Page 14 of Monster's Melody

Either way, I found them to be utterly adorable and couldn’t resist petting them again.

We’d never been this close before and I’d dreamed of this moment for two and a half years.

His snakes nuzzled me while avoiding Shadow’s leaps and swats, causing Vorzak to curse as their swift movements jerked his head this way and that, directly into the path of Shadow’s shadow claws.

You could say our dinner ended with a bit of chaos and that I took advantage of that chaos to run away again.

Iwouldn’t say that, of course.Instead, I would describe it as me wrapping the last of my sandwich in a napkin and slipping away from the table as Shadow distracted both Vorzak and his snakes with her increasingly kitten-ish stalking behaviors.

I slipped out the cafeteria door just as I heard Vorzak exclaim, “Damnit!Where’d she go now?”

* * *

The next morning,the five of us ate breakfast together—thankfully, there was no sign of Vorzak in the cafeteria—then headed back to the dragon stables.

This was our last day before classes started, which meant it was also our last day before the stables became a lot busier due to lessons involving dragons.

With our limited timeframe in mind, we’d made a plan at breakfast to search the stables quickly and quietly.

I’d suggested that Elliot lead us in, but he’d nixed that idea right off.“Wild dragons can beveryterritorial.”

Mikaela had rolled her eyes at him.“Like you’renot?”

He’d snickered.“Sure, but not like they are.They could definitely see me as a threat, in which case, it’s probably a better idea if I enter last and keep a bit of distance between us.”

So, that was how we ended up traipsing into the stables, one at a time, Jahrdran leading the way, followed by Kasi with Shadow at her side, then me, then Mikaela and finally, Elliot.

I got about ten steps inside the stables before I slammed to a halt.

What the actual hell?

Why was Vorzak in the stablesagain?

“Look, I know you aren’t a fan of my friends here,” Vorzak was saying to one of the dragons, even as his snakes reared back and hissed at them.“And I’ll be the first to admit, they can be a little annoying, especially when they get going like this.”

No kidding.I’d never seen his snakes so agitated before.

They were whipping back and forth, hissing and spitting and lunging forward, striking at the air since Vorzak was smart enough not to get too close to the dragons.

The dragon in the stall closest to Vorzak reared up and slammed back down, his paws making a thunderous noise that shook the rafters above us.

“Shit,” Mikaela whispered.

I guess we now knew the origin of the thunderous noise that had the shaken the stable walls the day before.

“Oh, come on,” Vorzak said impatiently.“You’re about a hundred times the size of these little bastards.Can’t you just ignore them?”

The dragon answered with a bellowing roar.

“Come on.”Kasi grabbed my arm.“Jahrdran found what he thinks might be the entrance to the wine cellar.”

I grabbed Mikaela’s hand and we followed Kasi around the perimeter of the barn, keeping our distance from the side that housed the dragons.

We reached the end of a long line of empty stalls and found Jahrdran standing in the last one, a trapdoor open at his feet.

“Ready for an adventure?”Kasi grinned at us.

Sweet.