I don't miss a beat, approaching him and dragging my hand over his scales in comfort. He leans into my touch as I rest my forehead against the side of his face.
“You seem sad,”he states, and I sigh.
“Not sad, just resigned,” I admit, acutely aware that I'm able to show more vulnerability to a fire-breathing dragon than I am to my hated mates.
“Why?”he asks, and I shake my head, closing my eyes as I run my hands over his scales. I don’t know who is taking more comfort from it: me or him.
“It's fine.”
“Ivy,”he warns, and I exhale.
“I’m okay, Alaric, I promise. I've just been acutely aware that I feel like I've been missing something, and when I finally figure out what it is I’m missing, I'm denied the information when I ask,” I admit, hating that everything I've been dealing with inside comes down to such a simple statement, like it hasn't wreaked havoc on my body for years. The fact that it's solvable with such a simple piece of information destroys me even more.
“Tell me what you need, and I'll get it for you,”he insists, and I lean back, smiling up at him as I pry my eyes open.
“It's not worth any more friction, Alaric. Not for you.”
“If there is friction, it's not her fault.”
I rear back at the feminine voice in my mind. It catches me off guard, and I look past Alaric to find another familiar dragon, only this one is draped in orange scales.
“Lucky?”
“There's my favorite girl.”
“Hey, I can't believe you're here. It's so good to see you. You're right, it's definitely not my fault, but?—”
“She can hear me?” Lucky interjects, snapping her attention to Alaric, and I’m pretty sure I just saw him roll his eyes.
A dragon.
Rolling his eyes.
I shake my head in disbelief as Alaric scoffs.
“She is a phoenix,”he grumbles, and smoke comes out of Lucky's nose as she stands off with the dragon beside me.
“How long have you been talking to her without telling me?”she bites, and Alaric huffs in response.
“That's none of your business.”
“Yes, it is. She's my rider's sister.”
“And she's my rider's mate,”Alaric retorts.
“Don't say that like it trumps me, like your rider has known her as long as Hugo has.”
“Mates trump everything,”Alaric sasses, and Lucky slams her claw on the ground with a huff.
“Not when they reject them, they don’t.”
“What's going on? I don't fully understand right now. I can only hear Alaric,” Baron interrupts, pulling me from the back and forth spell between the dragons, and I stumble back. “What is she saying that I don't know?” he clarifies, and my eyebrows pinch.
“You can't hear her?”
He shakes his head. “I can only hear my dragon, the one I'm assigned to. It seems only phoenixes can communicate with whatever dragons they want.”
“I’m wondering whether that's a good thing or not right now,” I admit.
