“So we’re related.” Kael shrugged as he pulled her hand free with a tug. “What of it? The way I see it, the aristocracy is so inbred in Harlston, you could claim every toff here as cousin.”
“None so closely related to the old duke,” she replied. “The ducal seat has remained empty since the war ended.”
“Because you idiots can’t agree on which viper to raise above the rest.”
Kael said this with an almost conversational air.
“The matter of succession could be resolved easily if a directdescendant stepped forward,” Seraphina said. “I could introduce you to some very powerful men. Why settle for being a dragon rider, when you could be duke of the whole of Harlston?”
Dain and I stared at Kael. Any other time, I would’ve known exactly how my brother would react, but not now. We’d spent years keeping our heads down, fearful someone would recognise Kael and whose son he was, but now…? Duke of?—
“Is that what you came over here to offer me?” That growl was familiar enough. “Go back to your table, girl, and?—”
“Milady,” Seraphina corrected, her teeth flashing in the lamplight.
The sound of dragons shifting, a low rattling sound caught her attention and half the courtyard’s. Slate took a step forward, and it felt like the stones themselves quivered in response.
“Go back to your seat, Lady Seraphina of Ashbourne,” my brother said with a venom that outmatched her own. “And steer clear of me. Unless those friends of yours can secure me my land, my family’s home and…” As he rose to his feet, he stared over her head and straight at Fern. “The woman that belongs to me and my brothers, I can say with all confidence they have nothing I want. Go!”
His barked order echoed across the floor, getting some of the riders twittering like gossiping women, but Seraphina stood up. Nose in the air, it was clear Kael had gotten through to her.
“A man with such…” She looked back over her shoulder. “Modest aims is not someone I can help. I apologise for wasting your time.”
Her tone was anything but apologetic, she swept away from our table and marched back to her own. She and her friends leaned closer, obviously discussing us by the looks our way.
“I’m done with this place.” Kael sloshed wine into his water glass, then drank the lot down. “Didn’t come here to become a fucking cadet. Just want my land and my woman.”
“Our woman,” I corrected mildly, filling his glass up again, then mine and Dain’s.
“Ours,” Kael agreed. “We’ll go to her rooms and make hersee sense, then we can be off tonight. Back at the estate by morning and we’ll have breakfast with Mum and Barry.”
“No, we can’t.” Dain was always a strange one. Fae touched, that’s what the other kids of Coalbottom called him, but I knew better. No such thing as the fae, but touched? It was the gods that laid a hand on my brother’s shoulder, just as they did right now. His dark eyes grew milky as he stared at something we couldn’t see. “Not without creating war, destruction. We’d tear apart all of Nevermere in the process. Nowhere to hide, nowhere to rest, always moving…” He sucked in a breath. “Death… That way lies death.”
Some women are able to inject such poison into their laughter and we heard that in Seraphina’s right now. That vicious sound had Dain shaking his head, coming back to the courtyard abruptly.
“If we steal Fern, we’ll kill her,” he muttered, all prophetic doom gone from his voice. “So we will not do that.”
“Fine, we…”
Kael was always ready with a plan and he was formulating another as a bunch of people in uniform walked in. Important people, it seemed, because everyone got to their feet. I looked around us, then did the same. The others all took a seat on the dais, including the woman that was with Fern when we first entered the keep.
“Good evening.” The fellow with all the medals and silver glinting on his uniform, he was the general and head of the entire Royal Riders I’d learned. He stepped forward now, nodding to everyone gathered. “The banquet held at the end of intake day has always been an important one to the Royal Riders. Where previously we would have a bunch of young men just bonded with freshly hatched dragonlings…”
The large brown dragon who had led us into the city made a rumbling sound at that.
“Now we have men and women both joining our ranks as cadets. You are here to get a world class education, to learn from some of the finest minds in the country. To exchange ideas withyour fellow students, learning from them just as much as your teachers.”
“I know what I want to exchange with Fern…” Kael muttered under his breath.
“And lastly, some of you may even be lucky enough to find a dragon willing to bond with you. Hadrian.”
He nodded to the brown dragon, and we all turned to face the massive beast.
The process is very different now.His voice boomed inside my mind.No longer one where the unformed consciousness of a baby dragon is fused with an adult human’s.A small mutter from some of the Royal Riders, but they fell quiet again quickly.Now the process is a true meeting of minds. If you find a dragon who has similar aims, similar goals as you, who wishes to share a life their life with you, then…He nodded slowly.You will be truly blessed. As a representative of the free dragons of Nevermere, I welcome you to the keep.
“Welcome to the keep, cadets.”
The general slapped his fist down on his chest and the rest did the same, my hand moving belatedly to imitate them. Kael shot me a dark look, one eyebrow cocking up as his hands remained resolutely by his side. And Dain? My brother stared out into the courtyard, not milky eyed, but definitely seeing something we didn’t.
