Bright Star Book 2
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Erin Swan
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In a world where dragons and magic shape destinies, Andra, a fierce warrior, reunites with her long-lost love, Talias, only to be thrust into a rebellion against the oppressive Kingsmen. As she navigates her feelings for Talias and her growing bond with Kael, a fellow rebel, Andra discovers her unique magical abilities and forms a powerful connection with a dragon named Tiri. Together, they must confront dark sorcery, treacherous enemies, and their own inner demons to fight for freedom and justice.
Reunion
Book 2
ANDRA
She stared at those brown eyes that had captivated her for so long. Eyes that had smiled at her, laughed with her, seen her when it seemed nobody else had.
Eyes that sheād loved with all she was, eyes she thought sheād never see again.
And now they were looking back at her with an expression of stunned disbelief in them.
āA-Andra?ā Talias stammered. āAndra, is thatā¦really you?ā
Andra looked briefly down at herself. She was clad in leather armor, remnants of dried blood still flecked on her boots, and her leather collar was gone.
Of course he didnāt recognize her. She hardly looked like the same girl sheād been the last time heād seen her. She looked back at his familiar face and felt a smile forming on her lips.
āYes,ā she breathed. āTalias, itās me.ā
A ragged laugh broke from his lips and he surged to his feet, body lurching toward her. But he was pulled up short by the chain that Egan still gripped, binding Taliasās hands together.
Andra rushed forward, closing the gap between them, quickly gripping the shackles in each of her hands. Instinctively, she pressed the warm magic at the back of her mind into the shackles, demanding Taliasās freedom.
The metal yielded, clicking open and falling to Taliasās feet, leaving only Andraās hands now encircling his wrists.
Talias looked down at where her fingers rested against his skin. āHow did youā¦ How did you do that?ā
Andra laughed, a flush of pleasure creeping into her cheeks as he raised his eyes to hers again. āA lotās changed, Talias,ā she answered, surprised by the tremor in her own voice.
Her flush deepened as his eyes took her in, from her stained boots to her disheveled hair, now longer than before and streaked with sunlight.
His eyes rested on hers again and he gave her that crooked grin sheād always loved. āSo it seems,ā he said.
He slid his wrists from her gentle hold, bringing his hands around hers, gripping them tightly as he smiled down at her.
Andra tried to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat, but with no luck. A brief silence hung between them before she remembered something.
She jumped slightly, pulling her hands from his grip and plunging them into her pockets searchingly as words tumbled from her mouth.
āOh, I still haveā¦ Where is it, where is it? I promise, I never took it off until right beforeāI never thoughtā¦ā
Finally, her fingers closed around the band of braided leather, and she pulled it from her pocket, holding it out to him with a proud smile on her lips.
āI kept it,ā she said breathlessly. āAt Castigoās. Across the wilderness and the desert. Here, with the Freemen. All this time.ā
The smile he gave her stole the breath from her lungs. Talias placed his hand in hers, enveloping the bracelet between their skin. āYou kept it,ā he confirmed.
She nodded eagerly. Talias pulled suddenly on her hand, bringing her to him, wrapping her tightly in his arms.
Andra felt a swelling of joy in her chest as her head came to rest over his heart. Taliasā¦ Talias is hereā¦ As much as she repeated the thought in her own mind, she could hardly believe it was true.
After a long moment in his embrace, Talias pulled back, taking the leather bracelet from her hand as he did so. Without a word, he wrapped the bracelet around her wrist, just as heād done what felt like a lifetime ago.
The memory of that moment flooded into Andraās mind and heartāthe fear that she would never see him again, the pain of losing all hope of a future sheād dreamed of. But here he was again, returned to her.
She felt the knot in the bracelet cinch firmly into place, and he gripped her hands again, bathing her in the radiance of his smile.
KAEL
Kael watched the reunion silently, disbelievingly, his chest feeling hollow.
Moments ago heād held Andra in his own arms. Heād laid his heart open to her, offered her a part of him heād never given to anyone.
And heād thought, for a momentāfor one glorious, breathless, hopeful momentāthat she might accept it.
And now, she was gazing up at someone elseās face, gripping someone elseās hands in hers. And that damned braceletā¦
When sheād taken it off before the battle, Kael had thought it a sign that she was ready to let go of whatever still held her to her old life. But there it was again, encircling her skin as surely as her slaveās collar had once done.
The strangerās handāTaliasās handāreached up to Andraās face, cupping her chin as he leaned closer to herā¦
āEgan,ā Kael snapped, his voice low, sharp, and hollow. āTake the prisoner to the council chambers for interrogation.ā
Andraās head jerked toward him in surprise, as if just remembering he was there. As if sheād entirely forgotten about him.
āWhat?ā she stammered. āKael, whatā What are you doing?ā She stepped toward him, but her body was still inclined toward Talias as she gestured at him, still speaking.
āKael, itās Talias. The boy I told you about. I know him, you donāt have toāā
Kael fixed her with a flat stare, gripping his hands firmly behind his back, desperately fighting the urge to reach for her, pull her to him, pull her away from this other man.
āHe was with the Kingsmen, Andra,ā he replied, cutting her off. āHeās one of them. He needs to be questioned.ā
āNo, Iām not!ā Talias cried out, stepping toward Kael as well. Egan seized his shoulder firmly, restraining him, and Talias didnāt fight the grip. āIām not one of them,ā he continued. āI wasāā
āQuiet!ā Kael barked, slicing his hand through the air. A wave of heat burst from him with the motion, slamming into Talias, nearly knocking him and Egan to the dirt.
Kael froze. He hadnāt intended to release any of his magic with the gesture.
āCalm yourself, my West Wind,ā Eithne whispered in his mind, trying to press her own steadiness into his thoughts. āYouāre losing control.ā
Andra stepped between him and Talias, her arms slightly raised as if to shield the man behind her from his view. āKael!ā she cried. āYou canāt do this!ā
His gaze narrowed at her, his blood beginning to boil hotter as she faced him downāall to protect the sandy-haired soldier at her back.
āI can, Andra,ā he snapped. āI am the leader of the Freemen, in case youāve forgotten, so I give the orders. And I am ordering that this spyāāhe thrust a finger over her shoulder at Taliasāābe taken for questioning.ā
Andra lowered her arms slowly, and for a moment, he thought she would yield. But even as her arms came down, her chin lifted higher, and a resolve he rarely saw in the quiet girl sparked in her vibrant green eyes.
When she spoke, her voice was low, but there was no quaver in it. Only conviction. āI wonāt let you.ā
Kael stared at her for a long moment, the silence between them crackling with tension. It was as if the words spoken between them just minutes ago had never happened. Had she really already forgotten it all?
Pain and anger roiled in Kaelās chest, mingling with the deep grief that already lingered there. He felt his eyes burning and ground his teeth until his jaw ached.
Andra looked back at him, her expression of resolve softening slightly, turning to a look of pleading.
āKael,ā she breathed, and his name on her lips felt like a dagger in his chest. āPlease, donāt do this.ā
Kael looked away from her. If he gazed into those eyes for another moment, he was certain his heart would rip in two.
Instead, he fixed his eyes on Egan and the small group of Freemen that had dragged Talias to him.
āTake him to the council chambers for interrogation,ā he repeated, his quiet voice brooking no argument.
Andra wheeled away from him, looking now to Egan and the others.
āNo!ā she cried. āI take responsibility for him! I will guard him. I will speak to him. Iāll find out the truth and report back to Kael and the other council members. You have my word!ā
Egan and the other soldiers stood in silence, gazes moving from Andra to Kael and back again. Talias simply stared at Andra, a look of stunned adoration on his face. And Andra gazed right back.
Kael stared at her profile for a long moment, his chest aching. Please, his heart seemed to whisper. Please, see me. Look at me, Andra, not him. Please, just look at me.
But she didnāt. Her eyes remained fixed on Talias.
Finally, he could stand it no longer. āVery well,ā he muttered gruffly.
Without another word, Kael turned on his heel and stormed away, refusing to look back as Andra rushed back into Taliasās arms.
TALIAS
The lake reflected the late evening sunlight as Talias lowered himself to the grass.
He could hardly believe that, hours before, heād been battling for his life, certain he would die, terrified that he would have to kill someone else just to spare himself.
Everything seemed peaceful now. Even with the bustling of the Freemen in their camp across the field, the lakeside was quiet, the only sound the splashing of a green dragon washing the dust and blood from his scales.
Still, his disbelief at the sudden quiet around him paled in comparison to the disbelief at the young woman sitting beside him now.
He stared at her, taking in the leather armor where a ragged brown dress had once been, the sturdy boots that had replaced her thin slippers, the band of pale skin around her throat where her collar had rested for all the years heād known her.
Could this really be Andra?
Then she turned her eyes away from the bathing dragon and looked at him, smiling. And he knew with certainty that it must be her. Only Andra had eyes like that. Only she smiled at him that way.
āI still canāt believe youāre here,ā she murmured, shaking her head slightly.
āNeither can I,ā he replied, leaning forward to rest his arms across his knees as his fingers picked at the grass. āI didnāt even know aboutāāhe drifted off, hand circling vaguely in the airāāall of this,ā he finally finished.
āSo how did you get here?ā she asked, leaning forward as well, her gaze intense on his face.
He gave her a lopsided grin. āSo the interrogation begins, does it?ā
Andra laughed quietly. āI did promise to get answers,ā she said. Then, after a pause, she added, āBut I also just want to know. What happened to you, Talias?ā
The kitchen boy sighed heavily, looking away and out at the lake again.
āI wasā¦summoned to Castigoās palace,ā he said slowly. āA lot of us were. Servants from the Hall, from all over, really. We didnāt know what for, but we were ordered to report to the Chief Judge.ā
His eyes darted sideways at her, a small smile pulling at the corner of his mouth again. āI was actually excited,ā he confessed. āI thought I might find a way to see you while I was there.ā
He paused, drawing a deep breath, then went on. āBut as soon as we set foot on the palace grounds, we had armor and weapons shoved at us.
āThey said we were soldiers now, that we were to fight the men whoād tried to kill Castigoās son.
āThey made it all sound so very noble,ā he snarled quietly, bitterness creeping into his voice as he remembered the grand speeches about protecting the empire from murderous rebels.
A warm pressure on his knee made him look down, and he found Andraās hand resting there. He smiled slightly, covering her fingers with his own before he went on.
āWe got a little training. Not much, but some. Then they marched us down into these tunnelsādark, narrow, awful things. We marched in almost total darkness forā¦ Gods, I donāt even know how long.
āAll that time, I kept hearing the captains talking about Kingsmen and Freemen. They called us Kingsmen. I had no idea what they meant. I thought we were justā¦just going to try to catch some murderers.
āThe next thing I knew, we were being thrust out into the sunlight again, told to march on, told to kill anyone not in a Kingsmen uniform.
āIā¦I panicked, Andra,ā he confessed, his voice catching, his fingers clutching tightly at hers. She gripped them back.
āPeople started dying. The screamsā¦ The bloodā¦ I-I didnāt know what to do. So I hid. I ran for the woods, and I hid until it was all over. And then I kept hiding.
āI was afraid to try to get away, because I didnāt know where to go. I was afraid to come out, because I didnāt know who might try to kill me.
āThatās when your soldiers found me. Still quivering like a scared dog by the stream.ā
Andra was silent for a long moment, and Talias continued to stare at the grass in front of him, afraid to look up at her, afraid that her eyes would condemn him as a coward or a traitor or both. Her fingers tightened around his, and he forced himself to look at her then.
Her green eyes were soft and understanding on his face. āYou did the right thing, Talias,ā she whispered.
A small amount of relief bubbled inside of him, and he forced a tight smile at her.
A thoughtful expression came over her faceānow marked with freckles she hadnāt had beforeāand she looked down, brow furrowing.
āBut that meansā¦ā she said slowly. āThe men that we killedā¦they werenāt all Kingsmen. Not really. Theyāthey died for something they didnāt believe in. Something they didnātā¦didnāt even know existed.
āCastigo forced them to fight and die to try to make himself king!ā Her voice tightened with fury, and he saw her green eyes grow brighter with tears.
āMake himself king?ā Talias repeated disbelievingly. āIs that what he was trying to do? Is that what these Kingsmen are trying to do?ā
Andra pulled her fingers from his, pressing the heels of both hands to her eyes as she let out a quiet groan.
āYou didnāt even knowā¦ They didnāt know. They were innocent,ā she muttered. āThey died for nothingā¦ā
Talias inched closer to her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. He didnāt know what to say. He didnāt even truly understand what was going on.
All he knew was that Andra was here again, and that was all that truly mattered.
āHow did you get here?ā he asked, trying to distract her from her grief, to make her think about anything else besides the fact that she might have killed an untrained servant whoād had a sword forced into his hand.
āWhen I was with the Kingsmen, they told us about the attack on the manor. I asked about you. They said a servant girl had disappeared that night and wasnāt seen again. I was afraid theyād taken youāafraid theyād killed you.ā
She lifted her face from her hands and gave him a watery smile. āWell, yes,ā she said, laughing quietly at some private joke he didnāt yet understand. āI suppose I technically was taken. Butāā
Her explanation was cut off by a rushing of wind that flattened the grass around them as an enormous shadow passed over their heads.
They both looked up to see a violet dragonāsmaller than the others heād seen here, but enormous nonethelessāwinging down upon them.
Talias scrambled to his feet, backing quickly away from the dragon as it landed beside them with a heavy thud.
Andra stood as well, though much more calmly, and smiled at him a little before turning toward the great violet beast.
The dragon lowered its head, making a quiet thumping sound in its throat. Andraās smile brightened, and she took the creatureās snout between her hands, stroking the beautiful scales.
Something seemed to pass between them in the quiet that followedāsomething that Talias had seen pass between dragon and Rider many, many times in his years at the Hall of Riders.
Talias started. Of all the unbelievable things that had occurred in the past twenty-four hours, this was by far the least believable of all. But there was no denying it.
There was a bond between Andra and the dragon. The bond of a dragon and Rider.
āA-Andra?ā he stammered. āIs thatā¦? How didā¦?ā
She laughed quietly at his unfinished questions, still stroking the dragonās scales as she looked at him and said, āItās a long storyā¦ā
ANDRA
It was time for the Freemen to move on.
There was no doubt that the Kingsmen knew their location, and even less doubt that theyād strike againāand they were unlikely to underestimate the rebels a second time.
With blood still staining the soil, and the glass monument flickering with Tiriās flame at the edge of the sand, the Freemen began packing what they could.
They didnāt yet know where they were going. They didnāt know what they were doing next.
Despite the fact that theyād won this battle, the Freemen had suffered severely. Their camp destroyed, a large number of their supporters dead, their base compromised.
It felt to Andra as if they were starting over, and she could see in the slump of the many pairs of shoulders below her that the rest of the Freemen felt the same.
She sat perched on Tiriās back as the dragon shuttled crates of supplies to the wagons that waited along the edge of the desert.
As the dragon carefully lowered her latest batch of cargo onto an empty wagon, the soldiers below looked up at Andra and smiled, lifting their hands in gratitude.
āThank you, Rider!ā a voice called up at her.
Andra cringed at the word. The Freemen had been calling her that since the battle had ended. Sheād asked them not to, but the title still followed her through the camp as she and Tiri aided in the preparations.
As dear as Tiri was to her, as much as she wished to never be parted from the dragon beneath her, the word chafed her like ill-fitting armor. She was no Rider. Not really.
Talias, for his part, seemed to understand what nobody else didāshe wasnāt truly bonded to Tiri, she bore no Riderās mark, so she wasnāt a Rider.
As someone whoād lived his life among Riders, he understood the importance of that bond, just as she did.
But the rest of the Freemenā¦ They persisted.
Tiri and Andra flew back toward the camp, and she leaned forward on the dragonās neck, peering down at the soldiers who hurried back and forth beneath her.
Her eyes found Kael almost immediately, wrapping swords and unstringing bows for transport as he simultaneously gave out orders, his voice clear and crisp above the din.
He hadnāt spoken to her since Taliasās arrival the previous day, but she supposed she couldnāt blame him. He was the Freemenās leader, after all. They needed him now.
But even as his voice rang sharply from below her, she could hear the same voice speaking in her head, the tone softer, the words wrought with emotion. I love you, Andra.
Taliasās arrival had pulled her so quickly out of that moment with Kael that it hardly seemed realālike being yanked suddenly out of a dream, only a few precious images lingering in her memory.
But the ache those words had left in her chest felt real enough. Kael loved herā¦
And Taliasā¦
She pulled her gaze away from Kaelās dark hair and scanned the crowd, finally finding the mop of blond hair she was seeking.
He was not among the Freemen, but alone, beside the smoldering coals of the fire, turning several hocks of meat on a spit.
The others seemed to skirt around him, giving him a wide berth, save for one elf who remained nearby, watching him warily.
Andra felt an instinctive urge to go to him, to work beside him as sheād done for so many years. Talias was the boy whoād understood the meaning in her unspoken words, whoād protected her whenever he could.
He was the boy whoād told her to spy on the Pairingāthe entire reason she had any sort of connection to Tiri at all. Talias was a part of her, and had been for years.
āSister,ā Tiriās voice echoed into her mind, āyouāre brooding.ā
āI am not,ā Andra responded quickly. āIāmā¦ thinkingā¦ā
āAbout those two sets of trouble on two legs?ā
Andra let out a snorting laugh. āNo. Well, sort of, I suppose.ā
āHow delightfully murky.ā The dragon chuckled.
āTalias is justā¦everything I ever believed I wanted,ā Andra answered. āHe makes me feel safe. Heās always made me happy, no matter how miserable I felt.ā
āI have loved him for nearly as long as I can remember. He is all the good parts of my old lifeā¦ā
āBut that is not your life anymore, sister,ā Tiri replied gently.
āIā¦ I knowā¦ā Even in her own mind, Andraās words sounded weak. āI thought I was ready to let go of that old life. All of it. Even the good things in it. Butā¦ā
Gazing down at Talias, her fingers wandered to the leather encircling her wrist once again.
āBut maybe I was wrongā¦ā
