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“Not to mention, she is of the House of Dragons,” Layla spat. “She isn’t even part of a tribe.”
“And she’s too young!” Sinead cried.
Another figure approached, bold and furious across the arena. Kerrigan recognized Lorian right away. She straightened her spine. This should be fun.
“What is the meaning of this?” Lorian demanded. “What happened to the dragon’s rider?”
“I am Tieran’s dragon rider,” Kerrigan said boldly.
Lorian scoffed at her. “You? You’re nothing but a half-Fae wretch in the House of Dragons. You’re no more qualified to be a dragon rider than a human off the streets.”
Kerrigan gritted her teeth, but it was Tieran whose fury materialized. Kerrigan is my dragon rider. We are bound. You can no more separate us than you from your own dragon, Oria.
Lorian didn’t back down from Tieran’s anger though. He matched it. “How dare you threaten my dragon bond. I am a full member of the Society. You are still in training until the Society has recognized you as a dragon capable of a rider match. We will speak to your elders about this foolhardy nature.”
“Lorian, please,” Helly said, appearing swiftly across the sand-strewn arena. “Do not be too hasty.”
“Hasty, Hellina?” Lorian snarled. “After what you allowed to happen at the last tournament? This will not stand. There will be rioting in the streets.”
“Is that a promise, Lorian?” Bastian asked carefully.
Lorian glared back at him. “Not at all, Bastian. I am merely stating that a repeat of last tournament’s events will result in similar complications.”
“She was not a competitor!” Layla cried again. “She is not qualified.”
“I was not a competitor,” Kerrigan said, meeting all of their eyes. “But if you’d just let me explain.”
“Explain what?” Lorian asked. “I’m sure we’d all love to hear your rehearsed gambit for how you got a dragon, but we have no interest in it. We will hold a council meeting to decide your fate.”
“I, for one, would like to hear the girl’s story,” Sinead said calmly.
“As would I,” Helly said.
“Go ahead, Kerrigan,” Bastian said encouragingly. “We all need to know what exactly happened.”
“This is preposterous!” Lorian said.
Helly nodded at her, but Kerrigan could see the worry and fear in her expression. She wanted to tell Helly about the vision that had led her here, but now was certainly not the time.
“When all of this started, I met with Gelryn, and he tested me.”
A gasp went up by a few of the members present.
“He said he’d been waiting for me. Afterward, he said that I’d passed through. I didn’t think anything of it. I wasn’t actively competing.”
“Because you’re not a competitor,” Lorian grumbled.
Kerrigan’s cheeks heated. “Then, something called to me to join in the final task. I was spirited away to the Noirwood Forest, where Fordham and I barely managed to escape an ambush engineered by Darrid. When we got to the mouth of the cave, he was there again and prepared to kill us both. I held him off so that Fordham could enter, but Darrid ran me into the cave with a battle axe.”
“Gods,” Sinead breathed. “The competitors aren’t supposed to try to kill each other.
Helly’s face paled considerably. “No, they’re not.”
“From there, well, you all know what happened. I went through the final task and arrived in the room. It sealed itself behind me, and the Dragon Blessed confirmed that I was a competitor because the room accepted me. Then, Tieran chose me, and we were bound,” she said, rushing over the lie at the end.
“That’s incredibly dangerous, Kerrigan,” Helly said gently.
“Preposterous! The entire thing is outlandish. She was called to the tournament? She cheated. We cannot let this stand,” Lorian argued.
Suddenly, another round of cheers erupted from the crowd. Kerrigan turned with Tieran to see a bright purple dragon soaring in the skies.
Evien, Tieran said.
Kerrigan had always loved Evien because of how much she just adored flying. Not just because she could or had to, but because she wanted to. She’d had many a late-night encounter with Evien, who took her out into the night sky. She’d thought she’d never do that again.
Evien pulled up a little too quickly and landed a few yards away from them. But it was clear who her rider was as soon as her lithe form dropped on the sand—Audria.
The three adjudicators left Kerrigan with Lorian and Helly as they went to congratulate Audria on her success. But as soon as they were done, she rushed over to where Kerrigan stood and threw her arms around her.
“We did it, Kerrigan. We’re both in the Society.”
“Not quite,” she muttered, breaking from her embrace.
“What? What do you mean?”
She gestured to Lorian. “He doesn’t think I qualify. He wants to hold a council meeting about it.”
“No,” Audria gasped. She pushed Kerrigan behind her as if she could keep her safe from Lorian’s attacks. “I vouch for Kerrigan. The room picked her. It wanted her to be in the tournament, and she was tested.”
