Kerrigan shivered. Her eyes found Tieran’s across the arena. The bond that they never had… and had to fake for the next eleven months. Scales.

“Today, we’re going to work on very basic bond strengthening. I want you to look at your dragon and then reach deep within your chest.” Alura tapped the center of her torso. “Try to find the flickering light and then touch it. Don’t pull on it yet. I simply want you to acknowledge its presence. Once you’ve found it, don’t say anything, just raise your hand.”

Kerrigan looked deep in her magic, dived around down there uselessly. Of course, she wasn’t going to find a bond. But she had to pretend to be concentrating on it at least.

Fordham’s hand shot up first. Within seconds. Even Alura’s eyebrows rose. Apparently, it was much faster than she had expected.

Noda rose her hand next. Then Roake.

Kerrigan wondered how long she could fake this. She didn’t want to raise her hand too early, but all she found down in there was her magic. Just the well of space where she could dive and pull up whatever she needed… just not a bond.

Audria’s hand finally went up, reluctantly. No one looked at Kerrigan, but she could sense that they were all still waiting. Twenty minutes had gone by, and really, there was nothing to do but put her hand up.

“Good,” Alura said. She pointed to Fordham. “You found your bond quickly. Explain.”

“I found it before this. I called my dragon to me before we started training.”

Alura managed to smother her approval.

Kerrigan, however, remembered that very moment. Her eyes flicked to Fordham’s, and he nodded once. When they’d been in the House of Shadows and she’d been dying from trying to take the walls down, Netta had flown to them, as if called. She had been called. From who knew how long of a distance.

“Were you in danger?” Alura asked intuitively.

“Yes,” he said flatly.

She nodded. “Bonds strengthen faster when they have to. In war, bonded dragons and riders snap together like magnets. Without that immediacy, we have to build it up ourselves. Ollivier, call your dragon.”

Fordham looked to Netta, and something seemed to ripple between them. Then, Netta flew across the arena distance and landed before them.

“That’s what we want, people,” Alura said. “We want to find the bond within ourselves and tug on it. Light at first. It can be disorienting to be bonded. Now, give it a try.”

One after another, the dragons flew across the arena toward their rider. It wasn’t instantaneous, but it left Kerrigan standing there without Tieran.

She gritted her teeth and nodded her head at him. Come on, she wanted to scream at him.