“Oh, come on, Sorrengail,” the rider down the table whines with a wide smile.
Both Mira and I look his way.
“I mean…the older Sorrengail. This is the best entertainment we’ve had in ages.”
I shake my head and look around the table. “Mira has the ability to extend the shield if the wards are down, so the first thing I would do is send her to scout the area with Teine. We need to know if we’re dealing with infantry or gryphon riders.”
“Good.” Mira moves her dragon closer to the castle. “Now let’s assume there are gryphons.”
“You want to do your job?” I ask Dain, smiling sweetly. “I mean, how you can forget you’re the squad leader is beyond me.”
His hand clenches around his own dragon as he rips his gaze from mine. “Quinn, can you astral project from the back of your dragon?”
“Yes,” she answers.
“Then I would have you project into the fortress to check for signs of weakness,” Dain orders. “And have you report back. Same with Liam. We’d use your farsight to see if you can locate where the gryphon riders are and if there are any traps.”
“Good. The weaknesses are the wooden gate,” Mira notes as Quinn and Liam move their dragons into position, “and the Navarrian citizens they have captive in the dungeons.”
“So much for blasting the whole place,” Ridoc says.
“You’re an air wielder, right?” Dain asks Emery. “So you can shape your dragon’s flames, lead them through the occupied parts of the keep without killing civilians.”
“Yes,” Emery answers. “But I’d have to be in the keep.”
“Then you’ll have to get into the keep,” Mira says with a shrug.
Emery’s eyes widen. “You want me to leave my dragon and go on foot?”
“Why do you think we get all that hand-to-hand training? Or are you going to leave all those innocent people to die?” Mira flicks her wrist and Emery’s dragon goes flying out of his hand and into hers. She puts it in the center of the keep. “The real question is, how do we get you close enough without getting you killed?” She glances around the table. “Since I’m guessing the others will be busy fighting off the gryphons that launch once the fireworks start.”
“What’s your signet, Aetos?” Quinn asks.
“Above your pay grade,” Dain answers, glancing around the table and skipping over Xaden, then making the rounds again, finally sighing. “Any ideas?”
Is the quadrant really making Dain keep the memory reading secret? Had him reaching for my head the day Amber burned been a loss of control? How has he gotten this far without telling anyone what his signet is? I shake my head.
“Sure.” I pick up Xaden’s dragon and shove it toward the keep, planting one mental foot in the Archives where I keep my power and using it to lift the dragon figurine into a hover above the structure. “You stop ignoring that you have an incredibly powerful shadow wielder at your disposal and ask him to black out the area so no one sees you land.”
“She’s not wrong,” Mira agrees, but her words are clipped.
“You can do that?” Dain begrudgingly looks at Xaden.
“Are you seriously asking?” Xaden retorts.
“Just wasn’t sure you could cover an area that—”
Xaden lifts a hand a few inches above the table, and shadows pour from underneath our seats, filling the room and turning it dark as midnight in a blink. My heart jumps as my sight goes black.
“Relax. It’s just me.” A ghost of a touch skims my cheek.
Just him is slightly…terrifying. I shove that thought at him, but there’s no response. Maybe we have a one-way-communication thing going on over here, because I don’t think I can talk to him the way he does me.
What had Sgaeyl said about signets? It reflects who you are at the core of your being. It makes sense. Mira is protective. Dain has to know everything. And Xaden…has secrets.
“Fuck me,” someone says.
“I can surround this entire outpost, but I think that might freak some people out,” Xaden says, and the shadows disappear, racing back under the table.
I draw in a full breath, noting that everyone at the table besides Emery—who has no doubt seen Xaden pull this kind of trick before—looks slightly greenish.
Even Mira, who’s staring at Xaden like he’s a threat she needs to assess.
My stomach turns.
“I hope you didn’t get any ideas while we were in the dark there,” Xaden teases, and just like that, my sympathy for the ass evaporates. I don’t bother to face him, just raise one finger.
He chuckles, and I grit my teeth.
“Get him out of my head,” I toss in Tairn’s direction.
“You’ll get used to it,” Tairn responds.
“Is this normal with all mated pairs and their riders?”
“For some. It’s a great advantage in a battle.”
“Well, it’s a pain in my ass right now.” I miss Andarna. We’re so far apart that I can barely feel her.
