“Would you like that?” he asked softly.
Rhys with a softer side. Who would have thought? “I would. When do we leave?” I couldn’t mask the excitement in my voice or the bounce in my step.
Rhys chuckled and pulled me close to his side. “As soon as the men leave.”
It took a good portion of the day for the ship to be unloaded, the supplies distributed to the new carriages with fresh horses from the clansmen in Haran. Leisha kept her distance from everyone, not daring to set foot outside. I decided to give her space until we could talk alone. It had been a trying journey for everyone.
“How will this work?” I asked warily, as we moved from the trails to an empty plain. We’d only flownshort distances so far.
He led me to the center of the plain and turned to face me, my hands in his. “You’ll ride me, of course.”
The responding flush in my cheeks, despite everything we’d done, made him kiss me, long and deep. I felt the energy of his dragon in his kiss, the raw power and possession. I wasn’t bound to Rhys alone, but to his dragon as well.
Rhys pulled back and turned, motioning for me to place my hands on his shoulders. I did as he instructed, nerves and excitement jangling in my belly. The scales appeared again, but they solidified and thickened, no longer the same texture as his skin. If I weren’t watching him with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it. His muscles swelled and changed until he was seven feet tall, eight, ten, then fifteen, twenty.
Finally, I sat between the shoulder joints, a dizzying distance from the ground. His muscular body, as blue as his eyes, bunched and twitched beneath me. I could feel his breath and heartbeat thudding through my own, like we were one organism.
“Hold on,”he ordered.
“To what?” I screeched.
My scream of terrified delight filled the air, then was swallowed by the whoosh of wind as Rhys’s powerful legs launched us skyward. I wedged my knees into the crevice above his shoulder joint and gripped two spiny protrusions on his neck like reins.
The ground flew away as we glided into the clouds. Exhilaration pumped through my body, making me feel as though I were lit from the inside out with Rhys’ everlasting fire.
I was flying. I laughed aloud, lifting my hands into the air.I was flying!
Rhys dove and I squealed, holding on to the spiny horns. It was freezing so far aloft, but I didn’t care. I never thought I’d get to experience flight in my lifetime. It was a secret dream I didn’t dare express to anyone, other than myself in my most desperate times. I’d watch the children in the capital testing their wings when I was young, and bitterness would overwhelm me. I’d never be like them. It hadn’t been fair to a little girl who had been so different already.
The view stole away any lingering sadness. From atop Rhys’s back, I could seeeverything. It was magickal. The patchwork of landscape displayed tiny farms and splotches of ponds and lakes. Ribbons of rivers ran out to meet the ocean. Ahead were the powdered peaks of Rhys’s castle. My new home.
When I began to shiver, Rhys’ large head turned to me and his eyes roamed over my body. Except, this creature was his dragon, wasn’t it? What a strange feeling to know he’d been with us when we... well... The dragon quaked beneath me and I realized he must be laughing. I frowned at him, and he turned forward. Then his scales began to warm, much like Rhys’s had that first night when we met. With the heat coming from his body, the frigid temperature didn’t seem so awful, making the rest of the flight pleasant.
I only got nervous when Rhys descended from the clouds. The insignificant dots I observed moving around from above became carriages, and people, and livestock. The peaks, which had been the size of my hand, now filled my entire field of vision. They were magnificent.
Nestled in the center of the mountain range was an ancient castle. My heart leapt in my chest. This was Rhys’s home. Our home now, I supposed. The structure rose from the mountain itself, its southern face carved from the stone. It must have taken hundreds, if not thousands, of years to make, considering the striking level of detail. The castle spanned the length of the lower range, turrets protruding from everywhere, reminding me of the spiny “reins” in my hands.
Rhys aimed, not for the grand entrance with doors twice the height of his dragon, but for the uppermost turret. The turret had an opening about thirty feet high with another identical opening on the other side. I realized, as we grew closer, it must have acted as a landing point for the Dragon-Clan, when they were all able to shift into their dragon form. Now, there was only Rhys, who landed in the turret with lithe grace.
He kneeled, his muscles bunching underneath me, and allowed me to climb down from his shoulders. I already missed the skies. When I was on my feet again, which felt odd after flying for so long, Rhys stood, extending to his full height in front of me. I’d never seen a dragon up close before, and Rhys in his full dragon form was awe-inspiring.
I stared at him for a long while, studying. His tail curled around me, pulling me closer. I made an inarticulate sound and held on to it where I could so I didn’t fall. It was nearly as long as he was tall and rippled in every shade of blue imaginable. The underside was like burnished gold, glinting in the sunlight. Once I was close enough, his tail rested around me, protective and demanding at the same time. The foot-long spines at the end winked and hissed as they scraped against the stone.
Gathering my courage, I took a step forward and touched one of his back feet. It was tipped with vicious claws in the same burnished gold. I imagined them cutting through flesh like the edge of a razor. His haunches were thickly scaled on the outside, and leather-soft with a fine coating of light gold fur-covered scales. I reached out a hand and touched them. It reminded me of moss clinging to stone. The gilded fur and scales covered him from groin to neck.
What was most impressive were his wings. I gestured with my arms, and he spread them out wide for me to admire. They spanned the entire area from archway to archway. The webbing was the lightest blue, almost white, and was attached to massive spines to bear the weight. At each joint, there were bony talons and more on the entire bottom section of his wings.
His arms were as powerfully muscled as the rest of him and his clawed hands were wicked sharp. Atop his head, rising out from behind curved, pointed ears were two long horns the same gold as the spines on the tip of his wings and tail. I studied his face, searching for some semblance of the man who was my mate. As I did, his eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth in a smile that was more of a grimace, making me laugh.
There he was. My mate.
I gestured for him to come closer and he crouched again. Reaching up, I caught one of his hands that was easily twice my size. He let me climb into his palm, where I sat. Carefully, Rhys brought me up to his face, and I tried not to look down.
Everything about him exuded danger. His canines were menacingly sharp, visible from underneath his wide grin. Smoke unfurled from his nose in streams of grayish-white with every breath. In his full shifted form, it was no wonder humans and shifters alike were afraid of the mere whisper of his name.
He was power and magick and immortality all in one being.
And he was mine.
