Dragon Bonds (Return of the Darkening Series Book 3) by Ava Richardson

Kalax.
    Riders not threats. Take weapons, leave in the wilds. There. Done. Make their own territory. But this—this is wrong.
    I felt the powerful uplift of our dragon as she took to the night air, gliding soft and low over the landscape toward us.
    I will come. Take them to Gaxtal. Seb and Thea not do this.
    I felt a surge of intense gratitude and pride that Kalax was willing to save us from ourselves. Save us from ourselves... The thought struck me and I looked at Seb.
    He was grinning, nodding. “Kalax?” he said out loud. “Didn’t you tell me that all dragons can think to each other? Even from long, long distances?”
    Dragons have many ways and more languages than humans, she answered.
    “Could you talk to Beris and Syl or to Gaxtal? Reach them?” Seb glanced at me. “It wasn’t my special powers that broke the enchantment before, it was all of us. Kalax, you, me...all of us reaching together!” He turned to Varla and Merik and waved them over. “We need everyone.”
    The two of them swapped an uncomfortable look, but they headed over to Seb’s side.
    Yes.
    I didn’t know which of us had thought that one word—me, Kalax or Seb—but I wanted this to work. I grasped Seb’s hand, Varla took my hand and Merik took her hand and then put a hand on Syl’s shoulder. He cursed. Seb put a hand on Beris’ shoulder.
    “Get your hands off your betters.” Beris struggled against the ropes holding him.
    Shush, little human, Kalax snuffled at Beris, and then her dragon senses unfurled through me.
    For a dizzying moment, I could almost sense as a dragon does. She could smell every stitch of cloth that still hung from the walls, and the smoke from the fires warmed her. The smells of battle and blood were nothing to her. But another layer bubbled up from underneath that sense—as if everything had color and shape. It was as if she sensed every memory or feeling or thought.
    Can dragons smell minds?
    I felt Seb drawing closer to Beris’ mind and calling out, but a shadow hung between us. It seemed almost like a dark fog that was hard to see through, but Kalax could see past that. I started to sense Syl and Beris, and suddenly a connection snapped to Gaxtal, who I could sense was waiting for them not far from the city. The connections between us seemed to sharpen—like colored lines appearing out of the fog. I thought of all the times I had sparred with Beris, or the times Syl and I had struggled in training. These connections, these threads and attachments, made them who they were.
    A gasp sounded, then another. I snapped back into myself. Blinking, I opened my eyes—I hadn’t even known I’d closed them.
    Beris sat in the same chair, blinking rapidly, his eyes wet with unshed tears. Syl had his head down, but I could hear him gulping in air as if he’d run for miles.
    Beside me, Seb gave a groan and started to slump down. I grabbed for him and so did Varla. We caught him and got him stretched out on the floor.
    “Is he okay?” Varla asked. She glanced at me, her forehead wrinkled.
    I shrugged and kept one hand on Seb’s chest. At least he was still breathing and I could feel his heart pounding. “It just seems to take so much out of him.”
    Seb’s eyes flashed open. “The Dragon Stone—the king’s stone.”
    I glanced at him. He had his eyebrows pulled tight as if he had a headache, and I wondered how much more of this he could do.
    Even Varla and Merik swapped worried glances.
    Sitting up, Seb started talking fast. “I saw it. The dragons remember it. There is one stone that controls them all—the Memory Stone, the Healing Stone, the Armor Stone. There is one King Dragon Stone that controls them all. The old monks knew of it—the Draconis Order.”
    I glanced at Varla, who shrugged, and Merik, who was staring, wide eyed, at Seb. But Merik’s eyes always looked big behind the optics he wore to help his bad eyesight. Looking back at Seb, I said, “The king is busy preparing for a war—a battle. We