Page 23 of House of Embers
“Gods above, this is what we’re supposed to feel.”
And he was right.
“Could others do this? It would change the entire bargain.”
“I’m not sure anyone else is powerful enough,” Kerrigan admitted as she flexed the line between them, held in place with her intention and magic. “But we should teach crux bonds to the unbonded. I should probably teach it to Wynter, actually,” Kerrigan said, her gaze shifting outward as they came back around to their meeting point.
But as she tried to find Netta and Wynter in the distance, something else caught her attention. Her eyes widened in alarm.
“Tieran!” she gasped. “Dragon!”
Chapter Nine
The Chase
Tieran dove.
Kerrigan held on for dear life. She was glad for all those months in training inside the tournament arena, all the times she’d done this exact thing. Her blood was hot, her senses on alert, her body ready for the next move.
She still had nightmares about the time she and Tieran had flown into battle together, the deaths that were on her hands. But it didn’t stop the fact that she was good at it. She was an instrument of war, and she would utilize her talents to their best ability.
“Netta is coming from the other direction,”Tieran let her know.
Anything she wanted to say would be lost to the wind. But with the new connection, she could practically feel Tieran’s adrenaline pumping through him. And she wondered.
Kerrigan pushed her thoughts toward Tieran, down the new link between them.
“Good. Tell her to come in high.”
Tieran’s surprise was a flicker of his wings.“You spoke into my mind.”
“It’s disconcerting, isn’t it?”
“You didn’t tell me you could do that.”
“We just figured it out together. Now keep your head in the game.”
Tieran’s rumbling laugh rippled through her, and then they were both back in the upcoming fight. She wasn’t sure if they were out on a leisure flight or if they were a scout for the Society, but either way, she couldn’t let them get away.
The other dragon rider had been moving in a hovering position when they saw Tieran hurtling toward them. They reacted instantly, pivoting on a coin and launching into a dive roll away from Tieran.
And while Tieran was smaller, he was unreasonably fast and always had been. Kerrigan had tears streaming from her eyes as he picked up speed, swinging in tight on the tail of the larger beast.
Kerrigan didn’t recognize the dragon, who had brownish-yellow scales and a bulky build. His rider was an indistinct male Fae with honey-blond hair streaming out long behind him. He was dressed in a red tunic and brown pants with a dark emerald cloak wrapped around his shoulders. Not even riding leathers. Maybe hewasjust out for a leisurely ride. Too bad for him.
If he had a dragon, that meant he was part of the Society. That made him her enemy.
The rider had a head start that kept him several lengths in front of Tieran. And while he was catching up on the bulkier dragon, she didn’t want him wiped out before they got there. Kerrigan also wasn’t as familiar with this mountain range as she was the one back home. If this rider was from any of the surrounding houses—the war house, Herasi, to the west; the forest house, Sayair, to the north; or the outskirts of Kerrigan’s own Bryonica to the east—then they would be in for a race.
“Here we go,” she whispered into the wind as Tieran approached.
Just as he got within distance, the other dragon veered sharply left. Tieran took the turn sharply but not quite as well as the other dragon. They rounded the next corner, and the other rider dropped low on his beast as they fell into a deep dive.
Kerrigan held on tight and mirrored his position as they movedinto a rocky outcropping. Her heart thudded in her chest as they gave chase, threading through the tall rocks at record speeds.
And this rider, while not as well or as recently trained as Kerrigan, did have the advantage of the surroundings. These were clearly familiar to him. As they moved through the rocks, taking pin-tight turns, she felt their lead slipping. They couldn’t let him get away. That was her only thought as she was taken on his wild-goose chase through the mountains.
But the farther they got away from Ravinia Mountain and the safety of the House of Shadows, the more she wondered if this was planned. Were they luring her away on purpose? Was this scout more advanced than she was giving him credit for? She didn’t know. Only that if she let him get away, the Society would immediately know their current location. And with only two dragons, they could do considerable damage to the mountain before Kerrigan was able to rally support for her cause—before most of Alandria even knew she was still alive.
