Page 21 of Forgotten Arcane (Broken Ashes #6)

Neith

W e’re all silent for a moment.

“I wonder what this means?” River asks. “I mean, I’m reasonably sure that you aren’t a reaper now,” he looks at Raiden, “right?”

Raiden shakes his head and smiles, “No, he’s not a reaper. He’s still very much a dragon.”

“Thank fuck for that,” Coen says immediately, and then adds, “no offense, but I love my dragon, and I have no desire to be a reaper.”

Raiden chuckles, “None taken, man. I don’t think many people would voluntarily choose to be a reaper with the reputation that they have.”

“Probably not,” Coen agrees with a smile.

“I guess we don’t really know what it means,” Doc says.

Looking at Coen, he asks, “Is it a gift that dragons have? I know that we know it’s got something to do with your new gifted magic, but if it’s a known gift of the dragons, then at least you would be able to talk to someone about it, and they would hopefully be able to help train you in it. ”

Coen shakes his head, “Yeah, that would be helpful, but as far as I’m aware, it’s not a gift that is normal for dragons to have.”

“Well, there goes that theory then,” Doc replies with a frown.

“We’ll just do what we always do, we can add it to the research pile, and we can wait and see what happens. We’ll figure it out,” Van suggests.

“I recognize the magic now, so hopefully I can just pull it back and not go into the Spirit Realm until we figure out a need for it, and I can control it better. I definitely don’t want to get stuck there again, and I also don’t want to end up on one of the levels that I shouldn’t be on, and end up getting myself in trouble,” Coen replies.

“Good point,” Griff agrees. “Maybe don’t go back to the Spirit Realm until we’ve figured out how you can get back.”

Coen nods in agreement, “Agreed.”

“It’s good that you can recognize the magic that though, that will stop you from accidentally going over again, hopefully,” Doc replies.

Coen nods, “Yeah, hopefully.” He lets go of me as he says, “Alright, let’s get you flying properly.”

I grin at the guys. I’m pretty sure that they’ve all caught on to what I did by this point. I think the only one who hasn’t realized it is Coen, which is a testament to just how worried about flying he really is.

“Okay,” I reply simply as I turn around. Coen’s eyes narrow slightly as he clearly sees something in my expression.

Before he questions what I’m up to, which is absolutely going to be the next thing that comes out of his mouth, I run and launch myself up into the air, flying steadily, and without nearly as much difficulty as I had been pretending that I was having, and then grin down at him proudly.

“Sneaky little Love,” Coen grins, calling up to me.

The guy’s chuckle as he launches into the air shifts within moments, easily lifting his big body into the air.

I absolutely adore Coen’s dragon. He’s huge, covered in black scales that shimmer with the colors of an oil slick in certain lights.

His wings are enormous, and have a single giant spike on the tips, that I’ve seen him eviscerate fuckers with, and he has two horns on his head that are a burnt red color, so dark that they are very nearly black.

For the first time, I get to test how fast my wings can go as I speed away from a quickly approaching Coen.

I can hear the guy’s laughter below me, and soon Raiden, Griff, and Reed have all leapt into the air and joined us as the others yell out for us to duck, and dive, and all sorts of things that I think are supposed to be helping us escape each other, but in reality aren’t actually that helpful. It’s really fucking fun though.

I manage to last a bit longer before my wings start to get tired.

I’m obviously not used to flying, and I think it’s going to take a while for me to build up the muscles in them so I can fly for prolonged periods of time like Reed and Griff do.

I have no idea if Raiden can fly for as long as they can yet, since he’s still relatively new to flying.

“I’m going to head back down. My wings are getting tired,” I announce.

“Okay, it’s a good idea to rest. You don’t want to push it too far on your first flight, and you’re already doing great,” Griff replies.

I grin proudly, “Thank you.”

“We can try flying while using weapons and things tomorrow. We want to get you at least comfortable with it, so that you can use it to your advantage when we go back to working,” Reed adds.

I nod, “Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I’m sure Coen will help, and if it’s okay, when you teach your class Griff, I’ll join in.”

Griff smiles, “Of course, it is. The students will be really happy that you’re there, they love you.”

Coen nudges me with his huge nose, and at first I think that he’s agreeing with me, and that he’s going to help me figure this whole flying combat thing out, but instead his eyes dart over his shoulder to his back.

My smile is huge as I reply, “Don’t mind if I do.”

“Do what?” Raiden asks curiously, looking slightly confused.

“He wants me to get on his back so we can fly together,” I explain. “We used to do it all the time.”

Raiden’s eyebrows rise high on his head in surprise, but I don’t get the chance to ask him why because Coen insistently nudges me until I climb on his back.

My smile is huge. We used to go flying together when we could get away with it, and those memories are probably some of the best ones that I have.

I hold on tightly as he dives with me, and I can’t help the whoop of happiness that quickly turns into a giggle as Coen levels out and begins to climb again.

“I love her laugh.”

My eyes widen, “Did you just say you love my laugh? You can speak out loud now?”

His ascent abruptly stops as he turns his head to try to see me on his back. It’s not a great angle, but it’s good enough that I can see his mouth when he replies.

“No, I can’t,” he replies, without moving his mouth at all. “Holy fuck, can you hear my thoughts?”

I nod and reply out loud, “Apparently so.”

He carries on flying slowly, as he replies to me, “How? We’ve never been able to speak like this before, and you’ve ridden me loads of times.”

I smirk, “It depends on which kind of ridden you’re referring to.”

Coen snorts, letting out a plume of smoke as his chuckle fills my mind.

“You know what I meant,” he says, sounding amused.

My smile widens, “Yeah. I have no idea though. It’s pretty fucking awesome, I’ve wanted to talk to you so many times when we’ve been flying.”

“Yeah, it definitely makes things a lot easier,” Coen replies. He continues, “I would ask Draith about it, but I’m not sure that it would be wise to go to the Keep right now. I would have to face the consequences of killing Kylen sooner rather than later.”

I frown, “Yeah, let’s not do that. We can ask him when you do get called to go though.”

“That’s true. It’s not really a big deal, it’s a good thing,” Coen adds.

“I couldn’t agree more,” I reply. “Now, come on, show me those moves of yours.”

He chuckles again, “You got it, Love. Hold on tight.”

“Do you think that we can still do some of the tricks that we used to be able to do?” I ask him.

“Of fucking course we can,” he replies immediately as he soars higher into the air.

Raiden

“A lright, they’re far enough away now,” Reed starts, watching me closely. “What was that look for?”

I shrug, “Nothing really.”

“But it is something that surprised you,” Griff replies.

I nod, “It’s just from what I’ve read about dragons, and what Coen himself has told us in the past, dragons don’t let people ride them.

Having said that, it was news to me what Draith said about demons riding them into combat, so it doesn’t really mean anything apart from the fact that it’s another thing that the books have wrong. ”

“I think I’m starting to understand that a lot of what we’ve been told is not actually based on truth, or if it is, then there are huge chunks of information missing,” Reed replies.

“He’s right, look at the reapers and everything that’s going wrong with them,” Griff points out. “Most of them don’t even know that the Reaper Council is the actual one that’s supposed to be in charge.”

“Yeah, you’re right, and the dragons are notoriously secretive anyway, almost like the reapers, but they aren’t dicks about it, and they don’t try to incite fear into the rest of the supernatural population,” I reply with a frown.

The way that the reapers run things is a real problem, and one that I am increasingly finding myself wanting to fix, which is an impossible thought.

Something needs to be done about it. The reapers are going to end up hunted again soon, if not by other supes who now unnecessarily fear them, but by humans.

If the humans start to hunt the reapers, then we have an even bigger problem on our hands.

I’m actually surprised that the Council hasn’t called on me yet, and I’m hoping that I’ve slipped further down the list because of the way that I behaved in the Choosing, and because I didn’t show any of my true strength.

We’ve got so much to deal with at the moment that getting called to stand in front of the Reaper Council would just really fucking piss me off.

We all land next to the others and watch Coen and Neith.

It’s clear that they’ve flown like this before, and we’re all smiling as we watch them.

At one point, they seem to slow down for a bit, but they soon pick it back up, and my heart jumps into my throat a couple of times when she leaves his back falling and spinning through the air before he catches her again.

“It’s pretty fucking spectacular to watch, isn’t it?” River says, a huge smile on his face.

“It really is,” Doc agrees. “They’ve obviously had a lot of time to practice.”

“It fascinates me how we’re all connected, and all know different parts of each other from different points in our lives,” Ransom says quietly with a soft smile.

“It’s pretty fucking amazing, isn’t it?” Van replies, and we all nod in agreement.