Avian (Dragonrider Chronicles, #2)

by Nicole Conway

Mrs. Crookin stood in the doorway wiping her hands on her apron. When she saw me, she started to smile. Her eyes got bright, and she grabbed me before I could even remember to hold my breath. She always hugged me so tight I thought I might suffocate.

The earth flinched under my boots as Mavrik landed, and I heard him chirp at me worriedly as he crawled my way. The barn was barely big enough to squeeze him in. He had to curl up into the smallest dragon-ball I’d ever seen. He laid down with his snout on his tail and his wings folded up tightly against his sides. If he stretched at all, he’d take out a wall or the roof.

Then it hit me. It hit me so suddenly, I glanced at Mavrik to make sure that he hadn’t put that thought in my mind, but he was still asleep. I’d spent too much of my life feeling sorry for myself. I wasn’t going to make anyone proud moping around. I was done taking the easy road, and sitting back wishing things would get better. I hadn’t just spent a year in training to be a dragonrider to let something like this defeat me. This was an opportunity to show everyone else that I wasn’t helpless, that I could fend for myself, and I intended to seize it. For me, nothing was ever going to be easy. The only thing I had control of was how I handled it.

But all of a sudden, Icarus started backing away from me. He lowered his head and hissed, still growling and glaring at me like he wanted to finish me off in one bite. Beckah was yelling at him like she was scolding a naughty puppy. She walked right up to the huge black dragon and swatted him on the snout. It made him flinch, hiss, and turn his head away like he was ashamed. He wouldn’t look her in the eyes. Speechless didn’t even begin to describe how I felt. Shocked. Stunned. Completely blown away—those were a little more accurate. I exchanged a wide-eyed look with Mavrik. He looked like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, either. “I told you that is a no-no!” She said with her hands on her hips. “You can’t just eat people. It’s not nice. Those are my friends! Stop being such a bully!” Icarus hunkered down in the sand, making himself as small as a monstrous black king drake could. He curled his long spiny tail around his legs and snorted at her in frustration. But when she started rubbing his neck and snout… he actually started to purr. His red eyes closed, and he pushed his nose against her affectionately.

She was as tall as I was now, and so beautiful it made the back of my throat feel like someone had punched me in the neck.

I opened my mouth to speak, but I didn’t get a chance. She grabbed my chin and kissed me on the cheek. It seemed like the world was moving in slow motion. I just sat there, staring at her. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think. But as the seconds passed, I realized I liked it. I really liked it.

“Sometimes what you know is right isn’t what everyone else wants to do,” he said. “Then you have to ask yourself if you’re willing to live with the consequences of doing what you know is wrong just to keep the peace.” I swallowed hard. “I couldn’t do that.” He smiled darkly. “Is that so? Why?” I tried to square my shoulders and look more confident than I was. “Because I’d rather be seen as a traitor by everyone else than betray myself like that.”

But I knew she was the reason I was still alive and breathing. I had survived because she never gave up on me. I knew I would spend the rest of my life trying to find some way to repay her for that.

She reached down into the pocket of her apron and took out a square piece of thin, white cloth. It was handkerchief. When she put it in my hand, I saw that there were two dragons stitched on it. One was blue like Mavrik and the other was black like Icarus. They were flying together with their necks and tails intertwined and their wings spread wide. “Momma says that in the old days, ladies would give knights tokens for good luck to carry with them into battle,” she explained. “I know the stitching isn’t very good. I guess Momma’s right, I should have practiced more.” “You made this for me?” I smiled at her, and took her hand. “It’s amazing.” She grinned back at me, and her freckled cheeks looked slightly more rosy than usual. “Keep it with you, okay?” I nodded. “Of course.”

Her eyes popped open like she was stunned. I could feel her breath on my face. “Don’t you want to kiss me? It feels good. You’ll like it, I promise.” “No.” I slowly pushed her back away from me. “You know this isn’t right. What about Bren? I thought you liked him?” She scowled. Her chin started trembling. “How can you reject me like this? Like I’m nothing!” Her voice was shaking, and her eyes were glaring right into mine. It felt like I was staring into a churning black abyss. It felt like chaos. “You think just because you’re some big shot dragonrider now, you can toss me aside and have any girl you want? You think the girl who gave you that handkerchief cares about you?” “What are you talking about?” I didn’t understand where all this anger was coming from. I was so bewildered by what she was saying; I didn’t notice she was rearing back to hit me until it was too late. She slapped me hard across the face. “You’re wrong! I’m the only one who will ever care anything about you. It doesn’t matter what job you get, what you look like, or where you go. You’ll always be a halfbreed. No girl will ever love you like I do. You’ll never have anyone. It’s me or no one.”