Page 27 of The Bond That Burns

Blake stood in the middle of the crowd. He wasn't even looking at me. He was too busy glaring at Kage. I managed not to roll my eyes. If anything, he should have been grateful. If I’d died, his free blood meals would have gone up in smoke. I wondered what he’d have done then.

Someone was pushing their way to the front.

Catherine Mortis.

She was dressed in a leather tunic and trousers in the red and white colors of her house, her silver hair braided into a coronet atop her head. Her eyes were gray like Blake’s I realized, but much paler, almost white. They settled on the still-smoldering remains of her father. I watched her face but there was no crack in her glacial composure.

She lifted her eyes from her father’s corpse and looked at me.

I swallowed. “Catherine, I’m sorry for your loss.”

Her gaze was sharp. “Thank you,” she said simply.

Lady Avari cleared her throat softly, pulling my attention back.

“I have to go,” I said, looking at Elaria.

Her colleague had just been burned to a crisp in front of her. Yet despite this, Elaria Avari’s eyes were calm. “Do you intend to return?”

I gaped at her. I had never even thought of not doing so. Now I thought of how easy it would be to leave. Wasn’t that what I’d wanted from the moment I’d arrived in Sangratha?

I glanced across the sea, not at the city of Veilmar, but at the other island to my right where Bloodwing Academy sat in a blazeof dark crimson. I thought of my friends. Florence. Her mother, Jia. Professor Rodriguez. Vaughn. Hell, I even thought of the fluffin, Neville. If I stayed, I’d be able to see them tomorrow. What would the highbloods do to them do if I didn’t return?

I drew in a shaky breath. “Yes. I’ll come back. Soon.”

I turned towards Nyxaris. I’d thought the tribunal would be the hard part. But now that I looked up at the massive black dragon, I feared I’d been wrong.

Do not be afraid, wingless one. I will not drop you,Nyxaris teased.

I wanted to tell him I wasn’t afraid of flying or falling. But it would have been a lie. Besides, my mind was suddenly too muddled to say anything at all.

Instead, I stepped closer and closer until I could reach out a trembling hand to touch his side. The dragon’s scales were smooth and radiated a soft heat.

I looked up at his enormous height.How am I supposed to...?

There was no saddle. No reins. Nothing to hold onto.

Climb.Nyxaris’s voice was imperious and impatient.You’ve come this far.

Right.

My fingers curled around a scale and I began my ascent. It was just like the day I’d climbed the black dragon in the Dragon Court. Except now Nyxaris was flesh and blood, not stone.

I wasn’t sure which was worse. His scales were certainly easier to grip now that he was alive. But the fact that hewasalive was, well, fucking terrifying.

At one point, I glanced down and immediately regretted it. The world below seemed impossibly far away. It didn’t help that we were on a bridge with the sea churning far below us.

I swallowed hard and kept climbing.

Finally, I reached the ridge of his shoulders. I pulled myself up to straddle the base of his neck, my hands clutching at one of the spines that protruded from his back, and looked down at the highbloods. They must have thought I was mad. I was completely exposed. No saddle, no straps.

I’m going to die, aren’t I?

You are not going to die,Nyxaris answered.You will not fall. I will not allow it. I will not permit you to humiliate me in such a ridiculous way.

I caught movement in the crowd. Blake had moved to the front. He stared up at me, his gray eyes wide with something like awe—or fear. Was he afraid for me? Or because of me?

Nearby, Kage stood watching, too. The look in his dark eyes was hard to decipher. Respect, maybe. Or amusement. I wasn’t sure which.

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