Page 66 of Dragon Fight

“About that…” My throat tightened, but I pushed on, not willing to let this fester. “About last night…” They stepped closer, each one of them taking in my downcast expression. “I didn’t mean… It just…” I sighed and then forced myself to look up, ready to meet their censorious looks.

“You found yourself stepping closer, right when you knew you should be stepping back,” Brom said. “Your lips met his and you found yourself craving that taste, even if you’d had no idea what it even was a moment earlier. And he pulled you closer, seeming to know exactly what kind of spell he cast over you. And right as your head spun, he provided a kind of clarity you didn’t know you needed.”

When my husband reached out to stroke my cheek, I leaned into it, both for the comfort of his touch and the certainty in his words.

“This was always gonna happen, Pippin,” Ged said. “I’m just surprised it took till now. The sexual tension between the two of you?”

“Could cut it with a knife,” Soren finished, with a smirk.

“It wasn’t wise.” Flynn looked pale, and his blue eyes glittered, in a way that reminded me so much of another man. I stared at him, feeling sick that he might not be able to move past this. Then he raised an eyebrow and laughed wryly, shaking his head to defuse tension. “But then, I guess fucking the Duke of Skane’s third son isn’t wise either.”

“Is that what we’re doing?” I asked him, hesitantly. “Fucking?”

“It’s more than that.” He walked up to me and pulled me close, plastering me against his body. “You know that. That’s why I’m so bloody worried. But no one else, Pippin. Promise me that. If you start making moony eyes at one of the other riders or, worse, one of the cadets, so help me....”

“I’d have them running laps until they collapsed, if they made eyes at Pippin,” Soren growled. All of them clustered in close and I took in a deep breath. I’d not been able to relax until I’d cleared the air, nor till I’d been able to feel the reassurance of their physical touch.

“You’re ours,” Brom promised, “and you’re Draven’s too. And now that it’s finally been acknowledged, we need to do what we must to ensure the six of us can spend the rest of our lives together, showing each other just how we feel.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Ged croaked out.

“Not saying much,” Soren shot back. “You’d drink to bloody anything.”

42

“What the hell is going on?” I shouted over my shoulder to Brom as we started to make a steady descent down to the roof of the keep in Wyrmpeak. Glimmer hovered in the air above Obsidian’s neck, showing that her wings were growing stronger. But the airspace above the keep was what had caught my attention. It was swarming with dragons, both taking off and descending. Each time they landed, many passengers jumped off and scurried out of the way to make room for more dragons to land. My question was torn from my lips by the whipping wind that was instrumental in keeping us in the air, so my husband leaned in closer to respond, his beard prickling against my ear.

“The Gathering,” came his answer.

As the daughter of a minor nobleman, I was entitled to attend, but few of those who owned the estates around us in Deepacre ever did. The Gathering was city business, the only battlefield left to the dukes of the four duchies.

Nobles, well-to-do people, even some common people who had been tapped on the shoulder by the corps would be presented to the newly hatched eggs over and over and the Gathering was the first time it would happen.

Zafira’s eggs have been laid, Glimmer said, though gods knew where she got that knowledge from.And these people come…

To try and impress themselves upon those eggs.

I’d been brought up to believe this was a joyous occasion, the possibility of it entrancing me as a child. I’d begged my parents to take me to the capital, to allow us to watch the chosen members of each duchy who would be put forward to bond with the dragons in the shell. As a little girl, I’d seen it as a benign thing. We knew that dragons communicated psychically with humans, and that this was the beginning of the process. Right up until the hatching, people would surround the eggs, try to connect their minds with the dragons in the shell and ensure they were the one chosen. But now… My grip on Obsidian’s pommel tightened, and he glanced back at me as if sensing my tension.

To enslave them, Glimmer replied in a terse tone.To ensure these dragons are compliant.

And that the next queen to be hatched is willing to support the throne, as she was born to, that reality went unsaid. My body was tense as we swooped lower, and my muscles were aching and stiff by the time we finally landed on the keep roof.

“Brom!”My husband stiffened at the shout. We were in the middle of unsaddling Obsidian and when I turned, I saw the general approaching. “Thank the gods you’re here.”

“Of course, sir, but why—?” Brom started to reply.

“Tell me you’re back on deck,” the general demanded. He noticed me belatedly, and smiled slightly, but the warmth didn’t extend to his eyes. “I know you’re still on honeymoon, but with the Gathering and the missing boys—”

“Missing boys?” Brom asked, warily. We couldn’t confess to knowledge of that.

“Keep’s in a bloody uproar,” the general said. “You went home to see your parents?” Brom nodded. “Any word come through there?”

“Ah, no, sir. I’m completely in the dark.”

“Well thank heavens for small mercies,” the general said, casting his eyes suspiciously around him. “Looks like the news has been confined to just the city then.” He starred Brom in the eyes. “Some of the cadets have gone missing.”

“Missing? But how…? With their dragons?”

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