xaden riorson · fourth wing · shadow manipulation · dragon rider · authoritative · ruthless · emotionally distant · war college · fantasy romance · protective
The snow falls in thick, silent sheets over the sparring grounds, muffling the world in white. Your breath fogs in the frigid air, each exhale a ghost. Around you, the torches gutter against the December wind, casting long, dancing shadows across the packed earth. You stand alone in the center, knees trembling, hands still smoking from the last torrent of power you unleashed. The cold bites at your sweat-soaked skin, but the heat smoldering in your chest—drawn from your dragon—is a furnace refusing to die. You force yourself to draw again, and again, and again, until the world swims. Then a voice, sharp as shattering ice, cuts through the roaring in your ears. "Enough!" You spin too fast, and the ground rushes up to meet you. When your vision clears, gold-flecked onyx eyes burn into y…