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And a little annoying, to be honest.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” I asked and stood. I peeled off Jude’s hoodie and gave it back to him when I realized they were all staring. “What?” I asked, looking down at my body to see if I’d grown another arm or something, anything that would warrant their stare.
“Um, nothing, Freya. Nothing. Yes, let’s go. I think we could all use a bit of fresh air.” Jude didn’t put his hoodie back on. Instead, he took me by the hand and led me to the front door. The cool wind of the mountain invigorated me. I’d never had a short supply of fresh air before, being a lesser, but now I knew the difference.
Jude’s hand swallowed mine up. His thick fingers compared to my skinnier ones felt like the space between his fingers was a clamp, trying to break mine.
But at the same time, I enjoyed sharing his heat, his touch. The others probably did things for me out of spite, but Jude might just actually like me for me.
Imagine that.
“Where exactly was it?” Jude asked me as we stopped outside to get our bearings. The last time I was out here, one of the dragons slapped me, and Nico stopped him—for his own ego’s sake, of course.
“I think over there.” I pointed where I had been before and, with a nod of his head, Nico confirmed the location.
We went to the cliff where Nico had intervened for me. I could still see the trail of dirt where I’d fallen and slid down the mountain, but that was the only thing that remained the same about the scene.
“Are you sure it was here?” I asked, scanning the mountain, the peaks and valleys in its outer layers.
“It was here,” Nico replied. He sidled up to me, and we both gasped.
Nothing. There was nothing to see. No neon green shimmer, no respirating land or billowing movement.
It was now silent, like the dead.
“What happened? Did it maybe heal? Or was it a spell? I don’t understand.”
Jude and Soren shook their heads. Soren looked the most disappointed of them all. He just stood there and, after a few minutes, tucked his pen into his journal before settling the bundle into his armpit with a sigh. “There’s nothing here,” he mumbled to himself.
“What the hell do we do now? I know what I saw.” The last sentence was all for me. Looking out on this lifeless mountain with none of the signs and blaring signals that something was amiss, I began to doubt myself.
“We know you saw something, Freya. No one thinks you’re lying. Now we just have to work out why. Or maybe the incident was a one-time thing. Maybe it means nothing and we are making a fuss over something insignificant.”
I sat down on the edge of the cliff, letting my legs dangle. My golden hair blew in the crisp, chilly night air and I pulled all over it over my shoulder before it took someone’s eye out. “At least it’s a beautiful night.” I sighed, leaning back to rest on my elbows.
Soren and Jude sat on either side of me while Nico kept stiff and still, staring down the moon. The stare this man had; the moon didn’t stare down at him, he stared down at it.
I thought I saw it shudder in response.
“I have an idea,” he said out of nowhere. We all turned to him. “I think it’s time we took our mate on a flight.”
Chapter Four
At first, I didn’t know what Nico meant about taking me on a flight. All the dragons stretched their wings in the canyons near the caves, even those of us lessers who still had the ability to fly. Not all did. I’d always thought it must be terrible to be a dragon who couldn’t fly.
I didn’t get out much, before the highers claimed me. Between my work in the caves and helping Hilda with her herb gathering and other tasks, I frankly didn’t have the energy for a lot of zooming around in the sky. Since then, I’d spent most of my time in their suite, barring the one occasion when I made a run for it—only to be caught and returned to my prison.
It wasn’t such a prison, now, although we weren’t yet mated. I was spending time getting to know them. “So, you want to fly around the caves?” I asked, less enthusiastic than my dragon at the prospect. “You can do it now?”
“Freya,” Nico said, moving to stand close to me, “I had something much nicer in mind than just a short wing stretch around here.”
“You do?” I blinked at him. “Did you want to go out across the grasslands?” They were not exactly green this far into the season, but the golden strands bending in our wind was still pretty awesome.
“How about we surprise you. Have you ever been beyond the grasslands, Freya?” Jude was still holding my hand, and he brought it to his lips and brushed a kiss across my knuckles.
“No.” I thought back to my rare flights. “I’ve never even flown past the cave area. It’s not allowed for my kind.” I rolled my shoulders back, preparing to bring out my dragon when I felt the weight of their stares and met them. “What?”
Soren’s expression held a gravity that even for him was intense. “What are you saying? That someone is preventing the lessers from letting their dragons free?”
