Aisereigh's reaction

Brennan's POV

I am tired. Exhausted.

The mending had requested all that I've got. But she will be fine now. She will live. And that's all I want. I would have given my life for her.

She will now need time to sleep and gain her strength again.

I look down at her beautiful hair spread on the pillow, those incredible light brown cascades changing into a flow of silver at the end. She didn't cut them as all the other riders.

She had grown up into a beautiful woman. Violet was not the child I remembered anymore. Lightning wielder... two dragons... I still cannot believe it.

I check her faint breathing; regular and stable.

Xaden is still here, at her side, with her hand in his, as it had been for the full day I treated her. He never left her side, not even when they buried Liam, his brother at heart.

Once again I wonder what's between them.

I see Xaden's gaze on her. Tired, beaten, worried. And that makes me even more angry with him.

"I need to talk to you," I say to him in my coldest voice.

"After," he answers without moving his gaze from her.

"NO, NOW!" I hiss.

He looks at me then, his face troubled. I never saw him like this. Not even that first day, with his back covered in blood. He seems lost and wounded.

"No, I need to be sure she is fine," he answers.

"She will be fine. She just has to sleep to recover. You may come back after our talk. There are conversations to be made and decisions to be taken, not only with the Assembly."

"Garrick can manage those," he cuts me off.

"No, Xaden, you will talk to me about my sister. You owe me."

"When she wakes up, not now," he says with an imposing tone.

Three days pass with me visiting Violet and checking on her, making sure she is recovering well. Xaden is always there, at her side.

I don't even think he slept at all. He is pale and still in the same clothes as when they came.

We exchange only a few words, mainly about how Violet is doing.

I know what happened now. The squad referred to the Assembly about it.

They fought and won against four Venins, and the Gods know how many wyverns. My little sister and Xaden saved them all.

I'm so proud of her for fighting on the right side. Not that I ever thought she would stay with them once she knew. I was sure, but knowing what she did feels... different.

There's something they are not saying, I know. I see it in Xaden's eyes, when he looks at her.

There's something between them, and it's not just a thing of mated dragons.

On the third day since their arrival, Violet finally wakes up. And I finally can talk to her and see her beautiful eyes open.

When I enter Xaden's room, there's a strange buzz in it. I find them near the window, looking out.

"I'm still hoping that missive at Athebyne was really about the War Games. Do you think there's any chance we just happened to end up in the middle of a wyvern attack at that outpost?" she is saying to him.

"That definitely wasn't an accident, little sister," I say from the doorway.

Violet's eyes widen as she sees me standing in the doorway.