Page 162 of Phoenix Rise

Flying side by side with him—I struggled to define what surged through me. Flying with Haki had never felt like this. Through our link, I experienced the joy of soaring as though it were also my first time. And it satisfied something deep in my Dragon soul.

Like we belonged together.

For just an instant, my heart swelled. But then, panic flooded me.

I didn’t belong to anyone.

“Time to take you down,” I said aloud, and folded my wings.

It immediately dropped me into the clouds again, and he followed me. A bit clumsy—at one point, he dropped way too fast, and I steadied him with my wing.

Chest hurts,he admitted.

My stomach tightened.We’ve been up too long. Take my tail.

No, I’m good.

Matt, don’t be an idiot. Landing requires more control than you currently have, especially with stressed flight muscles. Take my sharding tail.

Resentment surged from him, and he hesitated.If I listen to you now, will you listen to me once we are down?

I felt a burning sensation through the link—he really was in worse shape than he knew. I was suddenly frantic to get him attached to my tail.Yes, okay. Just take my tail.

All right, all right. Don’t get your dingoes in a knot.

I rolled my eyes. I had no idea what dingoes were, and I didn’t care. The relief I felt when his talons attached to my tail was nearly overwhelming.

Just soar. I’ll take us in, okay?

Yeah, yeah.

I dropped us down through the final cloud layer and searched for the best spot to set a fledgling Dragon down. The meadow would be ideal...

Not there. Not ready for everyone to know I’m scaly now.

I sighed, but most space was taken up with the triage anyway. So I banked to the far side of the lake, and found a clearing in the forest just past it, not far from the running trail.

Okay, now watch me, but don’t worry if you can’t duplicate my movements. Your wings are pretty much shot for today.

Incoherent grumbling along the link, but I concentrated on the task at hand. I brought us in as slow as I dared, almost stall speed, and then went into a hover above the clearing.

Sure enough, Matt winced when he tried to practice the hover, and his wings flailed. It knocked me off balance, and I dropped faster than anticipated.

He misinterpreted how much momentum we still had, and let go of my tail. Moments later, he spat out a mouthful of dirt as I landed with considerably more grace.

His eyes narrowed. “Thats was a landings?”

“Wells, ifs you’d hungs on—”

“I think I coulds have dones better ons my own.” He began to shift back to human, wincing as his sore chest muscles twinged.

I shifted too, noting he was having problems with the wings. “Size first,” I coached. “Once they are small enough, visualize them pulling into your shoulders.”

He shot me a glare, but complied. Then he gave his best attempt at clothing himself with scales. Which still required work. Disguising one’s genitalia was a challenge.

More for some than others.

“The ones around the edges have to be pushed to grow bigger,” I suggested.

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