Page 78 of Ash

The big Dragon met Dani’s gaze and reached deep to lighten what lay between them. “You just want another Dragon ride.”

She offered a tentative smile. “Busted. Hey, Dragon warriors and Gryphon healers. What more could a girl ask for?”

“What more indeed,” Cara commented with a flash of white teeth.

20

They didn’t use the portal in Cara’s garden to get back to Tyrez’s home.

Apparently, the Dragon had an agenda. “I have to pick up some fried chicken for my sister,” he explained as his body shifted to Dragon.

“You’re going to fly to get fried chicken? That’ll freak out the drive-thru attendant.”

He was damned fast with the shift. In moments, he snorted at her and cocked a foreleg. “Just gets ons.”

Dani took the offered wingtip and jumped off the bent foreleg, dropping between the spikes as though she’d done this all her life. He barely waited for her to settle before he launched himself into the sky.

She whooped and grabbed the spikes. Cara’s garden fell away beneath them. Her grip loosened once the Dragon leveled out.

Night had fallen while they’d been inside, but the moonlight reflected off Tyrez’s body and wings. How many Dragons soared the night skies over Winnipeg? How often were they seen, and dismissed, as just a cloud passing over the moon?

He pitched his wings and banked, his big triangular head seeking something below. Then his neck twisted as he rolled an eye back to her.

“You had better hold on.”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you are not.” He clacked his jaws. “When a Dragon tells you to hold on, you should obey.”

Obey was not a word in Dani’s usual vocabulary, but she folded her hands lightly around the spikes.

A moment later, she was clinging for dear life as the Dragon dove, dropping like a stone toward the buildings far below. His speed pressed her back against the twin spikes, and she hoped he wouldn’t try anything too—

His wings opened with a sharp crack, and Dani slammed painfully up against the front spikes. Then, with two smooth backwings, his hind legs touched down on the roof of a building.

Although her chest hurt, Dani had a huge grin plastered across her face.

The big head tilted back toward her as his forelegs dropped as well. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “That was way cool.”

He shook his mane of black hair. “You can get down now.”

Down? Oh, right. She looked around and saw the backside of a sign along one edge of the building. They were on the roof of the takeout restaurant.

She’d rather been looking forward to a Dragon drive through, but this made much more sense. Dani scrambled down, and Tyrez shifted back to human. This time, after he drained the power from the tail spike and stashed it behind the air conditioning unit.

“How long will it be before it turns to dust?” Dani asked.

“I drained it first, so about a day.”

Her eyes dropped to the ground, which was now liberally adorned with gleaming scales. “What a mess. Do you leave these everywhere you go?” Why hadn’t someone noticed this?

Tyrez snorted. “Without my energy to sustain them, they’ll turn to dust too.”

Dani bent to pick one up. It was almost the size of her hand. “This has never caused an issue?”

“How many people do you know that hang around on rooftops?”

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