Page 73 of The Midnight Death Match

My stomach plummets. Ride him alone?

His beautiful, emerald eyes widened slowly as if to let me know he’ll be gentle.

That doesn’t stop my heart from nearly exploding out of my chest. I’ve only ever been a passenger on the beasts. Now I have to be the main rider?

No. It’s too risky. I’ll be better off walking to my father’s city, even if it takes a week.

Vash nudges me with his nose then gives a soft snort.

I fold my arms and shake my head. “It isn’t safe.”

He makes a gentle rumbling noise, sending a puff of air that nearly knocks me off my feet.

After regaining my footing, I give the beast a knowing look. “You’re only proving my point.”

Vash snorts again, then scoots so his long back is in front of me, the saddle practically touching me.

This is a bad idea.

He scoots again, this time actually knocking me off my feet.

I land with a hard thud, and a plume of dust makes me sneeze. “I’m not doing this.”

The dragon nudges me.

I nearly land flat on my back but catch myself. Glare at him.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s laughing at me. Who am I kidding? I don’t know better, and he probably is.

“Fine.” I leap to my feet and dust myself off. “Let’s do this.”

Vash makes a snuffing sound, clearly glad I’ve gotten with the program.

My hands and legs shake as I climb on. I can’t believe I’m doing this by myself. If I fall to my death while up in the air, I’m going to haunt my father for the rest of his days for making me do this.

Somehow, I manage to climb on without injuring myself, settle into the saddle as securely as possible, then grab the reins.

The dragon snorts, brushes his feet against the ground, then bursts into a run.

I yelp, clutching for dear life what feels like the flimsiest leather strap until I can cling onto his enormous neck. The wind pushes back my hair and dries my eyes. I close them and bury my face into Vash’s surprisingly smooth skin. Some dragon rider I am. Hopefully he knows better than to crash.

This is actually happening. I always wondered how I’d die, and now I know. At least I’m not leaving the world without a hunter. Einar can continue on. He’ll even regain his strength. And if he never has another child, there won’t be another fight to the death and the hunter curse won’t matter anymore. Maybe this is all for the best.

Or I’m being overly dramatic.

Probably.

It’s time to take this seriously. My father wouldn’t have left me the instructions to ride Vash if he thought I wouldn’t surviveit. Dragons fly, that’s what they do. Not much could realistically go wrong unless I do something foolish. And even if I did, he would likely swoop down and catch me.

I saw what the dragons are capable of when we were attacked before arriving at Courtsview. Vash basically protected Harek. There’s no reason to think he wouldn’t do the same for me.

Hopefully we don’t come under attack this time around.

I really should consider becoming more optimistic. But first, I need to pull my face from the shimmery dragon neck and look around.

Not down, but around.

The sky is growing lighter, and there isn’t a cloud in sight. That’s good, at least. We’re soaring through the air, gliding like we’re going through water in a lake instead of air at a ridiculous height.