“What makes you think there’s more?”
“Because you’re being evasive, and people only do that when they’re about to tell me something I won’t like.”
Kaelen was quiet for so long I started to wonder if he’d decided not to answer.
“There is... a risk.”
Before I could ask what kind of risk, the world tilted sideways as Kaelen suddenly folded his wings and dropped into the steepest dive yet. We plummeted toward the earth like a stone, wind screaming past us, but the saddle held me secure even as my stomach tried to relocate to my throat.
“What risk?” I finally managed to shout over the rushing air.
“The stronger the bond becomes,”Kaelen said, calm despite the fact that we were currently hurtling toward what looked like certain death. “The more... intertwined our life forces grow.”
The ground rushed up to meet us with alarming speed. I could make out individual trees now, rocks, a stream that glittered like silver thread in the afternoon sun.
“Intertwined how?” I pressed, my fingers white-knuckled around the saddle handles as I fought the urge to close my eyes.
“If one of us dies.”Kaelen pulled out of the dive at the very last second in a manoeuvre that pressed me deep into the leather seat.“There’s a chance the other might follow.”
The casual way he delivered this information, like he was discussing dinner instead of potential mutual destruction, made me want to throttle him.
“A chance?” I repeated once I’d recovered enough to speak. “What kind of chance?”
“Depends on how deep the bond has grown. How long we’ve been connected. How much of ourselves we’ve shared.”Kaelen banked lazily to the left.“Some pairs are so intertwined that one cannot exist without the other. Others maintain enough separation that the loss, while devastating, isn’t fatal.”
I absorbed the information, trying to process what it might meant for myself and my children’s future.
“So you’re saying I might have accidentally signed up for a magical murder-suicide pact?”
“Such a dramatic way to put it.”But there was warmth in his voice, affection that made my chest tight.“I prefer to think of itas ensuring we’re both properly motivated to keep each other alive.”
“How comforting.”
“I thought so.”
We soared in silence for a moment, the weight of his revelation settling between us like a shared secret. Below us, the world spread out in all its wild beauty, forests and rivers and mountains that had existed for millennia and would continue long after we were both gone.
“Are you afraid?” I asked finally.
“Of dying? No. Death comes for everyone eventually, wildfire. Dragon, fae or human, we all return to the earth in the end.”He paused, considering.“But I find myself... invested in your survival in a way I haven’t been about anything for a very long time.”
“That makes two of us,” I admitted, surprising myself with the honesty.
“Good. Then we understand each other.”
As if summoned by some unspoken signal, the other dragons began to converge on our position, their riders calling out suggestions for the next phase of my education. But I barely heard them. I was too busy processing the fact that I’d somehow acquired not just a dragon, but a partner whose life was now tangled up with mine in ways I was only beginning to understand.
As Kaelen’s powerful wings carried us higher into the endless sky, I felt something I hadn’t experienced in over a year. I felt like I belonged somewhere.
Then his flight pattern changed. It was subtle, the kind of shift that wouldn’t have registered if we weren’t connected by the Yvaelth. But I felt it anyway, a tension in his muscles, a hitch in the rhythm of his wingbeats. His head tilted slightly, like he was listening to something I couldn’t hear.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, sitting straighter in the saddle.
The emotion that filtered down our bond was complex, urgency laced with fear.
“Nothing you need to worry about.”But his tone had lost its playful edge, becoming flat and careful in a way that made my stomach clench.“I need to take you back to the castle.”
Around us, the other dragons had suddenly shifted formation. No more lazy circles or playful dives, they were moving with purpose now, heading back toward Edrithas.
