I shut my eyes, breathing deeply, calming my nervousness. I imagined my dragon within my mind –
Ichanged.
“You did it!” Brody whooped.
My emotions careening from wild fear to wild elation, I looked around at myself. Again, I saw clearly in the darkness. Every blade of grass, every pine needle, my every black scale. With more control, I spread my wings and took a few tentative steps. My long, savage talons tried to trip me up, but I soon grew used to them.
“That’s it,” Brody crowed. ‘Take your time. Get used to your dragon. She’s you, and you are her. Every time you shift, she’ll be right there to guide you. Her instincts are yours.”
“How do I make fire?”
“That’s a little tricky,” Brody explained, pacing to stand at my side. “Your breathing is normal, yes? Lungs, air in and air out?”
“Yes.”
“When you want your flames, youwillthem. Your fires aren’t like a furnace, waiting, burning. You take a breath, suck in like so, and command your fire. Like this.”
Brody exhaled a vast gust of flames so hot I leaped backward. I stumbled over my tail, caught myself with my wings, and finally balanced myself. “Holy shit.”
Small flames burned merrily on the ground. Brody stomped them out. “Inhale, think fire, exhale. Try it.”
I tried it. I inhaled, thought fire, and merely breathed outward. “Nothing happened.”
“Focus, Lindsey. It’ll come to you.”
Again, I focused my thoughts inward, concentrated, then inhaled, and sent such a huge swath of flames I scared myself. Again, I lunged backward, flailing my wings, hurting my tail. I’d set fire to the dead twigs and pine needles, forcing both of us to stomp them out.
“Your finesse will come,” Brody said, grinning. “Just practice. Now, it’s time to fly.”
Panic hit me. “Uh, no, that’s okay. I’ll stay on the ground. I’m sorta afraid of heights –”
“Don’t be a pussy.”
Spreading his wings, Brody leaped into the air. His front legs folded under his chest, his rear legs behind him, his long, spade tail trailed in his wake. His beauty in flying had my jaw dropping in astonishment. He soared as gracefully as any hawk. Instantly, I craved to be up there with him, flying as he did, the wind under my wings lifting me higher and higher.
“Come on,” Brody called down. “You can do it. Your dragon knows. Trust her.”
“I’m not very good at trust remember,” I snapped.
“Do it. Use your legs. Jump, catch the wind.”
Grumbling under my breath, I gathered my haunches under me, then leaped.
My broad wings worked without my asking them to. The wind caught me, not the other way around. As the ground fell away beneath me, I looked up to see Brody circling high over my head. I beat my wings, working them harder, gaining altitude –flying!
“Oh my God,” I shrieked, elated. “I’m doing it. I’m flying, I’mflying.”
Brody dove past my face, laughing. “Where’s your fear of heights?”
“What fear of heights?”
I gained confidence in my dragon. Brody was right. She knew what to do. How to dip a wingtip to bank right or left. How to fold my wings to dive. How to spread them before I smashed into the ground and speed ten feet above it. She was there all along, teaching me, guiding me, helping me to be the real Lindsey.
I flamed as I flew. The sheer joy I’d found in flying high into the sky beside Brody brought my soul’s fire illuminating theblack night. Brody flamed at my side, dancing with me beneath the stars, soaring with the starlight on my wings.
Chapter Fourteen
Brody
