Page 51 of Flameborne: Chosen (Emberquell Academy #1)

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.

But when I swallowed and looked up, Saul was waiting, one hand outstretched, asking to see my hurt arm.

I extended it out to him, with a wince, surprised to see a slash in the leather sleeve.

This jacket was dragon hide. The only thing that could cut through dragonhide easily was dragon fangs and claws and…

Tail blades.

All the dragons had those wings on their tails, the flat, razor-sharp blades that they used like rudders in flight. I’d never paid much attention, always assumed they were for navigation but…

Saul hissed and winced as he took my hand gently. “Can you take off the jacket?” he asked, his voice shaky.

I unbuttoned it with my free hand, desperately aware of all the eyes on me, then pulled my free arm out of the sleeve and shook the jacket off my back so it hung off the bad shoulder—Saul drew it slowly down—my elbow and forearm stung terribly when the weight of the jacket pulled on it—but then he got the jacket off and supported my elbow as he bent it up and turned my arm across my stomach.

He held my forearm between both hands and then looked at Bich over his shoulder. “Like this?”

The dragon blew a breath from her nostrils, that boiling steam and smoke pouring around us, but quickly drifting away.

I stood there for a moment while Saul frowned at my arm, then just as I was about to ask, his eyes lit up and he smiled, nodding. “Yes, yes! I feel it!”

A sweet, deep warmth appeared in my elbow, then crept along my forearm. My hand tingled and there was a sharp flare of heat, right under Saul’s palm.

Then, nothing.

Saul gave a little shiver, then smiled at me. “Did you feel that?”

“Yes,” I breathed. “What did she do?”

“I don’t know, but it was fucking cool,” he said, laughing. “Try it. Bich says move it around and make sure it’s not still hurting.”

I let my arm slide down to dangle at my side, then bent my elbow and flexed my hand.

“Yes! Yes, it’s fine. Like nothing happened.

Thank you, Bich!” My strength was back, thank God.

I felt the rush of relief from Akhane. But when I turned to thank Saul again, he was staring past me, his brows high and an uncertain flush on his face.

I turned, following his gaze, to find Donavyn, Captain Gunnar, and the other three Flameborne marching towards us .

And none of them looked happy.

The dragons eased back as they stopped in front of me and Saul. Captain Gunnar gave an order for the others to line up with us, then stood, feet shoulder width apart and his hands in fists, looking very stern as we took our positions and stood to attention.

“At first I thought we’d have an excellent assessment today, and I was pleased. But that, Flamebornes, was an absolute shitshow,” Captain Gunnar muttered.

My stomach sank.

“Flameborne Faren, please explain to me why Flameborne Kearney’s arm was sliced through by your dragon’s tail?”

“It was an evasive maneuver, sir,” the man muttered sullenly. “She didn’t dive as she was supposed to. I told my dragon to get us out of the way—”

“You were told to hold your line.”

Faren blinked. “I did, sir. But she—”

“You were told to hold your line regardless of what happened around you. Were you not?”

He swallowed. “Yes, sir.”

“Then why was your dragon’s tail flying and able to hurt another Flameborne?”

His lips tightened. “I made a mistake, Sir.”

Gunnar grunted, then turned to me. “And you—I can’t decide whether to skin you alive, or offer you a commendation.”

I frowned. Was that good or bad?

The Captain’s jaw flexed. “That roll. Who taught you that?”

“No one, Sir. I heard my Wing Captain talk about the move, and when it was clear we couldn’t hold the line without tangling, it seemed like the only option. Akhane knew it, so I just held on.”

A snort left the Captain’s nostrils almost as loud as the dragons behind him. “Furyknights do not simply hang on, Kearney. It was reckless and dangerous, and I don’t ever want to see you attempt a move on your dragon in the proximity of others that you have not practiced alone first, are we clear?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“It was also incredibly brave. Frankly, I didn’t think you had the balls. Which you don’t. And yet—well, you know what I mean.”

Suddenly he seemed flustered, and a few of the men behind him chuckled. He snapped his head around to glare at them and they quieted immediately.

At his side, Donavyn hadn’t laughed, but he looked like he was fighting it.

“In any case, I’m going to give you one instruction, Kearney: listen for your fucking orders next time. Focus and concentration only help us when we’re following orders, do you understand?”

“Yes, Sir. ”

“Very good. Then… Sir?” Gunnar turned to Donavyn and opened a hand towards us. “I’m going to let you make this call. Their skills are clearly sufficient to continue. But I question their judgment.”

Donavyn turned to look at each of us in turn.

Gone was the good-humored, patient-but-firm trainer I’d been seeing several times a week until the last few days when he had become unavoidably busy.

And in his place was the legendary Commander, the Furyknight’s youngest Battle General. And a fucking intimidating man.

“Captain Gunnar and I disagree on what we saw tonight. Some of you here today should thank God that you aren’t being reprimanded and sent to the scatpits for discipline. But only you know your hearts.”

He gave a quick glance to Faren, then to me. His lips thinned.

“However, it was also some of the best flying we’ve seen in assessment for a while.

And the bonds between you and your dragons are deepening in ways we greatly appreciate.

” He smiled at Saul, then, who beamed. “With that in mind, I’m passing all of you.

You may now fly solo and without permission from your Wing Captains, but, for fuck’s sake, all of you think long and hard about how your choices affect not only yourselves and your brothers—and sister—but your dragons.

If Bich is required to heal another Flameborne during maneuvers again, I’m going to have some very serious questions, are we clear? ”

“Yes, Sir!” we all barked back.

Donavyn nodded. Then he smiled. “Then congratulations, Flameborne. You have reached your first summit. You are now dragon riders in truth. Well done.”

Thrill and disbelief coursed through me as I turned to Saul, who turned to me, both of us gaping—then we threw our arms around each other. He lifted me off my feet and swung me around, then dropped me back and we clasped hands.

“I’ll fly with you any day of the week, Flameborne Kearney!” he said happily.

“Same here, Flameborne Saul!”

Then we were swarmed by our squads. I hadn’t even known my squad was here except Ronen, who’d told me he always attended his Flameborne’s assessments and trials.

But my brothers rushed me, picked me up cheering—laughing when the dragons threw their heads up and called into the sky to be answered by any within earshot—and then carried me out of the clearing on their shoulders, chanting.

And their words forced me to swallow tears.

Come look. Come see.

She’s Chosen.

Flameborne riding high.

Come look. Come see.

She’s Chosen.

Flameborne in the skies !

They didn’t stop until they’d carried me all the way back to the dining hall.

I could hear others being cheered and chanted by their squads as well, but it faded into the background because, apart from my humble family, I’d never felt like a part of something bigger, or stronger than myself. I’d never felt like I belonged.

But for those few minutes, I forgot everything else that had happened to get me to this point, and just basked in the success.

It was the best moment of my life.

Even Akhane sang and danced behind my squad, but as we reached the dining hall and my brothers settled me back on my feet and ushered me inside, I reached for her.

There was a lot of warm love and delight in her, but also a tiny knot of pain.

‘Akhane, what is it? Are you hurt?’

‘No, no, Bren. Don’t worry. I’m very, very happy for you. For us.’

‘But why do you feel—’

‘It is only the lack, Bren. We are not yet complete. I look forward to that day when these moments can be shared in truth.’

‘What do you mean?’

There was a hesitation from her, then. ‘I’m sorry, Bren. The Primarch calls me back. We dragons must discuss what occurred in the flight too. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be near. Well done—I can’t wait to conquer the skies with you.’

My brothers hurried me forward to the table and made me sit, served me lunch and reminded me that other than passing rank, this was the only time I wouldn’t be treated like the lowest in the hierarchy.

But I didn’t care. I just sat back in relief, ate my meal with a smile. Until I caught the eyes of one man, three tables away, scowling at me between the heads of two of his brothers who sat with their backs to me.

Faren. The Flameborne whose tail had sliced my arm, and who’d been warned he was almost disciplined.

His eyes narrowed when our gazes caught, and for a moment my delight went as cold as his gaze.

I wanted to shrink. I wanted to hide.

And then, then wanted to fight.

We did it. Akhane and I—and Saul and Bich—we did it. It didn’t matter what this little prick thought. I had passed assessment and was on my way to becoming a Furyknight.

So, I made myself raise my chin, and my glass. Then I smiled at him.

And when he scowled harder and turned away, I smiled and did the same. Thanking God that we’d made it through. And praying that there would be no more talk of me being entertainment in the ranks.

Not another fucking word.