Page 77 of Wings of Cruelty and Flame

“Wyverns have been sighted,” he yelled, something tight and frantic in his voice. I realised all at once his hair was pulled into a bun, his body dark with leather and weapons. “Just beyond the wall.”

“Are they ours?”

He shook his head, his expression panicked even from this distance. “We’re riding out to intercept them.” Movement drew my eye. The rest of the legion ran from the house to the wyvern barn and my stomach tightened. “Stay here, guard the Diamond.”

I straightened on Raheema’s back, finishing strapping myself in with rough tugs of the leather. “I’m coming with you, Varidian.”

“I can’t—”

“I’m not letting my husband ride off to face enemies alone.”

“Ameirah!”he shouted, so loudly that his voice echoed, stunning me into silence. “I can’t handle the thought of you riding into danger again, let alone delivering you to it. I need you to stay here so I can function.Please.”

The rawness of his tone made my stomach sink, and I sighed, dragging a hand through my hair.

“I can’t lose you,” he said, just loud enough for his voice to reach me. What I heard wasI can’t lose anyone elseand my chest compacted into a tight knot. It had only been days since he lost Fahad.

It made me want to scream, but I forced my head into a nod. “I’ll stay. I’ll guard the house.”

But I’d learned something about myself since leaving Strava. I couldn’t run from danger, no matter how afraid I was, no matter how traumatising those events would be. I was the idiot who ran into a fire to save someone instead of fleeing a fatal blaze.

“But if you get hurt,” I shouted down before he could speak, “I will kill you, Varidian Saber.”

His eyes curved shut, a smile tugging at his cheeks. “I’ll never tire of you saying my name.”

No, you just tire of my touch.

I didn’t voice that thought.

“Come back, or I mean it, I’ll hunt you down and murder you.”

He groaned. “I love it when you talk sexy.”

“I’m threatening to kill you,” I said, with exasperation that was almost drowned out by fondness. Just when I was angry at him, he said things like this and made me want to smile.

I jumped when Mak’s heavy wingbeats cut through whatever Varidian was going to say, the huge ivory wyvern landing on the lawn beside us. Raheema grumbled at him landing so close to her but the look he shot her was no-nonsense and full of warning. Raheema, sensing the seriousness of the situation, drew herself up higher and stopped grumbling.

Varidian tore his stare from me and raced up onto Mak’s back so fast he was mounted in a blink. Envy burned in my chest. One day, I promised myself, I’d be as fast as that.

“I mean it,” Varidian called across the distance, his face cut in stern lines, his hair pulled into a severe knot. My heart stuttered. Why did he have to look so good right now? “Stay put.”

“I will,” I promised. Lied.

“I love you,” he said, and he and Mak shot into the sky, leaving me stunned.

He loved me?

And he’d just flown off to face enemy wyverns, creatures no legion had been trained to fight because all the wyverns were on our side.

Despite how much I wanted to put salt in his tea and cut holes in all his clothes, with every smirk and comment and kiss, I was falling for him, too.

Fuck.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

VARIDIAN

My stomach knotted when lightning rippled through dark clouds in the distance, an errant bolt striking the sharp grey peak.

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