Page 141 of Feralheart

Servants strode through the elite camp, preparing for morning.

No one moved in Eradin’s camp. They lay on the ground, trying to rest before tomorrow tried to kill them.

I felt Aristus’s restlessness, his draw toward Selira with an intensity that matched my own fixation on Eradin. Dragons didn’t bond the way humans did. Their connections were territorial and based on strength. But Aristus’s attention on the other dragon felt like something new.

“Are you going to stand there all night or are you going to come closer?” Eradin asked, squinting my way.

My smile rose, and I walked toward her.

She pushed herself up on one elbow, watching me approach.

Selira lifted her head. Aristus made a low sound, and she returned it.

I stopped a few feet away. “I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“You didn’t.” She pointed at the ground. “Sit. You’re making Selira nervous.”

“What about you? Am I making you nervous too?”

“Not yet.”

Her eyes held mine. She was choosing this. Inviting me into her space.

I sat, leaving a careful distance between us.

“You could sit closer,” she said. “Do you think I’ll bite?”

The corner of my mouth twitched. “Do you?”

“Sometimes.” Her lips curved. “But I’ll warn you first.”

I shifted near enough to feel the warmth radiating from Selira’s scales and to catch that scent of herbs and wild places that lived in Eradin’s hair.

She reached up and pulled at the tie, shaking her hair loose. The movement was practical, preparing to sleep, but my throat closed off watching it fall around her shoulders.

“You’re staring again,” she said, not looking at me.

“I am.”

“It’s rude.”

“I’m sure it is.”

She turned, meeting my eyes. “If you have something to say, say it. I’m too tired for games.”

The directness of her statement knocked something loose in my chest. Eradin wasn’t used to coy deflection. Just the truth, laid out between us like a challenge.

“I don’t know what to say.” The admission cost me, but it was honest. “Everything I was taught to say in moments like this feels wrong with you.”

“Moments like what?”

“When I’m sitting too close to someone I shouldn’t.”

The light in her eyes slipped away. “Because I’m commons.”

“It’s not that at all,” I hurried to say. “I mean when I’m sitting too close to someone I shouldn’t ache to touch.”

Her breath caught. “That…is a completely different meaning.” She studied the ground between us. “I’m sorry I took it the wrong way.”