Flamefall (The Aurelian Cycle, #2)

by Rosaria Munda

They call us humble-riders.

That's objectively such a dumb name

A rare time we fought, Julia forgot Agga’s medicines for a month. Afterward, she laughed the whole thing off as a joke. I did, too, but learned the lesson.

Damn Julia was a bitch

The school smells the way I remember, a combination of stale sweat and bleach,

They have bleach?

The best parts of myself, I found with Annie.

All at once the missing her, the needing her, becomes too much, and I don’t care anymore why she hasn’t come. I close the door behind us, kick off my shoes, strip down to my underlayers, and climb into the bath beside her. She doesn’t even ask what I’m doing. Just unfolds, enough to crawl into my arms. She curls into me, the same way she always used to do. And even though we kissed little more than a month ago, I know that this is different. I keep my eyes on the top of her damp head and my arms around her waist and shins. Mindful, too, of burns.

“You’re here,” she says. Like she wants me to be. “I’m here.”

Overhead, the roof creaks: a dragon shifting. We were ordered to take them with us on leave, because of the city’s high alert. They’re nesting on the Sutter roof.

I'm still very unclear on how big these dragons are