The Betrayed Dragon (Cycle of Dragons Book 2), Dan Michaelson [best books to read all time .txt] 📗

to the Academy building, and saw lights glowing in the windows. I needed to get rest, and given what I had gone through, and what I suspected I would continue to go through, I worried that even when I did rest, I still wouldn’t have enough sleep. “Unless you intended to go to the festival again?”

Natalie looked over to me, smiling slightly. “The festival is over. We could follow it, if you wanted. It travels, you know.”

“I didn’t know,” I said.

“They moved on to Negler, though they won’t be there for long. I suspect an Academy student wouldn’t really have the opportunity to travel and find out though.”

“I don’t think I should go,” I said.

“No. I probably shouldn’t either.” She looked behind me, her gaze heading toward the Academy, and then toward the city itself. “I suspect my father would be concerned if I suddenly disappeared.”

“Where is your father?”

Natalie turned back to me. “Is that your way of trying to find out where I live? If you want to know, all you have to do is ask.”

I smiled at her. “Where do you live?”

“I’m on the far side of the city,” she said. “Just beyond the temple.”

I looked out into the city, ignoring that strange irritation that pressed upon my awareness. “That has to be at least an hour walk for you to get over here.”

“It is. That doesn’t mean I mind the walk. Sometimes it’s nice to get out and stroll through the city.”

“Even at night?”

For a city the size of the capital, it was relatively safe, but it didn’t mean that there weren’t dangers inherent in any large city. I didn’t like the idea of Natalie wandering back home under the cloak of darkness. There were any number of thieves and cut-purses who might be active in the city, and though there were soldiers who patrolled the streets, along with the occasional dragon mage—though I doubt if they were active at this time of night—I still didn’t think it was a good idea for her to wander the streets by herself. For that matter, it probably wasn’t a good idea for me to wander the streets by myself. I could use my own dragon magic, and I could keep myself safe, but I couldn’t look behind me. A knife in my back would bring me down no differently than it would any other person in the city.

“I’m not helpless,” she said.

“I’m not trying to say that you are,” I told her. “It’s just—”

Natalie chuckled. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ve lived in the city long enough to know my way around the streets. I know which parts of the city are dangerous, and which parts need to be avoided, especially at night.”

I looked over at the Academy. I was tired and wanted to sleep, but at the same time, I also wanted to have another moment or two with Natalie. “I could walk with you.”

She regarded me for a moment. “You don’t need to do that.”

“I do. Besides, I want to.”

She chuckled. “Are all men from the plains like you?”

I smiled. At least she didn’t accuse me of coming from the Wilds. Too often, the people in the city had a belief about the makeup of the kingdom, and too many people thought that the Wilds were synonymous with every other part beyond the forest.

“I don’t know. I think most men from the plains would want to walk with a beautiful woman.”

She laughed softly. “Flattery.”

“I’m not necessarily trying to escort you home. I just want to—”

“I’m not saying flattery won’t work,” she said. “You can walk with me.”

We started forward, moving toward the street, and Natalie cast a glance behind her, looking over her shoulder and toward the forest. I wonder what she saw there, but she turned back to me, smiling brightly. “It’s nice to walk at night. It’s not something to fear. The city is quiet, and you can almost feel the latent energy of it.” Natalie closed her eyes as we made our way along the street. “I just feel as if there is an energy here. You don’t feel it?”

The only thing that I could feel was the irritated connection to the green dragon, and now the golden dragon. I didn’t say anything to her about that, so instead I just shook my head. “I don’t feel anything quite like that.”

“Maybe it’s just me. It might just be my time in the city. I feel like I have an understanding of it in a way that I didn’t when I first came here.” She looked over to me. “Perhaps in time you will come to know the same feeling. You haven’t been here long enough to detect the energy of the city yet.”

“Maybe that’s all it is,” I said.

She took me down a side street, weaving away from the central thoroughfare that led straight toward the palace. I was distantly aware of the dragons within, or beneath, the palace, and those near the Academy. Every so often, I could feel a surge of energy, something that flared up within me and called to me, letting me know that the energy of the dragons was there. I recognized how that filled me and stayed with me.

I tried not to focus on it, but I couldn’t help it. The surge of power continued intermittently. It was almost as if there were dragon mages up near the palace using that energy.

“You seem distracted,” Natalie said.

I glanced over to her. “I might be a little bit,” I admitted. “I’ve been working with Thomas lately and . . .”

“And now you’ve heard the report that he’s been accused of betraying the king?”

I frowned. “You know?”

She laughed softly. In the emptiness of the night, as we passed by darkened storefronts and large homes, the sound didn’t carry very far; it was as if the night swallowed her laughter. “I think most people in the city have heard about Thomas. It is a bit of a surprise.”

I took a