“Dragons can smell everything, wildfire. Emotion, arousal, satisfaction—it’s all written in the air around you.”A pause, definitely smug now.“And you, my dear bonded, have been radiating the particular contentment that comes from being thoroughly and regularly claimed.”
I buried my face in my hands, grateful that the wind would hide the flush burning across my skin.“Can we please not discuss my personal life while I’m strapped to your back several hundred feet in the air?”
Another rumble of amusement.“I’ve been watching this dance between you two for weeks now. The way he touches you during training like he’s checking you’re still real. The way you lean into him without even realising it.”
Despite my mortification, I found myself thinking about this morning—the way Varyth had held me, the possessive certaintyin his voice. The devastating tenderness that had followed the brutal passion.
“There it is,”Kaelen said with satisfaction.“That particular flutter of your pulse that happens when you remember exactly how he makes you feel.”
“You’re insufferable,” I muttered.
“But it’s so much more entertaining than discussing weather patterns or migration routes. Besides, I’m invested in your happiness now. Dragon bond and all that.”
“You’re invested in my survival. There’s a difference.”
“Is there? You humans are remarkably prone to doing stupid, self-destructive things when you’re miserable. From my perspective, keeping you content is a matter of practical self-interest.”
Despite my mortification, I found myself smiling.“How very calculating of you.”
“I prefer to think of it as enlightened self-interest.”Another pause.“So? Are you going to tell me about the lord, or do I have to guess based on the increasingly creative ways he keeps glancing over here?”
I glanced toward Varyth, catching him in the act of doing exactly what Kaelen had described. His eyes met mine for a heartbeat before he turned away, jaw tight with something that looked like frustrated concern.
“It’s still complicated,”I said finally.
“The best relationships usually are.”
“I never expected...”I trailed off, not sure how to finish that sentence.
“Never expected to fall for the beautiful, deadly High Lord who gave you sanctuary?”
The words hit closer to home than I wanted to admit.“Something like that.”
“And now you’re afraid that admitting how you feel out loud will somehow make it more real? More dangerous?”
His perception was unnerving.“You really can read minds, can’t you?”
“I can read you, wildfire. Your emotions bleed through our bond whether you want them to or not.”A pause, gentler now.“For what it’s worth?—”
The sky ripped apart.
Lightning didn’t just crack—it screamed, tearing through the air like the world’s spine splitting in half.
Three figures dropped from the clouds.
Wreathed in shadow and leather wings that cut through the storm like blades.
Elowyn. Merrick.
Ashterion.
“DIVE!” Varyth roared, barely audible over the chaos erupting around us.
But there was nowhere to dive to. The shadows weren’t coming from above anymore, they were everywhere. Coiling out of the storm clouds, wrapping around dragon wings like chains, dragging us all down toward the earth with vicious, unforgiving force.
Kaelen banked hard to the right, his massive wings beating furiously against the shadows that were suddenly trying to tear us out of the sky. I could feel his terror rippling through our bond.
“Hold on, wildfire!” His voice was raw with strain. “This is about to get very ugly.”
