Page 10 of Flameborne: Fury
~ DONAVYN ~
I lay there sweating and aching, muttering in my head about Kgosi’s laughter.
‘You should have woken me sooner,’I sent bitterly.
‘I wasn’t the one who did.’
I frowned. I’d heard his voice in the—
A heavy knock pounded on my door and I startled again. Shit. That’s what woke me. Scrambling out of bed, I threw a robe around my shoulders and held the tie closed at the front, praying it would hide my still stimulated body.
Bren’s head sinking back, her eyes closing and mouth open—
Fuck!
I reached the door and threw back the bolt, yanking it open to find a startled Ronen, whose brows rose as he scanned from my undoubtedly sweaty hair, down the hurriedly-tied robe, to my bare feet.
“Sir?” he said uneasily.
“What is it? Did something happen to Bren?” I blurted, thensnapped my teeth closed over the words, begging God to turn back time to the momentbeforeher Wing Commander’s curious look turned wary.
“Bren’s fine,” he said hesitantly. “Are you?”
“Yes, yes, of course. I’m sorry. I was asleep. Just startled, that’s all. What’s going on?”
Ronen frowned. “You asked me to come in. To discuss her assessments and make our plan for the third trial?”
Shit. That’s right. I’d forgotten. God, I was a mess.
‘You certainly are,’Kgosi drawled in my head. I growled back at him and ushered Ronen inside, apologizing that I’d need a moment to dress, then hurried back to my room.
As I splashed water on my face and chest and begged my body to calm down, I tried to focus.
The need for this meeting wasn’t unique to Bren. Over the next two days, I’d have meetings with the Wing Captains of each of the five Flameborne who’d been passed yesterday. And the results of those discussions were of critical importance. They would determine Bren’s—and her Flameborne brothers’—entire future.
When I could look in the mirror and see a man who was at least in charge of his body, if not his thoughts, I dressed quickly then marched out to Ronen, who’d taken a seat at the dining table in my great room. The table that was rarely used for dining. Much more often for talk of war.
Pushing away the memories of the dream, I dropped into the seat across from Ronen and took the sheaf of papers he offered.
“Her flying assessment notes and the evaluations from her First Rank raising,” he explained as I flipped through them, barely reading a word. “They’re pretty standard. Nothing in particular stood out—except her courage,” he said proudly. “But yesterday…”
I looked up as he offered a second set of papers, thinner than the first. I took them, rolling my jaw. I already knew the notes I’d hurriedly relayed to the scribe. So, I flipped past those to Mont’s notes, scanning them and nodding.
Mont was never one for florid compliments, so there were few words and even fewer emotions. But his thoughts reflected mine, though we hadn’t discussed them—and that meant that the Officers who’d been spread out to observe had all identified the same traits. It was Mont’s job to collate those—and in fact, he’d even offered a few quotes at the end, which was unlike him, but given the conclusions we leaders were drawing, I wasn’t surprised.
I looked up from the papers. Ronen sat across from me, hands folded on the table, shoulders back, his gaze intent.
“Have you read these?” I asked him quietly.
He shook his head. “I chose to wait. I wanted to see if my thoughts aligned. I’m testing myself.”
I nodded. “Well then, Wing Captain of the very first female Flameborne in history, what is your assessment of Flameborne, Second Rank, Brennan Kearney?”
Ronen’s throat jumped. “She has no lack of courage.”
I nodded.
“She looks for solutions that are unorthodox. Some might say, reckless. And she’s decisive.”
