She’d spent the last couple weeks researching the bond. She found the spell to brew the bonding potion. It was incredibly simple. She filched the supplies from the greenhouses on the eastern side of the mountain and put all of the materials together herself. Tieran was skeptical but willing to try anything. Maybe the bond hadn’t worked because she had thought that she shouldn’t be picked. Maybe it was a mental thing.

She read over and over about mental fortitude for the spell. That the pair had to want to be linked. Which, in the beginning, had been far from the case. But this time, there was no other choice. They had to bond, and they both wanted it despite their differences.

They took the potion. Kerrigan passed out again. She saw her father in a strange world, being beaten by a giant of a man. The man turned at the last moment and saw her. She could still hear the screams from inside the villa. She had just been getting over that particular nightmare, but here it was all over again.

She had no idea what Tieran had seen, but he awoke, shaking with real fear in his eyes. But the bond continued to evade them. It hadn’t worked, and Tieran refused to try again. She didn’t blame him. If what he had seen was as bad as what she had seen, then she hardly wanted to go through it a third time.

Now, they were on opposite sides of the arena prepared to trick everyone into believing they had a bond. Scales.

Gemina went up to each of the dragons as Alura strode over to the trainees. “Gemina is giving each dragon a location outside of the city, and you will have to trek to reach them by following the bond. It is the farthest bond that we’ve tried, and I suspect it will take a lot of stretching for you. But we can’t get better if we don’t stretch.” She was firm and unsmiling but somehow made it sound encouraging.

Kerrigan sweat with fear. She had no bond to follow. It didn’t matter how far away Tieran was; she wasn’t going to find him.

“We want you all back by lunch, and then we’ll start the second part of the test. Once Gemina returns, you’ll begin. Any questions?”

By now, even Audria kept her hand at her side. Alura didn’t actually want questions. She wanted them to be soldiers.

“Good.” She grinned viciously.