Page 14 of Beneath Scales and Shadows
What she trulywas.
His growl vibrated against her lips as his hands tightened at her waist, lifting her slightly to better align their bodies. The world narrowed to this single point of contact—his mouth on hers, his hands mapping the contours of her body as though committing them to memory, the heat building between them that threatened to consume them both.
In the midst of that consuming fire, her fingers found the edge of his mask. The cool material contrasted sharply with the burning heat of his skin, the edge a boundary between what she knew and what remained mystery. Without conscious decision, her fingers hooked beneath the ornate rim, desire overriding caution, need eclipsing reason.
The mask came away in her hand.
Magic exploded between them like a supernova. Golden light erupted from the broken enchantment, illuminating the balcony with blinding intensity. Sora staggered backward, the mask falling from her nerveless fingers to clatter against stone.
“What have you done?”Ignis growled in her mind.
When the light dimmed, the man before her was transforming. His formal attire tore as his body expanded, elegant hands elongating into taloned claws. Ruby scales erupted across his skin, flowing like liquid shadow until they covered him completely. His face elongated, features rearranging into something terrifyingly beautiful.
Something that shouldn’t exist—just like her. And yet, she was here.
Where the masked nobleman had stood moments before, a gigantic gold trimmed ruby dragon now loomed—midnight wings unfurling to span the width of the balcony, crimson eyes still fixed on her with unmistakable intelligence.
Ignis, her mind whispered, recognition rather than fear flooding her system.
The balcony doors burst open behind them. Guards poured through, swords drawn, shouting orders that Sora couldn’t process through her shock. Princess Jewels emerged from their midst, her face contorting with triumph and horror.
“Dragon!” she screamed, pointing at Ignis. “Seize the girl! Kill the beast!”
Guards rushed forward. Arrows notched against bowstrings, the deadly tips glinting in the moonlight. Sora stood frozen between the advancing soldiers and the dragon—herdragon, a quiet voice deep inside her insisted, fierce and sure.
Time slowed, compressed into a single moment of perfect clarity. These guards would kill Ignis. The thought struck her with visceral certainty, unleashing protective fury she hadn’t known herself capable of.
Without conscious decision, Sora stepped between the guards and Ignis, arms outstretched. “Stop!”
The first arrow flew. Acting on reflexes born of another lifetime, she reached out to deflect it—and watched in stunned disbelief as silver scales erupted across her arm, the arrow glancing harmlessly off their metallic surface.
Everyone froze—the guards, Princess Jewels, even Sora herself.
Only Ignis moved, his massive head lowering beside her, a deep growl rumbling from his chest that she felt rather than heard, the vibration passing between them like a current.
“How?” Princess Jewels whispered, horror dawning in her eyes.
Before Sora could respond, Ignis’s tail whipped around, wrapping protectively around her waist. His voice resonated directly in her mind—darker—ancient, powerful, tinged with both urgency and tenderness.
“Trust me.”
She had no time to respond before he launched from the balcony, powerful wings beating against the night air. Sora’s stomach lurched as the ground fell away beneath them, the castle shrinking to a toy-like miniature as they ascended into the star-strewn sky.
Wind whipped her hair around her face as she clung to the smooth scales of Ignis’s foreleg. Far below, guards scrambled at the balcony’s edge, arrows slicing through empty space as their shouts drowned in the rush of air.
Princess Jewels’s face, twisted with rage and disbelief, grew smaller until it vanished altogether, swallowed by distance.
Fear and exhilaration twined through Sora’s veins as they soared higher, the world spreading beneath them like an unfamiliar map—something new for her to discover and catalog. The frozen lake reflected moonlight like a silver coin, the forest a dark carpet stretching toward—
The mountains. They were flying toward the mountains that had been calling to her since she awoke in this world.
“Where are you taking me?” she shouted against the wind, unsure if he could hear her human voice while in dragon form. Deep down, she knew the answer.
“Home,”came his simple reply.“Where you belong.”
CHAPTERSIX
SORA
