Page 93 of Why Broken Wings Fray

“You know I can’t.”

“Pity, that.”

Fisting my hands, I slammed them to either of my hips. “Urram!”

His tongue lashed out from behind his heavy lips, a third eyelid sliding down and clearing his moon-light eyes before he angled himself close enough so that he could pinch the yellow dress that still clung to my body.

“Ouch,” I cried as he managed a decent hold. The pain was nothing, though, in comparison to what he did next.

My caraid simply threw me out of the castle.

I was incapable of making a single noise as air whistled through my ears and punched into my mouth, possessing my throat and making any attempt at speaking completely useless. Seconds later I heard him approaching, only for his body to drop right beneath mine, his wings to change their angle, and my ass to slam right against his spine.

“That was unnecessary,” I growled.

“Until you can climb on yourself, it was necessary,” he hissed. “And fun.”

I rolled my eyes as Urram rotated the limbs on either side of him, halting our quick descent to the ground and instead catching a current of air that he latched on to and began to circle the castle.

“If I take you to the dungeons, are you going to do something stupid?”

Yes. “No.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Then why did you ask?”

Urram said nothing in response, though his body did wriggle beneath me as if he planned on coming up with a retort sometime soon. He might of, too, if he didn’t round the next corner of the palace and arrive in the exact location he had once blown a hole through to rescue me from the very same dungeon.

“Don’t wreck this wall,” I warned him.

“I am not a fool,” he growled back.

“There,” I said as I leant against him, my finger pointing to one of the walls as if Urram could somehow see me on his back. “I think that’s a servant side-entrance.”

“Or a plumbing tunnel.”

I stiffened. “Ew. Do you think it is?”

Urram huffed several times, smoke smothering the air around us, which made me believe he was laughing.

“You’re not funny.”

“Says you.”

“Hey! I’m funny.”

Urram grumbled as he altered his flight, our path slowly bringing us towards the ground. “Be safe, Olivia. I wish to hear at least one joke from you before you die,” he said as he lowered us to the ground, the grass dividing itself as the gusts from his wings blew debris in all directions.

“You are so cranky today,” I bit back as his body shook the ground, those two powerful hind legs pressing deep into the earth and leaving Urram-sized footprints.

“You and your stupid plans make me cranky.”

I laughed as I slid off of him, my legs shooting with pins and needles as the integrity of my shin bones was challenged. “My plan isn’t stupid.”

He swung his tremendous head around to glare just once at me with his serpentine eyes before he was gone on a harsh breeze, leaving a small, bickering parrot in his wake.

“I prefer you at this size,” I retorted, flicking some of my hair behind my shoulder. “Your crankiness is easier to accept when it is so tiny.”