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She backed up, her shoulders hitting a hard cold wall.
And then everything went still. The swirl of smoke curled in on itself, circling. It began to clear, and as it did so, Nisha made out a shape within it.
Ivor was no more, and in his place was a creature. A creature with a large, reptilian head and keen scarlet eyes. Protruding spikes lined a long neck that led to a torso complete with huge, dark wings spread wide, and a long tail forked at the end.
Dragon.
She clasped her hand over her mouth. Reality had well and truly taken a rain check. Was she dreaming? Had she gone mad?
Her heart thudded so hard it was banging up against her ribs. Adrenaline flooded her system. “Ivor?”
It had to be him. He’d shifted into a dragon. She’d read about such things in Hindi mythology, in fiction books, and had grown up with Big Red on every national flag, but … but to see a dragon shifter for real. Right here. In Cardiff Castle.
He kept still, apart from breathing, which he did noisily. As she stared at his eyes, she realized where she’d seen them before.
On the roof opposite her house on the night of her near-attack. It must have been him, Ivor, in his dragon body watching her from beside the chimney stack.
“It is you, right?” she asked, gingerly taking a step forward. The instinct to run was strong. What if he bit off her head or blasted her with fire? She’d be no match for the powerful creature.
He lowered his face so his pointed chin was almost on the ground, but he kept his attention firmly on her.
“You were there, last night, watching me,” she said. It wasn’t really a question. She was just putting the pieces of the puzzle together. “And this is how you knew about the secret passage in the castle and scared those guys off and … and it’s why you’re so.” She paused, struggling to find the right word. “Odd.”
He raised his head suddenly, arching his neck.
“Well, not odd exactly, different.”
He kind of nodded.Ivorkind of nodded.
Feeling a little braver now she was sure it was Ivor, a man she knew in the depths of her soul meant her no harm, she took another tentative step forward.
He lowered his dragon head, his neck curling almost as if to embrace her as she drew up at his side. Reaching out, she touched his scaly skin. Warm and tough, it kind of shivered under her touch.
“Oh, did I hurt you?”
He shook his head, a dribble of smoke leaking from his nostrils.
“When you feel able, climb on and we’ll go to my home.”His words came back to her.
Climb on?
He wanted her to ride him? Sit astride his big dragon body? And then what … he’d fly?
She traced a diamond-shaped scale and wondered if shewas dreaming. If she’d banged her head at work and would wake up in the first-aid room.
A low rumble came from Ivor’s dragon throat.
“So, I should just…” She pointed at the space between the base of his neck and his wings, a smooth patch without spikes. “Get on?”
He nodded.
“This has been the craziest day of my life,” she muttered and then launched herself upward. His skin was like nothing she’d felt before. Armored and thick yet also hot and alive. She scrambled and hoisted and finally threw her leg over his hard spine.
He twitched his back, as though adjusting for her. Quickly, she found herself sitting upright and holding on to two spines. His long neck was raised now, and his wings unfolded like sails getting ready to billow.
“Okay,” she said, then gulped. “I’m ready.” If she was going to wake up from this crazy dream, now would be the moment.
But she didn’t. Instead, she watched as Ivor lifted his head high and let out a great burst of flames into the night sky. It lit the walls of the keep, and a nearby owl screeched. He repeated the action, with even more fire this time. It was as if he was celebrating, punching the air dragon-style.
