Page 98 of Flameborne: Chosen

“I almost had it that time!”

“I know. Which is what gave me the idea. Come.” He beckoned me with that extended hand. “Put your arm over my shoulder until you’ve got a good grip on the strap, then get yourself positioned. You can hold yourself already. It’s the climbing up and down that’s the problem, right?”

I nodded sullenly, but did as he asked and let him pull me across to the mounting strap. We’d done this dozens of times in the three weeks he’d been training me, but for some reason there was an itch in my skin tonight. When he pulled me across his body so effortlessly and took my weight so that I practically sat in his lap my breath shortened. Then he held me there between his arms while I unclipped, bracing behind me while I planted my feet on Akhane, either side of the strap. When he moved against me and his arms brushed mine the skin on my spine pebbled.

Alarmed—I’d felt that kind of thrill before—I cursed under my breath, took a grip on that strap and braced. “I’ve got it,” I muttered, suddenly nervous, though I couldn’t have said why.

“I’ll stay behind you in case you slip. You’re stronger. I want to see you try this again.”

“You don’t have to stay so close. I don’t want to fall on you,” I mumbled, looking over my shoulder—then immediately turning back to Akhane because his face wasright there.

“I think for your dragon’s sake, I do,” he chuckled and his hot breath tickled my neck. I was suddenly gripped by deeply conflicting sensations—a thrilling, trembling kind of delight undermined by deep-seated dread.

His was not the first heat I’d felt at my back, or breath on my skin. And with the uniform and the dragons… the memories of Ruin were inevitable.That’swhy I was nervous. Because Ienjoyedhaving him so close. Which was wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

If Ruin looked at me with disdain, imagine the Battle Commander of the entire Furyknight army if he ever caught a hint of my attraction?

I reminded myself that even Ruin admired Donavyn. But that only made the feelings worse.

I grew flustered and cursed myself because my voice was too high. “If I’m going to do this, I have to do it alone. You won’t be there in battle to crawl behind me,” I mumbled, my cheeks heating.

“You show me that you can do this with my assistance first—I don’t want to see you tumbling to the grass anymore.ThenI’ll let you try it alone.”

I sighed and muttered curses I’d been learning from my brothers—some were quite colorful. But did as he asked.

Adjusting my grip on the strap, I straightened my arms and leaned back to keep my weight counter to my feet, firm on Akhane’s side.

I took a small step back, then dropped one hand lower on the strap.

It was laboriously slow—but when I rounded the curve of her shoulder and still managed to keep myself braced against her without my feet slipping, my breath caught. I’d never done that before.

“That’s it… that’s it… well done, Bree!” Donavyn breathed, those words fluttering on the nape of my neck, and the heat of his chest brushing my back as he gave me as much room as he could so I carried my own weight. But my ass hovered over his lap, and his arms braced either side of my waist. If I fell, he’d catch me with his body.

He’d done it already. More than once.

Why, tonight, did the thought of that feel thrilling?

I cleared my throat and turned my mind back to the task, but we were almost there. As I descended the last few feet down Akhane’s leg, Donavyn dropped to the ground, and clapped for the few seconds until I joined him on the grass, elated.

“Finally!”

“Well done!” he beamed as I turned to face him.

“It’s easier going down, but—”

“Try it. Try climbing again.”

Shaking out my hands which were finally calloused enough that they didn’t blister on the straps anymore, I took a deep breath, grasped the strap, and climbed.

But as had happened the previous week when I’d tried this, I reached her withers and struggled with the transition from holding my weight on the strap, to pulling my body up high enough to get a leg over her spine.

I tried once and almost fell, caught myself, cursed and cursed again.

“You’ve almost got it, Bren. Stay there. I want to show you something.”

I thought Donavyn would move Kgosi and demonstrate the mount to me, but suddenly the strap behind me rippled and pulled a little further out from Akhane’s body. Moments later, his warm strength was at my back again.