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We come in close behind Tairn, who soars directly after Kaori. I don't mind being in the front, considering that several of the cadets behind me will probably fall to their deaths. I don't need to see that. Besides, if I'm the one falling to my death, I won't be alive long enough to care about who saw it.

We soar further into the mountains, heading out of the canyon. I grip the spike in front of me tightly. "If you pull any more of that whole diving full speed shit again, I swear, I will kill you," I swear to Saoghal as she banks right, following Tairn's lead. I nearly slide off the side, but I manage to pull myself upright, muscles straining with the effort.

"Please, child. You managed to hang on the first time. You are fine."

"I am not a child!" I grit my teeth as Saoghal follows Kaori and Violet as they head downwards into an infinitely less intense version of the one my dragon decided to go do during Threshing.

"When you have lived as long as I have," Saoghal growls, "twenty is a child. You have no idea how young everything is when you are one hundred years old."

"Damn, should I start calling you great grandmother?"

Saoghal responds with a hard turn to the left as Kaori smoothly banks ahead of us, and this time, I actually do slip off the side. "If you fall, child, I'm not sure these old grandmother bones would be able to catch you," Saoghal hisses at me. I let out a yelp as I'm left dangling off of her side, my grip on the spike slowly slipping.

"I'm sorry!" I scream through the bond. "Please don't let me die! I'll love you forever and ever and I'll never call you grandmother again. I'm a child, right? I have my whole life ahe–shit!" My grip finally falters when she turns again, and I swear I hear her huff a breath of annoyance as I scramble for something to hang onto.

Saoghal's annoyingly slippery scales offer no handhold's for me to latch onto, and then I'm in freefall.

I don't even have time to start screaming before I land with a thud in her talons. "You're welcome."

"Oh my gods," I pant. "Thank you! Thank you so, so much! Means a lot to, you know, my well being and all." Saoghal huffs something that I can only describe as what might be a chuckle as she tosses me up into the air. I immediately latch onto the spike in front of me again, and remind myself to never upset my dragon while flying ever again.

. . .

After dinner, I make my way back to my room, my muscles aching from the strain of staying on Saoghal that day as we went through several what she called "simple maneuvers", twisting and turning and diving and repeat. She had been awfully elusive and vague when I had asked her how she knew all these anyway, being forbidden from bonding and all.

"It has to do with 'last time', doesn't it," I had said. She had dumped me off her side again after that, but this time I didn't lose my grip and managed to haul myself back up onto her back. Thankfully, too, because I'm not entirely sure she would have caught me considering the way she was utterly silent for at least ten minutes after that, no matter how hard I poked and prodded at the bond.

Now, I sit on my bed, unbuckling my flight leathers. I pause when I remember my relic—I hadn't had a chance to look at it.

I continue to undress until I stand in only my corset. I move over to the full height mirror over in the corner of my room as I undo the laces on the back. I pull it off as I reach the mirror, my upper half entirely bare.

My eyes widen when I see the relic. It's the outline of a dragon, its wings fully splayed out over my collarbones, its head resting just below the nape of my neck. Its tail, ending in the shape of a sharp and deadly dagger, trails between my breasts and down almost to my belly button. The tip curls to the side at the end, and its head twists in the same direction, jaws open in a mighty roar.

I stare at it, moving my fingers over the lines, awed at the way it shifts in exactly the same way Saoghal's scales do when they're exposed to sunlight.

I stand there for at least half an hour, just studying it, feeling as if something about me should have changed as it appeared. And maybe it did. Maybe I was now a completely different person, someone brave and strong, someone not hiding behind a wall of humor and sarcasm.

I never let it show, but my parent's rejection of me when I chose to become a rider had hit more deeply than it should have. I told myself that no matter what, I was all I'd ever need. I didn't want nor care for parents who wouldn't respect my decision, parents who had an image of me in their minds that was entirely not me. I didn't want my sisters to grow up thinking they didn't have a choice.

Oleander, she might take after me. She truly didn't care what other people thought, and she whatever she wanted and whenever. Belladonna, however, was the perfect child to my parents. Quiet, soft, kind, intelligent...she might do whatever they wanted her too, get married to some rich man. But she also might follow after Oleander. I had seen the way she had been with a bow, and I knew that she could do anything she wanted if she put her mind to it.

Being twins, those two were as close as peas in a pod. They did everything together. It made me glad that they would always have each other, even when I was off training to be a rider. I didn't know if they were going to become rider's, bond dragons, fight in battles. I didn't even know if I'd ever see them again. I could die tomorrow and never get to hold my sisters' hands again, never snuggle in bed with them on cold nights after our parents went to sleep, giggling and talking about the day's events under the covers.

I just wanted them to be happy. And if they were happy without me, then I would be fine with that.

We are only separated by a year. Oleander and Belladonna would be nineteen now, and they would be eagerly and nervously making their final decision about which Quadrant they would go into. When I had left, Ollie had looked me in my eyes and told me that she would see me again next year. There were no tears. Just hard, solid resolution. I didn't know whether that meant that she was going to join the Riders or if that was just a firm and elusive way of telling me not to die. Bella had simply wrapped her arms around me and held me tightly.

Suddenly, a knock at my door breaks me out of my thoughts. I lace up my corset quickly and walk over to the door, pulling it open.

"Hi," Liam says with a small smile. Then he realizes that I'm only wearing my leggings and a corset. "Is this a bad time?" He frowns, and I can see him peering into my room as if checking to see if there was anyone there.

I roll my eyes. "No," I reply, stepping aside to let him in. I ignore the fact that my worn clothes are spilling out of my rucksack in the corner—which I had begun to use as a dirty laundry bag— and that my personal things are strewn out on my desk like someone had rifled through them in a panic.

Liam stands there awkwardly and I go to sit on my bed, staring at him with eyebrows raised. "Can I help you?"

"Oh, um...," he mumbles, before moving to shut the door. "Yeah."

When he doesn't say anything more and simply continues to stand in front of me, looking at the floor, I say, "please, do go on."

He looks up. "Yeah, um...I just wanted to say sorry," he murmurs quietly. "I didn't realize you...thought about me like—like, um, that."

My eyebrows raise higher on my forehead. "Did Rhiannon put you up to this?"

He shakes his head immediately. "No," Liam says. "I just...I don't know. I didn't think you'd want to go so far so fast and...I don't know. It was stupid of me to go sleep with someone else and then act like a total asshole the next morning."

I narrow my eyes. "Is this you saying that you don't like me back or is there some other reason for this visit other than an apology?"

"No!" Liam blurts. "No, I mean. I do...like you. A lot. And I just wanted to apologize, because I realize that I'm a dickhead."

I smile. "That's good to know," I say. He smiles hesitantly back at me. "Is that all?"

This time, Liam narrows his eyes at me. "Are you dismissing me?" he asks, smiling slightly.

I raise an eyebrow at him, leaning back on my hands. "Maybe. Maybe not," I reply. "Maybe I want you to stay a little longer. You know, you might as well look around. Considering you might be staying here more often."

"Might I?" His eyes glint playfully as he smirks. "Well, then, don't mind if I do." He wanders over to the window, and I watch him with a smile as he peers out the window. "What the hell? How come you got a good view?"

"I'm the best," I drawl. "I deserve nothing less."

"Of course, how could I ever think differently." He grins, before moving over to my desk. I move to my feet as he picks up my sketch book, which is marked on my most recent pages. Before I can stop him, he's flicked open the book to my latest drawing.

I run a hand over my forehead as he studies the drawing of himself. I had done it last night, after I had come in from the balcony.

It's a detailed sketch of his side profile as he leans against the stone wall next to me, his hair falling in front of his eyes and flying out wildly as the wind picks it up. He flips back a page, and there's my drawing of all of my friends and Saoghal, the one where he shows up three times instead of once.

"These are beautiful," he murmurs as he flicks through the rest of the pages.

"Well, of course you think so," I say in an attempt at joking. "The last two are pretty much of you."

Liam gives me a small, genuine smile. "I made something for you," he says suddenly, and reaches into his pocket. I frown when he pulls out a small piece of pale wood, whittled carefully down to the upper body of a young woman.

Me, I realize, when I see the tight bun I had worn the last few days and the rounder features. He hands it to me, and I grasp it in my hand as if it was a piece of glass that would shatter if I dropped it. "Now this is actually beautiful," I say, smiling. "Is this really my resting face?"

"You look incredibly mean when you're not smiling," Liam says softly, and I look up into his eyes, so incredibly blue even in the dim candlelight. "Which is why I love it when you smile." I stare at him, entranced by the way the light dances over his skin, illuminating his strong jaw and tousled blond hair.

And then I lean forward, raising myself onto my toes, and plant my lips directly onto his.

.  .  .

Omg they're actually so cute- not me giggling and kicking my feet while writing this LMAO

anyways, how'd you guys like this? Serious Liam x Ria time, and we finally get to know more about her siblings! Also what her relic looks like ;) (Liam's gonna be seeing a lot of it, considering where it is eheheh)

Ok I'll stop