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“Serves you right,” Tairn lectures.
“I am annoyingly aware of everything you do.”
“You choose the oddest times to defend her, Aetos.” Xaden all but rolls his eyes as he looks at Dain. “And the most convenient times not to.”
“You held your own and controlled your temper,” Tairn says, an immense swell of pride flooding my chest. “She’s ready,” Andarna adds with a giddy jolt of joy that makes me instantly light-headed. “She’s ready,” he agrees.
“Ask me nicely.” He leans closer. “Have you always been this tall?” I blurt the first thing that comes to mind. “No. I was a child at some point.” I roll my eyes. “Ask me nicely, Violence,” he whispers. “Or I’m gone.”
Touching you was a bad idea.” “The worst,” I agree, but my tongue skims my lower lip. He groans and my core melts at the sound. “Kissing you would be a cataclysmic mistake.” “Calamitous.” What would it take to hear that groan again?
“Fuck it.” One second he’s out of reach and the next his mouth is on mine, hot and insistent.
“He’s the most powerful rider of our generation. He’s going to be needed on the front, not here.” “For now.” Rhiannon stares at me with intention, lifting her brows. “He’s the most powerful rider in our generation for now
He reaches up to cup my cheek,
“You’re all worried about the integrity of the wing because Riorson might have to visit to keep his dragon happy but, Violet, he’s not the most powerful rider of our generation. You are.”
Ridoc can wield ice, which might be a more common signet, but it’s impressive to see. Sawyer’s metallurgy powers grow every day. Liam can see a single tree miles away.
His sadistic grin and a red rim around his eyes are all I can see as he forces more and more power into my body,
“Apparently I can’t trust Liam to report deadly situations or Rhiannon to train you on the mat, seeing how easily Barlowe had you pinned, so as of this moment, I’m taking over.” “Taking over what?” My eyes narrow. “Everything when it comes to you.”
“There are a dozen of these daggers strapped to my body, so start disarming me.” He lifts a sardonic brow. “Unless you don’t know how to handle an opponent on top of you, and if so, that’s a whole other issue.” “I know how to handle you on top of me,” I challenge quietly. He lowers his mouth to my ear. “You won’t like what happens if you push me.” “Or maybe I will.” I turn just enough that my lips brush the shell of his ear. He jerks up, and the heat in his gaze makes me all too aware of everywhere our bodies connect. “Disarm me before I test that theory in front of everyone in this gym.”
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“Now, earn your nickname and try your best to kill me.”
“Here’s the thing. If you want your signet to manifest, then stop blocking it by thinking it has anything to do with Mom. Your power is yours and yours alone, Vi.”
“That makes sense. Do you guys get all the information?” “Only what we need. Like, I could have sworn I saw a riot of dragons across the border during this attack.”
want him, but I can’t trust him, not in the ways I want to. And yet in other ways, he’s the person I trust most.
“Have you been stationed with any riders of mated pairs?” I ask Mira as I close the door behind us. “One,” she answers, her eyes narrowing on the darkened path in front of the house. “Why?” “I’m just wondering how long they can be separated.” “Turns out, about three days is their max.” Xaden steps out of the shadows.
“Give Aetos here the position we all know he craves.” “Don’t be a dick,” I whisper. “You haven’t even seen me start to be a dick.” My head turns so fast that it swims, and my mouth drops open as I stare at the side of Xaden’s face. That was his voice…in my fucking head
“Three days?” Dain fires back, leaning in. “You couldn’t make it three days?” “It has nothing to do with him,” I interrupt, setting my dragon down with a little more force than necessary. “That’s up to Tairn and Sgaeyl.” “You never considered that it was you I couldn’t stay away from?”
“I’m right here,” Xaden interrupts, rising to the same step to stand at my side. “In case you didn’t notice.” “You’re kind of hard to miss,” she retorts. “You’re not listening.” His voice lowers. “I. Am. Here. Tairn didn’t drag her back to Basgiath. He didn’t break through her shields and pour his emotions into her. He didn’t demand she fly across the fucking kingdom. Your sister is still right here. I’m the one who left my post, my position, and my executive officer in charge of my wing. She’s not missing out on shit.
There’s so much compassion, so much understanding in his eyes, that when he lets go of my waist, I think he might just let me stay. Then his hands are on my cheeks, sliding back to cup the base of my neck as he brings his mouth to mine. The kiss is reckless and consuming, and I give it my all, knowing it might be the last one. His tongue licks into my mouth with an urgency I return, angling to take him deeper. Gods, it’s not just as good as I’d been fantasizing about, remembering that night. It’s so much better. He was careful with me against that wall, but there is nothing hesitant about the
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“When exactly did you decide not to ruin me?” “Maybe it was when I saw Oren holding a knife to your throat,” he says. “Or maybe it was when I realized the bruises on your neck were fingerprints and wanted to kill them all over again just so I could do it slowly. Maybe it was the first time I recklessly kissed you or when I realized I’m fucked because I can’t stop thinking about doing more than just kissing you.”
The next day, I ask him what his favorite food is in the middle of Battle Brief, using our mental connection. Pretty sure I hear him drop something at the back of the room before he answers. “Chocolate cake. Stop being weird.”
My words die as Tairn comes into full view. He stands tall and proud at the front of our section, not bothering to give deference to Cath as Dain’s dragon, but it’s not his position that steals my breath. It’s the saddle strapped across his back that has me gawking. “I hear it’s all the fashion,” Tairn brags.
“I decide what’s allowed and what’s not,” Tairn growls, lowering his head to my level and blasting me with a chuff of steam. “There is no rule that says a dragon cannot modify their seat to serve their rider. You have worked just as hard—if not harder—than every rider in this quadrant. Just because your body is built differently than the others doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to keep your seat. It takes more than a few strips of leather and a pommel to define a rider.”
“If you don’t use it, I’ll take personal offense.” He folds his arms across his chest and studies the rigging. “Considering I had it made for you and just about got myself burned alive in the process of trying to get it on him.” He lifts a brow at Tairn. “Even though he helped design it, I might add.” “The first models were unacceptable, and you had the gall to pinch my chest scales when clumsily assembling it this morning.” Tairn’s golden eyes narrow on Xaden.
“You can ride me when the flesh rots off my bones, wingleader.”
“Fuck, that stubborn, feisty look always makes me want to kiss you.” Xaden’s expression remains bland, bored even, but his eyes heat as his gaze drops to my mouth. “And you say this now, where people will see if you actually do.” My breath catches. “When did I ever give you the impression that I give a fuck what people think about me?” A corner of his mouth rises, and now it’s all I can concentrate on, damn him. “I only care what they think about you.”
“Bet it would be even more awkward if I kissed you now, huh?” Yes, please. “The next time we kiss had better not be just to piss off Dain.” The next time had better only be because we want it. “Next time, huh?” His gaze lowers to my mouth again.
Wrath and fury boil my blood as my eyes lock onto the figure on top of that tower. This is the last time this asshole will come after my friends or me.
I am the sky and the power of every storm that has ever been. I am infinite.
Tairn roars with the unmistakable sound of pride. “Lightning wielder.”
He presses a kiss to the top of my head. “And if you don’t want to use that kind of power again, you don’t have to—” “Get the fuck away from her with that nonsense.” Xaden pushes Dain’s chest and tugs me out of his arms, then grips my shoulders, turning me to face him. “You killed Barlowe.” I nod. “Lightning. Your signet is lightning, isn’t it?” He looks at me with such intensity, as though my answer is the key to whatever he needs. “Yes.” His jaw flexes and his head bobs once. “I thought so, but I wasn’t sure until I saw you take that tower down.” He thought so? What the hell does that even
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“You don’t have to use your power, Vi,” Dain starts, his voice soft and comforting. “Stop. Fucking. Coddling. Her.” Xaden bites out every word at Dain. “She is not a child. She’s a full-grown woman. A rider. Start treating her like one and at least have the decency to give her the truth. You think Melgren or any other general—to include her own mother—is going to let her sit on a power like this? It’s not like she can hide it, not the way she just demolished one of the practice forts.” “You just want her to be like you,” Dain argues. “A cold-blooded killer. Soon you’ll be telling her that it’s
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You are not just a weapon, Sorrengail. You are the weapon. You train this ability, own it, and you’ll have the power to defend an entire kingdom
“You two have the weirdest relationship,” Rhiannon says, linking her arm with mine. “We’re not in a relationship.”
“You’re most definitely in a relationship,” Rhiannon continues, tugging me off the field. “I just can’t figure out if it’s the opposites-attract partnership that has you two baring claws or the slow, lethal burn of scalding sexual tension.”
Zihnal must really love Liam, cheating death twice today.” But it wasn’t Liam who cheated death. It was me. And I can’t help but wonder if somewhere, on some plane of existence, Malek sits on his throne, angry that I stole a soul from his grasp.
“So then why are you here, Xaden?” “Because I can’t seem to stay away.”
Mine. In this moment, Xaden Riorson is mine. Or maybe I’m his. Who fucking cares as long as he keeps kissing me?
“I always fucking want you.” He groans as I squeeze. Then he lifts his head, seizes my gaze with his, and I recognize the wild need in those gold-flecked depths. It mirrors my own. “You walk into a room, and I can’t look away. I get anywhere near you, and this is what happens. Instantly hard. Fucking hell, I can barely think when you’re around.” He rocks his hips into my hand, and my grip tightens along with my stomach. “Wanting you is not the problem here.”
“Fuck me, this hair,” he says, then hovers his mouth over mine. “And this mouth. All I ever want to do is kiss you, even when you piss me off.”
“If I get my hands on you, really, honestly get my hands on you, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.” He would. I know it in my soul. That’s why I trust him with my body. My heart? It isn’t playing into this decision. “Stop being so fucking honorable and fuck me, Xaden.”
I grab his hand as he moves to stand. “Stay.” “I shouldn’t.” Two lines appear between his brows as he searches my eyes. “People will talk.” “When did I ever give you the impression that I give a fuck what people think?” I use his earlier words against him and sit up, curling my hand around the section of his neck that bears his relic. “Stay with me, Xaden. Don’t make me beg.” “We both know this is a bad idea.” “Then it’s our bad idea.”
“Why did you guess I could wield lightning?” He stretches just enough to tuck my head under his chin. “I thought you did it the first night Tairn channeled power to you, but I wasn’t sure, so I didn’t say anything.” “Really?” I blink, thinking back, but my brain is full of a pleasant, dull hum as sleep fights to pull me under. “When?” My eyes drift shut. His arms tighten around me as he tucks me closer, the backs of my thighs pressed tight against his pants as I start to drift off. “The first time you kissed me.”
When I wake, Xaden is gone, but that’s not exactly a surprise. Him staying the night to begin with? Now that was the shocker. Finding a jar on my nightstand with a handful of spring violets? My heart swells. I’m in so much fucking trouble.
“It’s always intriguing to me how nature finds the balance.” “I’m not sure I know what you mean, Professor.” “This kind of power found in one so…” He sighs. “Would you not call yourself fragile?” “I am who I am.” I bristle. I’ve never given this particular professor any reason to think of me as different. “It’s not an insult, cadet.” He shrugs, looking at the saddle. “It’s a balance. In the course of my duties, I’ve found a correlation of sorts that keeps a system of checks on power. Yours seems to be your body.”
“You’ve wielded lightning besides yesterday’s display during the War Games?” I debate keeping my answer to myself, but my silence isn’t going to help. “A few times.” “And both times were the result of emotional reactions?” Tairn snorts, and I smack his foreleg with the back of my hand. “Yes.” “Well, then start there. Ground in your power and try to feel whatever it was you were feeling.” He goes back to his notebook. “Should I get the wingleader?” Tairn flat-out laughs in my head.
