Rayne groaned softly, sounding like he was ready to strangle all of them. “Adrian, please. This isn’t about trying to protect you. It’s about you potentially saving all of us before it’s too late.”
“What?” Drayce squawked as Adrian choked on the same word.
“Yeah, I want to hear more about this bullshit now, too,” Eno chimed in.
Adrian scrubbed a hand over his face. They were all filthy and exhausted. The only one to sleep during their boat ride was Drayce, and that was because he’d been spelled into it by Rayne. The guy still looked a little ragged and green.
Caelan appeared suspiciously awake and rested despite not getting any sleep, but did gods sleep? Did they feel tired?
Fuck.
He’d told his king “no.”
He’d told a freaking god “no.”
He was lucky Caelan was only threatening to crush him with a dragon.
Gods, he must be more tired than he realized. He wasn’t thinking clearly at all.
Adrian glanced down when a hand gripped his arm to find Caelan holding on to him. “Please, Adrian. I didn’t make this decision lightly. We need help, and you’re the only one who can complete this mission for us.”
“Okay, fine. Let’s talk,” he conceded as gracefully as he could manage.
They returned to where they were pulling together a camp and building a small fire. Rayne occupied himself with making the best meal he could manage with their limited supplies. Drayce half stumbled, half crawled over to where they were gathered, and flopped down.
“Is this seasickness a dragon thing or a you thing?” Eno inquired as he settled on the ground next to Adrian.
“No idea.” Drayce lifted his head and squinted at Eno. “Why would a dragon ever get on a boat in the first place?”
Caelan sat next to Drayce and carefully repositioned the man so that his head was resting in the king’s lap. “So, the Isle of Stone doesn’t have any fishing boats?”
Drayce groaned. “Okay. Yeah, we do. It’s probably a me thing, but I can’t say that I know of any dragons who like swimming or being out on the water. We have wings. We’re supposed to be in the sky.” He pointed up at the heavens as if to underscore his point.
“You’re so weird,” Caelan teased as he bent and brushed a kiss to Drayce’s temple.
“Your Majesty?” Adrian prodded.
Caelan nodded. He threaded his fingers through Drayce’s messy blond hair and stared ahead into the flickering flames. The sky was growing brighter each minute that ticked by, changing from gray to pale blue. It should have been a reassuring, hope-filled sight after spending so many hours trapped in the unrelenting darkness of the cave. Almost every second of that long trek, Adrian had held his sword clenched in his fist, waiting for another crocodile to spring from the water and attack them.
But the ride had been quiet and uneventful, other than battling a boat engine that drank oil like a lush and wanted to stall every half hour. He and Eno had taken turns piloting the boat and fighting the motor.
Adrian was mind-numbingly exhausted, but he was also wired with angry irritation. The idea that Caelan thought he could send him away from the rest of the team when his job was to protect the king—that was fucking ridiculous.
“Rayne and I spent nearly every minute of that boat ride discussing what we could possibly be facing in the Ordas. It’s not just that there are two gods to defeat instead of one, but now there could also be an army in Green Spring. And what of New Rosanthe? The Empire shares an even bigger border with the Ordas than Erya. If the Empire decided to move all of its forces to Green Spring, no one would know about it until it was too late.”
Drayce stretched out his skinny legs, crossing them at the ankle, his wide eyes locked on Caelan’s face. “That’s a shit-ton of firepower. Even for five gods to take on.”
“More like four and a half,” Caelan corrected with a weak smile. “Nyx had a point. I’m more of a godling. I’ve got powers, but I don’t know exactly what they are or how to use them yet. At this stage, I’m more likely to be a hindrance than a help.”
“The other thing to keep in mind is that when it comes to the gods—outside of Caelan, of course—we’re looking at wholesale slaughter of anyone who isn’t a god,” Rayne added. “They’ve shown too little concern for humans in all of this mess.”
“Yeah, but when we’re talking about human losses, we’re talking about New Rosanthe? Am I the only one who doesn’t feel all that bad about those casualties?” Adrian inquired.
Caelan sighed heavily while Rayne shook his head. The king’s advisor had gotten a pot of water to boil over the flames and was steadily adding in packets of instant noodles.