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“Yes, she looks fine shivering in the snow?” Zilon’s lip turned up in an angry sneer. He tried to grab at me again, but Philit pulled me away from Zilon, but not into him. “You’d rather let her freeze than have anyone touch her.”
“That’s not true.” Philit came at us. Zilon moved in front of me, protecting me from the one person I shouldn’t need protection from.
“It is true. You’re so old fashioned and stubborn in how you think a dragon and rider relationship is supposed to be that you don’t even see the kind of damage you’re causing. She’s freezing to death. She’s a rider, not a dragon. She doesn’t have heat like we do. If you take a second to think about it, if we feel the cold, if it’s something that can get Landers bitching about it, then imagine how bad it is for her then.”
Philit growled and threw a punch. Zilon was able to get his arm up to block most of it, but the brunt of it was still enough to force him to take steps back. Zilon dove forward to tackle Philit to the ground.
“Stop!” I ran forward, pushing Zilon just enough that he missed Philit and ran into a tree instead. “Knock it off! You guys are going to start an avalanche and this time it will kill us.”
“We won’t–”
I held up my hand, cutting him off. “Well, let’s not test that theory shall we? Stop fighting. I’m done. All of you.”
That should do the trick, or it would have if Landers hadn’t come back through the trees looking pissed off and starting the whole cycle over again.
“You don’t deserve Rayna,” Zilon growled out before jumping to his feet and shaking off the snow that had clung to him.
“Glad we got that settled, there is a narrow path ahead,” Landers said, leaning against the tree. “We have to move along the cliffs to get to the other side it looks like.”
“A cliff. In this weather?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “I think I’ve had enough of cliffs.”
“Well, you can’t avoid this one, it’s the only way through. It’s really narrow, and it’s covered in snow. So, you know, slippery. But if we want to get down, this is the way to go.” Landers didn’t seem bothered. Which made sense seeing as he had his own personal set of wings strapped to his back.
“We could always fly,” Landers said, clearly having seen my face. “You guys already fucked it up, so Rayna can just ride Philit.”
“No!” Both Philit and Zilon spoke up at the same time, then glared at each other.
“I won’t allow her to ride me again, I’ve already decided,” Philit said, his face tangled in pain as he stood, not looking at me. “I’m going to ask the king to break the bond when we arrive at Fyre. I want a chance to find my true mate, and Rayna isn’t it.”
Holy fuck, how did that end up hurting even more the second time he said it?
“Are you fucking serious?” Landers asked, blinking at him in shock. “You got mated to a rider, and you’re trying to already run off in the other direction? So much for this bond being precious, huh?”
Landers was laughing at the audacity, Zilon was just staring at me, his face hard. But not in anger, in determination. He still had a chance. Even through the pain that was flaring over my chest from Philit’s rejection, seeing the hope there soothed some of it away.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen. We both have someone out there for us. If we can fix this, then we can be with who we weren’t meant to be with.” Goddess, he was so set in his ways it made me want to punch him.
“Did it ever occur to you that you two were meant to be, that’s why you were able to bond?” Landers asked, still leaning against the tree.
“Then if it’s meant to be it will reinstate itself once we reach the academy.” Philit was so damn sure of himself, that he and his ego were in the right.
It just made my fury boil deeper. Screw dragon warmth, I didn’t need that. I was quickly turning into my own boiler of fury.
“Well, by all means let’s get there faster and get it over with.” I was furious, but the words still hurt to say.
Damn mating bonds. He didn’t want me, but I still wanted him. Like, actually wanted him. But this time it was more than the loss I had felt after Philit rejected me. More than the hollow buzzing after Zilon and I had connected for the first time.
This was a goddamn chasm, and Philit didn’t even want to feel it.
“Let’s just get there. Landers, go first. Then Rayna. I’ll go next with Zilon at the back.” Philit was already charging ahead, right to this cliff which turned out to be so much worse than I imagined.
Maybe it was because I could see it this time, maybe it was because the whole damn thing was coated in ice. Maybe it was because as I watched rocks fall from the ledge and down the sheer side of the mountain that was one hundred percent going to kill me.
“Looks like fun,” I mumbled, voice shaking. What I really wanted to say was ‘I’m going to die.’
I’d have better luck trying to walk across a tightrope. The ledge itself was so small and it wrapped around the cliff. There was nothing to really hold onto either, with all the snow covering everything.
“See over there?” Landers pointed through the light snowfall that had started up. The ledge did curve around a bend, out of sight, but it looked like it came back out along the ridge and then went off into a small tree line. Our goal.
