Page 45 of Forgotten Arcane

“He’s right, look at the reapers and everything that’s going wrong with them,” Griff points out. “Most of them don’t even know that the Reaper Council is the actual one that’s supposed to be in charge.”

“Yeah, you’re right, and the dragons are notoriously secretive anyway, almost like the reapers, but they aren’t dicks about it, and they don’t try to incite fear into the rest of the supernatural population,” I reply with a frown.

The way that the reapers run things is a real problem, and one that I am increasingly finding myself wanting to fix, which is an impossible thought. Something needs to be done about it. The reapers are going to end up hunted again soon, if not by other supes who now unnecessarily fear them, but by humans. If the humans start to hunt the reapers, then we have an even bigger problem on our hands.

I’m actually surprised that the Council hasn’t called on me yet, and I’m hoping that I’ve slipped further down the list because of the way that I behaved in the Choosing, and because I didn’t show any of my true strength. We’ve got so much to deal with at the moment that getting called to stand in front of the Reaper Council would just really fucking piss me off.

We all land next to the others and watch Coen and Neith.

It’s clear that they’ve flown like this before, and we’re all smiling as we watch them. At one point, they seem to slow down for a bit, but they soon pick it back up, and my heart jumps into my throat a couple of times when she leaves his back falling and spinning through the air before he catches her again.

“It’s pretty fucking spectacular to watch, isn’t it?” River says, a huge smile on his face.

“It really is,” Doc agrees. “They’ve obviously had a lot of time to practice.”

“It fascinates me how we’re all connected, and all know different parts of each other from different points in our lives,” Ransom says quietly with a soft smile.

“It’s pretty fucking amazing, isn’t it?” Van replies, and we all nod in agreement.

I am one hundred percent certain that we were all meant to find each other, and that we were all meant to be in each other’s lives. I also know that we all met when we were supposed to, although I do wish that I had met Neith sooner.

With an ease that shouldn’t be possible, we watch as Neith launches herself off Coen’s back, and my eyes widen as they both dive toward the ground. Coen shifts back to his human form, pulling Neith into his arms and landing just in time, both of them with huge and stunningly beautiful smiles on their faces, while the rest of us all try to calm our heartbeats.

“Fucking hell, that was terrifying,” Reed mutters, his eyes still wide.

Neith chuckles as she kisses Coen before she hops out of his arms, and misses the look of absolute adoration on his face. He catches me looking at him and smirks as he shrugs, making my smile widen.

“We’ve done that loads of times before,” Neith replies flippantly, her eyes sparkling.

I knew that she loved taking risks and doing dangerous things, but I think we may have all underestimated just how much she loves it.

“That much was obvious,” River grins, bouncing on his toes, and then pulls her into his arms, taking a deep breath.

I share a look with Reed and smile. I think it’s interesting and very telling how, as soon as River has Neith in his arms, he always calms down. No fidgeting or anything, it’s like his whole body relaxes.

It’s pretty fucking amazing to watch the effect she has on him, especially when he’s gone alpha. I’m not sure if she’s aware of it, but she is the onlyperson who can get through to him in that situation and calm him down. No one else could do it.

Not even us.

It’s so obvious that she’s his mate. At least it is to everyone but him. I’ll get him the proof that I know he’s going to need though.

“I can hear Coen’s thoughts,” Neith suddenly blurts out.

“Still?” Coen asks.

Neith shakes her head, “Sorry, I should probably have explained that a bit better rather than just blurting it out.” She looks at Coen, “No, I can’t hear your thoughts now, but I was telling the others that I can hear you when you’re in dragon form and I’m on you.”

“Is that normal?” Van asks.

Coen shakes his head, “We haven’t ever been able to hear each other’s thoughts before, and I’m not really sure if it’s normal or not, but I can’t ask Draith for obvious reasons right now.”

“Huh,” I reply. “I’ve never heard of it, but that doesn’t really mean much. Dragons don’t tend to share a lot of information.”

Coen grins, “Not even with younger dragons. It’s all done on a need-to-know basis, and the older you get, the more access to information you get. I’ve probably missed out on a lot of information since I was stopped from going back to the Keep.”

“That’s an interesting way of doing things,” I reply, intrigued.

Coen grins, “It stops the younger dragons accidentally sharing things that they shouldn’t.”

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