Page 112 of Flameborne: Chosen

I was elated. I tried to get myself back onto Akhane like I had a few days earlier, but my trembling hand didn’t want to grip, and that arm had no strength.

When an Officer appeared alongside us, his face tight with anger, I was shaken. But he ordered us to ground.

Saul and I gave both dragons the instruction, and they shifted their line back to the clearing where the assessment began, then wheeled in circles to slow before coming in to land.

I was forced to just hold on and wait until we reached the ground.

To my surprise, the moment Akhane stopped, it was Donavyn, rushing to her side and up the mounting strap, his face tight and eyes blazing.

“How bad is it?” he muttered.

“I was whacked on my arm—hit the funny bone, it will be fine—”

“It will not befine,Bren—I mean, Kearney,” Donavyn growled. “That was… nevermind what that was.” He pulled me in tight against his side as we’d done dozens of times, but looked over his opposite shoulder and bellowed at the men on the ground. “Bring a healer, and Captain Gunnar—this should never have happened!”

There was a scurry of activity under us. I was confused, but all I could do was tuck my numb arm against my side, hook my good arm over Donavyn’s shoulders, then wait for him to unhook me and lower us to the ground, which he did in record time.

The moment I was on my feet, he stepped back, as if he didn’t want to touch me and I blinked.

But of course, it would seem odd to all these men if he took a second longer to release me than necessary. I wasn’t sure why his tension and apparent anger unsettled me. But now that I was on my feet, it was clearsomethingwasn’t right.

Dragons wheeled in the sky, screaming warnings. Furyknights clustered just inside the line of trees, pointing and talking to each other, their expressions angry.

Donavyn was barking orders, and even the Captains jumped to commands.

But I still wasn’t clear about why everyone was angry when Saul hurried over, his face pained, Bich lumbering behind him. Akhane crooned to her.

“Bren! My god! That was incredible. But, didn’t you hear the order to dive?”

I had been about to walk to him, to close the steps between us, but I froze, my feet nailed to the grass.

“They gave an order to dive?” I whispered.

Saul, his forehead lined with worry and mouth turned down in a frown, nodded. “I’m so sorry. When that dragon banked off, I misjudged the line. I mean, it’s a good thing you kept going, but—”

‘Bich can heal you, Little Flame,’Akhane said, a strange delight in her tone.

I turned to look at her, then at Bich, who hovered at Saul’s back, weaving back and forth on her front legs, her head snaking, ears pinned back, low plumes of steam and smoke drifting from her nostrils that were tense and pinched like she was angry and about to become aggressive.

And then I looked around.

A circle of men pressed in around us. For a moment, I was sucked back to that first day in the stable, when all the men had rushed us and I’d panicked. My courage wavered and I took a step back. But Saul caught my good arm.

“No, no. It’s fine. Bich won’t let them close.”

I blinked and took a breath. He was right. They crowded close to each other, but they kept a wide berth around our dragons. And almost all of them were Furyknights.

“What the hell is going on?” I breathed.

But then Saul touched my shoulder. “Can I see the arm? I haven’t done this before, but Bich says she can help you and… and I need to be a part of that. If you’ll let me?”

I was so confused, but Donavyn stood at the edge of that circle with the two other officers and Captain Gunnar, and the four of them all looked angry.

I’d missed an instruction to dive.

Holy shit.

My elation flipped immediately into dread.