I didn’t look at him, not yet.
“You lost it anyway,” I replied, voice calm, almost gentle.
His lips curved into something sad and far too familiar. “Because I let it go. Doesn’t mean I didn’t see it for what it was.”
I turned then, slow and steady, meeting his gaze fully. “Then why say it now?”
He shrugged, eyes glancing toward Zander. “Because someday he’ll understand what it feels like to lose you. And I want you to remember that someone already did.”
He walked away before I could answer, leaving nothing behind but the weight of things unsaid.
And across the grounds, Zander’s eyes narrowed, because he’d seen. All of it.
ChapterThree
Imoved through the edge of the training circle, the air still thick with the tension of earlier sparring. Naia and Jax had taken the ring now, their movements a blur of agility and brute force. She ducked beneath one of his broad swings and struck low with her staff, sweeping his leg with just enough force to make him stumble.
I stepped up beside Cordelle, who stood with his arms crossed, eyes narrowed in thought rather than worry.
“She’s fast,” he murmured, nodding toward Naia as she dodged Jax’s second strike.
“She’s terrifying,” I said with a half-smile.
He chuckled. “I’m going to head to the records chamber soon. My father keeps an updated currents map for the northern ranges. Might help us figure out what kind of weather patterns we’ll be dealing with when we go after the sanctuary.”
I blinked, surprised. “I didn’t think of that.”
He shrugged, cheeks coloring faintly under his freckles. “You’ve got a lot on your mind. I’m just the backup brain.”
“You’re more than that,” I said with a smile. “Thanks, Cordy.”
He gave me a small grin and slipped away, already scribbling something on the edge of his journal as he went.
The moment didn’t last.
Major Kaler’s voice rang across the Ascension Grounds. “Riders, to me.”
I turned, pulse quickening. The rest of the squads gathered, forming loose lines across the stone platform. Zander fell into step beside Crownwatch, Ferrula, and Tae drifted near Jax and Naia.
I stood a little straighter, bracing myself.Kaelith,I reached for her instinctively—only to feel that same distant pull, like a tether half-buried beneath heavy earth.
I went stiff.
If this were another bonded trial, I wasn’t sure she could come to me.
Major Kaler’s eyes swept over us, as unreadable as ever. “Today’s trial will be conducted without your dragons.”
The ripple of confusion spread fast.
He raised a hand, cutting off the whispers before they could grow into murmurs. “You will not be permitted to call for them. Not mentally. Not emotionally. Their absence will dull your access to magic—and that is precisely the point.”
My stomach dropped.
He continued, walking along the edge of the circle as he spoke. “A rider’s magic is often magnified through the bond. But remove the bond, and what are you? What remains?” He stopped. “To call your magic, you will need to dig deeper. Past your dragon. Past your fear. Into the raw source that resides inyou.”
He raised his hand again. “Feel your pulse. Follow it until it pulses with magic instead of blood. Reach for it the way you reach for a sword in a fogged sheath. Visualize. Name it. Control it. Shape it.”
His eyes locked onto Perin.
