Sarah Geoghegan’s Reviews > Threshing Day > Status Update

‘I can’t wait to see their faces when Liam gets here next year and destroys them all on the mat. Xaden spent years training him. My fingers skim the newly sewn Gaunlet patch on my chest. I bet Liam wears one just like this next year, too. He’s the best of us.’ 😭😭

‘“I could have don’t better, but I’m not you.”
“No one asked you to be.” He dhoots me a look, then grasps my shoulders and turns me, stopping us in the middle of the forest. His eyes bore into mine as he leans down slightly, brining our gazes level.
“Bohdi, no one asks, expects, or wants you to be me.”
“Yeah.” “Of course. Only if you did, right?”’

‘As it is, sometimes I feel like I’m one of Kaori’s projections of Xaden; I resemble him enough to earn both hatred and respect, depending on who’s looking, but lack the power to make the same impact he does.’

‘But more than anything, just for today, I want to walk into this forest as my own man, to be seen as more than Xaden Riorson’s cousin.’

‘So fine, I’ll keep an eye out to see if the kids with the rebellion relics are breaking the Codex. It’s the least I can do for the man who had given me everything, and if it keeps Violet safe, then even better.’

‘“The dragons vouched for them. Their intentions. Their loyalty.” I say softly. “We never question dragons, right?” It goes against everything he’s taught me.’

‘“I know. Yet another reason I have finally chosen to involve myself with your kind again.”
“You’re Chradh,”
“Now that introductions have been made…” “shall we depart? While the snow doesn’t bother me, I have no wish to lose you to frostbite after finally having chosen you.”
There’s that finally again. “According to Kaori, you’ve never bonded before. You’re only 27 yeas old.”’

‘You are my pride, Garrick, my heart. But he is Tyrrendor’s. He must live, Tyrrendor only survives if he does.’

— grounds Basgiath was put here to protect. I’ve just pulled the dragon equivalent of baring my throat.
Sgaeyl lifts her head. “And thus, we begin.”’

‘“Say it.” Her eyes almost glow with their intensity. “Tell me what you will do with all this power after you accomplish your mission?”
I’ll give her unflinching honesty.
“If I live through it?” I let the monster slip its leash a fraction of an inch. “I’d love nothing more than to burn this place to the fucking ground.” To a dragon there’s nothing as sacred as the vale, their hatching —