6. Shovia
SHOVIA
"The day of bonding you join a family that spans a thousand years. Every rider who came before you and will come after you is your kin."
—General Lesten Zorian
"Can Zarathen do that thing where he folds one wing and spirals?" Codric asked while adjusting his collar in front of the mirror.
"He can do things that would make your Thessirath dizzy." I sat on the edge of the bed, working a sixth pin into my updo. "During our first flight, he rolled completely upside down just to see if I'd scream."
"Did you?"
"Of course not." I paused, remembering my reaction to Morgateth's massive head shooting toward Kailin, his jaws gaping wide as if he was about to snap her head off. "I might have gasped. Quietly."
He chuckled. "You don't need to keep proving that you are a badass, Shovia. We all know that you are, despite losing it when Morgateth snapped his jaws at Kailin. Though to be fair, I wanted to scream too, but I couldn't because I had no air left in my lungs and I was afraid to breathe."
Codric turned from the mirror, looking splendid in his formal dress uniform. The dark blue with silver piping suited him as if it had been designed with him in mind.
We'd been talking about our dragons nonstop since we'd parted from them on the roof of the Citadel and walked shaky legged back to our posh apartment in the officers' wing.
We'd been rehashing every moment of the bonding and the first flight, and none of us had run out of things to say.
It was like falling in love for the first time, when people could spend hours dissecting a single glance or a single touch, except this was bigger than romance.
This was two souls merging, and the aftershock of it was still reverberating through the five of us.
"The way Tess sees the world," Codric said, shaking his head.
"It's like I've been looking at everything through a foggy window my entire life, and now someone wiped the glass clean.
She notices patterns in things I would have walked right past. Rock formations, cloud movements, the way people stand in groups.
She sees the structure underneath everything. "
Leave it to Codric to invent a nickname for his dragonia right after their first flight together. I wondered if she was okay with that.
"A pattern-finder's dragonia," I said. "A match made in Dolis. But if you start calling her Tess, she might not take to it kindly."
"Actually, she loved it, especially when I told her that I knew a princess named Tess. Apparently, dragonias like princess stories as much as any human girl."
That was kind of cute. Had Alar come up with a nickname for his Veynathei? Veyna was short and sweet, and he'd said she was young, so maybe she wouldn't mind. Kailin's dragon, on the other hand, would no doubt insist that she called him by his full name.
Morgateth.
The name still sent a shiver down my spine.
"You know what's the best part?" Codric asked. "She waits to see if I notice what she's noticed, and she's delighted when I do." Codric's expression softened. "She's amazing. I'm so lucky."
"What happens when you don't notice the things she does?"
He cast me an incredulous look. "Oh, please. As if I wouldn't."
I laughed. "You are so full of yourself."
I understood what he meant, though. I hadn't expected Zarathen's fierce loyalty either.
When he'd poured into the spaces I'd emptied for him by dropping some of my shields, he hadn't tried to read the corners of my mind that I needed blocked from him.
He'd simply stood guard beside the open door and made it clear that nothing would get through him to hurt me.
Bonding with Zarathen had been the most terrifying experience of my life, and that was saying something after everything the five of us had lived through together, like two terrorist attacks, an avalanche on Mount Hope, and the temple assassination attempt.
The problem had been exactly what Nyxath warned me about. My shields, the mental walls I'd built over a lifetime, the ones that made my mind impenetrable to even the queen of dragons, had refused to come down.
When Zarathen had walked the line and stopped before me, I'd felt him reaching out, brushing against my defenses, and every instinct I possessed had insisted that I hold firm. Letting someone in went against every defensive wall and tactic I had maintained throughout my lifetime.
He'd waited. He hadn't pushed or demanded or tried to force his way through. He'd just stood there, those enormous reptilian eyes steady and patient, and waited for me to decide.
I'd closed my eyes, imagined Kailin telling me to be brave, imagined Codric's teasing voice asking what I was afraid of, and then I'd dropped my walls one at a time, leaving only the necessary ones upright.
It had been like stepping off a cliff and discovering that I could fly.
"Shovia?" Codric's voice pulled me back. "You disappeared for a moment."
"I was thinking about the bonding." I took a steadying breath. "It was hard for me. Harder than for any of you. My shields didn't want to come down."
Codric watched me struggle with the emotion and had the grace not to tease. "We're quite the pair. Two hardened cynics going soft over their dragons."
"Speak for yourself. I'm not going soft."
"You've been smiling for hours. Your face must hurt."
He wasn't wrong about that. I just couldn't stop even though I must have looked like a fool, grinning like that.
I forced the smile down to check out my reflection in dress uniform and an elaborate updo that was meant to showcase me as a serious rider. I'd polished my boots until they gleamed and had fussed with my hair for longer than I'd ever done before.
The party tonight would be attended by all the newly bonded cadets, our instructors, and even some of the top brass. I needed to look good.
"You look like such a badass," Codric appraised me with his usual irreverent expression that somehow also managed to convey admiration and desire.
"I do, don't I?" I patted my coif. "How do you like my new hairstyle?"
"Not a fan." He offered me his arm. "I prefer it loose and cascading down to your glorious ass while you are not wearing anything."
His unrelenting need for me was one of the things I loved most about him. He seemed to never get tired of seeing me naked or making love to me.
Perhaps he was a keeper after all, but I wasn't ready for any declarations of undying love yet. I was riding the post-bonding high, and once I came down, I might think differently about the state of our relationship.
"I know what you like." I turned to him. "But would it kill you to act like a gentleman once in a while?"
"I'm not a gentleman and have never claimed to be."
I arched a brow, put a hand on my hip, and struck a pose. "Perhaps you should rethink your answer."
He let out an exaggerated sigh. "I'll try to behave this evening. But I'm not making any promises about tomorrow."
On second thought, I didn't really want Codric to act all stuffy during the party. I wanted him to get drunk and sing lewd ballads and make inappropriate jokes like he had done the first time we met. Perhaps not while the brass was still there, but after they left.
"Don't try too hard." I leaned over and kissed his cheek. "You're more fun when you're irreverent, and especially when you are singing bawdy tunes."
He rolled his eyes. "Can you make up your mind, woman? I can't guess what you want every minute of the day. I might have bonded with a dragon and discovered what it's like to communicate telepathically, but that doesn't mean I can read your thoughts."
"Find a middle ground," I said. "That shouldn't be too difficult for someone as sophisticated as you. Like it's okay to comment on my ass while we are both naked in bed, but not while we are in company. I'm sure that back in Catonia, you didn't make comments like that in public."
"No, not publicly, but when alone…" He shrugged. "You'd be surprised, but even the stuffiest Elurian ladies liked it when I talked dirty to them. Some giggled hysterically while others…"
I lifted a hand to stop him. "I don't want to hear about your numerous conquests."
He grinned. "You started it. Besides, I like it when you get jealous over me."
That earned him a punch to the arm.
"Ouch!" He rubbed the afflicted appendage as if I had really hurt him. "What was that for?"
"For being an ass. Not a badass, just an ass."
He didn't even pretend to look offended. "I'm both." He reached for my hand and pulled me to him. "But you love me anyway." He kissed me.
I wanted to pull away and save my lipstick, but he felt so good, and I could always reapply the lipstick later.