Page 87 of Under Restless Skies

Another glider falls, apparently on its own, and I have to turn around, too horrified to keep looking.

Alayel places a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I thought…

“You’re fine. It’s just so… pointless. Grim.”

“Gliders disorient and confuse the dragons. It might look pointless, but… it’s what sky sentinels do.”

“I know. And to be honest, I’d still like to fly.”

He caresses the back of my hand. “I understand.”

When I turn and look again, the dragons are gone, and yet the bells are still ringing.

I frown. “The attack stopped, didn’t it? But the bells…”

Alayel leans over and looks down. “They must be clearing the bodies.” He keeps looking. “I don’t think any dragon was brought down. Only sentinels.”

So many lives lost. A bitter tang coats my mouth as I consider the broken gliders and their eternally silenced riders. Yes, I knew what being in the Sky Academy entailed, and yet watching it makes it seem so wasteful.

An angry snort leaves my lips. “I understand now why they don’t want us to look.”

Alayel closes the shutter completely, then sits by me and wraps his arms around my body, kissing my neck, then my ear.

I turn and kiss him briefly on the lips, so he doesn’t think I’m rejecting him, but then I get up. “I need to go.”

“Where?”

“I need to see the little dragons.”

“I’ll come with you.”

I could say no, I could ask him why, I could tell him I’ll go on my own. Instead, I nod, and find myself descending the stairs with him, holding his hand, unsure what that even means.

All I know is that I need to see Ava and Vos, need to check them with my own eyes, need to be sure they weren’t taken from me.

The guards don’t let Alayel through to the corridor of the hatchlings’ nursery.

“It’s fine.” He smirks at me. “You know where to find me.”

I rush inside and find Ava and Vos asleep side by side on the sandbox. Fearing awakening them, I turn to leave, but a soft squeak makes me pause. Vos stares at me with his cute gray eyes, and I go back and take him on my lap. Tiny horns are starting to grow on his head, and when I try to caress him, he rubs them on my palm, perhaps to scratch them. Ava awakes, climbs on my lap, then does the same with her emerging horns.

My breathing eases. The little dragons look calm and happy, assuring me nobody tried to steal them this time.

I kiss their small heads, then say, “I have to go now. But I’ll be back.”

When I put them on the floor, Ava squeaks, and Vos runs away and hides behind a rock.

“Do you think he’s upset?” I ask Ava, and she coos twice.

I have no idea what any of that means, of course, but I leave the room glad to know that they haven’t been harmed.

To my surprise, Alayel is outside the hallway, leaning on a wall, arms crossed.

He greets me with a warm smile. “Done?”

“Yes. Are you my personal bodyguard now?”

“No.” He looks down, then back at me, and raises an eyebrow. “But I’d like to be.”