Legacy in Ruins: Dragon Rider Book 1

Skyfall

"Holland!" I stand, relief flooding over me. Easton rushes over to our instructor who kneels beside Seb's wound.

"Thank the gods, I found you two." He breathes under his breath, falling to one knee and putting a tentative hand on Sed's wound, nearly the size of him. "Riveta." He calls.

The lanky woman is quick to meet his side, giving a thorough check of the wound. "He should be fine if we can get him to some doctors." She says, voice soft despite her serious tone.

Holland nods, relieved and stern in equal measures. "Where's his rider?" His blue eyes stay on the dragon and woman, but he speaks to us.

"Don't know." Easton says, standing beside me. "Blake must have fallen off in the sky when they fell."

"Can you take care of him?" He asks Riveta, with her nodding. "Good. We'll send people to find Blake later." Before we can say anything, he stands, giving a quick peck on the woman's cheek before grabbing mine and Easton's wrists and dragging us to our dragons and ordering us to mount. We do as told and let him and Galeur lead us through the city.

I gape at the back of my instructors head while Rima is just as equally surprised to see such affection from our teacher as I am. But while I focus on the irrelevant, Rima is quick to bring her thoughts back to the meteor shower.

"You kissed her!" Is the only thing I can say.

"Yes." It almost sounds like he's talking to a child, something I've grown used to from him. He doesn't spare a glance to look back at me. "She's my wife, I can do that."

"Wife?!" Easton and I both repeat dumbfoundedly.

"Shut up, and follow me. We need every dragon and dragon rider." Holland changes the subject easily. Easton and I both glance at each other, both thinking the same exact thing. He's never mentioned a wife before.

"Where are we going?" Abraxis asks as another meteor passes over us, hitting a black dragon that had frantically tried to miss another rock in the process. The dragon's roar stabs my heart just like it does Rima but she quickly pulls my focus back to my overly calm instructor.

Galeur is the first to answer, leading everyone through the winding city as fast as he can. "The leaders of the factions have called everyone to the center of the capital. They have a plan to stop the meteors from destroying half the city."

Suddenly, the roads end, opening into a large park planted with the occasional willow tree and flowers. On the backs of our dragons, the run to the large crowd dominating the center of the park, makes it easy to meet them. As we approach I realize that the dragons all standing on one side of the crowd are outnumbered by humans.

When we reach everyone, we slow to a quick stop and I get a much better view of the three leaders of each faction. Cedric stands in front of his silver dragon, dressed in a white long sleeve shirt with brown pants and black boots. Beside him are three men, all with black hair except for the middle one with almond hair and eyes. As I gaze down the row, dragons and riders are on my right while commons people stand as mediators between the mages and stand in the middle. My eyes land on the mage leaders, taking note that no one expected to have to fight today and chose to wear casual clothing.

All the leaders meet in the middle of the crowd and I can't help but feel both relieved and infuriated when I see my family among them. Mother had tied her dark hair into a low bun and her red dress is littered in rips and dirt. Clarika stands behind Father who is still dressed in his tux. My family talks with Cedric and the leaders of the commons people, eyes searching over the riders. I refuse to believe they're looking for me, even as their eyes rove over me.