The dragon-human bond didn’t exist before the Separation. Couldn’t have existed. Dragons and humans occupied the same world but lived fundamentally separate existences—dragons in their mountain territories, humans in their scattered settlements, no meaningful contact between species beyond occasional dangerous encounters.
One of them is mine, she thinks. Then immediately: No. One of them might choose me.
Because that’s the truth the clans teach from birth: you cannot force compatibility. You cannot demand a bond. You can only stand at the convergence ground with your mind open and your heart ready, and hope that somewhere in the wheeling dance of dragons above, there’s one who feels the same impossible recognition you do.
