Page 5 of Dreams and Dragon Wings (Clean Fairytales for Adults #2)

Shrugging the matter off, I promised, “I’ll tell you all about it in my next letter: the Great Weaver, magic, all of it. And then next year, when I return for another birthday flight, I’ll be able to tell you anything you like, even when I’m in dragon form.”

I shot a look toward the sky and resisted the urge to bounce my leg. “But right now, we really should be going.”

Oddly, Aurelia’s face fell yet again. “My next birthday?” She tugged my cloak tighter around her shoulders. “Could you not come sooner? I’m afraid I won’t be here on our next birthday.”

My heart lurched. Not here? Where could she possibly be going?

As if hearing my thoughts, she lowered her gaze to the forest floor and softly explained, “Mother is sending me away to finishing school next year. So, I suppose I won’t be able to write to you, either. I don’t imagine there’s a fairy circle on the grounds.”

“Finishing school?” We didn’t have such things in Drakara, but I knew enough about human culture to be offended on her behalf. Stiffly, I pointed out, “But there is nothing at all wrong with your manners, Miss Weaver.”

The smile that ghosted across her lips was a sad, little thing. “Aurelia, please,” she whispered before lifting her gaze back to mine. “Mother hopes I might become finished enough to attract a good husband one day.”

I nearly choked. “But we’re only fourteen. Why is she worried about that now ?”

Aurelia’s hands balled into fists. Her chin lifted. “Because not all of us are royalty, Bene,” she scolded me. “Some of us are mere… mere commoners who can only hope for a better life. Mother just wants what’s best for me.”

I wanted to protest, to tell her she was wrong, that she wasn’t a mere anything.

But I couldn’t.

It wasn’t fair, but Aurelia could never know what she was. Not so long as my uncle’s curse still darkened our shared future.

But curses were meant to be broken.

Those words rippled through my mind unbidden as I watched Aurelia turn away from me. Auntie Velda always liked to say that when I was feeling particularly low about my fate.

“I should go,” she whispered. “Young ladies with already limited prospects shouldn’t be out after dark with young men at any rate.”

“ Naei ,” I agreed, my heart clenching at her sudden shift in demeanor. “But I don’t think there’s any rule about a young lady being out after dark with a dragon.”

When she turned back to face me, I had already shifted, leaving her gasping in clear delight. I would never grow tired of seeing her look at me like that—like I was wonderful , as she had called me last year, rather than something to be feared.

All humans seemed to fear me. But not her.

Then again, Aurelia was no human.

Through my enhanced eyes, the world sparkled even more beautifully. Threads of magic of all different hues wound through the grass, the trees, the skies. They even danced around Aurelia—a faint promise of what she would one day be.

I lowered myself to my belly and stretched out my wings, making it easy for her to climb atop me. When she didn’t immediately clamber onto my back, though, I twitched my tail and rumbled in imitation of an annoyed cat.

As I had hoped, she laughed. “Very well. There is no rule about that.”

But still, her movements were cautious, gentle, as if she were afraid of hurting me . Her hands timidly glided across the scales of my shoulders—a mere whisper of a touch—as she climbed atop me and slid into place just in front of the joint of my wings.

“Is this… all right? I’m not too heavy for you?” she asked.

I snorted in reply.

“Hold on,” I warned her in my native tongue as I lurched to my paws and sprinted through the trees, making for the clearing that housed our fairy circle. The wind whipped past us, bringing with it all the scents of early summer—flowers, rich earth, her .

As I had hoped she would when I picked up speed, she shrieked and flung her arms around my neck. “Bene, you’re so fast!”

She had seen nothing yet.

Dangerous. Reckless. Foolish.

That’s what my aunties would have said if they could have seen me in that moment. I could almost hear their voices buzzing in my ears, asking me what I was doing.

But curses were meant to be broken, were they not?

My wings surged, churning up the air as I shoved off with all my might. My claws ripped through the soil on the edge of the clearing. We rocketed into the night sky.

Together.

“Bene!” she squealed, her fingers finding purchase beneath the grooves of the scales covering my throat. Beneath us, the forest fell away, her cottage disappeared, and even the grand city of Spindleton became a mere smattering of fireflies and nothing more.

I gently banked to the right, turning us away from the civilized parts of her world. We needed to stay in the meadows and fields, the places where a lone farmer claiming to have seen a dragon flying late at night would be ignored.

The last thing I needed was King Aldemar writing to my father and warning him that a dragon had been spotted in Briarhold, breaking the peace treaty between our kingdoms. My aunties would have been right to scold me. I was being reckless for many different reasons.

But it all became worth it when Aurelia sighed, “This is the best birthday present ever.”

I rumbled, happy I could give this to her.

“But I have nothing to give you in return!” she continued, giving my neck a squeeze. “I didn’t know you were coming tonight.”

“I wanted to surprise you,” I explained, though I knew she couldn’t understand me. “And besides, just seeing you again is gift enough.”

“Next year,” she promised as I cautiously skirted around a dark lake, wary of frightening Aurelia.

She couldn’t swim.

“If you happen to come see me at finishing school,” she continued, clinging to my neck all the more tightly as we passed the body of water, “I’ll have a present for you then. A wonderful present.”

My pulse raced faster, picking up speed in time with my wings as I shot back into the air, earning another happy peal of laughter from the Jewel on my back.

“I will,” I promised, so confident, so sure—like the reckless boy I was.

But curses were meant to be broken, after all.

And for her sake, I would break mine.