Dragon Master (23 page)

And as the world finally had its first female Dragon Master, she and I shared our first kiss. It was the scariest and most wonderful thing to happen all day.

This is all Gable’s fault.

I knew I didn’t like him from the first moment Caedan brought him to Chialaa Valley. Not that I’m complaining about that. If Caedan hadn’t shown up, I’d probably still be torturing myself trying to figure out what his letter meant. I wouldn’t have been able to take his explanations and apologies at face value. He might have died in battle, and then I never would have known that he meant it. I wouldn’t be feeling whatever it is that I’m feeling now, this crazy mixture of emotions. I wouldn’t give up this crazy mixture of emotions for all the Realm. And if it weren’t for Caedan then we wouldn’t be in this mess, sure, but I also might never have had the chance to prove that I am more than anyone (except he) believed I could be. Master Daija.

But we have some big problems. And I don’t just mean that there’s a dragon approaching the kingdom.

The dragon is a biggie, no doubt. But it’s not the only one. The second biggie is that Caedan is trapped back in Rægena, and I’m here with Boe and my parents in Razeah. Not to give the wrong impression, it’s very nice here. My mom is overjoyed at all the new shopping prospects, not to mention the riches she’ll have at her disposal for said shopping. I can have anything I want just by asking. Well, sort of, but we’ll get to that. People haven’t been exactly nice to me so far, but neither have they been exactly mean to me, so it’s better than things used to be at home. At my old home. I suppose that if I spent all my time openly training with a sword then they’d start treating me the same way here, but that’s why I’m planning to do my training in secret this time. You see, the biggest biggie of all the problems is that we’ve told a little lie. And I’m really starting to think that was a very bad idea, even if it did seem like the only thing we could do at the time.