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When I felt the call, I didn’t know what it was at first. I just knew I had to go. I was physically pulled by a need inside myself to leave the palace and sprint through the streets. I ran to where the busy streets turned to quieter roads and pastures. I ran across fields, hopping a stream, and spotting a house in a glen. When I came upon the low-walled garden, I saw a small girl playing and twirling in the falling cherry blossom.

“It smelled like cherry blossoms,” I whispered. I had forgotten the scent until we woke the shared memory, and I inhaled, the fragrance so real. “They were rampant that year. The entire sky looked pink. They kept landing in your hair.”

She breathed a teary laugh, but I kept my eyes closed, not wanting it to break just yet.

But then the memory changed slightly. My image had always only been of what I saw, but suddenly, I saw her view of me. It rocked me. I looked younger than I had felt. There I stood, bathed in her light, my hair so dark it was almost purple in the rays of the sun. Eight years old and ready to take on the world, but I was just a boy, not yet aware that what was about to take place would change my life forever.

She saw me and stopped spinning. She was so small—two, maybe three years old—but the power I felt from her was overwhelming as it connected with mine. I wanted to vault the wall and go to her, but I didn’t want to scare her. She was too young to understand that I needed to be near her. I was barely there myself. I knew about the call, but I had expected to be a male when it came, so it was only in the moment our magic connected, recognizing their other halves, that I realized.

I was afraid for her because I knew that once they were connected, ryders were supposed to go to the palace to train. She was too young for that. I would wait for her to grow bigger so we could train together.

“What’s your name?” I’d asked, but Zaria was shy. I was a stranger, after all. She backed away. I wanted to tell her it was okay, that she didn’t have to be afraid. She could tell me her name when she was ready. I would come back every day until she knew me, and then she could share her name.

Then she took another step and crossed into a ray of sun that was cutting through the cherry blossom branches. Her hair lit up, and I would never forget how it felt like my whole world became light in that moment.

“I’ll call you Sol,” I whispered. “You are the sun.”

Then a female rushed out of the house, sweeping my Sol behind her skirts.

Zaria gasped at the scene. “My mother,” she breathed.

I stroked my thumb on her neck to remind her I was with her, even as my heart broke all over again, reliving the memory.

“Who are you?” her mother demanded.

Keen to put her mother’s mind to rest, I proudly introduced myself with all the arrogance of a privileged young fae. “I am Nyx Asra, my lady.” I bowed. “First son of General Asra, The Dragon of the Night, and commander of the King’s legions.”

She gasped, gathering my ryder into her arms. “Get away from this place!” she cried.

“I was called here, my lady. Your daughter is to be my ryder.”

“She will be no such thing,” she snapped, running back to the house.

“My lady, I mean no harm!” I called to her retreating back. My Sol peered over her shoulder to look at me as she was carried away.

Her mother ran into the house and shut the door with a bang, leaving me stunned. That fae could not hide Sol from me. I had been called. It was the law; no one could stand in the way when a flyer was called to their ryder. I turned on my heel and ran.

The memory vanished, and I was left leaning into Zaria while she processed what she had seen.

“Some of those memories were yours,” I told her. “Do you remember?”

She shook her head. “I know that came from my mind, but it was like I was watching it for the first time. I don’t remember that house or my mother being that young. She was so angry with you. Why?”

“I don’t know. I never found out. I ran all the way home. I didn’t stop until I was at my father’s study door. I knocked, but it was his aide who opened the door and told me that my father was in a meeting, and I had to wait. Nothing was more important than my call to you. Maybe I should have insisted rather than waiting. But you didn’t just barge in on the general, so it was hours before I finally got called in and told him what had happened.”

The memory was hard to relive. I had many regrets in life, but that was my first, waiting when I could have demanded to see him. Maybe things would have been different if— I cut myself off. I couldn’t go down that dark road again.

The one bright moment in the aftermath was my father’s unwavering support. I may have waited hours for his attention, but once I had it, he did not let me down.

“He wasn’t a particularly caring fae,” I told Zaria with a wistful smile. “But a flyer’s call to their ryder was not something that could be denied. So, without question, he followed me back to the glen to explain this to your mother. No one would have taken you away from her. We just needed to know each other, to bond as we grew. My father would have offered to move you and your family to the palace to take care of you.”

“But she said no?” Zaria asked.

“No. You were gone. The house was empty, and I never saw you again.”

THIRTY

ZARIA