Fire Breather

39.

MY plan was to go back to my room and fall asleep as I hoped, but apparently, that wasn't happening when I passed Violet to my room and she grabbed my wrist, pulling me with her and her brother outside.

Brennan's Orange Daggertail, Marbh, and Tairn, followed us until we reached Sgaeyl and Nim who stood under the shade of several even taller trees as though guarding something—which had to be Andarna.

Sgaeyl snarled at Brennan, baring her fangs and taking one threatening step in his direction while Nim lowered her head to his height, flicking her scorpiontail in warning. It seemed I wasn't the only one who didn't trust the oldest Sorrengail then.

"Hey! That's my brother," Violet warned, putting herself between the dragons and her brother.

"I miss my bed," I quietly sighed, placing my hands on my hips.

"She's aware," Brennan muttered. "Just doesn't like me. Never has. And Nim just seems to hate everyone."

"That's why Nim and I get along so well," I hummed with a bubble of pride growing in my chest.

"Don't take it personally," Violet said right to Sgaeyl's face. "She doesn't like anyone but Xaden, and she only tolerates me, though I'm growing on her." Sgaeyl's head swung. "In fact, Xaden's walking this way."

"That's really fucking weird." Brennan folded his arms across his chest and looked behind us. "Can you two always sense each other?"

Just as he asked that, I felt the shimmering blue bond belonging to Garrick pulling. "Sometimes," I answered for Violet. "Violet can sense my brother because of Sgaeyl and Tairn's bond like I can sense that Garrick is with him right now through Nim and Chradh's bond."

"I'd say you get used to it, but you don't," Violet further added and then walked into the copse with me close behind. Sgaeyl took two steps to the right so we were between her and Tairn, directly in front of—

"Holy shit," I blurted, staring at the sleeping dragon who was fucking huge now.

"That's..." Violet shook her head from beside me.

"Wasn't expecting that," Brennan quietly said. "Riorson left out some details when he reported in this morning. I've never seen such accelerated growth in a dragon before."

"Her scales are black," Violet mumbled.

Andarna's scales were so deeply black they glimmered almost purple—"Is she yours?" I openly gaped at my dragon who blinked down at me. "I swear to the gods—"

"She is not my own," Nim answered me, tilting her head. "But the purple...It seems there is a possibility I won't be the only purple dragon around now. Dragons are only gold-feathered as hatchlings."

My heart jumped and I whipped my head to Violet. "She was a fucking h—" Tairn rumbled deep in his chest, cutting me off as Violet sent me a curt nod. She knew this whole time that Goldie was a hatchling. "Holy shit."

"We need to get Andarna back to the Vale so she can enter the Dreamless Sleep and finish the growth process," Nim warned me as I faced back to her. "There's a reason adolescents don't bond. They don't have the patience for humans. Or elders. Or logic."

"So she's a teenager?" I groaned, dragging a hand down my face. "A purple...black...teenage dragon."

"Not even she knew what color her scales would mature to. Only the eldest of our dens can sense a hatchling's pigment. In fact, two more black dragons have hatched in the last year, according to Codagh."

"Is she awake yet?" my brother asked from behind us, startling me.

I turned around to see him standing beside Brennan, with Imogen, Garrick, Bodhi, and the others flanking him in the tall grass.