Page 10 of Flameborne: Fury (Emberquell Academy #2)

I whirled on Kgosi, whose head was high again, his chest expanding like a bellows. He panted, but his eyes were bright.

“Who saw them?” I blurted quickly. Ronen and the others went still.

‘Dragons on patrol, returning. They saw Akhane flying, due north. I can follow.’

‘How?’

‘Knowing the direction, I’ll follow her.’

My heart slammed in my chest, but I frowned. ‘You can’t track her in the wind!’

‘Yes, I can.’

‘She won’t have left scent—’

‘It’s not her scent I’d follow.’

I frowned harder, confused. ‘Then what the fuck is it?’

It was so rare for Kgosi to hesitate, it stopped me in my tracks. His eye met mine and my stomach dropped to my toes, as if my soul knew he would—

‘I will follow the draw of the bond. It calls to me. It is not yet complete, but I believe I will be led. Because I do not deny my mate,’ he intoned, and all the tension he’d been holding, all the agitation, eased from him in a breath. I felt it.

My jaw dropped. ‘You… your—Akhane is your mate?! ’

His eye locked on mine and neither of us moved. ‘I did tell you there were only two conclusions, Donavyn. I’ll admit, I thought you’d have accepted the truth by now.’

I reeled back a step, though it shouldn’t have been a shock. Yet somehow I hadn’t allowed myself to see it.

‘Akhane is your mate?’

‘Yes.’

‘So, the way I’ve been feeling about Bren… She is…?’

‘Yours. Yes. I’ll carry you to her, Donavyn. But not if you seek to deny the bond.’

“Deny it!?” The words were startled out of me. How could he think I’d ever—? ‘Of course I’d never deny a bond! I just… I didn’t really believe—’

‘You chose not to, Donavyn. But this isn’t the time to rehash your foolishness. Events have overtaken us. It is time. Prepare yourself.’

Mate. My mate. Kgosi’s mate. They were ours. Made for us. No wonder I couldn’t stop acting like a green lad when she was close. But, mate?! Human bonds were so rare…

I blinked. ‘Wait. Have you known this the whole fucking time?’

I could feel the men behind me, staring, waiting patiently for orders because they knew I spoke with my dragon. But they had no clue what was happening in front of them. None.

‘I suspected quickly. But she was young and you were blind. I allowed things to follow their course until I was certain.’

‘How certain are you about me and Bren? Just because you two are bonded doesn’t mean we’re—’

‘Donavyn, please admit to yourself what is plain in front of your face.’

I blinked.

My fierce hunger for her that wouldn’t ease, no matter how much distance I kept.

Her telling me she trusted me, even when she didn’t trust others.

The dreams.

“How long?” I snarled at my dragon. “How long have you known this and not told me?”

Kgosi rumbled a warning and blew steam from his nose, swinging his great head around as if to knock me off my feet. Ronen and the others shouted and drew back, but Kgosi stopped dead, that massive eye inches from my face.

‘I told you the moment you were ready to hear it, and still you balk. Do not shift blame, Donavyn. It isn’t the heart of an honorable man.’

I stared.

Bren wasn’t merely a kindred heart. Not just a woman who’d tangled me in desire. She was my mate.

My knees wanted to give. But there was no time.

‘If you’re finished having your little tantrum, I’m going to find my mate and bring her home. This is your chance to do the same,’ Kgosi growled in my head.

Without hesitation I ran for Kgosi’s harness hanging on the wall, yelling at the men that Kgosi had a plan and we were about to fly.

“Sir?” Ronen asked. “What did he learn? We can fly with you—”

“No, this is too delicate,” I muttered, grunting as I threw Kgosi’s harness over his back. We couldn’t have other men and dragons nearby when Kgosi claimed his mate. He’d kill them. “Kgosi has a plan.”

“But—”

“I need you here while I’m gone. Inform the Captains.

Find Lorr. Figure out who gave Faren the orders,” I rattled off as I buckled straps and checked the girth.

“Send a messenger to the King and inform him that the dragons have… there are…” I stumbled.

I turned from slipping the last of Kgosi’s harness straps into their keepers and met Ronen’s confused gaze.

“Tell the King that the Primarch believes he can follow their trail. But he needs no distractions. Especially with the storm. We’re traveling north.

We’ll bring them back. What I need is details managed here in the meantime,” I said sternly.

“Something about this stinks, and you’re the only ones who have Bren and her dragon’s best interests at heart.

Find our schemers, guard any secrets you uncover, and be prepared to report when I bring them back. Am I clear?”

Ronen’s expression hardened and he nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

“Good.” I started for the door of the stable, Kgosi dancing behind me.

The other men quickly moved back to let us through.

“Trust no one, Ronen. I don’t understand what’s happened today, but someone is attempting to destroy Bren’s chance at Furyknight, and Akhane’s rising. We won’t let them. Are we clear?”

“Yes, Sir.”

The moment we were out of the stable building, I clasped his hand, then mounted Kgosi. Within seconds we were flying, my hands shaking on the neckstrap. But I was determined. There was no room to deny it any longer, and that meant no point delaying.

Mate. She was my mate. Twenty years my junior. My subordinate. The first female Furyknight. And her heart was so broken…

My head spun as my heart squeezed in my chest.

‘Are you sure you can follow her, Kgosi?’

He snarled in flight, arrowing through the darkening day and the buffeting wind. ‘You doubt me?’

‘No,’ I sighed, patting his shoulder. ‘I doubt myself.’

Kgosi grunted and flew on.