Cagey SOB, huh? “Do you mind if we take this conversation inside the mountain?”
“Yes.”
Okay… “My name is Hadyn Reece. My father is Chaghan Buqa. He told me that if I was ever in trouble, I should seek you out here.”
Zero reaction in those dark eyes. “Father?”
She had a fair idea what he was asking. No doubt he’d already scented the fact that she was not a dragon shifter. Yet. Ever, actually. The man who’d been her fated mate had been killed when she was too young to appreciate what that meant.
“Adopted father,” she corrected. “He and Qara raised me after my own parents were killed by dragon fire.”
His pause of reaction to that was long enough that she almost started explaining again. “And what trouble sent you to my door?”
So this was Rune Abaddon.
Rather than smirk at his inadvertent revelation, she kept going. “They were taken. The Alaz team of enforcers finally tracked them down. They’re being held for execution as rogue dragons.”
The black dragon’s tail flicked, like the crack of a whip. A single swish, but also the first sign of reaction he’d made. She wasn’t sure, though, what emotion drove that small tell. Anger? Shock? Disbelief?
“Let’s speak inside,” he said.
Hadyn gave a sharp nod. “Give me a second to pack up and disconnect. Can you catch me midair?”
That got a reaction from him. The dragon’s head jerked back as though she’d slapped him. “You would trust me?”
She shrugged. “Easiest and fastest way to get us both off this face.”
Granted, she was also hiding a beating of nerves in her belly at the thought. She’d been around dragons all her life and had done this maneuver a hundred times with her father and mother. Part of the rigorous training Chaghan and Qara had put her through. Survival skills, they’d insisted she learn. Only, her dad wouldn’t have sent her here if she couldn’t trust Rune. She had to start doing that now, or saving her parents was a goal that would go up in smoke.
“I’m not sure if you are very brave or very foolish.”
Hadyn snorted an unamused laugh and started the process of packing up. “A bit of both, I imagine.”
Luckily, she hadn’t unpacked her gear yet, so it didn’t take her nearly as long to be ready. Ropes pulled up and sorted, she hung by the last carabiner, ready to unhook and jump. “I’m ready.”
Without a word, Rune launched himself backward. Instead of trying to hover there, difficult so close to the rock where his wings wouldn’t have a full range of motion, he flipped backward in an impressive maneuver that shot him farther away from the rock face, dropping him rapidly, but then used that momentum to shoot him straight back up to hover just above where she hung.
“Go,” he said.
Please let him catch me, she sent the thought out to whoever might be listening. The fates. The gods. A guardian angel or twenty.
The adrenaline junkie in her reveled in the quiet beat that happened as she suspended midair before she started to drop. Picking up speed, wind whistled in her ears, pulling at the gaiter keeping her head, neck and ears warm in these temperatures as she positioned her body like a skydiver—belly to the earth, legs and arms spread and slightly bent at the knees and elbows. Even with all her gear, this was the most stable way to fall until he caught her.
Except the mountainside blurred, flashing past her, and she was still falling. “Anytime you’re ready,” she shouted, knowing the wind would snatch the words away, but his finely tuned shifter hearing would catch them all the same.
The fear didn’t bubble up in her until another few seconds had gone by and the base of the mountain started rushing up at her. The shadow she waited for wasn’t showing up.
“Rune?” she shouted.
A dragon claw curled around her, scooping her up. She was vigilant to avoid the tips of his talons, which could slice her to ribbons at a touch. Although she’d been ready to flow with a more abrupt change of speed and direction, he surprised her by slowing their descent gradually so as not to jerk her upward. Then, with three strokes of his wings, he shot them upward and around. Hadyn tried to keep track of where on the mountain they were relative to where she’d been climbing and searching. He took them clear around the other side from where she’d been. Then she spotted it—the shadow of a cave entrance.
Was that where they were headed? She probably would have turned to a dead lump of ice before finding it on her own.
Of course, that was the idea. Keep humans from discovering dragon existence. The fire breathers had gotten good at it. Not that they needed to worry about humans up here at this time of year.
Rather than slow down on approach, Rune shot directly at that shadow full speed. Fast enough that Hadyn couldn’t help wrapping an arm around one scaled digit, bracing for impact. But he maneuvered the crags and crevices of the mountainside with the skill of long practice. Suddenly they were inside a hangar big enough to handle a 747. He flared his wings, bringing them to an abrupt stop. Even then, though, he allowed the claw he held her in to swing forward slightly, as though cushioning her from the impact.
With zero sound—an impressive feat—he dropped to his three free feet, then slowly lowered her to the ground. Once she was upright and clear of him, Hadyn backed away, dragging her gear with her.
Then turned to catch his shift. She’d always loved watching her parents do this, finding the process fascinating. Shifters sort of shimmered in mirage-like waves as they changed from animal to human or vice versa. Everything they were in one form absorbed into the new form, clothes and all.
Magical.
The black dragon before her appeared to reduce in size, the massive spikes around his head and down his back sort of folding back into his body, wings becoming arms, and scales turned to bronze, burnished skin. Finally, a man stood before her, shadowed in the unlit room of the cave, darkness already finding its way in here where sunlight couldn’t reach as easily. Everything she could make out was in shades of black, like a bad guy in an old western movie, black hair, black eyes, black combat pants and a long-sleeved, collarless shirt. Arms loose at his sides.
Deceptively so, she sensed.
No clan mark. All dragons sported two tattoos, which appeared at birth. The one on the back of the neck was the symbol of a dragon’s family. The one on the back of the hand, between the thumb and forefinger, was the mark of the house of their king, visible proof of allegiance and belonging to their clan. To be missing his marked him as a rogue dragon.
Rogues were considered dangerous and subversive by the leaders of dragon shifters. In fact, even Chaghan and Qara were wary of others. Most who hadn’t been hunted down and killed were psychopaths, according to them. Creatures to be avoided as much as the shifters still loyal to the clans.