Page 36 of House of Ashes

Even when he climbed up through the dragon door, his claws digging into the black rock of the mountain as he headed towards the peak, I didn’t feel the terror of that first flight, when I’d clung to the ropes with such desperation.

My stomach fluttered from nervousness, knowing what was coming, but some of those flutters were anticipation. This was almost going to be a true ride, the kind I’d trained for.

He climbed towards the peak, and I leaned forward in the saddle, bracing my feet in the molded stirrups. There was a slight tug as gravity pulled me down, but the straps kept me from sliding backward more than an inch or so.

Rhylan turned his head, eyes flashing at me.

“Yes, I’m obviously ready, or I’d still be down there on the ground like a sensible person,” I told him, gripping the reins tightly. “Get on with it.”

There was a dragon grin again, a rumbling chuckle that I felt through the saddle.

He bounded the last few feet to the peak, and flung us out over the other side into open air.

For a horrible moment we dropped, my ass sliding forward in the saddle. My stomach jumped straight up into my throat as the wind tore at my hair, my third eyelids coming down on my next blink.

Then his wings snapped out, catching the wind gusting between the mountains, and we glided out over the Krysiens.

I exhaled slowly, adjusting my grip on the reins. It wasn’t perfect, but the modified saddle provided security I hadn’t felt before. It was easier to adjust my posture to his motions now, adapting my own body to move with his.

I patted his back twice, right on top of the knotted, silvery scars. “This is going to work. We can do this.”

He pumped his wings, racing further into the mountains. At times he canted, making me feel unsteady, but I dug my heels into the stirrups, leaning low against him. It had been a long time since I’d ridden a practice saddle, but muscle memory began to come back to me.

I knew how to do these things; I’d trained for it ceaselessly, knowing that my life, and my mate’s, would depend on my abilities one day.

Letting my dislike of both Rhylan and the lack of mind-speech slide away, I focused on nothing but the massive dragon beneath me, the currents of the wind, the awareness of open air between me and the ground.

We flew over the mountains, leaving behind shredded clouds for a brighter sky. The jagged Krysiens gave way to smaller mountains, some capped with the thinnest, sparkling dust of snow.

Even without the mind-speech, this flight might have been the greatest peace I’d ever known. There was nothing but the sky and the air, the dragon and the wind.

This would work.

I raised one fist in the air, letting out a wild scream of victory. Rhylan shook his head, the motion rippling through his entire body, blasting out a roar that echoed over the mountains.

He drifted lower, gliding over the mountain tops towards a round, deep tarn, dropping low enough that his claws brushed through the icy, pitch-black water and left froths of foam in his wake.

Then he raised a clawed hand, flicking the icy water over his shoulder at me. It splattered across my mouth, the taste clear and mineral, and as the wind whipped my wet skin, my face froze numb.

“You son of a—”

Rhylan barked a dragon’s rough laugh, veering upwards. I gripped the reins tight as he circled the tarn, the water reflecting us as perfectly as a mirror.

“I’ll get you for that,” I promised, though he couldn’t hear me.

He continued on, flying past the tarn and towards a plateau in the distance. I scrubbed droplets of ice off my cheek, my legs tensing as he moved in for a landing.

Rhylan moved lightly for a dragon of his size, the landing smoother than I’d anticipated. There was only one brief moment when I hadn’t braced myself and just about got my teeth jarred out of my mouth, something that wouldn’t have occurred with a warning via mind-speech.

Don’t complain about what you don’t have, I reminded myself. I neither needed nor wanted that particular bond with Rhylan. The safety straps had worked just fine.

The top of the plateau was heavily cracked granite, limned with ice. I unhooked my safety straps with two quick tugs, sliding down Rhylan’s shoulder with much more grace than I’d achieved the previous day.

My legs and back ached, but I felt a thousand times better than I had before. I whirled to face the dragon, and found Rhylan in his male form, ducking under the curve of the harness, every inch of golden, scale-dusted skin exposed.

Black scales coated his heavily-muscled thighs, receding as I watched. His heavy cock swung between them, and though nudity was nothing to dragonbloods, not when they shifted so often, the primitive instincts of a draga came clawing from the depths of my mind.

Flashes of daydreams ripped through my brain: all that golden skin, those dark scales, covering my body with his, driving deep…

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