Page 250 - Fourth Wing

“Hold tight.”

I feel the same bands of energy clamp around my legs, and Tairn
crouches a millisecond before he hurls us skyward.

The wind tears at my eyes as my stomach falls away, and I risk holding

on with one hand to lower my flight goggles. Immediate relief.
“We had to go second?” I ask Tairn as we fly out of the canyon and

higher into the mountain range. I get it now, why I didn’t see the dragons

training often even though I’ve basically grown up at Basgiath. The only
people around us are other riders. “Everyone is going to see when I slide

right off.”

“I only agreed to follow Smachd because his rider is your instructor.”
“So you’re an in-front kind of guy. Good to know. Remind me to spend

some time at temple so I can make multiple appeals to Dunne.” I keep my
focus on Kaori, watching for when the maneuvers will start.

“The goddess of strength and war?” Tairn clearly scoffs this time.

“What, dragons don’t think we need the gods on our side?” Shit, it’s cold
up here. My gloved hands tighten on the pommel.

“Dragons pay no heed to your puny gods.”
Kaori banks right, and Tairn follows suit, leading us into a steep dive

down the face of one of the peaks. I clench with my legs, but I know it’s

Tairn keeping me in the seat.
He holds me there through another climb and even a near-spiral of a turn,

and I can’t help but notice that he’s taking everything Kaori is doing and

making it harder.
“You can’t hold me here the entire time, you know.”

“Watch me. Unless you’d rather be scraped off the glacier below like

Gleann’s rider back there?”
I whip my head around to look, but all I see is Tairn’s tail swinging, his

massive spikes blocking the view.
“Don’t look.”