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Of course he knows he’s beautiful.
I couldn’t help but raise a hand and place it gently against his snout. The scales were smooth to the touch, and for being an ice dragon, he wasn’t as cold as I assumed he would be. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He had a warmth to him that surprised me. I rubbed his snout and watched that grin of his grow larger. His eyes locked in on mine, and I could feel… something. Not sure what, but I wasn’t really in the mindset to dissect it. Likely awe? In my twenty-nine years on this earth, I’d seen some shit, but I couldn’t recall ever laying eyes on something so beautiful. Every tiny movement he made caused his scales to shine like individual gems, containing a devastating power underneath. Thankfully, dragons were natural-born protectors to the humans, because if they weren’t, then this moment would be a lot less inspiring and way more terrifying.
Maddox sucked in a hissing breath and lowered himself to the ground so he was lying down. “I guess you want me to climb on top of you, huh?”
He let out a breath that sounded an awful lot like a laugh.
“Yes, yes, I realized how that sounded after I asked.”
Another huff. hell, I couldn’t believe I was speaking to a dragon right now. I looked down the street, seeing a few cars beginning to drive our way. A couple of pedestrians were openly gawking at the sight, one of them nearly dropping her phone along with her jaw.
There was a naturally formed groove just by his shoulders, where his elongated neck connected. I assumed that would be my seat, a couple of spikes protruding from his spine serving as a backrest. I held on to his smooth neck and pulled myself up, managing to throw a leg over him before I fell off onto the other side. I adjusted myself so that both my legs and my hands were holding on to him before I gave him a gentle tap on the side of his head.
“Alright,” I said, heart hammering now, “I think I’m ready.”
Maddox didn’t waste another moment. He rose up, the motion nearly knocking me over, and started to move forward, accelerating in speed. I looked to the left and the right, wondering if his wings would even have clearance. Sure enough, a couple of car alarms went off as he stretched them out and beat them downward, collecting more and more air until—we were off! My stomach dropped to my nuts as I clenched onto Maddox’s neck with every ounce of strength I had in my being. We gained altitude at a shocking rate, the silvery, metallic globe of the museum appearing like a ball that could fit in the palm of my hand. I wasn’t scared of heights and felt quite comfortable on dragon-back, so I kept my eyes open, absorbing this new vantage point of Los Angeles. It was a view I was sure many would never get.
I could see it all. The Hollywood Sign, the Gryphon Park Observatory, the Pacific Ocean, the Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier, the traffic-riddled 405 snaking underneath us, the clutter and tourist-filled Walk of Fame, the multimillion-dollar mansions lining the wide streets of Beverly Hills. I’d lived in this city my entire life, and I never felt this much awe over it, an appreciation that made me forget all about the dark underbelly that lived just beneath the shiny and polished surface.
The tall and mostly neutral buildings of Downtown LA began to appear on the horizon. This was outside of the heavily controlled and restricted Concrete District, but some of the human influence still bled through in its concrete-and-glass skyscrapers that carried with them zero personality. Very different to the more colorful and imaginative buildings in the Marvel and Harmony Districts, where magic was used to bend architectural rules and art was molded out of steel and concrete. Where colorful graffiti moved from building to building and shops displayed their merchandise on movie mannequins and floating tables.
Still, Downtown wasn’t that neutered. There were skyscrapers that changed color depending on the angle you’d see them at, with three-dimensional advertisements for upcoming movies and shows that made it seem like the characters were reaching down to the street. I looked down, seeing bumper-to-bumper traffic, suddenly very grateful for my new dragon friend.
Friend, hah, that’s a stretch.
I wasn’t going to lie, Maddox interested me, and he was clearly a decent man with a good heart. Sure, he almost stabbed me with an icicle, but I could understand him protecting his family. It was something that made me like him even more, actually. My family history was… complicated, to say the least. But I couldn’t imagine anyone fighting for me the way Maddox was about to throw down. It was heart-warming, which came as a surprise, considering I was dealing with a frost-filled supernatural.
