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Lila pressed against the back of my calves, a feeling of unease brushing my mind.
“There now. It’s okay,” Raxnor crooned.
His deep voice did things to me, even though his words were for the dragon. My thighs squeezed together.
He slid the pack from his back and pulled out a package. The wrapper crinkled, and the dragon huffed again, its head dipping. One huge, diamond-pupiled eye watched us carefully.
Raxnor held out a slice of dried material in a deep orange. A sweet, citrusy smell filled the air.
“Whatisthat?” I whispered.
“It’s the dragons’ favorite fruit. The handlers use it as a reward.”
“I thought they ate cow-lizards.”
Raxnor’s shoulders rippled in a shrug. “I guess they like a little variety.”
Then that elongated snout opened wide, far bigger than the alligator-thing’s, and with a shit ton more fangs. My heart skipped.So many fangs!
“Yes,”Lila said.
Mierda! I must have thought that loud enough for her to hear, even though I hadn’t meant to. Something to work on.
Raxnor extended his hand toward the dragon’s mouth, and I wanted to latch onto his arm and pull him back. But he moved with a calm competence—he knew what he was doing.
He placed the fruit onto the long tongue, then pulled his hand free.
The dragon’s jaws closed with a clack, and it jerked its head upright in a bobbing motion, letting gravity help it swallow. When its head swung down again, it butted it against Raxnor’s shoulder. It should have knocked him off his feet, but he rocked with the blow and reached up to scratch around the dragon’s eyes ridges. “I’ll give you more after the flight.”
He gestured for me to step around him, keeping his body between me and the dragon’s snout.
I edged forward. Lila pressed to my right calf, the little niña also keeping her body between me and the dragon’s. Emotion filled my chest. I’d gone from being kept as a pet to having two stalwart protectors.
Raxnor joined us by the dragon’s front leg. He crouched and held the backpack open. “Tell her to get in.”
“No!”Lila pressed against my calf.“You hold!”
“Sorry, she wants me to do it.” I squatted and took the pack from him.
Lila edged forward, her purple nose wiggling as she stuck her head in the pack.“Food?”
I huffed in amusement. Even a freaking dragon couldn’t distract her from her tummy. “We’ll have food after.”
Little grumbles filled my mind, and I glanced up to find Raxnor scowling at her. It was the exact expression Lila would give him if she could. So I burst out laughing.
“What?” he asked.
I waved a hand, unwilling to say. “Nothing.”
“We need to hurry.”
With a little more coaxing, I got Lila into the pack and sealed it up so only her head poked out the top. I’d tried to seal her in completely, thinking not seeing we were high in the air would help. But she’d panicked, and the picture of a tiny cage had flashed through my mind, sparking my anger at the lizards all over again.
A saddle waited in the middle of the dragon’s back, right above where its wings sprouted from its body. There weren’t any straps holding it on, and its gold color matched the scales around it so that it almost seemed to grow out of the dragon. A thin set of reins looped around the pommel, the other ends attached to the back of each side of the jawbone.
Raxnor tapped the dragon’s side, and it made its front leg into a little step. He helped me climb up, and when I hesitated, too short to sling my leg over easily, his huge hand palmed my butt and lifted me higher.
I let out a little eep and grabbed for the pommel.
