But there was nothing here. She spent an hour thumbing through the records and found nothing.

“What we need,” Fordham said, “is someone who was alive during the Great War, who would remember and talk to us about it. I don’t know anyone old enough though.”

Kerrigan shook her head with a sigh. “I don’t either, but I’m going to find someone.”

28

The Bond

“Congratulations, trainees. You have completed the introductory bond training. Your mount and dismounts have greatly improved. Though we will continue to focus on them as we go into the next section, they will not be the primary concern of the second set of training.”

Kerrigan grinned, knowing what this meant. They were finally going to be able to fly. Flying was her true passion. The first time she’d ever ridden on a dragon, she’d known that she had been made for it. Nothing in all of her life had ever prepared her for finding joy on the back of a dragon high above the city. She’d wanted nothing but her own set of wings from that day forward. That way she could go up into the skies anytime she wanted. But as she’d gotten older, she’d realized two things: she’d never get her own wings and no one was going to give a half-Fae a dragon. She’d been right on both counts even if she’d made her own destiny with the second. It had been luck or fate that gave her Tieran. She couldn’t wait to do more than hover around the arena with him.

“Before we move on,” Alura said, “I have a series of bond tests to determine the strength of your bond.”

Kerrigan’s stomach dropped. That wasn’t going to be good.

“Afternoon classes have been canceled for us to perform these tests. There will be two tests—one for you and one for your dragon. Each test will be scored based on how well you perform together.”

Kerrigan looked to Tieran with a frown.

His face revealed nothing of his own anxiety, but she swore that she could feel it radiating off of him. They’d fumbled through most of bond training so far with him speaking into her mind or her gentle nodding. She’d actually come up with a few signs and magic signatures for him to follow. There was no bonding, but they were beginning to understand each other in ways that they’d never managed in their earlier training sessions. It hadn’t been dire enough. Now, it was do or die.

“Dragons and riders, to opposite ends of the arena,” Alura declared.

Kerrigan patted Tieran’s neck. “Good luck.”

We need more than luck. We need a bond, he grumbled.

He wasn’t wrong.