Claws he lifted from my mouth when he finally released me. “Don’t fight,” he whispered into my ear. I couldn’t tell whether it sounded like a plea or a command. Maybe both.
King Nazayun observed us. “In case the human does not understand, then I remind you, Seryu: this will be her final opportunity to present the pearl to me. You know the consequences should she waste it.”
“I do, Grandfather,” Seryu said staunchly. “I thank you for your mercy.”
“Bring her to your mother. She will initiate the girl for the ceremony.”
Seryu stiffened. “There isn’t any need. I can prepare Shiori myself—”
“You cannot be trusted with the girl,” interjected the king. “Take her to your mother. Solzaya has a love of spectacle, and a spectacle this will be: the first Kiatan companion in nearly a thousand years.”
Companion…binding ceremony. The pieces were coming together, but I couldn’t make sense of them. The possibilities were too preposterous to consider. I pulled away from Seryu, but he held fast to my wrist.
Even as Seryu fought me, his ears turned red, and the shine in his horns dulled. Which was all the answer I needed.
Gods spare me, I thought. I would’ve kicked him in the ribs if I could, but my legs hadn’t adjusted to the stupid, shifting currents, and I feared I’d miss him entirely.
Seryu made a low bow to his grandfather, forcing me once more to do the same.
“As you wish, Your Eternal Majesty,” he murmured. The train of his long robe struck me from behind and held me down by the neck.
Amusement glinted in Nazayun’s hard eyes. “I promised you death for reneging on your word, Shiori’anma, and death shall come. Only not the sort you were expecting.
“Prepare your final farewells. After the binding rites, you will be reborn as the companion of a dragon prince. All that you knew in your past life will cease to exist, and you will never again return to Kiata.”
He paused dramatically. “Ai’long will be your home from now on.”
It was lucky for Seryu that his grip was strong. Otherwise, I would have shoved him into one of the rushing cascades of black crystal we kept passing. After my earlier experience with the whirlpool, I figured they were portals of some sort, and I fantasized about shipping Seryu to the bottom of a volcano.
I settled for digging my nails into his arm as we made our way through the palace, paying no mind to the sharks that circled the crystal walls or the crabs that scurried up and down, their bulbous little eyes watching from every direction.
“Companion?” I hissed. “That had better not mean what I think it does. I’m no concubine, Seryu. Especially not yours.”
Seryu hardly flinched as my nails sank into his thick skin. “Better a concubine than sea foam.”
You spiteful reptile! Buzzing out of my sleeve, Kiki slapped the dragon’s cheek with her wing. To think I liked you. Take us home right away!
Seryu batted her away, his fuming red eyes darting toward the watchful crabs as if they were eavesdropping. “Do you not have any sense of propriety?” he snarled. “I am a prince of this realm.”
As the crabs skittered away, his claw fell on my shoulder, and we were whisked into a private chamber shuttered by bubbling panes of ice.
“You might as well put me back in your mother’s dungeon,” I said. “I’m not giving up the pearl.”
Seryu growled at me. “Sons of the wind, can you be quiet for once? Can’t you just be thankful that I saved your life?”
“Be thankful? You lied to me.”
“Let’s be clear. You lied to me. You promised to give Grandfather the pearl.”
“Bring him the pearl, not give him the pearl. It doesn’t belong to him.”
“Do you think he cares?” Anger made Seryu’s whiskers taut and straight. “My grandfather is not someone who can be reasoned with. Why else do you think I proposed the binding ceremony? You have a piece of my pearl, Shiori. Do you even know what that means in Ai’long?” He raked a claw through his green hair. “Of course you don’t.”
“What does it mean?”
“That Grandfather is sworn by dragon law to honor the bond between us.”
“There is no bond between us.” My hands went up to the necklace he’d given me. I wished I could hurl it at him to prove my point, but I’d drown. “I’m already betrothed.”
“To that pathetic lordling?” Seryu snorted.
“Will you stop calling him that? He’s my—”
“Fiancé? You ran away from the betrothal ceremony. You’re hardly engaged.”
“I wasn’t running away from him,” I half fibbed. “Kiki flew out of my sleeve.”
Seryu’s expression darkened. “What is so wonderful about him, anyway? He’ll live seventy or eighty years, at best; he has no magic, hardly any power to his name. His castle doesn’t even have a proper pond or a proper river. I had to visit you in a horse trough when you were there.” Seryu gritted his sharp teeth. “Yet you act as though he’s the one who gave you a piece of his heart. As if he saved you from drowning in the Sacred Lake.”
It was the last thing I’d expected him to say. My heart pinched with an ache I’d never felt before. “Seryu…”
His ears went flat, their tips turning redder than summer poppies. He seemed to be wishing the ground could swallow him whole. “Look, it was the only idea I could come up with. If I’d known you would be so vehemently opposed to it—”
“I’m not vehemently opposed,” I interrupted. “Just…opposed.” I couldn’t look him in the eye. “I can’t stay here forever.”
“What if you have to?” Seryu pressed. There was a new edge to his words that I didn’t like. “What if it’s best for your country?”
My ribs went tight. “What do you mean?”
“Staying here is your best recourse,” he replied slowly, as if reading the words aloud. “It always has been. A new bloodsake is born only after the previous one dies. If you live an eternity in Ai’long, another will never be born.”
I said nothing. I couldn’t. My mind was reeling, everything coming harshly into focus. Nine blazing Hells, Seryu had a point.
The demons trapped in Kiata’s Holy Mountains needed my blood in order to be free. But if I stayed in Ai’long, they’d never get out.
Seryu spoke my mind: “Your father, your brothers…your lordling would be safe. Everyone in Kiata would be safe.”
It was a beautiful solution, and I hated Seryu for it. Any arguments I had clotted in my throat. All reason pointed to me staying here.
“So,” Seryu spoke, more quietly than I’d ever heard him before. “Do you think you could try…to carve a place in your heart for me?”