Chapter 30: Armor.

Chapter 30: Armor.

RENDER SWISHED HIS hand across the soft bedding. He had the worst dream.

“For a moment there, I thought you left.” Render rolled over. “Daris, come back to bed.”

A chair squeaked, and there was a cough. That wasn’t Daris or Toren. Render’s eyes shot open, and he sat up. The room was a beautiful ornate square painted in gold and red. He had no idea where he was located.

At the foot of his bed, with his feet propped up, was the human Sloan. The human had his boots on the edge of the thick red and gold bedding and leaned back in his chair so that only two wooden legs were on the floor. The man put his glass plate in his lap and stacked his hands on his head.

Render’s heart hurt. The position was so much like what Daris used to do that it made him want to cry. Blue blazes—what he wouldn’t give to see Daris at the foot of the bed, balanced on a chair right now. Seeing the human sinched it. That wasn’t a dream. The nightmare was his life.