Page 32 of Fire in Stone

“No reason.” He shrugged with an easy smile. “Just wanted you to know that you have my full, unrestricted permission to kiss, peck, smooch, and nibble on any part of my body.”

Now I laughed loudly.

“Smooch and nibble, huh? Is that what you’re into?”

“Why not?” He winked, openly flirting with me now. “I would go so far as to allow an occasional bite or two if that’s your thing.”

“Thanks, but I’ll pass,” I managed to squeeze through my laughter. “Oh, Elex. It was such a profound moment, and you ruined it with your ‘pecks and nibbles.’”

“Did I?” He lifted an eyebrow with a glint of amusement in his eyes.

He knew he’d ruined nothing. He’d just made it better. Laughter melted the lingering frost of apprehension inside me. The needles of tension were gone.

I rested my head on his shoulder comfortably.

“Thank you,” I repeated.

And this time, I meant it without any reservations whatsoever.

Eight

AMBER

Despite being carried by a gargoyle above the ground, I managed to get my bearings somewhat and assess the situation.

My duffel bag was gone. I had no passport and no spare clothes now. Thankfully, I’d stuffed my wallet into the front pocket of my hoodie after buying us breakfast from the café, and it was still there along with my cellphone. The wallet had all my remaining cash and my driver’s license. But it wasn’t much. We needed a plan.

“Where about are we now?” I ventured a glance down but could see nothing through the thick cloud cover below us.

“We’re over a landmass at the moment,” Elex said. “But there’s a large body of water up ahead. We should reach it by sunset.”

“How can you see it?” I saw nothing but white-gray clouds stretching from horizon to horizon.

“I don’tseeit, not with my eyes, anyway. But gargoyles have a superior sense of direction. We’re unsurpassed in navigation. I canfeelthe ground below.”

I knew so little about this man, who literally held my life in his hands right now.

“Tell me, Elex, you can be a statue, a dragon… What else can you turn into?”

He smiled. “What else would you want me to be?”

“Oh, gosh, I don’t know. Honestly, at this point, if you tell me you can turn into a fiddle and playThe Devil Went Down to Georgia, I’d believe you.”

Nothing seemed impossible with him anymore.

Whether or not he knew the song I mentioned, he chuckled at my words. “My people shape-shift into dragons at will and turn into stone at sunset. But that’s all.”

“That’s all?”I snorted a laugh. “Not a big deal, really.”

“Not from where I’m from.” He glanced down, scanning the cloud cover below. “I’ll remain in this form for now, since it’s smaller than my dragon and harder to detect up here.”

I was glad he thought of that. The carnage he’d caused back at the train station must’ve attracted a lot of attention. Police might be on our heels already, maybe even Interpol.

Worry gnawed at me, causing anxiety. I’d been lucky to evade authorities so far. But what if my luck was about to run out?

There had been people around the train platform. Many had cell phones. If any of them managed to take pictures or make videos, my face might be visible in them. I’d done nothing illegal today. But flying away with the dragon who had burned an entire train station down would surely make the police want to ask me some questions. And there was not a single answer I wished to give them. Not even my name.

In one way, Elex’s and my goals aligned. We both needed to be on the other side of the Atlantic, in the United States. However, taking a plane was out of the question for either of us.

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