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I walk out of my room in the morning, dressed in a gray skin-tight turtleneck long sleeve, black leggings, my brown leather vest, and my knee-high brown boots. My hair is done up simply in a tight bun, which took way longer than it should have.

My room is two down from Violet's, where she exit's her room as well. Sawyer walks out of Rhiannon's room across from her's, and I raise my eyebrows as his gaze darts between Violet and I, his cheeks heating.

"Good morning." Violet gives him a grin as he awkwardly runs a hand over the back of his neck, smiling slightly.

"Violet," he mumbles, before heading my way. "Ria." I nod to him back, grinning, before going to meet Violet to wait for Rhiannon.

She smiles as soon as she sees us standing outside her door. "No more breakfast duty today?" she asks, and we shake our heads.

"I was told last night that the less desirable duties were being handed off to the unbonded so our energy can be redirected for flight lessons," Violet explains.

"One more reason for the unbonded to hate us," Rhiannon mutters as we start to walk down the hall.

"So," Violet starts, grinning from ear to ear. "Sawyer, huh, Rhi?"

Rhiannon shrugs, smiling widely as well. "I felt like celebrating." She then eyes us narrowly, her gaze flicking between us. "And why haven't I heard of you two celebrating?"

I shrug, looking away, as Violet says, "I haven't found anyone I want to celebrate with."

I think back to last night. My conversation with Liam had played over and over again in my head—not the words exactly, but the way he had been looking at me. I could see his beautiful blue eyes even in the dark, and it was as if I was the only person in his world.

I could still vividly remember his breath on my ear, the way his voice lowered that made me get full body shivers. I shake the thought away. Ridiculous.

I hone back into what Rhiannon is saying. "...no regulation, and it's not like any of us are guaranteed to live through the day." From the snippets I vaguely remember hearing, I can discern that they're talking about Violet's moment with Dain—which I was not present for.

"Solid points." Violet sighs. "But it's...it's not like that with us. I'd always hoped it would be, but when he kissed me—there was nothing there. Like, nothing." I can hear the blatant disappointment in her voice, and I reach out and awkwardly pat her shoulder.

"There, there," I say, trying to lighten the mood. "He's an asshole anyways."

Violet gives me a look, which Rhiannon mirrors from beside her, and I shrug. "What?" I put my hands up in defense. "Am I wrong?"

Rhiannon lets out a small chuckle and shakes her head, turning her attention back to Violet. "Well, that's shitty to hear." She shoots me another look like, "that's what you're supposed to say". I merely shrug my shoulders again. "I'm sorry."

"Me too," Violet says with another sigh.

A door opens ahead of us, and who walks out is none other than Liam Mairi. I'm about to smile and wave at him, but then my gaze locks onto the girl he has his arm wrapped around. My light mood vanishes immediately when I take in the way she's pressed flush to his side, wide, chocolatey brown eyes complementing short, wavy strawberry blond hair. She's gorgeous, and I don't have to imagine what they were up to last night. I can see Rhiannon shoot me a worried look from Violet's other side, but I don't bother adjusting my gaze.

A feeling surfaces in my chest as I glare daggers at Liam, who obliviously greets all of our friends when Ridoc joins us. Betrayal.

That fucking dick played me through and through, with his eyelashes fluttering over too-pretty eyes, stupid advice and his stupid ridiculously good looking face so close to mine. And then he went and fucked someone else.

I can hardly stand to hear him making small talk and flashing his smile at everyone as if everything was fine.

Well, maybe it was. For him. I don't bother concealing my scoff of disbelief after the pretty brown-eyed girl walks away, and shoulder past Liam roughly, heading toward the gathering hall for breakfast. I can hear him ask, "is she mad at me for something?" before I'm too far away to hear anything else.

I furiously load my plate with anything within reach, hardly aware of what I was even putting in my plate. I spy a mostly empty table, where I slam my plate down and stare at it, fuming. I don't even notice when the two other girls from Second Wing give me a perturbed look and scurry away.

I finally realize that being mad won't erase my hunger, so I start eating. I'm halfway through a piece of bacon when the rest of my squad appears and sits down around me. Rhiannon places herself to my right, while Ridoc sits on my left. Rhiannon nudges me after a moment when I don't acknowledge them.

"Is he here?" I mutter.

"No," Rhiannon says. "Look, Ria, I'm sure it's nothing. It was probably just a meaningless fling."

I sit up, but continue glaring at my half empty plate. "It would've been nothing if I hadn't talked to him last night."

Rhiannon frowns. "You talked to him last night?"

"Yeah, told him about Maize trying to kill me and—" I freeze. "Um...shit. I probably shouldn't have said that." Everyone stares at me, and I resist the urge to shrink further into my seat.

"Maize did what?" Sawyer growls, his voice low. He immediately starts looking around, searching for our squadmate, who was, conveniently, missing.

Rhiannon blinks at me, her eyes wide, before shaking her head. "I'm not sure which is more important," she says slowly. "The Liam problem or the Maize problem."

"Liam," I blurt out immediately, eager to get away from the subject. "I'll explain Maize later."

She nods slowly, as if she's not sure she believes me. "Well..." she starts, "what did you guys talk about? Other than...the Maize thing."

"We talked a little about our dragons," I say, thinking. "Deigh and Saoghal. Then I sort of just...brought it up. I didn't say her name, so he doesn't know. He got really close to me, I almost thought he was going to kiss me." I scoff, putting my head in my hands. "I'm an idiot."

"He was entirely leading you on," Saoghal breaks in suddenly, and I jump before quickly composing myself.

"You can't just speak to me like that! When did you wake up?" I scowl, this time for a completely different reason than Liam.

"No, he was totally leading you on," Rhiannon states, mirroring Saoghal's words pretty much exactly. I almost laugh, but then remember that I'm upset.

"Your internal process is very complicated."

"I'm glad I'm entertaining," I reply to my dragon dryly.

"Who said anything about entertaining? I merely said it was complicated."

I roll my eyes, digging back into my breakfast and spearing a sausage with my fork. "Whatever." Out loud, I mumble, "yeah."

There's an awkward silence for a few moments, before Ridoc blurts, "Ok, now what happened with Maize?" I sigh, staring at the sausage.

"It is going to come out eventually, child," Saoghal says, her voice commanding and orderly, as usual.

"I'm not a child." I take a deep breath and say to my squad, "I came across this giant hole in the ground, right? It's huge, probably fifty feet across. So I look around a little bit and then decide to keep walking—along the edge so I can keep going where I was going earlier." I think back to yesterday. "I hear two people approaching me. I don't know who the other girl was, just that she had brown hair. As I was falling, I saw Maize."

"And you're sure it was Maize?" Sawyer says, frowning. I nod. "But the Codex—"

"The other girl must've pushed me. She didn't break the Codex or anything, since she technically wouldn't have been the one to kill me." My gaze flicks from each squadmate's faces to the next. "Where even is she?"

"Probably hiding," Ridoc grumbles. "She saw you were still alive with a badass dragon and now she's scared for her life."

"As she should be," Saoghal growls.

"You forget, if I hadn't been pushed, you would never have bonded me," I reply.

"I'm beginning to think that would have been better."

I have to stifle the indignant gasp I am tempted to let out. "I haven't even done anything yet!"

"Yet," Saoghal enunciates the word clearly. I don;t bother with a response.

"She should stay that way," Sawyer huffs. "I never liked her, but this is just..." My squad nods their heads in agreement.

Imogen and other higher level riders come and join us at the table then. I vaguely hear something about Violet getting trained by Imogen, which I thought was strange, but I don't pay attention to the rest of the conversation.

. . .

A couple hours later, Fourth Wing is gathered on the flight field. All of our dragons are standing behind us, and I notice that the others give Saoghal a wide berth. She pays no attention to this, sitting elegantly with her head held high. Her scales are somehow even more dazzling today, pale shades of blue and green making prominent appearances when she moves.

The only dragon who stands next to her without seeming to care is Tairn. I study the two of them, trying to figure out their relationship. They're similar, in size and build, but the similarities end there. The spikes along Saoghal's back are significantly longer than any of the other dragon's there, including Tairn's. Her eyes, while they're just as narrowed and calculating as Tairn's, are incredibly different from the large black dragon's own golden ones.

Tairn's tail spreads out behind him, the deadly morningstartail resting on the ground, and Saoghal's daggertail flicks impatiently over her massive claws. "Stop meddling in business that is not your own, child," she growls, and I face forward again.

"Just trying to figure out why you guys seem so close."

"Ah, and arguing is considered 'close' now?"

"How do you know I didn't mean physically?" I reply, rolling my eyes. "He's the only dragon that doesn't seem repulsed by your presence."

"Pay attention to your teacher," is all Saoghal says in response.

I huff a breath and face Kaori, who explains what today's lesson is. Simple maneuvers. Stay on or you die. Got it.

When he gives the order, I take a breath and sprint toward's Saoghal, who doesn't move an inch as I swing myself up onto her back. I'm slightly more graceful than the first time, but still scramble about like a mouse who's lost its hole to run into. I settle myself into my seat and grip the spike in front of me as I had done on Threshing.

I frown when I see Tairn lean down to allow Violet an easier mounting. "Why don't I get that?"

I can hear Saoghal scoff in my head as she gets to her feet. "I am not in the habit of babying my rider." Tairn growls low in his throat, as if he had heard her too. Maybe he had. Although, I'm not sure why she would convey that rather rude message to him.

Before I know it, Kaori is leaping into the sky on the back of his dragon. I wrap my hands tighter around the spike in front of me and squeeze my thighs tightly as Saoghal follows, relishing the feeling of the wind in my face once again.