickered and straightened, his shoulder brushing against Caelan’s. “Just be glad he’s sitting on the other side of the room. He likes to hit people on the back of the head when he’s pissed.” As if reliving the memory, Drayce rubbed his head and glared at Rayne. “Think about it: You were hitting a dragon.”

“If I knew then what I know now,” Rayne started and paused.

“Yeah?” Drayce egged on, his grin growing.

“I would have hit you harder,” Rayne finished with an evil grin of his own.

The room exploded with laughter, Drayce the loudest as he fell into Caelan. Yes, their family was together again. If they were off to subject Caelan to another godstone and the power of another god, Rayne wanted this for his friend. He wanted Caelan surrounded by love and laughter for as long as they could manage it.

Eno reached over and placed his hand on Rayne’s knee, squeezing. Rayne’s heart stuttered and he glanced at the papers forgotten in his hands. If he lifted his eyes to Eno, his heart would melt. He knew he’d see the same worried sadness reflected in his dark-brown eyes, and right now, he needed to hold on to this joy.

“Now that we have Drayce back, it’s time to deal with the gods,” Eno stated.

Caelan nodded. “The godstone.”

Eno released him and shoved a hand through his hair, pushing a few strands off his forehead. “Any clue where it’s at?”

All eyes turned to Drayce, who quickly lifted both hands as if to ward them off. “Whoa. If you grabbed me because you thought I’d know, I’m sorry to disappoint. I had no idea there was a godstone on the Isle of Stone until Caelan got sent on this crazy quest by the gods.”

Caelan bumped him. “You know that’s not why we grabbed you.”

“But it would have been nice if you did know something,” Adrian added.

“Yeah, and people in Zastrad want KoD,” Drayce muttered.

“Huh? The fish?” Adrian replied.

Rayne coughed to cover his laugh. “I guess you had to be there,” he mumbled before turning his attention to Caelan. “Has your grandfather indicated that he knows the location of the godstone?”

The king shook his head. “No, and he seems pretty pissed that the Takahashi would keep that secret from him.” Caelan lifted a hand and rubbed his fingers together as if he were testing something gritty in the air. “I can feel it a little better here with the Omari than I could with the Takahashi. My guess is that it lies somewhere to the northwest on the island. We just have to keep moving in that direction.”

Rayne wrinkled his nose and folded his arms over his chest. “Hardly the most organized way of searching for the godstone. But knowing what we do of Takahashi Masaru, I can’t imagine he’d trust any other clan enough to allow them to remain living near the godstone, even if they were an ally.”