Page 216 of Feralheart

I nodded, not trusting my voice.

He came to stand directly behind me, a fire at my back. His arm stretched past mine to reach Selira’s jaw, his tunic sleeve grazing my shoulder.

“Here?” His voice whispered across my ear.

“Closer to the—yes. There.”

His fingers found the spot, his touch careful.

Selira rumbled her approval.

“She trusts you,” I said quietly.

“She trusts you.” His chest pressed against my back as he leaned in, following the curve of Selira’s jaw. “I’m just borrowing it.”

Reece joined us, his dragon and Aristus following. The space around Selira grew crowded with four dragons and four riders packed together.

Reece’s throat worked. He pressed his fingers against his wrist where the scarf had been. “There’s something I should tell you.”

The way he said it made the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“I worked maintenance at the aerie before I took a job in the mines,” he said quietly. “I didn’t go near the dragons much, but sometimes I’d be fixing something near ones slated for retirement.”

He paused, his jaw working.

“They weren’t old. That’s what struck me first. Dragons that should’ve had decades left if they lived in the wild were being shuffled off to pens. Always dying younger than they should. I heard two of the queen’s council talking once when they thought no one was listening. They said the collars made the dragons weak.”

My gaze swept across the meadow. Three elite riders near the fire pit. Two servants moved between tents. No one was near, but someone could still hear this. Anyone could have already heard.

I leaned closer to him, speaking softly. “How long ago was this?”

“Fifteen years. Maybe more.”

This wasn’t an accident or unforeseen consequence.

They’d known.

“Who else heard this?” Fen’s voice came out too controlled, but I could tell by the twitch in his jaw he was about to explode.

“Just me, I think.” Reece rubbed his face. “I was up in the rafters, fixing a pulley. Working alone. They didn’t know I was there.”

“Did they say why they keep using the collars if they knew they weakened the dragons?” Lyndie growled.

Reece met her eyes. “One of them said removing the collars would destabilize the kingdom. That commons might get ideas if they knew dragons could bond with anyone.”

My stomach dropped through the ground.

“Control,” I said, the word tasting like bile. “They’d rather kill every dragon than risk losing control.”

A high lady passed close by.

My hand remained on Selira’s neck. Reece’s mouth closed on whatever he might’ve said next. Lyndie found something fascinating to study in the grass. Fen went perfectly still behind me, his hands on the hilt of his blade.

The rider kept walking.

We stayed frozen until her footsteps faded and breathing felt like something we were allowed to do again.

“She heard nothing,” Lyndie whispered.