Page 22 of Flameborne: Fury (Emberquell Academy #2)

~ DONAVYN ~

We found the dragons off in the forest, curled up near a small waterfall, most of the trees and undergrowth in the area broken or uprooted. Even in the lee of a rocky ledge, the storm’s wind whipped scattered leaves around the gouged grass.

I slowed as they came into sight and took Bren’s sleeve to hold her back. If Kgosi was awake enough, he’d sense me drawing closer, but this would be dangerous.

“Stay behind me,” I muttered to Bren, the wind whipping my hair against my neck and cheeks. “Kgosi will challenge me. But he won’t harm me.”

Brens brows popped up. “He’d be dominant towards you?” She was shocked.

I nodded. “He’s a male in his prime, with his new mate, who’s still in heat. And I’m interrupting his nap. I don’t know which is the worst offense, honestly,” I said dryly. But I took her hand and pulled her with me through the trees.

The storm wasn’t vicious like the night before, but the wind was cold and stiff, ripping through the canopy overhead in shivering roars, then easing off, only to return moments later, raindrops sprinkling down in isolated showers, or thrown from the shaken leaves of the trees.

When we were only a handful of trees from the little clearing they’d made, the first low rumble vibrated in the ground under my boots. I urged Bren to stay at my back and let me handle him.

She nodded, but she peered around my arm. “Akhane won’t hurt me.”

I nodded. “That’s because she’s female.”

Bren huffed. “She’s strong! She can fight!”

I smiled. “That’s not what I meant. She won’t feel threatened by you. Trust me. Let me handle this.”

She looked a little worried, but nodded.

Then I drew her out of the trees and stopped as soon as we were out of the shadows.

The sky was still gray and dark, and the wind rushed and looped between the trees, buffeting me first from one direction, then another.

I wasn’t sure if Kgosi had caught my scent or not.

We had one moment when we stepped out from under the trees into the gray light, to see the dragons, curled together like cats.

Akhane lay in a tight circle with her wings tucked and her snout curled all the way around her rump to rest on Kgosi’s foreleg where he’d coiled himself around her, his tail tucked against her and his wing resting over her back.

His long neck extended into the clearing with his head towards me, flat on the ground, eyes closed and ears slack.

But then his eyes popped open and locked on me. His pupils narrowed to slits. A thin thread of smoke seeped from his nostrils, immediately carried away by the wind gusts before they could become tendrils, but it wasn’t a good sign.

Tugging Bren fully behind me, I lifted my hands, palms flat towards him in an attitude of submission and surrender.

“Kgosi, I wouldn’t have come except—”

He gave no warning. Not a sound. One moment he was curled with his mate like a barn cat, the next he snaked silently towards me, mouth wide to bare his fangs and wings extended, tail lashing.

Bren sucked in a shocked breath behind me, but kept her head and didn’t run. Good girl.

I kept my eyes low and didn’t take a step back as he rushed me. My heart pounded in my ribs, and I almost broke a split second before he slid to a halt, mere inches from running me over, roaring so loudly my ears rang. But I didn’t back away.

Bren flinched, but stayed at my back.

‘I’m sorry, Keg—’

‘You breach the sanctity of the mating!’ Kgosi snarled in my head, lifting one foreleg to slam it down on a small tree nearby that had somehow escaped the chaos, flattening it to the ground as easily as I’d squash a bug.

‘I know. And I’m sorry,’ I pleaded as he turned and began to pace, rippling back and forth in front of me, rustling his wings, ears pinned back against his skull. ‘I wouldn’t—you know I wouldn’t—if it weren’t important.’

‘Important?! Your petty human rules and empty traditions—’ he turned his head and unleashed flame, sending another, larger, splintered tree up in flames like a torch.

I felt the heat of his fire wherever my skin was bare, but it wasn’t close enough to burn.

Even in his anger, he had the control to be precise.

Bren yelped and startled. I reached back to hold her to my back, but she didn’t try to run.

I swallowed hard and kept my eyes down, praying that tree was green enough it wouldn’t send the whole wood up.

‘Calm down. You know me, Keg. You know I have no desire for your mate—I’m bonding with my own!’

Kgosi stopped pacing, his neck rearing back so his head was high over us as he gazed down, enraged.

‘I see no mating. You are not joined! I see two whose hearts still seek each other—yet work together to intrude on our peace!’

I bristled and at the same time a trickle of fear started at the back of my neck.

He was saying that our bond was fragile.

But bonds among humans were rare, and from the little I’d heard, we’d never been as good as the dragons at surrendering to them.

My bond with Bren would grow and strengthen.

It already had. And we weren’t going to give up.

I stood my ground and lifted my hands again to soothe him, trusting our bond. That ultimately his concern for my protection would override his desire to remove all males from his mate’s presence. As he growled and began pacing again, I sent him a rush of calm and soothing, pleading.

“Kgosi, please listen: Bren found an enemy camp two hours north. A small army. No dragons that she saw, but she didn’t fly the surrounding lands. We have intruders marching on Vosgaarde. The King must learn of this.”

Kgosi rumbled again, the deep, resonant call that shook the ground for miles. He stopped pacing, but weaved back and forth on his front legs, his head snaking slowly side to side, ears still flat back against his head. I waited, certain he’d be speaking with Akhane, and also wrestling for control.

Behind me, Bren clung to my waist, her forehead pressed against my spine. It was touching. And made my body race for her.

The tension rose in the quiet as Kgosi didn’t speak, or shift, but continued to weave in front of me. I swallowed and considered retreat, but finally, Akhane crooned and sighed, rolling to her side and stretching.

I heard Bren’s breath release and breathed a little easier myself when Kgosi snorted, then turned away and walked slowly back to his mate, rumbling for her in the sweeter, softer way the dragons offered for comfort.

‘Keg?’

‘What you ask… my heart fights it mightily, Donavyn.’

I nodded, though he couldn’t see me. ‘Trust me, I have no desire to return yet either, but neither do I want to return in two days to discover that our enemy made it into Vosgaarde while I reveled in my mate.’

Kgosi growled his disapproval.

Reaching Akhane, when she sat up to greet him, they rubbed snouts. Then he rubbed the side of his massive head all the way along her neck, rumbling to her while she chirped and chittered.

In any other circumstances I would have been pleased and touched by their obvious affection, eager to leave them alone. I reached back for Bren’s hand and drew her up to my side, gripping her hand tightly and not letting go, so we could watch the dragons together.

She leaned into my arm and sighed, and I felt the surge in her as well. The desire to seek privacy and each other’s company and—

I had to stop that train of thought before it derailed me. My body already hummed with adrenaline and need because it had been a couple of hours since I’d had Bren, and between our own bond and the dragon’s, it had already been too long.

I grimaced. We still had hours of flight back to the Dragon Keep. And once there I’d have to inform the King, and send scouts, strategize—hours of work before we would fly again to intercept these interlopers.

Kgosi huffed, hearing my thoughts and sensing my unease. ‘You forget: The Creator draws us near our mates when the bond tightens. What you ask, Donavyn—it doesn’t only challenge my restraint with her. If a male were to approach—’

I nodded. Bren looked up at me. “He’s worried about instinctively hurting another dragon if a male comes too near, Akhane.

She’s still in full heat. It’s not natural for the dragons to be in the herd when she’s like this and they’ve bonded.

Usually he would have chased her away—taking out any challengers on the way—then if she selected him, they’d hide together for a few days until her heat was past, so only he could father of her offspring.

And even after they returned, he’d be touchy about letting anyone close to her for some time. ”

Akhane gave a little cry.

Bren’s eyes widened. “She’s proud of that,” she said, bemused. “She wants to see him send the others away.”

“Saucy little Vixen, isn’t she?” I muttered.

Kgosi roared and whipped around, the earth shaking under our feet as he leaped the space between us, landing only feet from me, mouth wide to bare his fangs dripping, steam and smoke pouring from his nostrils and whipped away by the wind.

It was so startling I almost gave ground, almost ran—which could have been disastrous. I had to catch myself—and Bren, who shrieked and jerked to run from simple reflex.

“Don’t move,” I muttered to her. “If you run his instincts will kick in. Trust me.”

She trembled, but did as I said, drawing closer to me rather than away.

I swallowed and held Kgosi’s gaze. ‘It was a joke, Keg. You know me. You know my heart.’

He tipped his head eerily. ‘Would you like me to select choice names for your mate, Donavyn?’

My instincts kicked in then, and my hackles rose. I had to fight not to warn him off. But I swallowed the urge and held his gaze. His pupils dilated, but he didn’t move.

‘I apologize for the disrespect,’ I sent earnestly. ‘It was thoughtless. Not intended.’

Kgosi huffed and sent another plume of steam and smoke into the air. Bren tensed and my heart jumped, but then my dragon turned his back, tail lashing over our heads.

‘I’m not the only risk of violence, Donavyn. You, too, will be easily sparked. You acknowledge this?’

I nodded. ‘I don’t feel like I have any choice.’

‘We risk setting each other off. If one of us senses threat—’

‘If we can’t control ourselves in this, we don’t deserve the status we hold,’ I sent firmly.

Kgosi went still, then turned first his head, then his body before walking slowly back to tower over me and Bren again. ‘Speak. For. Yourself.’

I swallowed, but didn’t back down. The only area in which Kgosi and I truly saw the world differently was this.

As a dragon, and certain of his purpose, he bristled against the leash of human societal rules and restraints.

He’d always grudgingly adhered to them, and I acknowledged how humbling it was for him to bow to human rules when he could have flamed any of us—all of us, for that matter—out of existence in seconds.

But I was confident his aggression was only the demonstration of his beast. He knew as well as I did that we couldn’t hold peace—or protect it—if we killed each other.

Akhane crooned again and Kgosi turned from me, vocalizing in ways I’d never heard from him before, gruff grunts, and high, whistling calls.

Then he returned to Akhane, to greet her once more as she clambered to her feet and shook like a dog.

When they’d breathed each other’s breath for a time, Kgosi rumbled again.

‘We will accept the Creator’s trial and carry you home,’ he intoned, clearly not happy about it. ‘But we’ll stop along the way. To soothe the need.’

I nodded, and even though the General in me was agitated at the idea of any delay, I breathed a little easier, too. “Agreed.”

“What did he say?” Bren whispered.

“We’re going back. With a stop on the way,” I looked down at her and took her hand again and her eyes locked on mine. I felt the surge of relief in her, too.

A fresh gust of wind whipped through the clearing, ruffling my hair and whistling in the trees.

Kgosi raised his head, staring at the sky as he growled. ‘We battle the elements as well.’

‘I know. But the internal war will be worse.’

‘Your wisdom always surprises me, Donavyn. You should listen to it more often.’

I snorted. But Kgosi didn’t laugh.