Page 92 of So I Dared a Dragon

I’d do whatever it took not to let him down.

“I’m holding you to that Vegas weekend,” I teased as we flew over the desert. “How will we find this tiny pendant?”

“Listen,” he said. “You’ll hear it.”

This far outside the city, the desert was nothing but stars and silence. We glided over the endless expanse, and I couldn’t remember a time when I’d felt so peaceful, which was ironic, considering what we were here to do.

On second thought…it wasn’t ironic at all. Tonight was the night that I changed my default setting of chaos and chose peace, security, and a certain future for everyone I cared about.

It felt good to take control of my life.

A soft thump got my attention, and at first, I thought it was my own heartbeat. But the rhythm was off. It almost went in double time, but it had an echo, like a quieter follow-up.

“Do you hear it?” Aarix asked softly.

“I do.”

“Clear your mind as much as you can. Just focus on its signature,” he instructed. “It will make itself visible to you.”

The pinprick of red was so tiny, I wasn’t sure I could trust my eyes. Had Aarix not told me what to look for at exactly the right time, I would’ve flown right by it.

We swooped down, and I braced myself for an attack. Because in my former life, with the Montana pack watching over me, “protecting” me, that was exactly what would’ve happened. But tonight, it was just us and the Guardian Stone in the desert.

“It’s still on the chain,” I marveled as I picked it out of the sand. Close up, it glowed just as brightly, like it was welcoming me home.

Aarix held his hand open. I dropped the pendant into it, and somehow with his giant talons, he managed to get the clasp open. It was warm against my chest when he placed it, and that soft little thump became a part of me.

Any doubts I had about making it all the way to Colorado faded. The limitations of my old life couldn’t even begin to define me anymore.

We flew side by side, going north of Vegas, on our way to Sunset Springs, and I tried to prepare myself for what would happen next. What it would be like to see the Rocky Mountain dragons again. But the memories refused to come. It was possible my brain was only revealing details slowly, not to overwhelm me with too much at once. My body was light, my mate was beside me, and the world was so beautiful.

Still, I wanted to remember details of my thunder. Names of dragons. But only blurry images came to me, on the tip of my tongue, just out of reach.

Maybe my brain wouldn’t let me believe it until I saw it with my own eyes.

No matter what was happening, it was surreal.

“What are those lights?” I blinked, trying to clear my vision. We were in the middle of nowhere, and we didn’t fly at the same altitude as planes. “It looks like they’re coming closer.”

“They’re eyes,” Aarix said.

The pendant was on fire. “Are they friendly?”

“Absolutely,” he said. “It’s Magnus, Luca, and Darcy.”

They’d stopped, waiting for us to catch up to them.

“Before you tell us this is your fight, we know that,” Luca said when they reached us. “We have no intention of interfering with your ceremony. But this is history, something these dragons have lost so much of. It would be a shame if no one was there to record all the details.”

“That’s so sweet,” I said. It wasn’t the time for my heart to melt like a chocolate chip. “My thunder deserves to have this moment documented. And every moment going forward.”

Sunset Springs was coming into view, along with the mountain range that protected the little town. The vibrationof the air was changing, and the crisp, clean taste changed. It wasn’t polluted, but it didn’t taste like snowflakes anymore.

I looked at my gorgeous mate. The sun had begun to wake from its slumber, coming to assist us in this mission. The light made the hints of green in his dark purple scales look ethereal.

“How will we do this?” It had all seemed so certain before the red rocks of the Rocky Mountain range came into view. The vibration felt like a DJ had remixed it—excitement, nerves, validation. They were all there.

And most of all, victory.

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