I swallowed, trying to find any word or even to grasp at what she’d said, but nothing worked in my brain or body. Her touching me was worse than I could have ever imagined. It sparked through me, like she’d pressed actual magic into my skin. If a sunrise could have been felt, she would have been it.
She must not have noticed my reaction because she pressed, “Say something.”
“My apologies,” I finally managed.
“What is your problem?” She forced herself in closer, pressing the knife against my neck. A flick of the wrist, and she’dcut me open, and still, I felt no fear.The opposite was true—I was hard. Fuck.
I got a hand between us, grabbing her hip and guiding it away from me before I could offend her with exactly how unafraid I was. My hand spanned from her hip to her ribs, and both together could close all the way around her. She seemed so fragile, and yet, she was bold and fearless, and that only made the problem behind my leathers worse.
“You are impossible!” she exclaimed when I didn’t reply or back off. Frustration hitched in her tone.
I closed my eyes and held still, trying not to breathe in her scent, but she moved, pulling back her knife and lifting her arms to sheathe it between her shoulder blades. And that would have been a good thing, but her movement caused her shirt to lift, dragging past my fingertips until her skin was exposed. Just barely allowing the pads of my fingers to connect with nothing between us.
The moment seemed to stretch out for eternity. I had enough time to know it was going to hit me hard, the feeling of the first touch. I knew it would be bad, irrevocable. Life-changing. All before the feeling actually had time to register. And when it hit, it was all those things and infinitely more.
She jumped back, searching my face.
I immediately surged forward, putting my finger to my lips. “Shhh. Please don’t scream.”
“I’m not going to scream,” she whisper-yelled, breathing hard. “But by the Gods, what was that?”
“It’s nothing. It cannot be anything.” I pleaded with the Goddess for her to believe me.
Her dark eyes sparkled in the moonlight, and I couldn’t read her. She searched my face, though for what I didn’t know, and I felt exposed and raw. Then she stepped back, understandingwritten in her expression. “Is that why you were staring at me in the palace?”
“Yes.” The word passed on an exhale, and I knew my world would never be the same.
TWENTY-ONE
CALYTRIX
“I’m your ryder, aren’t I?” My mind worked through the details in overtime, but it also felt sluggish. Like this couldn’t be real.I didn’t know how I understood the fact, but I just knew it to be true.
“You are,” he confirmed.
My heart raced, thudding in my ears and drowning out all other sounds. Every feeling I’d started to attribute to madness clicked into place and finally made sense. The unexplainable pull to him I’d experienced. The life-long feeling that there was something more for me than this life I was given.
I was a ryder. He was a dragon. We were destined by the Seraphic to fly together and combine our magic into something great. It’s the kind of escape I'd always dreamed of, but I could never have imagined it would come in this form.
“Why then are you avoiding me?”I asked, incredulous.
His face fell, and I reached out for him, but he stepped back like he couldn’t bear for me to touch him.
“Talk to me,” I demanded. “You cannot leave me in the dark any longer. I will not allow it.” I backed him into the railing of the ship. He’d have to fly away to avoid me again, and if he did, I might just grab on to him and try to go with him.
“What would you like me to say?” His words were cold.
“I want you to explain yourself. In the Sun God’s name, I think you owe me that much.”
He lifted his chin, almost indignant.“There is nothing to explain.”
“Why have you not embraced me as your ryder? I thought the First Kingdom was desperate for dragons to feed its war.”
“Isn’t it your war, too?”
I scoffed. “Hardly.” But I wasn’t about to get into politics. “Isn’t this the greatest honor the Gods bestow? Why would a dragon avoid his ryder?” That was the only part I couldn’t make sense out of.
“Surely you can work it out.” He shook his head, still refusing to so much as look me in the eye.
