Page 77 of Scalebound

“Exactly, Luella,” Angie praised her.

“Lia! Now it’s your turn!” Luella slipped off her dragon and made her way toward me, with her brown curls and blue streaks bouncing in the air, the sun shimmering on her velvety dark skin. “You just have to focus,” she said, reassuring me. She must’ve known that I needed it more than I did myself. “Just breathe! You got this.” She smiled and skipped back to where her dragon proudly watched his rider.

Damian came up to me. “My Queen, look at me.” I lifted my eyes to meet him. He grabbed my hands, his roughness in mine. “You got this,” he said. Glancing away, nerves burned my veins, threatening to take over. He squeezed my hands. “Think of your kingdom. Think of the Deathlies. Nothing less than killing them piece by piece, you understand me?” I nodded.

“I’m ready.”

Angie walked over right as I witnessed Luella climb back on her large dragon and fly back into the air, pieces of ice shards sprinkling the sky as she froze the molecules and the clouds.

“Aurelia, let’s start with the first element. This should be easier for you to test since it’s your ability. If themaxzisfafshai6,then it should be your fire abilities, but elevated.” I nodded.

“You ready?”I asked Belle.

“Rasandrea7,”Belle confirmed, excitement piercing her voice.

1.Maxz (Mahz): Ability

2.Maimaux (May-maw-ooh): Air/Wind

3.Washailameii (Wa-shay-la-mee): Angie’s dragon

4.Waimanimet (Way-mawn-imet): Abner’s dragon

5.Tanaleiiman (Taw-naw-lee-mawn): Luella’s dragon

6.Fafshai (Fawf-shay): Fire

7.Rasandrea (Rah-sawn-dreh-aw): Ready

Chapter fifty-two

AURELIA

Ihopped on Belle’s back so effortlessly that it was like we had been riding together our entire lives. Scales, it had only been a few days but had felt like an eternity throughEzu1 and back. So much had changed. Ihadchanged.

I could feel my nerves spread throughout my body. My hands started to shake. Why was I so nervous? Damian caught my eye, and he gave me a confirming nod.

Belle lifted off the ground, her wings flapping aggressively as we slowly rose into the sky. She was just as nervous as I was. However, we were both learning what ourmaxz2was together, and that eased my worries slightly.

We were just starting with fire, I reminded myself—just fire. I’ve used it almost every day for twenty years. I could easily do this one. Starting easy.

We reached the clouds, the world blurring around us. “Let’s have fun first,” I said, feeling the nerves that we both held.This should be fun and exciting. Scales, we were learning a new ability.

Belle did the job perfectly. We filtered through different shapes of clouds and the sky. From how high we flew up, Angie and Damian looked like small specks on the ground. My hands let go of Belle’s back, and I held them out, catching handfuls of fluff from the clouds. We swooped low and high in the sky. Squeezing my legs together, I grasped Belle’s body as she spun upside down. I quickly grabbed onto her horns, holding myself up.

The wind was racing through my hair, my skin, and the blood in my veins. Every inch of my body felt exposed to the electricity of it–the freedom of it.

I felt ready. I lifted my hands and cast the clouds next to me on fire. They billowed out like smoke between my fingers, as the flames ignited my skin. It was normal–nothing more elevated or more advanced than my usual abilities.

“Anything?”Angie lined up and called out to me.

“No, normal,”I said.

“Try wind while you are up there. Try to build a tornado within your fingertips or a gust of air powered by your mind.”

With the thought of wind on my mind, I attempted to billow out some sort of gust of wind or storm. Just something, no matter how small.

A cloud next to me with wisps of white and gray holding moisture in the sky was the perfect one to attempt to move. With my right hand out in front of me, I imagined the rolling stretch of cloud being pushed further back into the sky by means of wind.

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