Page 89 of Feralheart

The elite had their Unity Bands and sacred bonds and centuries of control.

I had a dragon who’d given me pieces of herself and asked nothing in return except that I come.

The math hadn’t changed. Win or Tolross died. But for the first time since I’d signed the waiver, I had something the elite didn’t.

A reason to survive that had nothing to do with duty or desperation.

I closed my eyes and counted heartbeats while moonlight seeped through the window.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

ERADIN

The darkness whispered of death. When it got to be too much for me, I slipped from the bed, dressed quickly in a tunic and pants, and after applying more salve to my foot, I gently tugged on the boots they’d provided. They were, oddly enough, a perfect fit. I secured the talon-blade at my hip, and the scale went into my pocket where it settled warm against my thigh.

Lyndie stirred in her bed. “Is it time?”

“Soon.”

She sat up, shoving her long hair off her face. “We should go down to breakfast together. Solidarity and all that.”

“I’ll meet you there. I need to check something first.”

“Oh.” She blinked a few times and yawned. “I’ll see you later then.”

I left the room and strode through the halls. Servants moved through corridors and guards changed shifts. Nobles were likely still sleeping off the effects of their wine.

I didn’t have anything to check. I just wanted to be alone.

After pacing through the halls, getting lost at least three times, I found my way to the dining hall. The clink of cutlery and the scent of food called. Inside, I joined Reece, Kerrel, and Lyndie, already sitting at a table pushed against the wall. Servants brought out big bowls of porridge and dried fruit. Pots of tea. We served ourselves and ate quickly, not speaking about what might come next.

The thin man approached us as we were finishing.

“Get your paperwork completed first thing,” he said. “Then I suggest you spend the rest of the day continuing to connect with your dragons. Without them, you’re dead.”

With them, we’d be equally dead.

“Can we visit our families?” I asked, aching to see Tolross and Father one more time.

“Dragons,” he said. “Don’t wander too far from the fortress.”

He left.

When we’d finished, we found the same clerk sitting at a desk in his office, shuffling papers.

“One at a time,” he barked, sliding a form across the desk toward Reece, who’d taken the lead. “Fill this out.”

“I don’t…” Color rushed into Reece’s face as the rest of us backed out into the hall. “I can’t read.”

The clerk released a heavy sigh. “I’ll do it for all of you then. Can you at least sign your name?”

Reece’s spine stiffened. “I can do that.”

The clerk asked questions in a low voice, and Reece answered.

Kerrel went next, his hand shaking when he emerged from the room.

Lyndie approached the desk third, and the clerk barely glanced at her before filling out and stamping her form.