I nodded.
“So what do you want to do?”
“We need to tell everyone to take the tunnel to the Dome,” I said, praying the metal across the pit would be cooled enough by the time they got there.
“Okay, Bluey is already warning the dragons that aren’t in MonClem. We’ll have them meet their riders there.”
“Bluey?”
“My dragon,” he said as he turned from the window to face me.
“Your dragon’s name is Bluey?” I asked.
“Yeah, cause Caeruluses are blue.”
“Wait, did you name her?”
“First, Bluey is a him, not a her. And secondly, yes.” His grin was wide, like a toddler getting praise for learning to walk. “Every rider gifts a name to their dragon at the start of their Vinculum. But never mind that, what the hell are you wearing?”
“Oh.” My cheeks heated as I looked down at myself. “I didn’t have anything else to wear.”
“So you showed up to challenge the literal devil to a death fight wearing fucking lingerie?”
I immediately crossed my arms over my chest, overtly aware that my breasts were exposed through the sheer material, as his eyes raked down my body from head to toe.
“Do you even have a weapon on you?” Jaxs arched a brow.
I blanched, forcing myself to shake my head.
“Fucking Moons, we’re going to lose,” Jaxs cursed as he turned his back to me and started shifting through some clothes.
He threw pants and a shirt at me, which I was thankful I caught.
“Your clothes aren’t going to fit.”
“They aren’t my clothes,” he called over his shoulder. “Courtesy àla one night stands, and even if they were my clothes, they’d be better than you wearingthat.”
He turned around. “Get dressed, and meet me outside in five minutes. I’ll start warning the drakins.”
“Jaxs—” He paused, his hand hovering over the handle as he turned to look at me. “Tell everyone not to run. If you can, do everything as calmly as possible.” I was terrified if the slightest thing felt off, Dahes would reenter my mind and know what we were doing.
He nodded before he bolted out the door.
I dressed quickly, surprised that the clothes fit me like a glove.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
I did two cycles of breaths before I stepped outside.
Jaxs sprinted toward me a minute later. “Okay, done,” he whisper-yelled as we started walking away from his cabin. “Everyone is leaving through the tunnel as we speak.”
“Good,” I nodded, trying to steady my breathing. He led me toward the metal workshop as an eeriness seemed to settle over us at the same time.
It was completely deserted, with the Vivenian-made weapons littering the tables, some fallen to the ground, others thrown on top of each other like they were picked and scavenged.
“Take whatever you need,” Jaxs said. “I have no idea what kind of weapons you can use.”
“Thanks,” I started circling the tables, picking up and testing different daggers. “You should leave through the tunnel, too,” I told him.
