I listen for her. Nothing.
“She’s not here. I can’t feel her. Jace,” I breathe horrified. He moves in front of me, grasping me by the shoulders.
“Hey, it’s alright. Listen down the bond. She’s a dragon, she can’t have gone far.”
I nod and dip into the channel, listening intently.
“She’s in the forest, circling overhead.”
“Let’s go,” he says, a sense of urgency looming in his tone. We race outside into the morning sun, and I squint up through the trees.
Nothing.
But I can feel her there on the other side of the tether.
Porphyria, I call silently. An ear perks up.
Come.
Her wingbeats become instantly audible as wind rocks the forest, shaking leaves from their branches and kicking up the ones dusting the floor. Her lean, serpentine form becomes visible as she nosedives for the forest. Her impromptu landing knocks out a handful of trees to accommodate her enormous size. Jace tackles me out of the way of a falling tree, and we hit the ground hard, breathless, and tangled around each other.
The forest begins to calm as Furi settles on the ground and takes to chomping the leaves off of a nearby fallen tree. Jace and I stare up at her, mouths hanging open.
“Furi, what the fuck!” I hiss.
Her head snaps up to me for an instant before she resumes loudly chomping her salad. Jace helps me sit up, and I stomp toward my disinterested dragon.
“Where were you! You had me worried sick,” I demand.
Jace dusts his jacket off and mutters, “You’re mommy alright.”
I shoot him a glare, then redirect my attention to Furi.
“What were you doing?! Anyone could have seen you! Itisn’t safe yet,” I press, hands on hips, fuming beside her lowered head. Her eerie green eyes blink as her reply echoes in my head.
There was danger. I went to investigate.
“What did she say?” Jace asks, coming up beside me.
“She said there was danger. In the cave?”
She shakes her head no.
Outside.
What kind of danger?
Don’t know, that’s why I went to investigate.
“Okay, sass.”
“Did she say what kind of danger?”
“No, she just felt something off. She didn’t see anything.”
“Come on,” he says in the captain’s voice, launching forward. “I want her back in that cave, safe. And I want you back at the castle. Now.”
My protest stops his determined stride. “No, we need to see what she meant! I’m not leaving her here unprotected if there’s danger nearby.”
