“A dragon rider is a what, now?”

“Sounds like a noun.” Ben answered Victor.

“Shut up, or be serious,” Emily snapped.

His humor appeared to have the opposite effect on Emily. The scowl appeared permanently etched on her face. It arrived before we broke for lunch, and remained after we reconvened.  

She leaned against the window seal near Lachlan, who sat directly across the table from me. I held little belief his choice in seat had been a coincidence since he purposely waited for me to sit before he did. My cousin sat to my left with anxiety radiating from him like heat off the summer sidewalks. Victor paced back and forth at one end of the table, while Ben lounged in a chair at the other end.

I envied Ben. Nothing seemed to...

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