Page 49 of Dragon Fight

“I should’ve known what I was getting myself into. Instead, youall—”

“Presented you with a much prettier version of reality as we courted you?” Flynn’s voice was just as sharp, his face pale except for two bright red spots in his cheeks. “That’s what men do, Pippin. We know we’re all hopeless wretches, not worth a moment of your time, but we try and put our best foot forward to convince a woman otherwise.”

He took a step forward, watching me closely when I didn’t back away from him.

“Zafira’s heat forced things to move at an unnatural pace. As did the queen and her convoluted plots.” His eyes burned as he stared into mine, as if pleading for my understanding. “We would have taken our time with you, Pippin. Done more than just grunt that we wanted you and gorged ourselves on all of the sweetness of your body.”

“I did some of my own gorging,” I muttered, unable not to acknowledge the truth, and that made his smile return, just for a second.

“Rich boy always did have the gift of the gab,” Ged said, coming to stand beside Flynn. “Used to talking himself out of shit when he took the blame for our pranks, but yeah…” He shook his head slowly. “You’re gonna discover shit about each one of us that you like and dislike, because that’s where we are in this relationship. We’re still getting to know each other.”

They were being oh-so-reasonable and part of me hated that, so I clung to the anger, the fear inside me, because really that’s what was at the base of all my emotions. I was terrified of the way I felt when Brom walked back into the room, and the atmosphere seemed to thicken so much it was hard to breathe. I felt it as a physical pressure, the need to let go, to not hold the hurt so close, and I wanted to. Gods, how I wanted to. Then, a voice across the room had my gaze swinging around to Soren, who had said very little.

“C’mon, lad.”

Just a quick aside to Wraith, that was the only warning anyone got as the dragon came awake, stepping out of his nest and towards us. Soren settled in his saddle while still in the room, much to my surprise, although I didn’t have long to contemplate that skill. The other men all scattered as the dragon charged towards the window opening beside me, and then my drill sergeant, my man, reached down and hauled me up and onto his dragon’s back.

I realised that what I’d needed was to feel surrounded by strength and protection, and I got that with the feeling of Soren’s strong arms around me, his utter competence, as he urged Wraith out the windows. He kept me anchored to the dragon’s back as Wraith paused on the balcony and bunched his haunches, ready to throw himself into the sky.

But there was one thing missing.

Wraith’s head turned at the sound of a small chirrup, letting us know that Glimmer had joined us, her claws digging in hard as she clambered across our legs and then took her place on Wraith’s neck. The big male huffed before opening his wings and leaping into the sky.

“Soren, we weren’t supposed to leave the room!” I protested belatedly. Cynane’s instructions were coming back to me now my head was starting to clear.

“Cynane isn’tmyqueen, lass,” he told me, his lips resting against my ear. “And she isn’t Wraith’s. You and Glimmer rule our hearts, and yours is hurting right now, so bugger the rules I say.”

The drill sergeant going rogue for me? Something hot, hard and selfish flared in my chest, but along with it came a sense of reprieve, of my heart’s burden becoming lighter. I’d needed to escape, just for a minute, and Soren had known. My muscles relaxed inch by inch, as my body sank into his and he rested his chin on my shoulder, pressing a kiss into my neck as he felt tension leave my body.

“I’ve got you, lass, don’t you worry. I’ve got you.”

32

“You know I didn’t need rescuing.”

The peace I’d found in Soren’s arms as we’d flown, when I’d been able to block out my feelings, had been replaced by another wave of hurt and frustration when we landed and reality set in again. I couldn’t seem to keep the bitter words back as I slid out of Wraith’s saddle and onto the ground, stalking off for a few paces before turning around. Draven had spoken of a mountaintop meadow and Soren seemed to have taken inspiration from that, finding us an open plain of grass on a flat plateau, dotted prettily with wildflowers. But it wasn’t the vegetation that had my attention, it was the dragonrider.

“Of course you didn’t,” Soren replied, dismounting and then leaning back against Wraith. “If Glimmer was grown, you’d have been able to get away yourself.” He waved a hand at himself and his dragon. “We were just a means to an end.” I stared at him warily as he stood there, not moving an inch, not yet. “If you were one of the lads, I’d have you running laps, or practising your sparring.”

“Why?” My head jerked back at that suggestion.

“Because we were trying to rush things, again. You’re not ready to listen, to talk things through. You’ve probably heard quite enough for today.”

“So what do I need instead?” I asked, a hard edge to my voice. His answer was important somehow and he knew it. “More conditioning?”

“Everyone needs more conditioning,” Soren said, some of the drill sergeant coming back into his voice. “But that’s not why I’d have you running laps.”

I looked around me at the plateau, half expecting the walls of the training room to assert themselves.

“Why then?” I asked.

“Because you’re angry and scared and you don’t like either emotion much, having felt them far too often for a woman of your age and standing.” He straightened up and took a step towards me, stopping when I tensed. “Because while you were forced to endure the abuse of your supposed ‘family’, you had no one to turn to, not one kind soul who’d dare stand up against those bitches.”

I huffed out a breath in caustic agreement at that word.

“And so you’ve learned to keep everything to yourself. Explosions are going off inside you right now, reactions to how you’ve been treated by Draven and the commander.” Any trace of a smile that lingered on his face was scrubbed away. “By us all. And right now I’m willing to bet you feel very, very alone. Right back where you were.”

I took a step backwards but it wasn’t because he was moving closer. It was because his words cut into me with all the precision of one of his sword strokes. Soren looked me over with an experienced eye, with the look of someone who’d seen this kind of thing before and knew a way through it. That certainty both reassured and affronted me. Because we all like to think our pain is special, different, the like of which has never been suffered before.

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