Page 14 of Dreams and Dragon Wings
Those words rippled through my mind unbidden as I watched Aurelia turn away from me. Auntie Velda always liked to say that when I was feeling particularly low about my fate.
“I should go,” she whispered. “Young ladies with already limited prospects shouldn’t be out after dark with young men at any rate.”
“Naei,” I agreed, my heart clenching at her sudden shift in demeanor. “But I don’t think there’s any rule about a young lady being out after dark with a dragon.”
When she turned back to face me, I had already shifted, leaving her gasping in clear delight. I would never grow tired of seeing her look at me like that—like I waswonderful, as she had called me last year, rather than something to be feared.
All humans seemed to fear me. But not her.
Then again, Aurelia was no human.
Through my enhanced eyes, the world sparkled even more beautifully. Threads of magic of all different hues wound through the grass, the trees, the skies. They even danced around Aurelia—a faint promise of what she would one day be.
I lowered myself to my belly and stretched out my wings, making it easy for her to climb atop me. When she didn’t immediately clamber onto my back, though, I twitched my tail and rumbled in imitation of an annoyed cat.
As I had hoped, she laughed. “Very well. Thereisno rule about that.”
But still, her movements were cautious, gentle, as ifshewere afraid of hurtingme. Her hands timidly glided across the scales of my shoulders—a mere whisper of a touch—as she climbed atop me and slid into place just in front of the joint of my wings.
“Is this… all right? I’m not too heavy for you?” she asked.
I snorted in reply.
“Hold on,”I warned her in my native tongue as I lurched to my paws and sprinted through the trees, making for the clearing that housed our fairy circle. The wind whipped past us, bringing with it all the scents of early summer—flowers, rich earth,her.
As I had hoped she would when I picked up speed, she shrieked and flung her arms around my neck. “Bene, you’re so fast!”
She had seen nothing yet.
Dangerous. Reckless. Foolish.
That’s what my aunties would have said if they could have seen me in that moment. I could almost hear their voices buzzing in my ears, asking me what I was doing.
But curses were meant to be broken, were they not?
My wings surged, churning up the air as I shoved off with all my might. My claws ripped through the soil on the edge of the clearing. We rocketed into the night sky.
Together.
“Bene!” she squealed, her fingers finding purchase beneath the grooves of the scales covering my throat. Beneath us, the forest fell away, her cottage disappeared, and even the grand city of Spindleton became a mere smattering of fireflies and nothing more.
I gently banked to the right, turning us away from the civilized parts of her world. We needed to stay in the meadows and fields, the places where a lone farmer claiming to have seen a dragon flying late at night would be ignored.
The last thing I needed was King Aldemar writing to my father and warning him that a dragon had been spotted in Briarhold, breaking the peace treaty between our kingdoms. My aunties would have been right to scold me. Iwasbeing reckless for many different reasons.
But it all became worth it when Aurelia sighed, “This is the best birthday present ever.”
I rumbled, happy I could give this to her.
“But I have nothing to give you in return!” she continued, giving my neck a squeeze. “I didn’t know you were coming tonight.”
“I wanted to surprise you,”I explained, though I knew she couldn’t understand me.“And besides, just seeing you again is gift enough.”
“Next year,” she promised as I cautiously skirted around a dark lake, wary of frightening Aurelia.
She couldn’t swim.
“If you happen to come see me at finishing school,” she continued, clinging to my neck all the more tightly as we passed the body of water, “I’ll have a present for you then. A wonderful present.”
