Total pages in book: 215
Estimated words: 206625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1033(@200wpm)___ 827(@250wpm)___ 689(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 206625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1033(@200wpm)___ 827(@250wpm)___ 689(@300wpm)
Dain is so tense, he looks like he might crack in half, but he glances at me and nods.
I do the same.
“Good, now get back in there.” She motions toward the door with her head, and Dain leaves, walking through the shield. “And as for you.” She walks down two steps and pins Xaden with a glare. “Is this what she can expect next year?”
“Aetos being an asshole?” Xaden asks, leaving his hands loose at his sides. “Probably.”
Mira’s eyes narrow. “Mated dragons typically bond riders in the same year for a reason. You cannot expect your assigned wing or her instructors to let you both fly off every three days.”
“Wasn’t my choice.” He shrugs.
“What are we supposed to do? Tell the giant, flame-throwing dragons how it’s going to be?” I ask my sister.
“Yes!” she exclaims, turning toward me. “Because you can’t live this way, Violet. You’ll be the one who ends up missing the training you need, because he’s the more powerful of the two of you right now. But if you don’t get to focus on your training, then that’s how it will always be. You won’t ever become who Tairn can push you to be. Is that what you’re after, Riorson?”
“Mira,” I whisper, shaking my head. “You’re wrong about him.”
“Listen to me.” She grasps my shoulders. “He might wield shadows, Violet, but give him his way, and you’ll become one.”
“That won’t happen,” I promise her.
“It will if he has anything to say about it.” Her gaze flickers behind me. “Killing someone isn’t the only way to destroy them. Keeping you from reaching your potential seems like a great path to the retribution he swore against our mother. Think long and hard. How well do you even really know him?”
I suck in a breath. I trust Xaden. At least, I think I do. But Mira’s right; there are infinite ways to demolish someone without ending their life.
“That’s what I thought.” The look in her eyes turns to something worse than anger. It’s pity. “Do you even know why he hates our mother so much? Why the kids like him are put on the para—”
“I’m right here,” Xaden interrupts, rising to the same step to stand at my side. “In case you didn’t notice.”
“You’re kind of hard to miss,” she retorts.
“You’re not listening.” His voice lowers. “I. Am. Here. Tairn didn’t drag her back to Basgiath. He didn’t break through her shields and pour his emotions into her. He didn’t demand she fly across the fucking kingdom. Your sister is still right here. I’m the one who left my post, my position, and my executive officer in charge of my wing. She’s not missing out on shit.”
“And next year? When you’re a brand-new lieutenant? What shit is she going to miss out on then?” Mira asks.
“We’ll figure it out.” I reach for her hand and squeeze. “Mira, he’s taken every spare minute he has to train me on the mat for challenges or take me flying in hopes I’ll finally figure out how to keep my damned seat without Tairn holding me in place. He’s—”
She flinches. “You can’t keep your seat?”
“No.” It’s barely a whisper, and the heat of embarrassment scorches my skin.
“How the hell can you not?” Her mouth hangs open.
“Because I’m not you!” I shout.
She rears back like I’ve slapped her, our hands breaking apart. “But you…you look so much stronger now.”
“My joints and muscles are stronger because Imogen makes me lift these horrible weights, but that doesn’t…fix me.”
Mira blanches. “No. I didn’t mean it like that, Vi. You’re not anything that needs to be fixed. I just didn’t know you couldn’t hold your seat. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because there’s nothing you can do about it.” I force a wry smile. “There’s nothing anyone can do about the way I’m made.”
A long, uncomfortable silence stretches between us. For as close as we are, there’s still so much we don’t share.
“She’s getting better,” Xaden offers, his voice calm and even. “The first few weeks were…disastrous.”
“Hey, he caught me before I hit the ground,” I argue.
“Barely,” Xaden grumbles before turning back to Mira. “You don’t have to trust me—”
“Good, because I don’t,” she says. “All of that power in the hands of someone with your history is bad enough, but to know your dragons are so tangled up that you can’t be more than three days from Violet is unacceptable in every possible way I can think—” She goes completely still, her eyes un-focusing.
“There’s a drift of gryphons headed this way!” Tairn bellows.
“Fuck! The wards are down,” Mira mutters, apparently receiving the same alarm from Teine. She clutches my shoulders and yanks me into a hug. “You have to go.”
“We can help!” I argue, but she holds me so tightly that I can’t move.
“You can’t. And if Tairn is using his power to keep you seated, then he’s diminished as well. You have to go. Get out of here. If you love me, Violet, you’ll go so I don’t have to worry about you, too.” She releases me, looking to Xaden as our squad pours out of the door above, thundering by as they run down the steps. “Get her out of here.”