Legions of Bone: Dragon Rider Book 3

Chapter 38: Hypocrite

Guys, we're thirty-eight chapters into the story and most published books are reaching the end of the story by chapter thirty-eight chapter lmao. We're barely over halfway through the book lmaaooooo.

Also, sorry the chapter is super short. But the next few are really long (hehehe)

Norah

Norah didn't spend much time in the cabin anymore.

If she wasn't with Vaella, drowning in hordes of the dead, she was reading anything and everything on mythology and monsters. She trained whenever she could--with or without the goddess, trained her teammates, and hunted the monsters that suited the experience or items she desired.

Norah felt confident that Vaella would be proud of her spending every waking second dedicating herself to this war but Norah also felt that the war was slowly consuming her; every day it wrapped its tendriled fingers around her ankle and pulled her deeper into its black depths.

Sitting at her desk, Norah stared at the book in her hands, her vision blurring the black ink.

Someone knocked on her door.

Norah sighed, saying nothing until the door cracked open and Milo peered in. The sight of him eased her annoyance. He wasn't Dagen or Nevaeha, and Vaella wouldn't have even bothered knocking.

"Can we come in?" Milo asked.

We?

"Sure." Apparently, she had nothing better to do.

Milo stepped in, opening the door wide enough for Fin to trot in behind Nevaeha. The girl's eyes darted around her sad excuse of a room. Pale, grey walls, too many bookshelves filled to the brim with ancient books. Her armor hung on a wooden mannequin, her favorite weapons hanging neatly on a nearby rack. Norah's room had no windows for creatures or gods to peer into and there was no need for a bed. Just a few tables to set her things on and a chair.

Norah's gaze lingered on Dagen as he slipped in behind them. Her pulse quickened, worry crawling up her veins like icy spiders.

It had taken Dagen three days to talk to her, and she'd initiated the conversation because she needed him to go to the city. Even after, they only spoke if it was work-related and it concerned her. She knew his reaction wasn't her fault, but she'd done something to trigger him. And when she had a thought to spare, she replayed that night over and over and over again, analyzing every movement and touch she'd made.

Too controlling, she'd reasoned, but she wouldn't truly know unless she asked Dagen.

That was something she had no plans on doing. Not unless he brought it up first and was willing to share it.

Her team gathered around the table she sat at like anxious children about to present to the class. Eoin appeared behind his brother, waving at Norah eagerly as he always did.

No one said anything.

Norah reclined in her seat, arms crossed. If they wanted to talk to her so badly, they could speak first.

"How's the front?" Milo drawled.

Norah considered her words carefully, "Fine."

Milo bobbed his head, trying to think of what to say next. "Good. Good. Well, we've all been training for a couple months now," he started. "And learned so much already. Our team dynamic is really good, Nevaeha's improved on her archery. Dagen's gotten better with swords-"

"You can just tell me what you want," Norah said coolly. "I won't bite."

"You might," Eoin said, pursing his lips at her, wide-eyed.

"I might," Norah amended. Only Dagen would get it.

"We want to go to the front."

Norah had known this day would come.

"Beyond it," Milo corrected. "We're grateful for the training, but practicing here only gets us so far."

"Warriors train for years." Her voice stayed even. "And you think six months of training qualifies you to go running into a horde?"

"To be fair," Nevaeha added. "They send soldiers fresh out of boot camp in."

They're meant to die, she wanted to say. They're just pawns.

But that would have been too harsh for Miss. Savior and good ol' Milo.

"How long do they last?" she asked instead.

Nevaeha stopped pressing her lips into a grim line. Not very long.

"Norah, we once had many conversations identical to this," Vaella stated from behind her.

Of fucking course, the goddess would show up when Norah least wanted her to. But she brought up a good point, as much as Norah hated to admit it.

Norah held in her sigh. She didn't feel any kind of emotion, but distantly, like a depthless well, there was a dull echo of frustration.

She didn't want them anywhere near the front. Didn't want to babysit them because Norah knew she hadn't trained with them yet. She'd trained them but had never trained with them with her darkness. And that power was not forgiving to anything.

Things would go wrong, Norah knew that much. Everything always went wrong with her, but Norah had no right to keep them here if they didn't want to be. And it was better to get them on the battlefield sooner rather than later.

"Fine," Norah said. "Just don't blame me when you get yourselves killed."