Isle of Sorrows (Silver and Orchids: Greybrow Brothers Book 2) by Shari L. Tapscott

Author:Shari L. Tapscott [Tapscott, Shari L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Into the Depths of the Mine

LUKAS

I’ll never tire of Soleil’s smile, and it’s even better when I’m the reason for it. It plays over her face, mischief burning brightly in her pretty green eyes. She’s driving me absolutely mad.

I watch her go, turning to Patches when he appears around a tent. He looks like he’s on a mission, but he pauses when he spots me.

The massive mercenary nods in the direction Soleil went. “Still friends?”

“I don’t know what we are.”

“Was the creek truly impassable?” he asks knowingly.

“It’s good to act with an abundance of caution when you’re in an unknown environment. Making a temporary shelter for the night was the responsible decision.”

He lets out a laugh as big as he is and continues past, off on whatever errand he was given. I follow him, lacking any particular destination. I end up in the center of the camp.

“Wilder and Dax,” Davyn says, doling out tasks, “I’d like you to go with us into the mine. Patches, you stay here with Gregory.”

“Can we keep your wee beast?” The mercenary gestures to Flink, who’s the most pathetic, miserable creature you’ve ever seen. The dragon has camped as close to the fire as he can get without laying directly on top of it. He makes huffing noises every so often to remind us he’s cold and damp, and he doesn’t like it.

“You really want him?” I laugh.

Flink sends me a glimpse of his extreme displeasure, and I roll my eyes. “It’s just for the afternoon,” I tell him. “Do you want to go in the mine?”

The dragon looks at the monolith, sharing his revulsion.

“I didn’t think so,” I say. “Stay here with the rest of the team. If the voltaic dragon shows up again, they’ll need you.”

He likes that, sending me an image of him standing atop a small hill with the team crowded below him. They shower him with praises as he preens from on high.

“Don’t let it go to your head,” Davyn says, privy to the conversation as well.

As always, people around us exchange glances, uncomfortable. But that’s half the fun.

I sense a sudden wisp of Soleil’s amusement, as if she read my mind. Or maybe she just knows me well enough to guess what I was thinking.

Ready to enter the mine, she waits for the rest of the team from atop her log perch by the fire, her legs extended and her ankles crossed. As usual, she wears her blond hair in a long braid, and she swapped her oiled, weatherproof cloak for a long, fitted jacket. She fits right in with the team, not as a dragon slayer, but as a mage.

I vow to myself that I will someday see her wear the robes she desperately wants to earn.

“You’re smiling like a loon,” she says when I sit beside her, moving her hand to make room for me on the log.

“I was thinking about the future.”

“What about it?”

“You. Me. Grenalda.”

She rolls her eyes. “Why do you want to get me into that college?”

“I know you want it, and I want what you want.

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