Chapter 3
VAELA
“You’ll have to do better than that, little fish!” I ducked a sharp spray of water that shot out of the lake. My eyes flicked across the glassy surface, watching for the telltale ripple.
There!
I dodged left, rolling away from another jet.
It grazed my left ear this time, and I smirked, tracing that sparkling shape beneath the surface of the water.
The ridges along Min’s silver spine drew above the surface as she swam too close to the lake’s edge, a ripple of water coming up to graze my boots.
“Too close,” I called. “That’s cheating!”
A puff of steam rose into the air as she snorted.
The only rules Min liked to play by were the ones she decided on.
Another insanely accurate spout of water shot from the lake, catching me in the gut.
I doubled over, groaning. Min’s head popped above the water.
I didn’t know it was possible for a dragon to gloat, but somehow, she managed it.
I rose to my feet. “All right. That’s enough. C’mon, time to get out of here.”
A low rumble echoed in response to my words.
Min drifted further away from me, twisting and turning through the water.
She didn’t want to leave yet, and I couldn’t blame her.
Next to being in the sky, the lake was her favorite place in the world.
And frankly, at her age, the water was better for her.
My little minnow.
She’d always loved the water. When I’d found her as a dragonling, still small enough to tuck under my arm, she’d been camped out in the flooded riverbed behind the barracks where I’d completed my wrangler training.
Whenever I got close to the river, she’d pop her head out of the water, wanting attention.
Eventually, she started bringing me shiny rainbow trout as gifts.
My hope had been that she’d return to her herd and live out her days in the wild.
But I’d suspected she’d already spent too much time around humans as a dragonling, naturally domesticating herself.
And when she’d started curling up on the stoop behind my barracks each night to sleep, I knew she was mine.
Another rumble left bubbles boiling in the water.
“I understand,” I called, “but you know what happens when we linger.”
Bad things.
She flicked her tail hard, and a massive wave of water came up to splash me. I shielded my bandaged hand against my body, hunching over to stop it from getting soaked. The last thing I needed to do was incite the wrath of that burn nurse tomorrow.
Eden.
Stars, what a nightmare. A girl couldn’t even do her job anymore without being told she was doing it wrong.
As if this burn nurse knew the first thing about wrangling.
Or armor. Or what the hell I was supposed to be doing with it.
She slapped bandages on burns. That’s where her concern with wrangling should have started and ended.
I thought back to the way her eyes had flashed when she’d snapped at me, brown flecked with lines of meadow green.
Bits of her blonde hair had pulled from the knot at the base of her neck as she’d flitted about the patient, the loose hairs curling by her temples as she’d worked.
Perhaps I’d been a little too quick to judge her—she clearly knew what she was doing when it came to healing.
But that didn’t give her any right to tell me how to do my job.
Honestly, for such a petite woman, she was awfully loud and bossy, and maybe that was why I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
I needed to stop. And yet every time my hand smarted, my thoughts were drawn back to that encounter like a dragon to a nest.
Gunther had never irritated me to this degree. I wondered if he knew what a menace his new burn nurse was—the way her cheeks flushed the color of sunset when she was irritated. The way her delicate hands curled into angry fists as she stiffened.
I wrenched my thoughts away from the burn nurse as heat prickled at the back of my neck. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to have to throw myself into the lake to stop the spread. With any luck, Gunther would return tomorrow to put me out of my misery.
My eyes flicked right as Min lifted her tail, preparing to douse me with another wave. I pointed a finger in warning. “Revenge will be swift,” I called, the corner of my mouth twitching. “Don’t start something you can’t finish.”
Her tail sank beneath the water, a playfulness returning to her movements as she glided across the lake. When she reached the middle, she coiled, turning circles around herself to create a massive whirlpool. Then she leapt from the water, diving straight into her own funnel.
I grinned at the sight. Seeing a dragon in action, taking to the sky, was always exhilarating. But seeing a dragon play, knowing they were comfortable enough to let their guard down and be vulnerable… Few things could truly compare to earning a dragon’s trust.
“Frixsar!” a harsh voice bellowed. “Get that blasted beast out of my lake!”
“Curse the stars,” I muttered, turning to face Cyrus Goddard. He stomped through the woods behind me, slicing through the underbrush with his scythe. His bushy gray eyebrows twitched as his beady stare landed on Min.
It didn’t matter how stealthy we were, he always seemed to know when I’d brought her for a dip. “Min!” I called, signaling her as a serpentine head poked above the water. Two tiny ears twitched. “Time to go.”
“You’re bloody right it’s time to go!” Cyrus snarled. “As if you and that beast were invited in the first place.”
Min inched out of the water, head cocked.
She made a sound of disappointment. I wanted to indulge her longer.
Really, I did. The water took the stress of flight off her joints and eased the workload on her heart.
I’d let her swim here every day if I could, but Cyrus had very different opinions about all that.
“I will not have that wretched dragon infecting the lake where I water my cattle!” he continued, marching right up to me. “How many times do I have to tell you?”
“She’s not infected with anything.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. It really wouldn’t help my case. But dragons and humans had been coexisting in these mountainous areas for hundreds of years. If there was some sort of dragon lurgy, it would have been a problem long before now.
Cyrus clearly disliked that answer as he attempted to jab me with the butt of the scythe.
I jerked back, out of reach. He was an old man, sturdy from years of working the land, but almost three times my age.
If I needed to protect myself, I could have.
But I didn’t want to hurt the grumpy farmer.
I just wanted him to sell me his damn lake.
Min reacted to the threat against me, launching out of the water with a menacing growl. Water sluiced off her silver scales, each one glittering like bits of starlight. They jutted upright like hackles on a dog. She curled her lips back over her teeth, the pearly spears as long as my forearm.
It was a fearsome display, and Cyrus stumbled back at the sight.
I bit down on my grin. I knew he wasn’t actually stupid enough to incite the wrath of a fully grown dragon, but he clearly wanted us gone, and I’d respect his wishes.
“Minnow,” I said, cocking my head.
Her ears twitched in response to her full name.
She knew I meant business and slumped toward me, still growling at Cyrus.
I rubbed at one of her scales, drying off a handhold to help me scramble up her back.
Min rolled the muscles in her side, the motion carrying me to the most secure position at the base of her neck.
“I mean it, Frixsar!” Cyrus called up to me. “Don’t let me catch you here again.”
“She means no harm, and you know it.”
“I know nothing of the sort.” He brandished the scythe at me. “Keep to the sky, or I’ll have that beast dragged away in chains.”
I waved the old man off. I knew a bluff when I heard one.
Probably.
The last thing Ember Ridge needed was to lose a dragon wrangler because her dragon got carted off at the insistence of some put-out farmer. Especially during the migration, when the risk of encounters with wild dragons was at an all-time high.
I gave Min a pat. Her muscles coiled tight, then she shot straight into the sky.
I tightened my hold on her scales, watching over my shoulder as Cyrus became a tiny speck on the ground.
I didn’t know what he needed an entire lake for, but I knew better than to push him any farther today.
Of course, Min had all the required permits to be allowed in town.
But if a person complained about a dragon enough…
Well, the last thing I needed was an unintended visit from the kingsguard. Some of them had a bad habit of striking first and asking questions later.
The trouble was, without access to Cyrus’s lake, the next closest swimming hole big enough to accommodate Min was high in the mountains.
I didn’t want her exerting the energy needed to reach those altitudes.
Her heart would have to work twice as hard to reach those heights, a kind of stress her body didn’t need.
Dragons might look invincible, but they were far from it.
Min and I knew that better than anyone. I ran my hands over her scales as the wind whipped past me, tears gathering in the corners of my eyes from the sheer acceleration.
Min was a Starshot—a class of dragon known for their intense speed and reduced lifespans.
At her fastest, catching her in flight would be like catching a shooting star zooming across the sky.
Bonding a Starshot was rare, simply because they were rare.
But as incredible as she was, knowing that her heart beat too fast for its own good haunted me. So every morning, I thanked the stars for giving us one more beautiful day in the clouds together. I knew the time was coming when she’d no longer be able to lift us into the sky.
My grip on her tightened.