Free Dragon Blood 1: Pliethin by Avril Sabine Page B

Kade who hovered beside her. “I was stalking that stag. I wanted to eat him.” Hysteria bubbled up and she forced it down. It tinged her last words.
    Kade dropped into the chair beside her. “Stalk?”
    Amber nodded. “I could smell him. I didn’t even think. Just reacted. I felt like I could tear him apart with my bare hands. Tell me I’m not going mad.”
    “Stalk.”
    “Will you stop saying that?” Amber hit the table with her open hand.
    “What animal?”
    “Stag.”
    “No, what animal did you remind yourself of?”
    “I don’t know. Pounce! I was tensed to pounce. A cat. A large cat. Tiger, panther, jaguar. Something like that.”
    Kade swore. He pushed away from the table and paced.
    Amber stepped in front of him, her chair nearly falling with how quickly she rose. “What’s happening? Tell me!” She grabbed his upper arms.
    “Panther.”
    “How do you know?”
    “Those cat hairs?” When Amber nodded, Kade glanced away. “It wasn’t Maira’s pet. It was a panther.”
    “What!”
    “They’re returning it. Flinn thought it’d make a good meal. Maira argued with him about it. She won.”
    “You had panther hairs on your shirt?”
    Kade nodded. “I’m sorry-”
    “You stupid-” her fist aimed for his jaw.
    Kade moved out of the way, catching her hand. “Enough! It wasn’t deliberate. You were told to follow orders.”
    “Follow orders! I had Flinn and a wyvern coming straight for me. It was instinct to grab the Pliethin. I was scared out of my mind. I was stuck in a tree with a red-eyed beast whose claws were ready to tear me apart. I don’t know what I was thinking. Or even if I was capable of thinking. I know I had a fleeting thought that I was going to die. But that might have been later. It’s all a muddle. Tell me what this means.”
    “I don’t know! Why do you think I’m suddenly going to have the answers to this when I keep telling you I wouldn’t have a clue? You can’t tell anyone about this. Do you understand? No one. Especially not Flinn.”
    “Why?”
    “Because he’ll kill you if he thinks you’re a threat to our people. I was going to bunk in Maira and Brann’s room and let you have mine. But not now. I don’t know when Flinn and his warriors will be home, but I won’t leave you alone. He’ll know something happened.”
    “And how could he know that?”
    “He flew off and left the wyvern there to kill us. Any Gold Warrior who holds a Pliethin is not aware of their surroundings. At all. We shouldn’t have survived the wyvern attack. You have to tell him you kept the wyvern occupied until I was myself again. That you kept running and dodging like you did the first time.”
    “He wanted us to die?” Her words were little more than a whisper. They echoed in her mind.
    “We believe in survival of the fittest. I should have had Maira and Brann with me, but I didn’t think Flinn would desert us like that. I shouldn’t have let Maira get squeamish over a panther. Flinn had his people with him.”
    “I didn’t see any other dragons.”
    “They were there. Keeping their distance, but ready in case they were needed.”
    “Where are they now?”
    Kade shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably with Flinn. And before you ask, I don’t know where he is either.”
    Amber turned away. Exhaustion washed over her. “This is all such a mess.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Yeah, sure you are. But only because you’re worried about what your old people will say.”
    Kade laughed softly. “Elders. And they’re not all old. Well, not in the dragon sense. It’s their title.”
    “Oh, who cares?” She turned abruptly so she could face him. She wanted to stop thinking about all this. “Where am I sleeping?”
    “My room.” He stepped back into the hallway and this time turned to his right. There were two doors at the end, one ahead, one on the right. Kade opened the door in front of him, turning on the light. He stepped out of the way so Amber could enter.
    She stared at