Feeling like a thousand ants were crawling beneath my skin, I stepped into Fin’s room and removed his boots. I couldn’t do much else for him, he was just too big now. How dare Ang push him like this? At sixteen, Fin was just as tall as me, and broader. Ang had him exercising so much that that was no surprise. His work in the stables was hardly lightweight. At least he was getting paid for that. Which would come in handy when he went to college. But still…
I couldn’t settle back with the newssheets. They were over two weeks old already, so nothing that urgent to worry about.Slamming them down, I strode out of the room. I needed — something.
The route to the stables was clear, there were no lights from the Stable Master’s office or apartment. I could feel Dora was antsy as I approached. The air in the whole stable was. To reach her, I had to pass Lord Aurexian. He eyed me, shook his head. He clearly didn’t want me to do whatever I was here for.
Dora was already on her feet, turning circles in her nest. Her nose came straight to my hand, and we both knew we were ready to fly.
She came out, wings furled tight to her sides. Side by side, we walked to the more open launching area and, for once, I mounted there instead of the landing platform. Only once I was seated did she stretch out her wings and launch us into the frigid air.
We scaled altitude quickly, rising over the spitting spray of the freezing waters and into the cold air. Clouds covered the moon and stars. There was nothing but mist and sea. A blurred forever. It was almost as though for all Salvadora’s movement we were standing still and the world was moving around us. Going forward, ever going forward. Or going nowhere. Which was what I’d been doing since I got to Unkea.
Maybe it was time to do something about that.
Yes. Definitely.
I like it here.
I sighed.“Dora, you would. You’re an ice dragon from the polar regions. You live for the cold.”My teeth started chattering and as I shook my head, I noted the fine mist on my goggles was starting to freeze.“Let’s get back.”
Dora executed a perfect 180.I would miss Lord Aurexian if we left.
Of course she would. Whenever she was in heat, he covered her. My dragon was getting more sex than I was.
I’m not the only one who would miss someone here.
I pretended not to know what she meant.
Oh please,she scoffed.You might not be sharing your body with anyone, but you pleasure yourself when you can. And I know who you think of when you do.
“Sasha,” I declared. “I think of Sasha.”
Only I didn’t. That knowledge ate at the very core of me. It had been nearly two years since that disastrous conversation after Fin’s first formation flight. Gahunia had settled down with one of the other men, still friendly with Fin, but never over-friendly. Since that night, a barrier had risen between myself and Ang Shi. The friendly attachment that had started to form had become brittle. I avoided him. He avoided me. Flight Captain and Flight Sergeant. A military command structure. That was all there was.
You could change it if you wanted to.
I was going to.
As Dora flew on, the wind increased. The temperatures decreased. My breath flew in visible plumes before me. The collar of my flight jacket was already up, the fur lining tickling my neck, but the biting cold nibbled past. It was buttoned up as much as it could be, but my own temperature was dropping too. My fingers were almost white with cold.
Mentally urging Dora on, I knew she understood how the cold was bearable for her. I wasn’t sure she understood how it was getting life-threatening to me.
“Hurry, please.”I urged her, at long last seeing the danger in our actions.
We flew directly into the launching area by the stable. I slid from Dora’s seat bone and walked her back to her nest. She settled straight down and I leaned into her head. Bonding with a dragon was a deeply personal thing. It wasn’t like falling in love with a human partner, but it affected me just as deeply. I huggedher tight and scratched her above the brow ridge. The cold was leaving me. Itchiness came up in its place. I felt sick.
I left Dora and headed up.
Stopped dead when I saw Flight Captain Ang Shi standing in front of the stairs up to the fortress.
He stood in a wide-legged stance, his hands clasped behind his back. I moved closer, stood to attention, and saluted. As my arm returned to my side, I tried to ignore the tremors of cold that still shot through me. All without once meeting his eye.
“Do you not understand the flag system we run here, Flight Sergeant Segast?” By that point, I had come to recognise the reasonable tone was a deadly disguise for blazing anger.
“Yes, sir. I do,” I said. Because I did.
“What does an orange flag at the launching area mean, Flight Sergeant?”
That seemed like an odd question. “It means Riders are not to fly out individually and Wings should check the necessity to go, sir.”
