Bodhi #3
This is bigger than any one of us, Bodhi.
She held me so tight, as if she could squeeze a lifetime of love into me if she tried hard enough.
If we stand by while evil consumes the most innocent of us, we will deserve what happens when it reaches our own doors.
Stay close to Xaden. He’ll protect you, and you’ll keep him in balance. You need each other.
I close my eyes as the fire roars in my direction, remembering the scent of lilacs, her perfume, the last kiss she pressed onto my forehead before walking into battle with my father. I may meet Malek, but I’ll get to see my parents, too. Heat kisses my face.
Forgive me, Xaden. He risked everything, gave everything, and I threw it away.
A vise squeezes my ribs, and I’m yanked off my feet as death comes for me. Wind rushes and heat blasts beneath me, rising quickly.
My eyes fly open and the air in my lungs gushes out. The ground falls away, and the fireball dissipates as I’m pulled higher and higher into the sky, held between two immovable green talons.
Cuir.
“I know what agency means to you, what has been taken from you.” A light, mellow male voice cuts into me, and a feeling like home clicks into place. “I will always give you a choice.”
Holy shit, I’m not dead. I throw my arms over the talon that’s curved around my torso and hold tight.
“But I will not always respect or accept that choice,” he warns as we soar. “So choose now, Bodhi Durran. You may climb and accept this bond, or you may fall to a swift reunion with the parents you miss so dearly.”
What the fuck was I thinking, charging after a dragon who hadn’t instigated a bond?
“I will not hold blame over you for your misstep, but I will not tolerate a rejection, so decide. Now.” His tone is at complete odds with his words.
“I’ll climb!” I shove up on his talon, and he loosens it just enough for me to heave myself onto the top of his claw. He leaves it level, giving me a platform to steady my feet as I grab for the top of the first scale.
“You have until the time we reach the others.”
Nothing like a deadline to get me moving faster. This is completely different from the Gauntlet, is nothing they prepared us for, but I’m excellent at adjusting when things don’t go my way. Scale by scale, I climb Cuir’s leg, fighting the wind and gravity as he takes us toward the flight field.
“Why me?” I shout into the wind as I approach the knob of his shoulder, fighting every instinct to stare up at his wings with wonder.
“Because you seek power to end harm, instead of the means for victory.” He tucks his forelegs underneath him, and I’m left dangling hundreds of feet above the ground. “And that is a unique quality among riders.”
Digging my fingers into the back edge of his scales, I pull myself up with excruciating slowness. The muscles of my shoulders, arms, chest all scream in protest, but I make it. My toes gain leverage on the bottom of his shoulder, and I scramble the rest of the way to the top, gasping for breath.
He banks left, and my body weight drags me across the base of his neck.
“You could make this easier!” I call out, throwing myself flat against his spine so I don’t fly right off the other side of him.
“You could have not tried to bond another dragon.”
Fair point. I move toward the seat, using a motion that’s far more slithering than it could be called crawling. My patches catch on his scales as I pull myself forward, then slide over the hard lump of pommel scale.
“Your climbing skills are superior to your reasoning skills,” Cuir lectures. He levels out, and I tuck my knees underneath me to turn in the seat.
“I know.” I settle into position and notice the dark smears on the pommel scales. Locking my thighs, I lift my hands, and pain rips up my arms as I notice I’ve torn bleeding holes in the tips of my fingers from the climb.
“I surmise it will not be the last time you bleed from my back if you prove as reckless as you’ve demonstrated today. And to think I waited to bond again until this year for you.”
From the look of our approach, I’ve gained my seat just in time for his deadline. We’ll make it back to the flight field in the next few minutes. I can already see the dragons lined up on the edge of the hill to watch and the others flying at various altitudes around us.
“I’m not reck—” I stop myself before I lie. “I’ll work on it.”
“See that you do. My choices are now tied to yours.” He begins the descent to the flight field, and it hits me in full for the first time.
He’s really chosen me.
Out of every rider in the valley, I’m his selection.
He could have bonded last year. He could have chosen Xaden like everyone does.
“I will choose you every day until your death or your demise,” Cuir says.
Aren’t those the same things? I swallow the swelling knot of emotion in my throat.
“I’ll choose you over everyone.” It’s a promise I don’t take lightly.
“Durrans don’t break their word.” I grin, thinking of my father.
Then I throw my head back to the sun as Cuir and I cut through the sky.
I can keep both promises I’ve made to my parents.
I’m a rider now. I’ll never be powerless again.
“Remember that vow.” He banks right, and this time, I shift my weight and we move together seamlessly. “I will hold you to it.”
For the rest of my life.