Alarm registered in Kailin's eyes. "Did she find out about the prophecy?"
"I don't think so. I wasn't thinking about the prophecy when she approached me, and after she called me by my full name and title, I raised my protective walls."
She let out a breath. "That must have been an uncomfortable moment."
"It was horrifying, but it was also wonderful. She doesn't care that I'm a prince. She doesn't care about the politics, the mission, or any of the things that define me to everyone else. She just sees me, and she likes what she sees."
"Of course she does." Kailin squeezed my hand. "What does she look like?"
Kailin had returned with Morgateth after Veynathei had dropped me off, and I had spent those long minutes terrified that something might have happened to Kailin on her first solo flight. It had erased all the joy and elation from my own first flight, but I wasn't going to mention it and reopen the argument.
"Her scales shift color. Silver and pale gold mostly, but with hints of turquoise and pink depending on the light. It's like light refracting through crystal." I chuckled. "She knows she's beautiful and she likes to show off. She spent a good portionof our flight positioning herself to catch the auroras at her best angle."
Kailin laughed. "I love her already."
"She'd appreciate that. She also has strong opinions about being appreciated."
"She reminds me of Shovia." Kailin leaned her head on my bicep. "She also likes to show off her good looks."
"There is something to that," I agreed. "Vey is also a little reckless, which reminds me of Shovia as well."
"Vey?" Kailin lifted her head off my arm and looked at me. "Is that your nickname for her?"
"I just came up with it. Veynathei is such a mouthful."
"Veyna sounds better than Vey." Kailin returned her head to my arm.
"I have a feeling that she will prefer Vey, but I will let her decide."
The tension between us seemed to dissipate, replaced by the shared wonder of what we'd both experienced today.
"The dragon I dreamt you were riding also had scales that shifted colors in the light, but it was a large male, so if I got that detail wrong, maybe other parts of that nightmare were wrong too."
My heart skipped a beat. What were the odds of her randomly dreaming about a dragon with shifting colors and me bonding with a dragonia that matched that description? The coloring was rare. I doubted there was another dragon like her.
Veynathei was much smaller than Morgateth, but she was larger than most dragonias except for Nyxath. Kailin could easily have mistaken her for a male.
I held my breath as I waited for her to ask whether my dragonia was large. If she asked, I would be forced to tell her the truth, and her anxiety would spike.
In Kailin's nightmare, I had fallen from the dragon's back and died, and Kailin had tried to convince me to go home to avoid that fate. I'd refused, and we'd agreed to disagree, but the dream sat between us like an uninvited guest at nearly every conversation.
"Hey." I cupped her face with my free hand. "I'm here, I'm bonded, and I'm not going anywhere."
"I know." But her smile didn't reach her eyes.
I kissed her, gently at first and then deeper, and felt her melt into me the way she always did, her fingers curling into the fabric of my half-buttoned uniform. For a moment, there was nothing in the world except the two of us and the warmth between us.
When we broke apart, my uniform was more unbuttoned than before, and I felt happy again.
8
IDRILIA
"Every transplant is a wound. Whether it takes or fails depends less on the new soil than on what the plant carried with it from the old."
—Professor Ertozen Asuker, Principles of Botanical Transplantation
Ihave never been more grateful to see the ugly hauler than I was tonight.
