“So you can only feel what I’m feeling when I’m having feelings for my dragon?” Ryse demanded. He seemed very focused on whether I could feel his emotions or not for some reason, I thought.
“Yes, I suppose so.” I shrugged. “I’ve never felt anything you’re feeling up until now.”
“Good,” he muttered, and his cheeks went red again. Was he blushing? Why? What emotions did he not want me to know about? I wished I knew but of course I couldn’t ask.
“Look, M’alex is saddled now.” I pointed to the leather saddle which was placed at the hollow between the last neck spine and the beginning of the dragon’s broad back. “Can we go up?”
“Yes, I guess so.” Ryse ran a hand through his hair and cast me a sidelong look, like he wasn’t sure what to think of me now. “What is M’alex thinking now?” he demanded abruptly.
“I don’t know—I can’t hear dragon thoughts—I can only feel their feelings.”
I was still surprised that other people didn’t have the same experience I did. Auren had been able to feel the feelings of dragons too. We’d often huddle together in bed at night when we were children, frightened of the rage coming from F’lorn. So I’d just assumed that everyone could feel dragon emotions.
“Okay then—how is he feeling now?” Ryse asked.
I looked at the big Dragon, who actually winked at me—one golden eye closing slowly.
“He’s amused,” I reported. “He thinks your reaction to me is funny, I think. He doesn’t understand why you’re so offended.”
“I’m not offended. Just…surprised. I’ve only heard of one other person who could feel dragon emotions and that was in an old book I read a long time ago, when I was a kid.” He shook his head.
“Do…you not want to fly with me now?” I asked hesitantly. Maybe I was too weird for him—too strange for him to want to be around me.
“No, no—nothing like that. You just surprised me—that’s all.”
He paused for a moment, and I could tell that M’alex was saying something to him.
“Yes, you did tell me she was special,” he murmured. “I just didn’t really understand why until now.”
My heart started beating a little harder.
“Who…who are you talking about?”
“Who do you think? You,” Ryse said, looking down at me. “M’alex has had an interest in you since you first came here. He saw you during Receiving Day and he’s been talking about you ever since.”
“Yes, but…” I coughed because my throat was suddenly so dry. “You said ‘she’ just now.” His dragon didn’t know my secret—did he?
“Oh, that’s just how he talks. Dragons don’t always distinguish between male and female humans,” he told me. “To them you’re either their person or you aren’t. They don’t care if you’re a woman or a man, as long as you’re bonded to them.”
“But that can’t be true!” I protested. “I’ve heard all my life that dragons won’t bond with women—that they hate women, even.”
He frowned.
“Who told you they hate women?”
“My father…and every one of the books I read about dragons growing up,” I said. “Also, women aren’t allowed to bond with dragons.”
“Yes, well, that’s just a stupid Academy tradition,” he said dismissively. “Women could be riders as well as men if they wanted to—the dragons wouldn’t care.”
“It’s not that they don’t want to—it’s that they’re not allowed to,” I said, with more heat than I’d intended. It made me mad to think that all my life I’d been denied an opportunity I would have loved just because I was a woman.
Ryse frowned.
“Why are you getting upset about this? Do you want to ride or not? Humbolt isn’t going to wait forever, you know.”
“Of course I want to ride.” I took a deep breath to steady my nerves as I looked up at the mountain that was M’alex. “Er…how do I get into the saddle?”
“Easy. M’alex?” He nodded at the dragon, who offered me a foreleg. Ryse looked at me. “Need a boost?”
