Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)

by Rebecca Yarros

Gods, my body feels like it’s cooking itself alive. I reach for the buttons on my flight jacket and yank them open, letting some of the infernal heat escape. “Violet?” Andarna asks sleepily. Guilt slams into me harder than a lightning strike. “I’m fine,” I promise her. “Waking is dangerous to the growth process,” Tairn lectures. “Sleep.” “What’s happening?” She’s alarmingly alert now. “Nothing I can’t handle.” Not quite a lie. Right? “I’ve never seen her produce more than twenty-six strikes in an hour, Major. She’s at risk of overheating and burning out if you continue to push like this,” Carr says to Varrish. “She can take it just fine.” He looks at me like he knows. Like he was there at Resson, watching me hurl bolt after bolt at the wyvern. If he’s the picture of control, then maybe I should be glad I don’t seem to have any. “All it takes is her slipping in her grounding, or exhausting her physically, and she will burn out,” Carr warns, his gaze shifting nervously. “Punishing her for insubordination is one thing, but killing her is quite another.” “Again.” Varrish lifts his brows at me. “Unless your golden one would like to fly up and say hello, since she failed to appear as ordered. If she joins us, we’ll only task you with three more.” “This is about me?” My shoulders drop and my stomach hits the ground. “This is an example of what happens when dragons choose poorly,” Tairn counters. “Solas should never have given this barbarian more power.” “I don’t want to submit he...