Chapter 113 Myla #2
While flying is a natural instinct for Sunis, having me on her back and feeding her instructions through our bond has proven to require practice.
I had snuck out of the palace often in the first few days after our bonding, finding her on the dragon fields pacing as if she waited for me to arrive.
Our flights had been chaotic at first, both testing exactly how to properly communicate while she figured out how to fly gracefully with my weight between her wings.
Soaring over the onyx mountaintops, I keep my eyes peeled for any other dragons and their riders.
Despite my wishes to go to my father as soon as possible with proof of bonding a dragon, Navin graciously pointed out that our bond needed time to strengthen.
“There is no substitute for time, Myla,” he had said, stripping himself of his armor and the tunic beneath to reveal his stitched-up self-inflicted injury in our sitting room the night we rescued Sunis.
“If Father and his dragon challenge you both to a fight, you and Sunis will lose.”
The logic made sense, yet it did nothing to quell the disquiet within me that wanted to go to my father immediately.
But Navin had fucking stabbed himself so Sunis and I could get away, selling a story to the guards that the Shadow had come for a dragon and killed to get one.
There were no witnesses to refute his tale, no reason to believe he was lying.
My relief was immense when he came through the door that night, and then my guilt had flooded in right behind it.
Especially when he explained that his delay coming home had been less about getting his wound looked at and more about withstanding our father’s disappointed rant.
The fae king is nothing if not consistently dissatisfied with his children.
Home. The word slips into my mind as Sunis spreads her wings out wide, blocking my view on either of the landscape below as she slows her speed to a glide and we start to descend. The mist is cold against my cheeks, the high altitude penetrating my leathers.
When we finally break through to clear skies, Sunis turns, giving me a quick glimpse of the break in the forest below and the small black dots that mar the grass.
Dragons prowl through the area away from the mountains that house Sunis and Bali’s cave, and she guides us in that direction, flapping her wings to slow herself before she lands in a crouch, jostling my body with the movement and making my teeth clack together.
“We have to work on your landing,” I tell her, not for the first time, fighting off a smirk when she growls low in response.
Letting go of the leather strap, I tug my hood back over my head and stand, climbing down as Sunis shakes her wings before tucking them safely into her side.
The harness that keeps me on her back will stay on her to help her get used to the feel of it, though I hope eventually we can fly without it.
My breath clouds in front of me as I survey the fields, spotting green and blue dragons in the distance.
Being bonded should protect me from their ire should they see me out here without Sunis, but I stay close to her side, following her towards the cave just in case.
But as we near, a growl deep and low rumbles its way out, the ground shaking beneath the dragon’s steps.
Out of habit, I reach for my curved blade, only to remember the new weight on the other side.
Aria had freed me from my debt early and then given me a dagger that was more powerful than she ever could have known.
Fingers dancing over its hilt, I brace myself for what is going to emerge from the cave, when Sunis releases a deep chittering noise.
Lowering her head, she watches as Bali walks out into the sunlight, moving slowly as if she’s unsteady on her feet.
Navin had been giving me updates on Bali from where they still held her in the compound when he could, but our father had tightened his hold on his secrets, and Navin didn’t think he could ask without the king getting suspicious.
My shoulders relax as I watch Bali nuzzle against Sunis’s head, the two finally reunited again.
When Bali’s attention shifts to me, I stand tall, looking over the massive black dragon.
Her head drops low, my eyes widening as she gently nudges her nose into me, and the word safe shimmers down the bond from Sunis.
My stomach hollows as I place a hand over one of her hard scales, her show of appreciation an endearing move I hadn’t expected from a dragon.
I understand now why Sunis wanted to leave the beach.
She somehow knew her mother had returned.
When they walk into the safety of their cave again, I begin my trek back to my own home.
But a persistent thought nags at me the entire journey back.
If Bali was freed from my father’s enclosure, does that mean she is now bonded to someone new?
Or had the mages been unsuccessful? Unease curls and claws at me again, but I snuff it out in favor of focusing on what matters most now.
I have Sunis, and soon, I will demand a meeting with the king to show him exactly how much his cursed daughter has just become an even bigger thorn in his side.