Page 86 of The Flame King's Queen

“You’re allowing her to bite you? Stop that at once.”

I laugh and shake my head. “It’s not as though she can help herself.”

“They mustn’t learn bad habits. This is a critical time in their development.” The dragonmaster sits down on the ground and shows me the best way to handle hatchlings, but it’s not long before they’re gnawing on his boots, his cuffs, his ankles.

Stesha moves his finger through the dust, and a hatchling chases after it. He draws his finger in circles, and the little dragon romps around and around, making me laugh. Stesha’s lips twitch.

“Some of the more spirited hatchlings I’ve encountered, but it’s to be expected with parents like theirs.”

“And so cute! Look how adorable they are.” I pick one up and smoosh it against my cheek. It immediately gets tangled in my hair.

“These are battle dragons, not pets,” Stesha tells me sternly as one climbs up his chest, turns in a little circle, and goes to sleep. One by one, the other dragons clamber on top of him. Stesha settles with his back to a rock while Esmeral tiredly watches her offspring.

As stern as he acts, I know Stesha loves baby dragons. I’ve seen him carrying them around and playing with them plenty of times. Under the weight of Esmeral’s hatchlings, he starts to look sleepy, and his eyes drift closed.

“I’m so glad you survived the battle with Kane,” I whisper. “Zabriel and I were so worried.”

He opens one pale blue eye and fixes it on me.

“Yes, yes, I know what you’re going to say. Our worry was not necessary. Our worry offends you.”

Stesha closes his eye again. “I was going to say thank you to you and the king for having faith in my decision to accept Kane’s terms. Where is Kane now?”

I sigh heavily. “Ravenna left for the east as soon as the games ended. Kane followed her, and the rest of the wild flare went with him.”

“Then she perhaps saved many lives.”

I suppose he means by forcing Kane to leave the city and follow her into the east. “While risking her own. I don’t know if she still lives. If she suffers.”

He’s silent for a long time. “The kingdom’s Omegas are all walking harder paths than they ever have before.”

“But we are tougher than we look,” I remind him.

“I am grateful that you are right.”

“What happens now for our illustrious, games-winning dragonmaster?”

Stesha smiles slightly with his eyes still closed. “First I must be crowned with my laurels, so I hope you haven’t thrown them away. I have many plans, Queen Isavelle. But right now, at this moment, I am staying here. The dragonmaster must bond with Maledin’s newest hatchlings.”

He doesn’t look like he’s bonding. He looks like he’s having a nap under a blanket of baby dragons, but I suppose that’s more or less the same thing. I leave him with Esmeral, and she watches over the exhausted dragonmaster and all her offspring as they sleep.

24

Zabriel

Esmeral’s hatchlings are the most delightful, enchanting, and utterly vicious little creatures I have ever beheld. I couldn’t be prouder, and apparently neither can Scourge. He stands proudly over his offspring as they romp over his talons and tail in the morning light. Esmeral flutters down with a freshly caught lake fish between her teeth and drops it on the ground. The hatchlings fall on the fish with excited hisses and start to devour it.

Esmeral pads over to me, and we watch the little dragons together.

“You’re so clever,” I murmur, caressing her head. “Your rider is going to have her baby soon as well. I can smell it in her scent. You and Isavelle always do everything together.”

Esmeral trills and rubs her head against my shoulder. I have no doubt she’s caught the change in Isavelle’s scent for herself.

There are a great many Maledinni at the dragongrounds this morning, more than the usual number. Many of them are soldiers in the City Guards, but I suspect they want to join the ranks of the dragonriders. Every potential dragonrider in Lenhale wants to meet the queen’s dragon’s hatchlings.

Scourge allows them to watch his children from a distance, but smoke pours in warning from his nostrils if they come too close or are too loud.

One figure moving among the dragons catches my eye. A slight, familiar woman with long, brown hair. I haven’t spoken with Zenevieve since she returned to Lenhale with Stesha, and it irritates me that she’s here, working among the dragons, and ignoring me as if she didn’t flee the Dragon Games in floods of tears.

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