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“But I thought you were meant for the Scribe Quadrant,” Captain Fitzgibbons says softly. I envy his cream-colored tunic, unable to find the words. “General Sorrengail chose otherwise,” Mira supplies. Sadness fills the older man’s eyes. “Pity. You had so much promise.”
Even the diagonal scar that bisects his left eyebrow and marks the top corner of his cheek only makes him hotter. Flaming hot. Scorching hot. Gets-you-into-trouble-and-you-like-it level of hot. Suddenly, I can’t remember exactly why Mira told me not to fuck around outside my year group.
His gaze clashes with mine as the sky opens and rain falls in a deluge, soaking my hair, my leathers, and the stones around us in seconds.
Xaden never takes his eyes from me, watching silently with a look I can’t interpret as I bring my horrified gaze back to his.
“Why, Dain Aetos.” I grin and walk toward him, then grasp the door handle at his side. “You’ve seen me in swimwear, tunics, and even ballgowns. Are you telling me it’s the leather that does it for you?” He scoffs, but there’s a slight flush to his cheeks as his hand covers mine to open the door. “Glad to see our year apart hasn’t dulled your tongue, Vi.”
“I was trained to be a scribe.”
Their voices are still muffled by the river, but I can hear the loudest of them, a tall, dark-haired man with pale skin, whose shoulders take up twice the space of any first-year, standing opposite Xaden’s position and wearing the rank of a third-year. “We’ve already lost Sutherland and Luperco,” he says, but I can’t make out the response.
“Like Garrick said, we’ve already lost two first-years to their own negligence. There are only forty-one of us in the Riders Quadrant, and we don’t want to lose any of you, but we will if you don’t help yourselves.
The big one—Garrick—sighs.
“Garrick is our best fighter, but Imogen is right up there with him, and she’s a hell of a lot more patient,”
She’s mine to handle. Anyone feel like arguing?”
“What, Aetos hasn’t warned you not to get caught alone in the dark with me yet?”
“Fascinating. You look all frail and breakable, but you’re really a violent little thing, aren’t you?”
He reaches under my own cloak and slides one blade into the sheath at my thigh, then pulls back the side of my cloak and pauses. His gaze locks onto the length of my braid where it falls over my shoulder, and I could swear he stops breathing for a heartbeat before he slides the remaining dagger into one of the sheaths at my ribs.
Professor Kaori glances at me for a heartbeat before looking away. “He attempted to use that power to revive a fallen rider—which didn’t work, because there’s no signet capable of resurrection—and depleted himself in the process. To use a phrase you’ll become accustomed to after Threshing, he burned out and died next to that rider.”
“It was Brennan, wasn’t it?” I ask Professor Kaori. Sadness fills his gaze as he meets mine. “Yes. He died trying to save your brother, but Brennan was too far gone.”
There’s no ignoring the prickle at my scalp, and I let my gaze shift to meet Xaden’s.
“You’ve made your damn point,”
Beautiful. Fucking. Asshole.
Rhiannon gets the rope into Tynan’s hand, but instead of using it to swing to the next ball, he climbs…down.
“I just need to know what my chances are here.” My hands curl into fists. The ass has the nerve to smile. “That’s the oddest way I’ve ever been hit on—”
“Here’s the thing, Sorrengail. Hope is a fickle, dangerous thing. It steals your focus and aims it toward the possibilities instead of keeping it where it belongs—on the probabilities.”
Garrick replies, looking at us as if we’re children he’d like to be rid of before glancing back over his shoulder at the entrance to the valley.
It’s going to die just because it’s smaller, weaker than the other dragons…just like me. My throat closes.
“I would strongly recommend you rethink your actions,” a voice—his voice—demands from across the field to my right. My scalp prickles as each of our heads swivel in his direction. Xaden
My reaction: Xaden ahhhhhh :D and then garrick ruffled my head
“One does not live a century without being well aware of the space one takes up. Now get on.”
“My name is Tairneanach, son of Murtcuideam and Fiaclanfuil, descended from the cunning Dubhmadinn line.”
“Now get in the seat and actually hold on this time, or no one is going to believe that I’ve actually chosen you,”
“They’re a mated pair, Tairn and Sgaeyl. The strongest bonded pair in centuries.”
Unfortunately, Tairn chose you all on his own.”
“There is no us,” I say, dodging a rider as she races past.
“Oh, I think you’ll find that’s no longer the case,” Xaden murmurs next to me, gripping my elbow and yanking me out of the path of another rider running from the other direction.
including Garrick, whose shoulders look like they should take up at least two seats. It’s Garrick who looks my way first, his forehead lining with… What is that? Worry? Then he looks away.
“I know,” he repeats. “And I could call you Violence like the wingleader.” “You wouldn’t dare.” I narrow my eyes as I move forward, checking where his chest begins to rise. “And you know how much that ass annoys me.” “Annoys you?” Tairn chuckles above me, the sound like a chuffing cat. “Is that what you call it when your heart rate—”
Anna might like that the dragons can clearly see violet is into xaden
“This place cuts away the bullshit and the niceties, revealing whoever you are at your core.”
Three are unbonded women—I gasp with recognition—make that two as she runs for the door and slams it on the way out. She opened the door. There’s no other explanation.
Is this Trina?? I don’t know who else. Wait, no Trina died. Is it Tara? Frick idk. Wait maybe it’s the girl garrick was training?
“You’ll live. Turn around.” I do, tugging my nightdress back over my shoulders, and he drops to his knees on the floor before me. My eyes widen. Xaden Riorson is kneeling before me, his black hair at the perfect level for me to run my fingers through the thickness. It’s probably the only thing that’s soft about him. How many women have felt those strands between their fingers? Why the hell do I care? “You’re going to have to walk through the pain, and we have to do it fast.” He grabs a boot, then taps my foot. “Can you lift it up?” I nod, lifting my foot. Then he robs me of every logical
...more
“Hope you’re not afraid of the dark.” He pulls me inside, and suffocating darkness envelops us as the door closes. This is fine. This is absolutely fine. “But just in case you are,” Xaden says,
shake my head. There’s no way he’ll believe me. I barely believe it myself.
Maybe amber? It can’t be Imogen right?
He doesn’t even have to try to look sexy…he just is. Oh shit. This feeling right here—the way my breath catches and my entire body draws tight when he’s near—is why I haven’t taken anyone to bed or celebrated like the rest of my perfectly normal friends. This feeling is why I haven’t wanted anyone…else. Because I want him.
“Wingleader Amber Mavis.”
It was amber. The rule lover - same as dain
Hell, I think change is the mortal enemy of a scribe. But I’m starting to realize that I’ve changed. I don’t quite fit here. Not anymore.”
Then I make the mistake of glancing over her shoulder, toward the center of the gym. Holy. Fucking. Hot. Xaden and Garrick have stripped off their shirts and are sparring like their lives depend on it, a blur of kicks, punches, and rippling muscle.
“Serves you right,” Tairn lectures.
Lmao, caught ogling the rippling muscles
Jack shoves his hand away at the wrist. “Get that noxious shit away from me. Do you want me to end up in the infirmary?”
Death by door hinge or I mean orange
“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.”
Fucking dain
That’s exactly why I think you’re the bane of our existence
Heat washes over me, prickling my skin and centering low in my stomach. Odd, but whatever.
What kind of heat?
Sexy kind or just warm
My vision blurs and need slams into me, robbing me of every logical thought besides satiating the overwhelming—
It’s definitely the sexy kind of heat: lust
It’s because I’m not myself. All of this, the need, the lust, the craving for the one person who I’m meant to be with…it’s Tairn. Tairn’s emotions aren’t just overwhelming me; they’re controlling me.
Tairn is in lust?!?
Away. I have to get away from everyone until Tairn finishes…whatever he and Sgaeyl are doing.
I’m cackling but I don’t think Tairn is doing this on purpose. His emotions of lust definitely seem to powerful to block out maybe
