Page 52 of Wild Bond

“And where is Zade?” she inquired with a grin. “I believe I saw Valla in the skies earlier when you arrived.”

“He’s here,” Rake confirmed. “But you know Zade, he’s always slipping off to parts unknown. I’m sure he’ll turn up soon.”

“Knowing you,” she replied, her tone teasing, “whatever he is doing is probably the real reason you came here. You never do anything without having multiple reasons for it.”

Rake’s expression stayed relaxed, giving nothing away. “Think what you will, Leah. You know I can’t reveal anything to you, even if that were the case.”

She gave him an exaggerated pout. “Well, you’re no fun.” She seemed to shake it off good-naturedly, then added in a more serious tone, “But you will tell me if it is anything I should know about?”

“Of course.”

She smiled at him, and her voice softened enough so I could barely hear as she murmured, “You know, you don’t need an excuse to come and visit the city Rake . . . to come and visit me.” She stared up at him in a sultry manner that I knew I could never hope to replicate, and my stomach clenched again.

Unfortunately . . . or maybe fortunately, before I got to hear Rake’s response, Zade appeared.

“Leah!” he cried, wrapping the female dragon rider up in a crushing bear hug and then releasing her. “How is the respectable rider life treating you?”

With a final glance at Rake, Leah turned to the other man and launched into a discussion with Zade about her life here in Itrain.

Feeling a little out of place and wanting to look busy, I meandered over to a nearby stall that was selling all kinds of different powders and ingredients for potions, medicine, and the like. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the stall was selling unicorn dust.

Unicorn dust, which was made from the horn of a unicorn ground up into a fine powder, was obscenely expensive and extremely rare. There weren’t many unicorns left, and they were impossible to catch since they could escape almost any snare or trap. The powder, when mixed into a liquid and drunk, could cure any injury, even if you were on the brink of death.

“It says it costs ten gold gents per ounce,” Rake said, his deep voice startling me. I turned to see he was standing right behind me, watching me.

“I know. I can read,” I said, trying not to sound defensive. It was an understandable assumption for him to make, considering where I had grown up. Luckily for me, my mother taught me before she died.

“My apologies,” he said. Then he lowered his voice enough that the stall owner couldn’t hear as he told me, “It’s fake. No seller in their right mind would have that much unicorn dust out in the open like that if it were real.”

I shook my head in mock concern. “Any thief worth their salt could just saunter on by and steal it right off the table without anyone being the wiser.”

His lip twitched. “Now that would be a shame.”

We stared at each other for a moment before I found myself looking away.

“We’re not together anymore,” Rake said a few quiet seconds later, surprising me.

I glanced back at him and couldn’t help studying his face before I said, “I didn’t ask.”

“You were not asking very loudly.” He smirked then his eyes shifted as they stared down into mine. “Rin—” he started.

But once again we were interrupted by Leah trying to convince Rake and Zade, and by extension me, to come back to her home and stay for a drink. Thankfully, Rake declined, saying we had to be on our way soon so it wouldn’t be nightfall by the time we made it back to Dessin. Leah accepted the excuse graciously, but not before giving Rake one last longing look, a look which he appeared to ignore altogether.

We left the markets and made our way back to the landing platform where we had left our gear. It wasn’t long before we were mounted up and in the air. As we took flight, I heard several awed cries and gasps from the crowd. It made me think once again of how surreal my life had become in such a short span of time. I was no longer one of those people watching from the ground. Instead, I was riding a dragon in the sky.

“So,whowonourlittle contest, Rin?” Zade asked when we were less than an hour’s flight from Dessin. “Who gave you the best gift?”

Zade had been goading me for hours on this. I could just make out his wild grin from where he sat with his back straight in Valla’s saddle, the dragon herself flying high and off to my right. Her and Skye’s wings were only a few feet apart.

Rake and Naasir flew to Skye’s left, on level with us. It was Rake who responded before I could. “That doesn’t matter now. We need to rise into the cloud cover. We’re coming up on the pass.”

I glanced ahead, and sure enough, the rocky walls of Dividian Pass rose on either side, marking the start of the griffin nesting grounds.

Zade laughed. “You’re just trying to change the subject. You’re bitter because you know I w—"

Shiny!Skye’s thought came through the bond, and I barely had time to grasp that she had seen a flash of something metal in the trees below before she pulled in her wings and dove downward.

“Skye, wait! Don’t—”

---