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“Just portray confidence, and I’m sure you’ll be fine.” I lean forward so our squadmates behind us can’t hear me as Third Wing begins to march for the gate.
“Your memory is terrifying.” She shoots me a smile. But my memory isn’t going to get me up the Gauntlet.
“What changed between Parapet and now?” Dain asks again, a wealth of emotions in his eyes that I can’t begin to interpret. Well, except the fear. That doesn’t need any interpretation. “Me.”
Rhiannon’s arms sweep around me, taking my weight as I gasp for air. Ridoc hugs my back, squeezing me like I’m the filling of a sandwich as he hollers in happiness. I’d protest, but right now they’re all that’s keeping me upright.
No wonder she and Dain are so close—they’re both in love with the Codex.
His eyes flare, and I don’t miss the hint of a smirk on that infuriatingly decadent mouth of his. It should be against the Codex to look that good and be so ruthless.
I nod and back away, joining my squad. Rhiannon helps me cut off the sleeves of my shirt to bandage my hands, and I cheer our last two squadmates up the cliff. We all make it.
The leaves of the trees are all turning gold, as though someone has brought in a paintbrush with only one color and streaked it across the landscape.
Dain and the other squad leaders stayed behind. I’m not sure if he’ll be thrilled I made it up the Gauntlet or disappointed that I bent the rules. But I’ve never felt more thrilled.
It really doesn’t get any easier than this from here on out, kids, so if you can’t follow those simple instructions, then you deserve whatever happens in there.”
but this time they’re gold and look sharp as hell—like she wanted to throw in a little extra badass today.
“And if it didn’t work, I didn’t want you to be an accomplice. You have a real future here, and I refuse to bring you down with me if I didn’t make it.”
“With arrogance like that, I’m sure any dragon would feel lucky to share your mind for the rest of your life.” I pity whatever dragon—if any—chooses him.
“It’s full grown,” Rhiannon argues. “There’s no way the other dragons allow a baby to bond. No human alive has ever seen a baby.” “It’s a mistake all right.” Tynan looks at the golden one and scoffs. “You should totally bond it, Sorrengail. You’re both freakishly weak. It’s a match made in heaven.”
“Don’t ever say that about a squadmate, especially not in front of unbonded dragons.”
“My mom used to love telling my sister Raegan and me that we’d be plucked right off the front porch by one if we talked back, and their eerie-eyed venin riders would take us prisoner if we took treats we weren’t allowed to have,”
“I wish we’d had a book like that. I seriously think Mom just altered the stories to scare us whenever we stepped out of line.”
“Dain lost his vote when he tried talking you into leaving,” she counters.
thankful I grew up playing hide-and-seek with Dain in the woods. This is one area of expertise I can confidently claim.
My ankle has a heartbeat of its own, and agony streaks up my spine, chattering my teeth as I force my weight onto my ruined joint so they won’t see me limping. They can’t know I’m hurt, or they’ll just attack faster.
“No, but I can narrate,” Xaden retorts. He’s obviously on my side here, which confuses the hell out of me, since more than anything, I’m certain he wants me dead. But maybe it’s not my life he’s protecting but the golden dragon’s.
“I’m used to functioning in pain, asshole. Are you?”
ramp. Dragons never supplicate for anyone, and yet here he is, bowing to make it easier for me to climb on. It’s steep but manageable.
“My name is Tairneanach, son of Murtcuideam and Fiaclanfuil, descended from the cunning Dubhmadinn line.”
He’s actually…caught me instead of finding me unworthy and letting me fall to my death.
“Now get in the seat and actually hold on this time, or no one is going to believe that I’ve actually chosen you,” he growls.
“I know exactly who and what you are, Violet Sorrengail.”
“You will not fall. I will not allow it.”
It’s the most horrifying and yet exhilarating moment of my life.
“You are the smartest of your year. The most cunning.” I gulp at the compliment, brushing it off. I was trained as a scribe, not a rider. “You defended the smallest with ferocity. And strength of courage is more important than physical strength. Since you apparently need to know before we land.”
My throat tightens from his words, emotion forming a knot I have to swallow past.
She blinks. “Maybe I was saving you.” Her voice is higher, sweeter in my mind.
“Didn’t anyone tell you that you’re not supposed to speak to humans who aren’t your rider? Don’t go getting yourself in trouble, Goldie,”
“And Andarnaurram,” I whisper. Her eyes fly wide. “Both dragons?” she squawks.
And all hell breaks loose.
Two dragons. I have…two dragons.
Lucky for me, Tynan mostly sliced through muscle but didn’t sever it.
“Every eye in this valley is on me and my dragon—dragons,” I correct myself. “I can’t afford to appear weak.”
“I mean, it looks like the weapon severed a couple of ligaments, but we’ll have to get you to the healers to be sure,” the other instructor says, his voice infinitely patient as he secures Jack’s sling.
I look Jack straight in those evil eyes and smile. I’m done being scared of him. He ran back in that meadow.
“Hiding behind our instructors now, Sorrengail?” Jack’s uninjured fist curls. “I didn’t hide out there, and I’m not hiding here.” I raise my chin. “I’m not the one who ran.”
“She doesn’t need to hide behind me when she’s bonded to the most powerful dragon of your year,” Professor Kaori warns Jack, whose eyes narrow on me. “Your orange is a good choice, Barlowe. Baide, right? He’s had four other riders before you.”
He shakes his head, and the look in his eyes transforms from shock, to envy, to fear as he pivots toward the professor.
“You would be the first. Not sure why they’re fighting about it, though. The decision won’t be up to them.”
“Nothing about who dragons choose is up to humans,” Kaori assures me. “We only like to maintain the illusion that we’re in control. Something tells me they’ve just been waiting for the others to make it back before they meet.”
“Look who rode in on the baddest motherfucker around!”
“They’re a mated pair, Tairn and Sgaeyl. The strongest bonded pair in centuries.”
His appeal is so fucking inconvenient.
“And I would do it again.” I raise my chin. “Well-the-fuck-aware,” Xaden roars, losing his temper for the first time since I met him on Parapet.
“Sorrengail is the last person on the Continent I’d ever want to be chained to me. I didn’t do this.”
