fourth wing xadens pov

chapter 14

Chapter 14:Bonded

The generals have been at each other’s throats for at least thirty minutes. It would be amusing to watch them tear themselves apart from the inside, if it wasn’t Violet who was the topic of all their frustration.

Two dragons… Not just Tairn, but two.

Because she wasn’t a big enough target already.

I’m stood across from the medical tent, my shadows pulsing around it in the darkness. Every stitch Kaori threads through her upper arm feels personal; I should have stepped in earlier.

Sgaeyl’s head snaps up from across the field, the little golden dragon, Andarna, at her feet. “You are not responsible for her, Wingleader,” she warns.

I roll my eyes, my arms crossing over my chest. “Thanks to Tairn, that’s not strictly true anymore, is it?”

She huffs steam in an angry snort, startling Andarna who flicks her head to look at me too. Towering over them both, Tairn stares pointedly ahead, his gaze fixed on the healer’s tent just like mine.

I watch Violet limp over to join them and wonder if she knows that every rider in the field is tracking her steps. That it’s not just awe or jealousy, but unadulterated hatred they fling at her with every stare. She’s General Sorrengail’s daughter, she should have never made it this far, and now she’s bonded with the best of them, breaking our most long-standing tradition in the process.

Two dragons… no wonder people hate her.

Gods, I’m so proud of her.

The errant thought comes from nowhere but is quickly swallowed up by growing apprehension as General Melgren’s brute of a dragon, Codagh, approaches from the valley. His eyes are narrowed at Tairn, a low growl stirring in his throat.

Tairn takes a protective step over Violet, pinning her between his claws and growls back, deep and thunderous. Violet stares up at Codagh, her chin tilted in the same way she looked at me on Conscription Day. This woman has no fear.

Codagh gestures with his muzzle for the dragons to follow him, and my eyebrows quirk up as every dragon turns to lumber down the field and take flight. Tairn is one of the last to leave, his head turning back over his wings to pin Violet with a stare, his eyes flicking towards me once.

I can’t hear what they’re saying but get the message loud and clear: I’m on protection detail until he returns.

Violet looks around searching for me as Tairn takes off but doesn’t stride across the field to join me when our eyes lock. There’s not an ounce of panic in her face, and I realise that she has absolutely no clue how many people in Basgiath now want her dead. Her name is being spoken in hushed groups all across this field, my shadows carefully collecting who and carrying it back to me to deal with later. They are all threats to her, which makes them a threat to me by default.

I already know from the record book that forty-one cadets didn’t bond this Threshing. That’s forty-one enemies she didn’t have this morning.

And there she is across the field, oblivious and celebrating.

I am furious at her complete lack of self-preservation, still nursing the soft burn of anger from watching her deliberately put herself between three armed cadets and a dragon. But I can’t help myself from smiling when Ridoc catches her around the waist. She deserves this moment of happiness after everything she went through today.