Fire Breather

42.

RIDERS partied as hard as we fought, and we fought pretty fucking hard.

The gathering hall was more raucous than I had ever seen it by the time the sun began to set. Cadets gathered around—or were on top of tables like me—the overflowing food and pitchers of sweet wine, frothy ale, and a lavender lemonade.

Due to my more than fair share of ale, I was giggling every few minutes as Nadine danced with me on the table. It was odd that the girl who hated us marked ones was now dancing with me. But the ale stopped me from caring.

Since graduation, I hadn't seen Garrick or even my brother, but once Ridoc shoved a cup of wine in my hand, I didn't bother to find my brother and his best friend. They could find—

Suddenly, hands were cupping the back of my legs and then I was pulled off the table, making me shriek at the movements. By the time I was sat in someone's lap beside Violet, I had a dagger unsheathed and pressed against a throat.

"Drunk and still prepared for a fight, sweetheart?" Garrick drawled, his tone teasing.

I rolled my eyes at him, moving the dagger away before sheathing it. "You're lucky I didn't slit your throat, Tavis." I sighed, moving around until I was straddling him with my back against the edge of the table and my arms crossed over my chest. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with my brother?"

"I'm here because of him," he admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "We saw you dancing on the table, and I was more than fine with you doing so because the sight was beautiful, but he worried you would slip and hurt yourself."

My lips tugged into a smirk as I sat up straighter. "You enjoyed my dancing?"

"It brought back some memories." He mirrored my smirk while I felt my neck and face heat up. "Those hips are truly my weakness."

"Oh, shut up," I laughed, rolling my eyes at him while trying to ignore the knots in my stomach.

He chuckled, grabbing my waist and easily lifting me up as my eyes widened. Once he was standing up again, he placed me back on the bench but didn't move his hands from my waist. "I need to go find your brother again but come find me before I leave. We'll need to figure out what to do about Nim and Chradh."

Right, because our dragons couldn't be apart for long and he was stationed in Samara with my brother.

"I'll come find you if I'm not passed out somewhere," I mused, pushing his hands off my waist before turning around on the bench with my back to him. "Go have a drink, Tavis."

"I'm not drinking when you are," he quietly said and then I felt his lips against the back of my head before he walked away, making me smile to myself.

But when I looked up from the table, my smile faltered, and I furrowed my brows at all the eyes on me. "What?"

"You're so painfully in love," Ridoc teased, nudging his elbow into my side and I swatted his arm. "I hope I'll find that love in Chantara."

"Chantara?" Rhiannon asked, leaning forward and raising her brows at him. "Out of every privilege that comes with being a second-year, that's what you're looking forward to? It's only a rumor."

The village that supplied Basgiath had always been open to second-years from the Healer Quadrant, Scribe Quadrant, and Infantry Quadrant, but not ours due to us being banned after a fight that burned down a bar.

"I'm just saying I heard they might lift the ban finally, and we've been stuck with this dating pool for the last year," Ridoc stated, throwing an arm around my shoulders while he motioned around the hall with his cup. "So even the possibility of getting leave to spend a few hours in Chantara every week is definitely what I'm looking forward to the most."