“You must not be getting the joke–” Lucien begins.
“No, I get it. Your father raised all of you so that even when you were terribly ill you felt you had to pretend to be tougher than an illness, which drove Alaric to nearly dying as a child. Is that right?” Sevrin asks.
“It’s not funny the way you say,” Gareth mutters.
“It’s not funny at all,” I tell them. They look at me, and I scrunch up my face. “Guys, seriously, your childhood was twisted. I’m sure if you think about a lot of ‘funny’ things that happened to you as kids, they really weren’t that funny.”
Alaric grabs a drink. “Can everybody just drink, please?”
So, we do.
“Let’s switch to something more fun,” Lucien suggests. “King’s Bones?”
Alaric laughs and claps his hands together. “You guys better be ready, I’m good at this one!”
Sevrin looks at me.
I explain. “Two people roll a dice each. The person who rolls the highest dice chooses a person to drink. The person who rolls the lowest dice has to drink.”
Something fierce grows in Sevrin’s eyes. Competition. “Let’s do this.”
Over the next two hours, we roll dice and talk, getting more drunk with each passing moment, despite the fact that we’re getting married tomorrow. Traditionally, men and women have their final party the night before a wedding anyway, and having ahangover at the wedding is nearly a tradition. Gareth puts more wood on the fire every time it starts to burn low, and the empty liquor containers gather at the end of the table. Alaric, true to his word, had the best of luck with the dice game, and Sevrin had the worst. I was just after Alaric, which was probably for the best, since they were all bigger than me and could handle their liquor better.
Alaric, Gareth, and Lucien get together, standing before the fire, arms over each other’s shoulders, and begin to sing, “Oh, raise your cups, you wing-born lot, for the night is warm and the ale is hot! We’ve flown through storms and fire’s breath, we’ve danced on the razor edge of death! So pour it high and drink it deep— tomorrow’s foes can wait for sleep!
“Hey-ho, let the dragons roar, fill the tankards, more and more! For we fight like storms, we love like flame— And no one rides the sky the same! Hey-ho, to the tales we spin, of wars we’ve won and hearts we’ll win!”
Sevrin leaps to his feet and links arms with them, and then they’re all singing the verses over again, Sevrin stumbling through them, but holding his own. I clap a rhythm to the song, laughing hysterically. Lucien suddenly launches himself back, and then they all fall back, near the fire, in a tangled mess of limbs, laughing as hard as I am.
I stand up, and step all over my dress. Lifting the skirts, I try to sort myself out, then decide the hell with it. “I’m going to go change.”
They barely notice me, but I grab a nightgown and a robe and go behind the screen.
“People say dragon riders are good in bed because we’ve got incredible balance and stamina. I say that’s nonsense. It’s not balance. It’s not stamina. It’s theenthusiasm,” Lucien jokes, as I try to get free from the dress.
“You dragon riders burn hot and fast. We Hollowborn? We don’t get tired… ever. Ask your ladies which they prefer.”
There’s more laughter, as I finally get free of the dress and drop it to the floor. Grabbing my nightgown, I slide into the lighter material with a sigh, then begin to pull on my robe.
Suddenly, I feel it. Ebron’s and his mates desire. It hits me hard and fast for a moment before it dampens. A shudder rolls through me, and I envision my connection to Ebron, then picture myself closing it off. I have no idea what’s going to happen tonight, probably nothing, but if Ebron was kind enough to be considerate of me, I should do the same for him.
“The dragons are fucking,” Lucien says.
Alaric laughs. “Yeah they are. Get it, Ebron.”
I shake my head, still feeling some of my dragon’s desire flowing through me.
“Well, back to the topic at hand,” Lucien says, slurring the words. “Harper has had all of us, let’s ask her who she prefers. It’s us dragon riders, right? They call us dragonridersfor a reason. We’re very good at holding on tight and making sure no one falls.”
Then Alaric says, quietly but loud enough for all to hear, “I haven’thadher yet.”
I try to come out behind the screen, but trip on my mess of a dress and hit the floor. “Oof.”
“You okay?” Sevrin asks, but he doesn’t sound all that concerned.
“She’s just clumsy,” Gareth says. “Right?”
I get back to my feet and dust myself off before coming out from behind the screen. “I’m only clumsy on the ground. In other places, like in beds or on dragons, I’m flawless.”
