Page 75 of Aria's Ascension

“Can you fly me—”

“Aessa.”

She sighed. She’d known that wasn’t going to work, but it was worth a try.

“—usup there?” she corrected, watching him closely for a reaction.

His gaze cut to Kix and Rellik. A brief snarl curled his upper lip, but to her immense relief, that was his only show of aggression. Pivoting his head back to her, he hesitated for a tense second, then lowered himself with a gentle, thrumming purr so he was propped up on a forearm.

The tightness in her shoulders relaxed, and she hesitated, only for a moment, before climbing up his arm to his back. She settled herself at the base of his neck and grabbed two of the long, spiky frills growing from his head and upper neck to use as both handholds and reins.

“Nothing to see here, folks,” she muttered nervously. “Just gonna ride this dragon. Naked. Regular fucking Tuesday around here.”

Oh shit, I’m about to ride a fucking dragon.

A thrill shot through her, mixing with the urgency and fear twisting her stomach into knots. She felt absolutely tiny sitting astride him and nowhere near as secure as she wanted to be without some kind of saddle or harness to strap herself into.

I wonder if he’d wear a saddle?

The ridiculousness of that thought had her shaking her head.

Aria Taylor, special agent for the FBI, gladiator, freedom fighter, and dragon rider. Yep. That’s me. Jesus Christ, my life is a movie.

Thrasin tensed beneath her when Kix climbed up next and settled behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist, but he didn’t try to eat her firefly, so she was definitely counting that as a win.

Rellik was next. To her surprise, he walked upright along Thrasin’s back and immediately moved to sit at the base of his wings. He looked perfectly comfortable riding a dragon, as though he’d done it many times, even sent her a wink and a cocky smile when he glanced up to find her staring at him wide-eyed.

Without so much as a warning growl, Thrasin leapt into the air, scaring the hell out of her, and gave a hard flap, sending up a cloud of dust around them.

With each beat of his wings, he steadily rose higher and higher, then hovered mid-air when he reached the spaceship. Using the claws on his forehands, he carefully pulled huge chunks of rock free, checked to make sure he wouldn’t crush anyone below, then dropped them to the ground until he’d created a gap big enough for him to squeeze through.

Aria bent forward to lie against his neck when he began crawling along the back of the ship with Kix using his body to shield her from the jagged rock above.

As they went, she leaned over so she could look below them, searching for any windows or portholes she could peer into, but the surface was smooth and unbroken.

Unless it was something like an unmanned drone, somebody was in there and very likely in need of help after a crash like that.

“As soon as we’ve rescued Red and killed Zhrovni, we need to come back and check this out. There could be people trapped inside,” she announced.

There was no doubt in her mind there would be a later. Shewasgoing to get her mate back, and that turtle-faced bastard was absolutely going to die.

There was no other option.

Chapter 41

Aria blinked hard when Thrasin crawled off of the spaceship and stepped onto the sands of the arena, trying to adjust to the bright sunlight after living in a dim cave for days with only glowing mushrooms and Kix’s light by which to see.

When the spots faded, she quickly scanned the space around them. The treeshrooms and purple moss covered ground that filled the arena for the Grand Tournament was gone. It was in what she assumed was its natural state: barren desert. Pale grey sand and rolling dunes stretched out before them with the white mountains rising up a least a mile off in the distance.

Behind them, maybe eighty to one hundred feet away, was the retaining wall, once an unbroken and insurmountable barrier towering at least four hundred feet into the air. Now, there was a massive breach where the ship had crashed through, giving her her first glimpse of the world beyond.

She didn’t know what she’d expected the planet to look like, but what she saw was squalid and dismal. It matched the people who chose to live there, like Zhrovni. A barren, desert landscape to match the arena stretched out beyond the wall with dirty, ramshackle buildings and desperate, haggard looking aliens crowded around the break, peering in at them.

But, what caught her eye were the skyscrapers interspersed among the crowded slums on the ground, standing like shiny, high-tech wardens over the dirty masses below, and the towering walls of other arenas in the distance.

I’ll be coming for you next.

Turning back around, Aria tapped Thrasin’s neck, prompting him to take to the air again. He rose until they were soaring high above the ground, giving her a bird, er, dragon’s-eye view of the arena.

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