Page 12 of House of Ashes

His mouth twisted. “Will you just listen for a minute?”

“Why should I? What are you to me, but this?” I spat over the side of the eyrie. “Why would you come here when you’re the last dragon I’d ever want to see?”

We were practically nose to nose as I shouted in his face. We realized this at the same time, and Rhylan took a step back, composing himself.

The fire in his eyes remained, even as he forced his shoulders to relax, the scales creeping in patterns over his skin.

His jaw clenched tight as he spoke, gritting out the words.

“I came here to ask you to become my Dragonesse.”

Chapter

Three

Iwas laughing before the shock had fully set in. “You flew a long way for a joke.”

But I didn’t feel the laughter. It was like a statue had taken my place, using my voice, moving my mouth, and all I could feel was bewilderment and horror combined.

Become Dragonesse?

With Rhylan as my Drakkon?

Never.

He was the reason I was here. My life had been snatched away by his testimony, and now he had the gall to ask such a thing.

My breath was taken by the boldness of it. He couldn’t have made it worse if he’d actually punched me in the gut.

His eyes flashed, fists clenching and unclenching. “This isn’t a joke. I have a genuine proposition for you.”

I flung the comb to the ground. “No. I’ll just start climbing now.”

It was suicide, but it was better than listening to Rhylan taunt me. I stepped to the edge of the eyrie, searching the nearly vertical shale slopes by starlight, and my stomach lurched as I saw just how far below me the ground really was.

“You don’t have to truly mate bond with me,” he said from behind. “We will pose as a mate bonded pair and take Koressis Eyrie together.”

That got my attention. I spun around, reaching out to hold a column, staring at him like I’d never truly seen him before. “What? Are you out of your godsdamned mind?”

He had to be.

It was draconic Law, laid down by Larivor and Naimah, that only a mate bonded pair could take the throne. From the very first dragons, no unmated pair had ever gained the royal eyrie.

And, more to the point, there was a Law for what would happen if an unmated dragon attempted to take it: they would be denounced by all the Houses, and sentenced to death for defying the will of the gods.

What he was proposing wasn’t just unthinkable; it was impossible.

“You could learn to ride without the mind-speech,” Rhylan said, gazing at me evenly.

“Ride without…without the mind-speech,” I repeated in wonder, unable to tear my eyes away from him. I saw no hint of a lie in them.

My gods, he was serious.

Even for a mate bonded pair, a great deal of trust went into riding a dragon. A rider literally put her life in the dragon’s claws every time she rode him; it would be all too easy for her to slip and fall to her death during battle.

The mind-speech was necessary for a pair, as necessary as breathing air. I couldn’t fathom pretending a mate bond, let alone the one absolutely critical necessity in becoming his rider.

He shifted a little, eyeing me warily.

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