Cass blinked to regain her vision, though she could still roughly make out the last moves of Alyx’s fight through Atmospheric Sense. That had been so close. Did Alyx know how many lightning bolts Kohen had been preparing? He had implanted more than a dozen in the arena’s floor and had summoned more with each of those bolt attacks.

If Alyx hadn’t gone all in there at the end, never mind losing, Alyx might have died. Was this how duels went?

Then again, Alyx had swung her sword with some scary-looking power on the blade and had no sign of holding back, so it may have been fair.

Cass shook her head. It didn’t matter. It was obvious people died in these fights. She just needed to avoid getting mixed up in this kind of thing.

Alyx removed her sword from her brother’s body, and as he surrendered, sheathed it without fanfare. She dropped the mask on his chest.

He snatched it up, holding it tight like a child with his favorite toy.

Alyx’s eyes caught on that man at the table just below the duchess’s. They stared each other down wordlessly.

“Don’t forget what you promised,” Alyx spat at Kohen before stalking back to the table.

The entire room’s eyes were on her. The whispers whirled to full force.

Alyx grabbed Cass’s hands. “Thank you.”

“What?” Cass asked, her head cocking to one side.

Alyx shook her head and let Cass go, sitting back down and heaping another helping of the braised pork onto her plate. “Never mind. Just, I’m glad you are here.”

Before Cass could ask her what that meant, she was speaking to the rest of the table. “I believe there should be no doubting of my accomplishments now?”

Tiador nodded with a whistle. “I wouldn’t dare after that performance.” He eyed Cass and added, “Though, I would like to hear how the miss here aided you at her level. Whether or not you conquered Uvana, your companion doing so at your side remains unlikely for a plethora of reasons.”

Cass’s stomach twisted. This shouldn’t be surprising. Kohen had nicely outlined why her claims made little sense.

“She’s an exceptional mage,” Alyx said without looking up from her dinner.

Tiador raised an eyebrow, his lime eyes sparking with interest. “Is that so?”

Cass shook her head, “I’m really not that impressive.” Certainly not compared to what Kohen had just displayed.

She could throw a single wind blade at a time. He had held a dozen lightning bolts simultaneously.

She couldn’t even hold lightning for a couple of seconds at a time.

“I’d like to see for myself,” he said. “Care to duel?”

Cass’s eyes widened. Nope, nope, nope! She did not. How anyone looked at the deadly force on display just now and said to themselves, ‘yes, I’d like to subject myself to that too, thanks,’ she did not understand.

Were they all just crazy? Probably, actually.

Cass shook her head, “No. No, thank you.”

She hoped she’d sounded polite rather than terrified. Alyx had just gone and showed off how cool she was. How bad would it make her look if her companion was running shaking from such challenges? Especially after talking Cass up.

But Cass had her priorities well in order, and her life was far, far more valuable than Alyx’s pride.

“I see,” he said, a strange look on his face. Disappointment, maybe? Maybe in her? In Alyx?

Then Alyx snorted.

Cass shot her a confused look, but the other woman was smirking at Tiador without so much as glancing in Cass’s direction.

Before Cass could voice the confusion, a servant appeared at the end of the table.

“You all have been invited to greet the dragons,” he said with a low bow. “Please follow me.”

The other table guests shot up. Neither Alyx nor Tiador were an exception. They all walked as quickly as possible without running.

Cass hurried after them, a buzzing in her chest. Excitement? Fear? Both? These were real dragons. Real dragons!

Cass wasn’t about to claim she was special. She wasn’t any different from any other woman. She’d been a teenage girl once. She’d gone through all the usual phases. A horse girl phase. A fantasy princess phase. A dragon phase.

She’d had no shortage of childhood dreams of riding dragons.

But this wasn’t a fantasy. These were real beings. If Alyx was to be believed, cursed beings, liable to turn into uncontrollable beasts if not bound to another by the time they turned nine.

Didn’t that make them children? Their voices had sounded quite young, now that she thought about it.

The group lined up before the dragon’s table, Cass the very last of their group.

She watched as each of the guests approached one at a time. She couldn’t hear what was said to the dragons like a wall of silence wrapped the table and its occupants, isolating them from the rest of the room.

Most guests were only given a minute or so to chat. Kohen had somehow gotten ahead in the line. He spoke for a good two minutes with the pair before walking back to the table, his head lowered.

Tiador must not have exchanged more than their names because he was walking back almost as soon as he approached.

Alyx got a little longer. She seemed to be passionately telling them something. Their heads bobbed in agreement before she too left.

And then it was Cass’s turn. She approached the table, stepping over that invisible barrier and finding the murmur of the hall fall away.

The dragon pair looked down on her, their silver eyes even more imposing up close.

“Er, I’m Cass, hi.” She gave them a small wave.

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They’d looked identical from a distance, both white-scaled and silver-eyed, but up close there were differences in their faces. Their horns curled differently. The one on the right had a pointed snout, while the one on the left was more rounded.

The right one was staring at Cass.

Cass raised an eyebrow. “What? My charge?”

“I don’t think so,” Cass said slowly.

Does she sense me? Salos whispered. Cass could feel a wave of concern building in him. It pressed against her chest, cold and powerful.

Why would a dragon think our bond is like the bond they share with their knights? Cass asked.

the first dragon said.

The second, rounder-faced dragon chimed in, her voice softer,

I don’t know, Salos replied, his concern swirling up around them. But unless you have other secret bonds, I do not know about I don’t know what else she could be sensing.

I don’t. Cass forced her body to keep breathing at an even pace, to ignore the emotions creeping over from Salos. What does it mean that our bond is similar?

I don’t know, Salos repeated. But the simplest answer would be that, somehow, they are demons too. Quickly, he dismissed the idea. But there are so many problems with that, I hardly think we should consider it.

Which is why you’re panicking at the idea of it? Cass asked.

They can’t be demons, Salos said. Dragons are their own race. That would be like saying humans are demons or slyphids are demons. You can’t be both. They are their own things.

You’re a Nyxdrian Demon, Cass pointed out. Couldn’t they be draconic demons or something?

They are not demons, Salos repeated, more for himself than for Cass. They aren’t trying to devour anyone’s soul. Therefore, they can’t be demons.

Cass wanted to point out that he was a demon and wasn’t trying to eat anybody either, but she decided that now wasn’t a good time for that.

Besides, I have never heard of any other cases of demon bonding, Salos added, another layer of reason plastered over his now quietly churning concerns.

How unusual is our bond, exactly? Cass asked.

Demons do not choose to make bonds. Honestly, I would not have thought our arrangement could be as stable as it is. Demons devour or are destroyed. Half measures like our existence are improbable. That an entire race of demons would willingly submit to such a bond is even more unlikely.

What about under the influence of the gods? Cass asked. Alyx said the gods cursed and blessed the dragons, right?

‘Demon’ god or not, I refuse to believe any of the gods would be so foolish as to purposefully create demons, Salos said. And even if one did, the other gods would have destroyed such a race. Alacrity would never have ‘blessed’ demons. A biting fire laced his voice as he spoke. Not if she had even a shred of responsibility left.

That was more faith in the gods than Cass expected from him, but he continued talking before she could form a question to press him on it.

Besides, what culture reveres demons in any form? No one is that stupid. Therefore, they cannot be demons.

the second dragon asked.

“I think so,” Cass said.

Cass couldn’t help the smile spread over her face. This huge lizard just called someone its ‘mommy’. It was so incongruous, there was no other way to react.

“I suppose this means you wouldn’t be interested in me as your knight, then?” Cass asked.

There was laughter in the first dragon’s voice.

“That’s reasonable,” Cass said with a sigh. No dragon for us.

Why would you want to bind yourself to something else? You could hardly justify bringing it back to your world.

No, I suppose not. That wouldn’t be fair. Also, that would be a huge commotion if I did. Cass imagined the chaos a fully grown dragon appearing in the city would cause. Yes, probably for the best she didn’t. Besides, Alyx needed to impress one of these two. Better she have one fewer competitor.

“It was nice to meet you both,” Cass said with another bow. “I hope one of you will choose my friend Alyx and we can hang out again another time.”

the first dragon asked.

“No mother?” Cass asked. That didn’t sound right.

the other dragon added.

“I’m confused.”

asked the other.

“I don’t think you should blame Alyx for something her parents may or may not have done,” Cass said slowly. There had to be more going on here. “Alyx herself is very strong. Very determined. I’ve relied on her a lot since I got here.”

The first dragon looked around Cass to stare at Alyx, who was waiting just out of earshot.

the other dragon agreed, though she avoided looking at Alyx instead.

“We just came back from Uvana. She killed the Lord of the Deep, which I gather has not been done in recent memory. We fought the Lord of the Pass together and I’m only alive now because of her skills.” Would either of them have survived if Alyx hadn’t Commanded her to focus? “More importantly, she’s a good person.”

Cass nodded. “You’re looking for your other half, right? Someone you share a soul with? Do you really want half your soul to be rotten? Someone who only cares about power?” Cass shrugged. “It would make me sad, at least.”

The dragons narrowed their eyes, clearly not quite buying Cass’s words.

“I think she cares more than she wants to admit about others. She pretends it’s about power and favors, but,” she could have done just the bare minimum if that was all it was. She could have abandoned Cass at any point. She could have ignored that burning town. After slaying the monsters, they could have left. They didn’t have to help with rebuilding the palisades.

Maybe it was all for a leverage she could use against her aunt. But Cass didn’t think so.

“She cares about people. About honoring debts. About protecting what’s hers,” Cass said finally. “I hope you will consider her as your guardian. You won’t regret picking her.”

they said, looking past Cass to Alyx again.

“Just consider her, that’s all I can ask,” Cass said and left them to their meal and their thoughts.

“Seemed like a long conversation,” Alyx said as Cass joined her on their walk back to their table. “Do I have another competitor?”

The tone was playful, joking, but there was a stiffness in her shoulders that betrayed her concern.

Cass shook her head. “No, I thought about it, but turns out they rejected me out of hand. Something about not wanting to partner with a spirit or something, I don’t know.” A lie, but easier to say than explaining Salos’s situation. “No. I was talking you up instead.”

“Talking me up?” Alyx asked. “What did you say?”

“Told them about Uvana. And how you’re a good person.” Cass shrugged. “Don’t know how much my words will mean to them, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.”

“Thank you,” Alyx said.