Iron Flame

“Who the fuck’s flight jacket are you wearing?”

You’re going to love Violet. She’s smart and stubborn.
Reminds me a lot of you, actually.
You just have to remember when you meet her:
she’s not her mother.
—RECOVERED CORRESPONDENCE OF CADET LIAM MAIRI TO SLOANE MAIRI

“If Solas comes near you again, he knows I will devour his human whole and let him rot within me while his heart still beats, and then I’ll take the eye I so graciously left him.”

Less than a minute,” Xaden whispers as Sgaeyl moves toward him— toward us. “That’s how long it took for you to fall out of love with me.”
My gaze flashes to his. “Don’t read my…whatever!”
Tairn stalks toward me, his head low and his teeth bared as he places himself at my back.
“I didn’t.” The saddest smile I’ve ever seen tugs at Xaden’s mouth. “First, because your shields are up, and secondly because I didn’t have to. It’s all over your face.”

shit. What if he’s like Cat? What if he’s been manipulating my emotions this whole time? I swallow back the bile inching its way up my throat.
“I would never do something like that,” he retorts, sending a sideways, wounded glare at me as he continues to watch the sky.
“Shit.” I rub my hands over my face. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”
He doesn’t respond.

truth? To ask you something real?” I hold his gaze and steel my heart.
“Please, do,” he challenges.
“What’s your second signet?”
His eyes widen, and the blood drains from his face as his hand falls away. For the first time, I think I’ve actually managed to shock Xaden Riorson.

I’m going to hurt you if you don’t get that away from me.” I keep my eyes on him.

Second signets only happen when a dragon bonds a rider in the direct familial line as its previous,” Sloane says, misunderstanding Visia’s question. “But there’s an equal chance of it causing madness. From what Thoirt told me, that’s why Cruth wasn’t punished for bonding Quinn. She’s only the great-niece of her previous rider. Her signet’s more powerful but not entirely different.”

Damn,” Cat says, glancing from the torch, to the conduit, to me. “I hate that you’re so…”
“Badass?” Sloane suggests, smiling in a way that reminds me of her brother.
“Powerful,” Cat admits, looking away before slipping her pack back on, changing hands with the torch instead of passing it off.

Just because your brother didn’t like me doesn’t mean you know me,” Cat whispers at Sloane.
“No.” I turn to face Cat, making her pause in the footsteps I’ve carved in the ridgeline. “You want to pick a fight? You come at me.”