Page 11 of An Accident Waiting to Dragon

The storm was a different matter.

Asher tossed the plane away from them like it was nothing more than a child’s toy and took off into the skies. Gwen didn’t exactly hold on for dear life, but it was a close thing. Dragons flew so much faster than pixies. The wind grabbed at her from all directions. The storm tore at her like it was trying to peel her off his back the way he’d peeled the roof off her plane. She couldn’t see a damn thing.

“Be careful,” she yelled into the chaos. “I don’t think this is a normal storm. Something else is wielding it.”

“I know.”

“Just trying to help,” she huffed under her breath. “See if I bother next time.”

Not that there would be a next time if she could help it.

Once upon a blissfully naïve time, she’d been so head over heels in love with Asher Kato she couldn’t have said which way was up. She’d idolized him. Hero-worshipped him even. And just when he’d started to look at her differently, like she wasn’t just his best friend’s kid sister…

Well… that was before Goran died.

This was now.

With zero warning, the wraith suddenly reappeared, wrapping its arms around her and jerking her off Asher’s back so fast Gwen yelped.

Below her, she could see Asher start to wheel around. Only once they were clear of him, lightning blasted through his right wing.

"Asher!” she shrieked.

The immense, navy-colored dragon roared as electricity danced over his body, tracing the lines of his bones and spine all the way down to the mangled tail he’d clearly lost half of since the last time she’d seen him. He seized and then went limp, plummeting from the sky, his huge body wheeling around his one good wing the same way she’d been spinning in her plane only a few moments ago.

Gwen’s entire body went cold with fear.

The yell that ripped from Gwen’s throat came from someplace primal. Without thinking, her body exploded, moonlight pouring from her skin like a star going supernova. Even if they’d been in daylight, anything looking at her would no longer see her features, her form obliterated by brilliant radiance.

She thought, maybe, that she heard the wraith scream.

In any case, it definitely let her go. Instead of opening her wings, Gwen dropped toward the earth as she aimed her body like an arrow, shooting down headfirst with her legs stuck straight out behind her and her arms tucked in close to her sides. She didn’t have to look hard to spot Asher, who was still falling out of control. She aimed for him.

If he was conscious, he wouldn’t shift. She knew he wouldn’t. His larger form could take the impact better than his human form.

But is he conscious?

She didn’t think so.

Eyes watering, she squinted against the wind and rain, never looking away from him as she simultaneously judged the distance between herself and him and the water. It was going to be a close one.

She saw the instant Asher woke up, the way his big body jerked with the shock of falling through the air.

“Asher,” she shouted, and he locked gazes with her.

The ocean was growing larger and larger and larger behind him, the white crests of the swells being tossed around by the storm distinctly visible.

When Gwen got close enough, she aimed for his chest. “Shift now,” she yelled.

In a silent rush, his body changed. His soul stayed in place as his physical form shifted around his essence.

Just in time for her to slam into him.

Without having to tell him, he wrapped his arms and legs around her in a way that wouldn’t impede her wings, but she still caught his grunt of pain.

“Got you,” his voice rumbled in her ear.

“Pretty sure I got you,” she yelled back.

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