The Golden Rider Book 1: The Golden Traitor

Chapter 3.13

Chapter 3.13

For once, it wasn't the sun that woke me up. It was the loud pounding on the door.

"Val, wake up you sleepy head. Don't you know it's like a whole two hours later you're normally up?" Jacey's voice echoed through the room like there wasn't even a wall between us.

"Go away," I yelled back and snuggled deeper under the covers.

"Hey, you're the one who said that you'd help me pack."

"Ten more minutes," I called back. I heard her laughing on the other side of the door.

"You're on the clock," she said. I groaned and pulled myself out of bed. Everything cracked as I bent down to lace up my boots.

Old lady.

I don't want to hear it from you.

How was your night?  Even though Adonis wasn't here, I started blushing thinking about last night. I must have fallen asleep on the roof last night because the only thing I remembered was Bates tucking me into my bed.

Shut up. Adonis chuckled and went back to napping. Most of the Dragons had spent the last few days getting a lot of extra sleep to prepare for the flight tomorrow. While a Rider could fall asleep on the back of their Dragon, having a Dragon fall asleep mid-flight was definitely a problem.

I finally finished pulling myself together and walked out to meet Jacey. She was sitting against the wall when I walked out and sprung to her feet when she saw me.

"You look like crap," she said. I rolled my eyes.

"Thanks."

"Interesting night?" she asked and handed me some breakfast. We were going to be heading out to a nearby town to gather supplies, so breakfast had to be quick this morning.

"No more than any other night."

"So you get carried bridal style to your room every other night?" I nearly choked. Two boys passing us on the stairs stopped and stared while Jacey pounded my back trying to clear my airways all while laughing her head off. I'm sure we both looked crazy. "So you and Bates huh? Have you been going steady for a while?" She asked once I finally caught my breath.

"No, we've been a little busy trying to stay alive. Last night was a first."

"So what did you do? Did you make out? I bet you did. He looks like he's into that. Tell me all the details, start to finish."

"You want all the details?" I asked.

"Of course! Don't leave anything out!" I motioned her to come closer. We had finally made it to the bottom floor. Her eyes widened as I pulled her to the side away from everyone else.

"Promise you won't tell anyone?" She nodded. "Well, it started when we walked up to the Academy's roof. The sun was setting behind the mountains casting its final warm rays of light across the valley. We laid down to watch the stars begin to twinkle in the night sky when he reached over and grabbed my hand, just like this," I said and gently took her hand. Jacey smirked.

"And then?"

"And then," I leaned in close, "I fell asleep." Jacey's mouth dropped to the floor.

"You suck!" Jacey pouted and gave me a playful shove. "You really had me going. I can't believe you had the perfect opportunity to make a move and decided, oh why don't I just fall asleep and not talk to this super cute guy laying down right next to me."

"I thought you he sucked."

"He's apparently got the brains, and he's certainly got at least a dash of the beauty. A solid seven out of ten I'd say."