Page 206 of Feralheart

Fear skated across my skin.

The scale at my throat burned hot like it had when she’d led me to her cave and showed me the hunger in the mountain.

The visions collapsed all at once, and we were spit back out, emerging into brisk, thin air. A meadow spread out below us, lush with grass and trees.

But the goosebumps ripping down my spine told me the thing had followed us out.

Selira landed but didn’t fold her wings. She kept them half-spread, ready, her gaze fixed on something none of us could see.

Fen slid off Aristus and ran toward me. He reached me before I could dismount, his hands finding my waist as I slid down. He held me as my feet found solid ground.

“You’re alright.” His hands moved from my waist to my face, tilting it up. His eyes scanned me like he needed to make sure every part of me was still intact. “You’re alright.”

It wasn’t a question. He was trying to convince himself.

“I’m fine,” I said, but my voice shook.

His hands weren’t steady either.

His fingertips brushed across my cheekbone, and the gentleness of it after everything we’d survived made my eyes burn.

“You refused him,” he said quietly. “I felt it when you turned away. What it cost you.”

My throat tightened until it hurt.

“You did it too.”

“Not like you.” His voice cracked. “Your brother. Eradin, you⁠—”

I pressed my fingers to his mouth before he could finish. Because if he said out loud what I’d given up, I’d shatter right here in front of everyone.

My legs had stopped taking orders. His arms banded around me, and I made a decision I’d spent my whole life not making: I stopped holding myself up and let someone else do it for me.

I leaned into him and felt his heartbeat against my cheek.

Other than the four of us, only eight dragons remained, their elite riders scattered across the meadow. Some sobbed. Some yanked at their hair and whimpered. Reece crouched, fingering the grass, a frown on his face. Lyndie stood beside her dragon, her hands twitching at her sides.

Lady Severine’s face said traitor loud enough I didn’t need to hear her shout the word. The calculation underneath stayed with me. She’d stopped being angry. That was worse.

“I saw him,” Fen said, his voice breaking on the words. “My father. He was alive. He said my name, and I had to turn away.”

I wrapped my arms tighter around him. “You chose right.”

He understood the cost. He’d paid the same price I had.

Our four-person team remained apart from the others, moving to set up camp together.

We were a unit now, visible to everyone.

But we weren’t just competing anymore. We’d become prey.

Something inside the race was hunting.

And Selira still hadn’t folded her wings.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

ERADIN