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I ground my teeth and pressed my eyes closed. “How can you feel nothing?”

“I don’t know,” Zaria snapped.“Maybe there is nothing to feel!”

I turned on Rakan, ignoring her. “What do you feel when you try to draw on her powers?”

“Nothing.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you sure this is your ryder?” he asked again and eyed me like I was lying.

“Do you think I’d drag some unwilling girl who doesn’t even like me into training if she wasn’t really my ryder? To what end?”

Rakan narrowed his eyes. “I’ve never seen anything like it then. What kingdom did you say you found her in?”

“Desert, on the border of volcano.”

“But you met her once before?” His snake-like eyes moved in ways a fae’s shouldn’t. It was unnerving.

“Yes. She was here in the First, just outside the capital. That’s where she’s from… or so I thought as a child.” What else made sense?

“Do you think she could have dampening powers?”he mused. I hated the way he looked at her like he judged her. Like her lack of power was somehow her fault. It made me want to snap at him, even though I knew I was doing the same thing, blaming Zaria for things that were not in her control. I hated myself for it.

Rakan just had a way about him I wanted to protect Zaria from. Volcano flyers and ryders were odd, but I guess growing up in a place where every day could bring disaster made a fae different. He was jaded, but I could never nail down why.

He hadn’t had a ryder in many years, which took him out of the flying forces. Not every flyer who lost their ryder could handle life after, but Rakan made it work. His reputation was that of a good teacher.

But that didn’t mean I liked dealing with him, even if I couldn’t deny he had the best chance of bringing out Zaria’s powers.

I lifted my hands palms up. “I don’t know her lineage. I couldn’t tell you unless we learn more about her blood, and either she doesn’t know or won’t tell us.”

“Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Zaria demanded, not for the first time.

“Stop acting like this is so inconvenient to you, and maybe we will,” I barked, losing the last of my patience. She didn’t deserve it, but I was frustrated and lashing out.

“If I could bring out some powers, I would!”

I wasn’t sure I believed her. Either my face expressed the thought, or I was so spent I was broadcasting to her like a youngling with no control. Or, like her, a complete novice. Goddess forbid.

“Don’t you think if I could do it I would just to get you off my back?”

Rakan ignored our back and forth, continuing with his own musing. “Without knowing for certain where she’s from, it’s hard to even know where to start, especially since I can’t draw her powers out with siphoning.” He crossed his arms over his chest, moving to look at the map of the Twelve Kingdoms that took up an entire wall in the training room. “She is a risk for dampening if she’s from the First Kingdom.”

“Can one of you please explain these things to me? What is dampening?” Zaria asked.

Rakan shook his head. “I have never…” he muttered, trailing off under his breath. If this was like the last few times he began muttering to himself, he’d just go on in disbelief at how Zaria knew absolutely nothing of this world and had no discernible power, and yet if she was supposedly the ryder to the great and powerful (his words, not mine) Dragon of the Night, she should be showing signs of it.

We ignored him.

“Remind me to get you some books on the basics.” I sighed. “So, if siphoning can draw power from others and channel it or store it, those with a dampening power can suppress the power of others, leaving them powerless for a period. If you are dampening him or both of us without knowing it, maybe his power isn’t working.”

“Which is why we can’t let you move on to other forms of training. Especially flying; it’s too dangerous,” Rakan added, then finished muttering for now.

Zaria frowned at us both. “Why?” She sounded genuinely disappointed to hear we couldn’t fly until we knew.

I had to remind myself that it was because she was trying to get back to the life she lost, not because she wanted to be mine. My ryder, that is. Nothing else. Fuck.

Who was I kidding? She was more than that, and I knew it in my soul. I just couldn’t let her find out because she would never accept it.

“A siphon has to have close or physical contact with their target to draw their power. However, dampening is far more dangerous because it can target a wide area, not just an individual,” Rakan informed her. “If it turns out you can dampen, and your power level is a match for Nyx’s, as it should be, you could accidentally use it in the air and knock your flyer out of the sky since you don’t know how to wield it or control it. And not just Nyx. You could take out anyone else who is flying with you. You are a danger until we know what you can do.” Rakan’s words were harsh, like she should have known better.

“So, we are stuck here until I use a power I can’t even feel?” Frustration bled into her words. I felt for her. She was, once again, being told to stay in one place, and not given any freedom or control.