Sir Danny hillith of kattegatt's Arc

Chapter 3 of 10

Danny worked through the night, his fingers slick with the salve the dragon mistress handed him in silence. The membrane needed pressure in exactly the right places or it would tear worse. He didn't think about the letter. He didn't think about anything except where to place his hands next. The wing mended just before dawn. The dragon shifted, testing the repair with small movements that made Danny hold his breath. Then it stretched the wing fully and turned its massive head toward him. Before he could step back, the dragon pressed its snout against his chest. Heat bloomed where it touched—not burning, but searing deep. The dragon mistress moved forward but stopped when the dragon rumbled low in its throat. Danny looked down and saw blue flame tracing a pattern across his ribs, the dragon's mark settling into his skin like ink into parchment. The dragon pulled away and the flames faded, leaving raised lines that pulsed with warmth. The dragon mistress knelt beside the eggs that ringed the stone platform, their iridescent shells catching the first light. The dragon moved to settle among them, folding its mended wing with care. She touched one of the eggs, then looked at Danny. "It chose you," she said. Her voice carried something he'd never heard before—not laughter, not deflection. "The bond can't be undone. You're marked as mine now, whether you planned for it or not." Danny's hand went to his chest where the pattern still burned beneath his shirt. All his rehearsed words felt like ash in his mouth. She stood and walked to the edge of the platform where ancient symbols were carved into the stone, their grooves filled with embers that never quite died. "I didn't ask for this," Danny said, and meant it. She turned back to him, and for the first time since he'd known her, she wasn't smiling. "I know," she said. "But the dragon saw what you wouldn't say. It marked you for what you are, not what you've planned to be." The words settled between them like a door closing on one path and opening another. Danny realized his plans had just become irrelevant. The dragon had spoken for him, and there was no taking it back.