Page 18 of Shadowborne: Reckoning

I sighed, nodding. I’d always been thrilled when Ruin would show up at my barn—but I never once heard him approach, and never knew how long he’d observed me before he cleared his throat or spoke so I’d know he was there.

The thought gave me shivers now. I pushed more memories away as Donavyn led me out of the city and out to the road towards the dragons.

We walked for a few minutes from the gates, Donavyn still holding my hand and checking over our shoulders, until he took a deep breath and I felt some of the tension go out of him. Only some. But he never let go.

‘Tell me,’ he sent softly.

‘Tell you what?’

‘Tell me how it happened. How you found him—precisely what happened. And where. We’re about to return to the castle. I assume Hanson was a part of this? Did he set a trap for you?’

‘No, I don’t think so. He was genuinely surprised. When Ruin saw me, he thought I’d gone looking for him. He still saw the farmgirl and Hanson stood up for me—’

‘Start at the beginning, Bren. Tell me everything. We’re going to the dragons, because that’s our safest place. But we aren’t flying until I know exactly how this all came to be, and then we’re going to figure out our next step.’

I took a deep breath, then told him all of it, from the beginning. The dress scheme with Faye. The arrival at the dragons with Hanson—who’d clearly flown before, but was inexperienced.

‘…but none of those dragons would speak to Akhane, so I told Hanson we should go get Benji and—’

I cut off, inhaling sharply and stopped dead in my tracks. Oh shit.

“Bren? What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Benji,” I breathed, then looked up at him, loathing myself. “I just left him there with the dragons, Donavyn. And Hanson.”

His brows drew down tight. “Well, shit.”

8. Help Wanted

~ BREN ~

In the end, it was too risky to approach Hanson’s herd. Donavyn and I waited miles away with Akhane, while Kgosi flew in under the cloak of night to find Benji. He took a wide, spiraling flight path, slowly narrowing on the clearing where I’d fled, watching for Carnage and Ruin, and Hanson, as well as Benji.

But in the end, Akhane, with ears pricked and relief in her tone, reassured me.

‘He’s found little Lionheart,’ she said quietly. ‘No sign of the other men, or Carnage. The dragons are unsettled by him, so he’ll land some way off and let Benji come to him. The boy is unhurt.’

Thank God. It was another half hour before Kgosi reached us, Benji clinging to his back until the landing, then losing his seat and swinging on the safety strap until Kgosi came to a halt next to Akhane.

Donavyn and I rushed forward, but Benji was bright-eyed about the flight and gushing gratitude to Kgosi. He used leverage from pushing off Kgosi’s neck to get the safety strap swinging, then grasped the mounting strap and clambered high enough on Kgosi’s shoulder to unclip himself, babbling the entire time. I was stunned.

Not only was he unhurt, he appeared thrilled. He dropped to the ground at Kgosi’s side—my pride wounded because it hadn’t seemed to cause him any trouble at all to climb Kgosi’s mounting strap, or back down, though Kgosi settled onto the ground to give him less distance. Only when he’d landed on the hard ground and patted Kgosi one last time, did he turn.

And the moment his eyes landed on me, his face went dark.

“Benji,” I said quietly. “I’m so sorry—”

“You forgot me!”

“I never meant to—”

Donavyn cleared his throat and Benji tensed as he looked at Donavyn warily, but it was clear he was angry. And I couldn’t blame him. I was so relieved that he was safe.

Strangely, Donavyn had folded his arms and stood over Benji looking stern. “Report, soldier,” Donavyn said in a gruff, brisk tone.

Benji frowned, but stood up straight and raised his chin.

“The dragons are real dragons. They were led by a blue, but he’s been gone for a while, and they don’t know why.”