Page 28

Jaz

My resolve lasted precisely the length of time it took me to grab a cloak out of the lockers.

I hesitated—and then dug around. Most were far too small, but at the very back I found a bigger version, rolled it, and tied it onto the pack, before I walked to the ramp.

I mused that if the Drakes had just looked a little harder, they could have avoided the entire unmaling-risk incident.

Somewhere above the heavy cloud cover, the sun was setting. The rain had diminished to a cold drizzle, and I pulled the hood of my cloak up over my hat.

Shadows lay long across the Stardrifter— or rather, over the mound of trees and foliage that she lay beneath. Xandros had done a good job of hiding her.

The bright yellow lizard birds dived and swooped over where the red dragon stood not far from his handiwork, and he wasn’t alone.

Rhodes’s beast stood with him, and as I descended the ramp, I met the eyes of the third dragon—his red-gold scaled brother.

They gleamed emerald at me, before Zyair turned away.

With a tremendous flap of his wings and a scattering of bright feathered bodies, he launched into the sky. The dark dragon that was Rhodes joined him, and they ascended into the clouds.

My heart constricted as they vanished. I told myself that nothing mattered but their mission, but it didn’t do any good. My heart and my head were not presenting a unified front.

Xandros spun as my feet hit the ground, and I staggered to a halt. Because the look he fastened upon me was narrowed in anger.

I’d seen the human version of that look focused on the Taziers, and on Kurt, but I’d never experienced it myself.

It wasn’t the mesmerizing thing, it was anger, raw and primal.

In his dragon version, it was particularly impressive.

The spikes bristled out from around his head and down his spine like the hackles of a giant dog, and his eyes glowed a vivid blue as his lip curled to reveal a very long canine.

This time he was more terrifying than magnificent, and it froze me from hairline to toes.

I swallowed and ducked the sharp beak of a lizard bird, before I raised the pack. “I’ve brought cutters.”

He exhaled steam into the damp evening air. “I do not require your assistance.”

His dragon voice was even deeper than his human one, and, although the words were in English, you could really appreciate how Drakonian had developed. Every consonant dropping from his dragon jaws rumbled, and the vowels rolled.

I pulled myself up straight. “It will be faster if you lift and I cut. We have to have the Stardrifter ready for when they return.”

The spikes around his head flattened, and then rose again, and he swatted at a bird. “ If they return.”

“They will succeed.” I forced the words past a throat gone very tight. They were his brothers, and he was worried about them. I didn’t want to admit how concerned I was, too. “How far away is this abandoned place?”

The look he gave me could have melted rock. “Miles,” he growled. “I will have to carry you. ”

He made it sound as if he’d rather pull his talons out with his teeth. I tried to placate him. “If we didn’t need to get the metal, you could have gone with them,” I said.

His nostrils flared and his glare, if anything, got worse instead of better. “Just get on,” he growled.

His anger seemed directed at me rather than the situation.

Was it because of what had happened with Zyair?

Resentment flooded through me. I’d entered that situation with no idea at all of what might happen.

My heart twisted as I remembered Zyair’s expression, but what had happened between us had all been based on a misunderstanding. None of this was my fault, dammit.

The assertion gave me the strength to march up to him. “Where do I sit?”

He was so huge he could snap me up with one bite.

The thought of riding a flying dragon scared the bejeebers out of me, but I would be damned if I was going to back away now.

This was my piece of getting us out of here, and I would see it through.

It was far less dangerous than what Zyair and Rhodes were doing.

At least, it should be. Staring into the dragon’s glowering sapphire gaze, I suddenly wasn’t so sure. But then he lowered his head to the ground at my feet.

“Get on,” he repeated.

I secured the pack between my shoulders, grabbed onto a spike that was bigger around than my arm, and scrambled up behind those that radiated around his massive head.

Flowing among them, I found thick, red hair—Xandros’s humanoid hair, still there in his dragon form.

And his metal earcuffs gleamed from his dragon ears, although they looked ridiculously tiny.

There was a gap in the spikes right behind his head. I pushed my butt against the ones that began along the midline of his neck, and it gave me a backrest despite the bumpy pack.

His head rose. I grabbed hold of his hair—and then let it go again.

“Hold onto it,” he rumbled, sounding a little less pissed off.

“Won’t it pull?” I asked.

“It is good,” he answered, and I felt the muscles tighten beneath me. “Hold on tight.”

It was the only warning he gave as he launched into the sky. For an instant, all I saw was a swirl of yellow as we passed straight through the angry flock. I yelped and sank my fingers deep into his hair, holding on for all I was worth as the ground dropped away from us.

The birds gave up once we were clear of the trees.

I could feel every beat of his wings through the muscles of his neck.

The hood on my cloak blew back, but the wool hat clung to my head.

The drizzle ran over my face and down between my breasts, making me shiver.

But his scales weren’t cold, they were warm between my legs.

And not rough, but surprisingly soft to the touch.

To my shock, I didn’t feel vulnerable at all. Xandros might be angry at me, but I just knew, deep down where it mattered, that the giant Drake who cooed at a hedgegopher wouldn’t let me fall. As we rose above the trees, and the wind whipped my hair back from my face—I found myself grinning.

It was a bit bewildering, considering everything we had stacked against us, but there it was—a big, silly smile on my face as I blinked the rain from my eyes and the forest passed beneath us with ever-increasing speed.

This was glorious . I’d always loved to fly, but no plane or ship could compare to this sense of complete freedom. When Xandros banked, I leaned into the turn, my legs gripping, but not in a panicked manner. I wanted to spread my own arms and fly with him, instead of on him.

The terrain we flew over was swampland with the occasional rocky outcrop and many stretches of water. Some of the trees were massive, reaching about two hundred feet into the air with buttressed roots holding them firm in the bog.

Xandros’s head swung slowly back and forth in the gloom, seeking the settlement. Then he banked again, and dropped until we were barely above the treetops. A moment later, the tempo of his wingbeats slowed, and I looked past his crown of spikes to see the buildings peeking through the forest.

Xandros circled first, looking for a spot big enough for him to land. The forest was slowly moving in on what had been a modest sized town, but the trees here were smaller, with gaps between them.

The dragon chose one, and folded his wings.

I think I might have yelped a bit as we dropped like a stone. But at the last second, he backwinged until his hind legs touched down. Smooth as silk, we were once again on the ground.

He lowered his head, and I slid off, still high on adrenaline.

“That was amazing,” I crowed. “You are so lucky to be able to fly like that!”

He tilted his head to examine me with one glowing sapphire eye. Then he snorted and shook water from his scales. My joy seemed to unsettle him, but at least he wasn’t still glaring at me.

The new growth of trees was a bit confining for his dragon self. As his form writhed its way to humanoid, I bent to pull something out of my pack.

“Here.” I surveyed the trees as I held the cloak toward him.

“You were thinking ahead.” His voice was still gruff as he took it.

“I am going to be handling a cutter capable of slicing through metal. Nude distractions are not the best plan.”

There was a rustle of stiff fabric. “Right.”

I risked a peek, to see that he was adequately concealed.

He avoided looking at me, and surveyed the area instead as he spoke in Primal. “We need large sheets of metal. This place has been deserted for a while. Might be a challenge.”

“Let’s split up and search,” I suggested.

He hesitated. “No. We stay together.”

“It’s the best use of our time,” I argued.

He finally matched gazes with me. I flinched at the continuing hostility within his, but he said, “Do not go too far from me. Dangers might be living in these buildings, now.”

I swallowed. “Okay. That makes sense.” I removed a flashlight from the pack and handed it to him.

He waved it away as he marched off. “I see fine.”

The light was fading fast as we moved into the town, but I could still see quite well—it wasn’t just my color perception that was enhanced. We stayed within sight of each other as we carefully poked our heads into the structures we came across.

Most were made of concrete, stone, or wood, but a few were metal. None of them were intact, most were partially collapsed or missing their roofs. After years of exposure to the elements, not much was in good enough shape to salvage.

Xandros wasn’t wrong about the locals moving in—I was startled several times by small creatures erupting from their shelters as I entered. It was so dark inside them that I didn’t entirely trust my new eyes, so I flicked on the flashlight.