Free Rider (Spirals of Destiny) by Jim Bernheimer

interesting conversation.
    The small, waif-like fire maiden whispered to his rider, “You need to learn control, if you’re going to be throwing heat like that around. The way we teach is to put gloves over our hands. The flame is always conjured on the outside of the glove like a barrier. Eventually, we take away the glove, but maintain the barrier in our mind. Even after you master this, burns will still happen when you’re not focused on what you’re doing or rushing the conjuration.”
    “Am I going to be okay?”
    “It's pretty nasty and we used up our supply of healing tears to tend to the wounded in Miros. You’ll have to use the salve, until we can get some more.” Annabeth glanced up at Majherri and then at the water maiden like she was measuring the odds of that happening. “Anyway, I’ll start working with you on the basics of fire magic. Burns are an occupational hazard, but we don’t want this to become a habit. Welcome to the sisterhood of the eternal flame, fellow fire maiden.”
    Kayleigh smiled weakly as her hand was rebandaged. “Will you be teaching me at the Academy, ma’am?”
    “No, just here on the road. I’m on loan from one of the High-King’s battalion to do demonstrations. Your instructor is probably leading a recruiting team that went north and west.”
    “Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome. If you want to really thank me, put a good word in for Rhey with Majherri.”
    “I don’t understand, ma’am.”
    Annabeth chuckled looking directly into Majherri’s eyes. “My unicorn seems taken with Captain Lynch’s T’rsa. He’s courting her, but her brother here seems to be a bit of a stick in the mud.”
    He’s resorting to having his rider beg mine for help? How unworthy of Rheysurrah. I thought my opinion of him couldn't get any worse.
    “I’ll do what I can,” Kayleigh said. Majherri overlooked this display of treachery from his rider. She was still very young and trying to please the rest of the humans. He’d put up with this from her.
    Turning his head back to Captain Lynch, he could see she was livid that he wasn’t paying any real attention to her righteous fury. The armored woman angrily marched up to his rider. “Get up. You and I are going for a walk.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Kayleigh said with a note of hesitancy in her voice.
    Majherri followed to see what Meghan intended to say to his rider. T’rsa fell into step next to him glaring at him. Her body language quickly told him that she was of the same opinion as her rider.
    I did what I had to do and I’d do it again. The human has spent too much time teaching and not enough time doing. I choose where I fight and when I fight. You either battle on your terms or someone else's.
    Humility wasn’t one of his strong suits. Outright defiance was. He and Danella had perfected it into an art form, which was why she was such a good independent scout.
    The foursome walked back to the road and the scene of the battle. As soon as they were out of the earshot of the camp, Lynch said in a stern tone, “I want you to understand this, Reese. My anger is directed at Majherri and not you.”
    “Yes, ma’am. I understand.” His rider responded.
    “No, I don’t think you do. He knows how the bond works. Each recruit and the unicorn spend years sorting each other out like when a couple gets married. All the other recruits and their unicorns are discovering it for the first time … except you and him. There’s no way you wanted to charge into battle on his back. He made you do it!”
    “But we saved those guards’ lives. Well, mostly it was him.”
    “Yes, the two of you did just that. It’s the upside in all this, but here’s what I’m looking at Reese. Majherri is a strong willed unicorn. He will run roughshod over you if you let him. If it were just the two of you, I wouldn’t be as interested. Trust me, there’re plenty of maidens out in the battalions that are ‘horn whipped’ and allow themselves to be led