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I stay quiet because I know exactly what we’re looking at. Two more shadows follow the first.

“Those are dragons! I wonder where they’re coming from? Or going?” Esme props herself against me as she watches their journey. “I wonder why they never roost here?”

While I can’t answer the last part, I do know why the dragons and their invisible riders have arrived. I’m supposed to meet them tonight to hand in my progress report, in a spot not far from here. If I use earth sliding to hurry, I could get there right after they land.

It would be the first time I make my scheduled drop since my arrival. After missing two straight weeks of check-ins, my contacts must be worried.

“They’re beautiful.” Esme’s voice pulls me back. “I’ve only ever seen them from far away. I would love to meet one.”

Meet one and then ask for an egg?

What a spectacular disaster that would be. Dragons are territorial and aggressively family-oriented. Emphasis on aggressively.

I’ve seen two different flights work together to protect orphaned eggs hatched in one territory and relocated to another. The mere presence of eggs was enough to unite them.

A clutch was recently laid in Tirene that only Lark and a few others knew about. She and my niece Rose witnessed the hatching and kept the location secret. Kept everything secret.

But I can’t say any of that because only someone who lives in or near the palace of Tirene would know such things.

Lies beget lies. I can’t risk getting closer to Esme.

Esme shifts to make herself more comfortable, curving her hand over my thigh.

My entire body goes rigid, and desire roars back so quickly that I wince.

I can’t pretend this is an accident. Esme’s fingers rub my thigh with clear intention, testing to see if I’ll push her away or pull her closer.

Every nerve ending in my body focuses on that single point of contact. “Esme.” Her name comes out strangled.

Her fingers dig harder, clutching instead of rubbing. “Hmm?”

For a moment, I close my eyes against my painfully hard cock. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

She starts to look up at me, her cheeks bright red. She gives up halfway there. “Then tell me.” Innocence and seduction wrapped up in one tiny sentence.

Tell her.

Tell her what? That I want to shove up her skirts and bury myself so deep inside her that she forgets her own name? Tell her I’ve thought about it every night since we met? That I’ve dreamed about the noises she’d make, how she would taste, and her expression as she splinters apart?

Tell her I’m barely holding on, and if she doesn’t move her hand right now, I’m about to do something that will prove every dark thing her mommy, daddy, and everyone else say about men like me is true?

I clear my throat. “I’m asking you to remove your hand.”

The silence between us stretches long enough that I think she didn’t hear me. Then she curls her fingers, withdraws her hand, and carefully places it in her own lap. The sudden absence feels like a much bigger loss, as if she stole one of my fingers along with her own. She sits up straight, no longer leaning against me.

I can breathe again, but a chill climbs up my legs. My stomach curdles from a mix of disappointment and the knowledge that I did the right thing. “I’m going to bed. Long day tomorrow.”

I lie down without looking at her and roll onto my side, facing away from the fire as the writhing in my gut grows stronger. I spend most of the night staring at the grass in front of my nose, feigning sleep.

When I wake, I expect to find Esme beside me, but the space is empty.

I push myself up on one elbow and scan the camp.

Esme hovers over the fire pit, kicking dirt over the lingering embers. She has her hair braided, her cloak on, and her boots laced.

I shoot to my feet, tangling in my own cloak. “What are you doing?”

Her shoulders tighten. “I’m leaving. I need to find the Everhand for Veradin so we can end this plague. The page Rook signed listed betting odds for an upcoming fighting tournament in the Havens, so I should check that out too. I don’t care if I have to walk all the way to the capital. I failed my mentor once already. I will not fail again.”