My stomach rolled and filled with butterflies, and my dragon’s anticipation and excitement rose as the women led me past the everlass field and into the trees. Hannon followed us but kept back, letting me have this moment.
Take it easy on the first flight, okay? I thought as we found a clearing and stopped to step out of our clothes.
Sure, sure. And if not, at least you have your invisible people to keep you company.
“Damn it. Why did I get stuck with such an asshole animal?” I muttered as I walked behind them into the clearing.
“The most powerful dragons tend to be quite temperamental in their youth,” Ami said. “Possessive, dominant, fearless.”
“Foolish,” Claudile murmured, and I had a feeling she’d be right about my dragon.
I’d heard an alpha needed to help with the first shift. Micah had been pretty adamant that I should shift with him first, and the other Wyverners hadn’t argued with him. I worried these women wouldn’t be enough. That my dragon would get confused, I’d try to help, and we’d get stuck mid-shift and die.
We wouldn’t be the first to go that way.
“Calm yourself, little dragon,” Ami said in a low tone, clearly reading my body language. Power infused her words, but they didn’t come through as a command. Instead, they wove through me like a gentle breeze caressing my face, completely in harmony with our surroundings. Her will, like mine, carried magic.
That wasn’t what immediately calmed me, though. The thing that washed through my middle and wiped away all of my apprehension was her choice of words. The same ones Nyfain had used in his letters.
I wanted him to be here with us. I wanted him to guide us, not them.
I wanted him to quit fucking pushing us away.
Ami and Claudile’s questions had shaken something loose in me. I didn’t give a shit what kind of life Nyfain wanted for me. I’d always pursued the things I wanted, the opinions of others be damned. I would not sacrifice that now. Not even for him.
One day, somehow, I would fly with him. The curse might have stripped him of his wings, but there had to be a way to undo what had been done. There had to be a way to heal him.
That was all in the future, though. For now, I would need to settle for him being with me in spirit.
My dragon reached out through the bond even as I did, both of us leaning deeply across the distance he was trying to put between us to yank him back. I clutched him to me in an iron grip, feeding him the rage he’d so often shoved at me. Pissed that he was stupid enough to assume that I’d gone through everything—finding a cure for the illness, allowing the demon king to imprison me, enduring torture—just to leave him behind. To leave my family behind.
Did he even know me?
I pumped rage into the bond even as I pulled power from him.
His answering swirl of mirth made my stomach flutter. My rage made him smile, just as his rage always turned me on.
My dragon was feeding them her own collection of emotions: excitement, anticipation, impatience.
They likely knew what was about to happen. Nyfain’s dragon did, at any rate, because in a moment I felt a different sort of power flow through the bond. A controlled gush, tingling and alive.
My stomach dropped out, as though I had just jumped off a mountain and was free-falling.
“Fuck, here we go,” I murmured, eyes squeezed shut. “What do I do?”
“If you’d just wait a moment, we’ll explain—”
Ami cut Claudile off. “No. She isn’t talking to us.”
Damn right she isn’t, my dragon thought, giddy now. Get ready to move out of my way. I’m going to follow the dragon’s prompting and surge to the surface. His power will guide us…I think. I’ll figure it out. But when I make a move, you make a move, get it? If you fuck up and don’t relinquish control in time, we’ll die horribly.
Nice melodrama, asshole.
Thanks. Sometimes I have to go overboard to get through to you.
I rolled my eyes while I still had the power to do so. Soon she’d be in charge of all body mechanics. Soon we’d be in the air.
Oh fuck.
Nervousness and adrenaline rippled through me, followed by another surge of Nyfain’s mirth. He was either feeling joy at being here with me through the bond, helping from a distance, or he was laughing at me. Maybe both. Next, though, I felt a surge of unwavering support and confidence from him. He had complete faith this would go fine.
Power pulsed within me now, hot and then cold. Hard thrusts, followed by a trickle. The tingling increased. Butterflies filled my stomach. I could feel Nyfain through the bond as distinctly as if he were right beside me, holding my hand at the edge of a great precipice. In my mind’s eye, he was looking over at me, the wind ruffling his unruly hair, the sun glinting off his sharp cheekbones. His golden eyes sparkled as he willed me to jump. Willed me to follow his lead, put my faith in my dragon, and take the leap.
Ready? my dragon asked.
I took a deep breath. I thought of Nyfain’s gorgeous golden eyes, with the flares of deep orange streaking from the pupil. I felt his confidence, and yes, his joy. His happiness to be with me, even like this, during my first shift. During my first flight.
You better not fucking kill us!
I relinquished control. I left myself open for her to surge up and push me out of the way. It wasn’t like it would be the first time, only this time I wouldn’t claw my way back to the surface.
Barely able to breathe, I waited as she built power, heeding the dragon’s guidance. She pulsed it just so. She feathered it. And then, in a blinding flash, she surged out.
Two lines of pain erupted down each side of my back, less painful than the officers’ whip cracks but covering slightly more ground. My scales, I knew.
My stomach flipped, and then it wasn’t my stomach anymore. My dragon exploded to the surface and, with her, the essence of Nyfain’s dragon. More pain crackled along my skin.
Child’s play, my dragon thought, and it was. We’d learned a new meaning of pain in Dolion’s castle.
My middle grew warm and then throbbed as I felt Nyfain’s dragon shove him away and rise. They were shifting with us. Nyfain and I both sank, it felt like, deep into the darkness, holding each other as we did so.
My dragon’s body grew through the clearing, up and up, until Ami and Claudile were peering at me with widened eyes. Hannon stood off in the trees, watching us with a small smile on his face.
“Fuck, we’re huge—” Only, I wasn’t in control of our mouth. Or our large maw with long, sharp teeth that felt weird touching with our large, long tongue.
Our mate is much bigger. He will still dominate us, my dragon thought with a purr.
I was glad I got that last eye-roll in.
She ruffled our wings as she looked down at our body. I sucked in a startled breath.
This is much better than shit brown, she thought, and then she pumped our wings and lifted into the air.
TWENTY-SEVEN
FINLEY
Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!
Three days of attempted flying later, I squeezed my eyes shut, but of course I wasn’t in control of the huge dragon body that was currently beating its wings frantically to stay in the air.
I’ve got this, my dragon thought, following another huge dragon body glittering azure blue.