Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 86059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“What does he want from us? Truly?”
“Exactly what he says. He wants dragons—sane dragons—to protect the fort. He wants to stop whatever it is from coming through. And he probably wants you guys to fly to the Rift and check it out. Answer a few questions we all have.”
Maybe we should. Jurik’s thoughts float through my mind. Not just to see if he is a liar, but to see if I can return home.
A hot knife of grief stabs through me. You’d go without me?
Never. I’d take you with me. But if we have options, we can choose what world to live in.
He’s got a point. “We’re talking about it,” I admit to Gwen.
“I thought you might. And if you try it, I have riding gear.”
“Riding…gear?”
Her smile grows wide. “Of course. Riding gear so you can ride your dragon.”
I…never thought of that.
35
RACHEL
Gwen drops me off in front of the familiar barracks I’ve called home for the last several months with a promise to talk later. I’ve got a lot swirling through my head—an overwhelming amount, really—and it’s underscored by the faint, constant touch of Jurik’s mind to mine as he checks on me telepathically and manages to hold a conversation with Vaan at the same time. Vaan is describing his madness, and how long he was lost for, and I send a positive wave of affection to Jurik, because I don’t want him affected by the other dragon’s story.
I will not fall apart, he promises me. The touch of your mind on mine keeps me centered.
Good, I tell him as I push into the barracks and head for my room. I want you centered. I want—
“Oh my god, Rachel!” Jenny’s happy squeal echoes in the hall, distracting me entirely. I’m bear-hugged in the next moment, Jenny’s exuberance nearly sending me crashing into a wall. “Where have you been?”
“Rachel!” Manda’s right behind her, waiting to give me a hug too, her face lit up with happiness.
God, I want to tell them everything. Seeing them feels so strange—and it makes me oddly sad, too. I feel like I haven’t seen them in a thousand years, not just three days. I feel like the old Rachel is gone, and in her place is a different Rachel, a Rachel with fire in her blood and a dragon in her head. I’ve been entirely remade in the last few days, reforged with steel…and given new things to worry about.
And the two of them seem so…innocent. Jenny and Manda are wearing the stupid sack dresses of the program, and Jenny has her hair pulled into a clip atop her head, while Manda has her typical long ponytail. Looking at them, I feel leagues older.
And they can’t know about any of it. It feels as if there’s another rift opening up, one separating me from my friends, and it’s awful and it sucks and yet…it’s for their own good.
I think.
So I smile brightly. “You’re not going to believe me, but I have had a wild three days.” And then I launch into a big story about how I found something that I’m not allowed to talk about, and how I’ve been working on a secret mission for Lord Azar for the last few days. They buy it easily, and Manda even adds that Daniels told her I was working on a special project.
No one even asks about a single dragon, and that just makes me feel even more distant from them.
We retreat to our room and sit on our bunks to catch up. Jenny shows me the stitches on a new quilt she’s working on. I smile and listen as they talk about barracks gossip. It seems Kristi reported Manda sneaking off with one of the soldiers, and complained about it to Daniels. Instead of getting Manda booted, Kristi was reassigned to a different room and told to keep her mouth shut. Manda blushes as she tells me this, but I think she’s secretly pleased.
Of course she is. Her mate is looking out for her.
He’s not her mate!
Then this is how he becomes it. Jurik doesn’t see a problem with any of this, and I fight back a sigh of exasperation.
“You okay?” Jenny asks, nudging the candle at her bedside so she can see better. She shoves her needle into her quilt-block even as Manda pages through a magazine. “You got a weird look on your face just now.”
“I’m fine,” I promise them. “I haven’t slept much lately, and there’s so much to do…it’s hard to turn my mind off.” I gesture at her new project. “Tell me about your quilt. Where’d you get that pink patch?”
Jenny smiles brightly and starts talking, but I’m not listening. I’m thrilled that they’re okay, but even so this feels…hollow. Forced, a little. Jenny and Manda are so safe and secure in their bunks, they really have no idea of what’s going on. I feel like all the layers have been peeled away and I’m left raw.