Chapter 137

  He shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the topic. His tail flicked against the ground, like a drumbeat. “There have only been four recorded times a dragon has sworn oath to a king,” he said eventually. “It is not something that is typically compatible with our natures, and it takes exceptional circumstance and exception leaders, to motivate a dragon to swear loyalty.”

  “And we’re exceptional,” I pressed my lips to his scales.

  “I think so.”

  I love you lingered on my lips but before I could give breath to it, his attention was drawn elsewhere.

  “Leongrad returns,” he observed. Leongrad signalled me as he jammed his helm over his russet curls and swung himself into the saddle. “Mount up, Liera,” Aurien’s tone carried tension and excitement. I could feel it through his muscles and scales as I mounted him, in the twitching of his wings and tail, and the jets of smoke that streamed from his nostrils. My dragon liked war.