That felt like it had to be the real reason.
“Tell me about your dragon?” The question I wanted to ask most was:do you know what I am?
But I didn’t dare ask that, knowing how sharp their senses were. What would it take to have privacy with Fieran?
I needed to find a way to sound him out without telling on myself.
Right now, with my stomach swooping like I might vomit across his chiseled bare chest, I probably was not at my sneakiest.
It was a good thing my parents hadn’t taken me to the Trials to be registered as a shifter. Apparently, I was prone to flying sickness.
Just my luck.
“Shadowbane’s old and wise, and it’s probably for my good to have his nagging in my head, annoying though it is.” Fieran sounded as if he were speaking to his dragon just as much as to me.
“Shadowbane?” I repeated skeptically. Where did these names come from? “And the dragons choose you, but you choose your clans. How?”
“I lead my clan,” he said, “Ander leads his. We fight for the right to choose new shifters for our clans, and then our clan’s dragons choose to share themselves with them. Or not.”
“Or not? What happens if not?”
“My clan’s never had all the dragons reject a shifter as long as I’ve been part of it.”
“That didn’t really—” I squeezed my eyes—and lips—shut as my stomach seemed to fly right while we flew left. “Oh my gods.”
“You don’t like flying?” He sounded offended, but I couldn’t see his face.
“I thought it would be so magical.”
“If you are going to vomit, aim it toward Ander,” he suggested. “He’ll be shifting back in a moment.”
My eyes flew open, and he said, “Never mind. That was childish.”
“You wouldn’t want me to vomit on Ander’s dragon. Just Ander.”
“Sandwing’s great. He must see something in Ander.”
“Do clans hate each other? Because their clans compete against each other in the Trials?”
“So many questions about the clans and the Trials.” His expression was impossible to read.
“I’m just curious.”
“Everyone always is.” He wasn’t looking at me, his gaze sweeping the ground. The three dragons flying seemed to almost dwarf the mountain. “You should come see the Trials if you want to understand.”
“I don’t want to see them.”
“That would make you very special indeed.”
“Why?” The fury in my voice surprised me and, from the way he glanced my way, it surprised him too. “You keep usalive! People should be grateful, not…”
I couldn’t finish the thought. It seemed too damning of all my kind, and me with them.
“Ghoulishly entertained?” Darkly, he added, “People have good reason to fear the dragon shifters.”
“Why?” I said softly.
“There they are.” He seemed as if he hadn’t heard me, but given their sharp senses, that seemed unlikely.
