Page 100 of The Storm of the Empire

“So we could go flying in a storm?”

“Yes. When I say now, give me all you’ve got,”she instructed me, undeterred. Then she drew up magic from all around us.

It gathered and buzzed in my ears, making the hair on the back of my neck stand. Electricity vibrated over my tongue until we were almost one with it.

The sky was full of it, and she had it all in her command.

Goddess alive.

“Now!”she cried into my mind, and I forced out all the power from inside me, untrained and unchecked through the invisible strings that bound us, straight to where she connected to my soul.

Thunder rattled the air around us and the sky darkened.

We darted through the gathering clouds and dodged forks of lightning, weaving through the tempest like she was made to do.

“Fuck my life,”I muttered to myself, holding on for all I had.

“I swear to the Goddess, if this is turning you on, I will have to get you seen by the mind healers.”

“I can’t help it,”I groaned, trying to adjust myself in my torturous leathers but unable because if I released my hold on her, I’d fall straight into the ocean.

“Just hold on and don’t die,”she ordered and banked sharply over the coast.

I looked back into the tumultuous skies we were leaving behind and was sure Octavian had not given chase.

“Where are we going?”

“As far as we can get away from here,”she said, dodging another bolt of lightning.

She twisted and rolled through the sky, more like it was a dance than flight. She followed the air currents better than breathing. It was truly a sight to behold. I held my seat like it was second nature. Something had synched within us, and I didn’t need to think too hard to be one with her up here.

“You’ll never make it in a straight flight,”I cautioned.“You haven’t had enough rest.”

“I’ll have to make a stop,”she agreed,“but not at Damona Island. They might look for us there.”

I thought for a minute.“Hug the coast. It’s a longer flight around the edges of the Sixth, but they will expect you to go out over the Middle Sea. If they search, they will look for us there. We can break up the flight and lose ourselves easily in the coastal mountain towns where they would never think to look.”

In wordless agreement, she banked again, setting a course for the border to the Mountain Kingdom, and before long, we were flying through clearer skies.

We flew for hours, and my head reeled. All the changes that had just been thrust upon us were going to take more than hours to get used to.

I had magic.

At least some to give her.

I had a dragon!

“You meanIhave a ryder,”she laughed, having heard the thought.

Well, okay, I was a ryder, I didn’t actually think anyone could just likehavea dragon.

But we were bonded—that much I understood. She would have to explain the rest to me in very clear detail. This was not a course change I was expecting.

I guessed I could join all the classes I wanted now. I had a real reason to be there. But my drifting days were over.

I’d thought it would be the worst thing to have to give up the constant motion my life had been in, always seeking more while not counting on anyone but myself. But everything was different now. I would have to be based in the capital, and even if I was called away, wherever I was going to be from now on, it would be with her. And I wasn’t sure how to wrap my head around it all yet, I just knew everything had changed and I was not unhappy about it.

I surveyed the land rolling away beneath us and caught sight of a town in the distance.

---