"The way Tess sees the world," Codric said, shaking his head. "It's like I've been looking at everything through a foggy window my entire life, and now someone wiped the glass clean. She notices patterns in things I would have walked right past. Rock formations, cloud movements, the way people stand in groups. She sees the structure underneath everything."
Leave it to Codric to invent a nickname for his dragonia right after their first flight together. I wondered if she was okay with that.
"A pattern-finder's dragonia," I said. "A match made in Dolis. But if you start calling her Tess, she might not take to it kindly."
"Actually, she loved it, especially when I told her that I knew a princess named Tess. Apparently, dragonias like princess stories as much as any human girl."
That was kind of cute. Had Alar come up with a nickname for his Veynathei? Veyna was short and sweet, and he'd said shewas young, so maybe she wouldn't mind. Kailin's dragon, on the other hand, would no doubt insist that she called him by his full name.
Morgateth.
The name still sent a shiver down my spine.
"You know what's the best part?" Codric asked. "She waits to see if I notice what she's noticed, and she's delighted when I do." Codric's expression softened. "She's amazing. I'm so lucky."
"What happens when you don't notice the things she does?"
He cast me an incredulous look. "Oh, please. As if I wouldn't."
I laughed. "You are so full of yourself."
I understood what he meant, though. I hadn't expected Zarathen's fierce loyalty either. When he'd poured into the spaces I'd emptied for him by dropping some of my shields, he hadn't tried to read the corners of my mind that I needed blocked from him. He'd simply stood guard beside the open door and made it clear that nothing would get through him to hurt me.
Bonding with Zarathen had been the most terrifying experience of my life, and that was saying something after everything the five of us had lived through together, like two terrorist attacks, an avalanche on Mount Hope, and the temple assassination attempt.
The problem had been exactly what Nyxath warned me about. My shields, the mental walls I'd built over a lifetime, the ones that made my mind impenetrable to even the queen of dragons, had refused to come down.
When Zarathen had walked the line and stopped before me, I'd felt him reaching out, brushing against my defenses, and every instinct I possessed had insisted that I hold firm. Letting someone in went against every defensive wall and tactic I had maintained throughout my lifetime.
He'd waited. He hadn't pushed or demanded or tried to force his way through. He'd just stood there, those enormous reptilian eyes steady and patient, and waited for me to decide.
I'd closed my eyes, imagined Kailin telling me to be brave, imagined Codric's teasing voice asking what I was afraid of, and then I'd dropped my walls one at a time, leaving only the necessary ones upright.
It had been like stepping off a cliff and discovering that I could fly.
"Shovia?" Codric's voice pulled me back. "You disappeared for a moment."
"I was thinking about the bonding." I took a steadying breath. "It was hard for me. Harder than for any of you. My shields didn't want to come down."
Codric watched me struggle with the emotion and had the grace not to tease. "We're quite the pair. Two hardened cynics going soft over their dragons."
"Speak for yourself. I'm not going soft."
"You've been smiling for hours. Your face must hurt."
He wasn't wrong about that. I just couldn't stop even though I must have looked like a fool, grinning like that.
I forced the smile down to check out my reflection in dress uniform and an elaborate updo that was meant to showcase me as a serious rider. I'd polished my boots until they gleamed and had fussed with my hair for longer than I'd ever done before.
The party tonight would be attended by all the newly bonded cadets, our instructors, and even some of the top brass. I needed to look good.
"You look like such a badass," Codric appraised me with his usual irreverent expression that somehow also managed to convey admiration and desire.
"I do, don't I?" I patted my coif. "How do you like my new hairstyle?"
"Not a fan." He offered me his arm. "I prefer it loose and cascading down to your glorious ass while you are not wearing anything."
His unrelenting need for me was one of the things I loved most about him. He seemed to never get tired of seeing me naked or making love to me.
