I’m the biggest of my brothers by far. The strongest, too. I swear my folks pinned every protector hope and dream on me, and when it didn’t work out, I could taste their disappointment. But I don’t feel any of that old hurt with the way Shadow’s looking at me right now.
I stroke black hair away from her cheeks and up over delicate, rounded ears. They’re so tiny. “The girls get home okay?”
She nods. “They left about half an hour ago. Naima was still hammered. Amadala’s in love with a minotaur dude and Kingston bought cowboy boots from the Buxom Bodice on the way out of town.” She shrugs. “Don’t know what she’s gonna do with those in Rainbow, but whatever floats her boat.”
I slide my fingers into Shadow’s hair, memorizing every spot her body touches mine and just what it feels like. Her steady heartbeat thuds beneath her skin and it draws my focus like a moth to a flame.
“I’m obsessed with your heartbeat,” I admit. “It’s such a beautiful sound.”
She lifts her hand to my forearm, stroking along my muscle until goosebumps pop to the surface of my skin. “You really had it going last night, as I recall.”
I chuckle. “I’m aiming to repeat that tonight, but there’s something special I wanted to show you, so I’m glad you stuck around.” I gesture to my cottage. “Let me grab a few things and we can be on our way.”
She threads her fingers through mine, following me toward the cottage. Inside, I grab the picnic basket and one of my thicker sweaters. If we’re out late, it’ll get chilly and while I can protect her with my wings, she’ll still be cold. I don’t want my Shadow to get uncomfortable.
Mine.
The word flits through my mind, filtering through my consciousness as I look to where she’s standing in the doorway. A soft smile tips her pretty bow lips upward as she looks at me. Wrinkles at the edges of her eyes tell me she smiles a lot, and that doesn’t surprise me. The first impression I got of her was quiet joy.
I love that.
Oh yes, little witch, I think to myself. I do believe you might be mine. Now I just need to prove it to you.
Shadow
Dain grabs his supplies in one hand and smiles at me. “You alright with being flown? Where I wanna take you is a little hard to get to in my truck.”
Nerves fill my belly at the idea of being up off the ground, especially with him carrying things in his hand.
“I’d never drop you,” he promises, a devious look on his face. One dark brow curls upward and his nostrils flare. “Trust me, little witch?”
Somehow, despite knowing this male for less than twenty-four hours, I do trust him. In the city I’d never meet a guy for a first date in a remote place like this. But here? With Dain? I don’t have any reservations.
“I trust you,” I say softly, stepping into his arms.
He reaches down and lifts me easily, tucking me against his chest. Dipping through the front door, he kicks it closed with one foot. When he steps off his front porch and flares his wings wide, it’s everything I can do not to touch them. He exudes power and strength and a quiet, effortless dominance.
“Hang on, little witch.” He waggles his brows at me, so I slip my arms up around his neck.
Still, when he presses off the ground and beats his wings, carrying us up into the air and through a cloud, I hold back a scream. Blinking open my eyes, I find the ground just far enough below us that falling would suck, but not far enough away that I can’t easily make out everything down there.
I hang onto him tighter, but he curls his big fingers around my right thigh, keeping me close to his chest. His tail sneaks around me, forming a cross over my breasts with the spade-shaped tip trailing into the neck of my tee.
We glide smoothly over downtown, the occasional monster glancing up and waving. I don’t risk waving back. While I trust him, I’m still a little afraid of heights. A few minutes later, we leave downtown behind and sail over the golden fields toward the setting sun. Wind blows my hair back as I cling to Dain’s neck. His hold never falters, and if I get heavy at any point, he doesn’t show it.
Ten minutes later, he descends and we sail through some sort of canyon with giant red sloping walls and a beautiful river running through it. Rocky shorelines dot the canyon now and again, and the water runs slowly. When we round a bend to find a herd of the local horses—mustangs—I gasp in surprise.
They’re so beautiful in every shade of white and cream and tan, black and brown. Some are multicolored with patchwork patterns that look like knitted clothing. They frolic in the shallow water, eating grass on the riverbank. When we sail above them, a few look up and shake their heads at us, but we don’t descend.
It surprises me when we continue past them, swooping through the gulch as the sun moves lower in the sky.
“Almost there,” Dain says, squeezing my thigh a little tighter.
We round a bend and the gulch’s walls split into a Y, the river running on either side of a huge rock wall that soars up into the sky. It’s littered with tiny crevices and covered in sunflowers.They crowd around the base of the plateau and carve tiny paths up its sides.
It’s absolutely stunning.
I gasp as he continues flying. We head to a large outcropping that’s got a sizable crowding of sunflowers. When he drops out of the sky, flapping his big wings carefully, I take a moment to admire their obvious strength.
