Page 16 of Flameborne: Chosen

“I’m Bren. I…” Her chin trembled as she drew her knees up and looked around, then blinked again when she found two massive, dragon snouts and side-eyes staring.

“Akhane,” she breathed. “You saved me.” Her eyes welled. She reached forward to lay one trembling hand on the dragon’s scaley leg while she wiped her tears with the other, leaving trails of smeared dirt in its wake.

“She did a great deal more than save you,” I muttered, keeping my hand at her back and cursing that we had no support for her neck. “But that is a conversation for later.”

For a moment I froze. Bren and Akhane, the dragon—herdragon—stared at each other, while Kgosi watched me with curiosity.

My head spun.

‘How far away are the healers?’

‘Moments. But they’ll find nothing. She is scraped and bruised, but I scent none of the blackened blood,’Kgosi said, his nostrils thinning.

I nodded and blew out a breath. I still had a hand at Bren’s back because I worried she might topple again. But decisions needed to be made. Acknowledgements. Orientations and… How the hell was I going to formally acknowledge, let alone orientafemaleFlameborne?

‘Kgosi—’

‘I do not know, and the Creator has not yet chosen to reveal it. But there is no mistake. Akhane has Chosen the woman, Bren. The bond is alive. The herd acknowledges her. The Pair will not be separated,’he intoned, with all the authority of the Primarch who held exactly zero expectation of being contradicted. And that meant it wasn’t just me who’d been party to it. He’d spread his mind to the dragons. Each one present had heard and would relay the orderpreciselyto any who were not. To a dragon, there was no question. When the Primarch spoke,they listened.

Holy shit.

I took a deep breath when the healers arrived—Tato, a battle medic, and his bluescale, Nila. But Kgosi was right. Bren wasn’t injured. At least, not in dangerous ways. Tato was very thorough in having her bend and flex every joint and digit. But soon it was clear: She was healthy, if a little banged up.

It was time for her to meet the others so word could spread.

Were she a man, this would have been a moment for great camaraderie and celebration. Every new Flameborne was a potential Squad brother to any of us.

‘She will need your authority at her back,’Kgosi growled in my head,‘Just as Akhane needed mine.’

I huffed. That was easy for him to say—he’d handled it already.

A young dragon made a mistake and Chose a woman when in all Furyknight history a woman had never been Chosen before. Kgosi, as Primarch, placed his seal of approval on it. The dragons submitted.

Problem solved.

‘Human minds are not so quick to disband tradition. Especiallythistradition,’I muttered back to him through the bond.

‘Human men are not so quick to accept women into a brotherhood, you mean,’he shot back with a rush of amusement.

I glared at him, but he intentionally turned his head to scan the watchers around the launch hollow.

Next to me, Tato completed his examination. “She’s safe to try walking, Sir. Would you like me to help her to her feet and make certain she’s steady?”

“Yes, please,” I muttered, crawling out from under Akhane’s wing with a soft pat of gratitude on her shoulder.

While the healer helped Bren, our newest Flameborne, to her feet, I took a deep breath and sent up a prayer for wisdom and patience.

There was a smattering of applause when Akhane lifted her wings and Tato helped a wobbling Bren for the first few steps, while my mind spun.

She was tiny.

Tiny, terrified, andtorn.

I frowned.

Her feet were bare, but the few scrapes on her feet—and presumably up her legs—made me suspect she’d lost them during the flight. Dragon scale scrapes could be nasty, but Tato had checked them. Her skirt—the full, multi-layered thick cotton of a peasant farmwife—told me all I needed to know about where she’d come from. Her blouse was well fitted, but simple with buttons to her neck and a round collar—but it had been torn in the flight as well. She stood, holding the two sides of the blouse together, but it gaped above and below her hand.

I growled and quickly unbuttoned my jacket, tugging each sleeve down so the leather wouldn’t catch and bunch, then threw it around her shoulders.