“Hayley!”
The dragon’s voice sounded familiar. As it banked again, flying low over the boulders and rocks along the cliff, it caught sight of me. Flames burst from opened jaws as it suddenly laughed, its wings beating up and down to keep it at a near hover.
“Hayley! You’re alive! Thanks be to Lanokota.”
Shock almost tumbled me off my small ledge. “Willow? Oh, my God, it is you?”
Willow laughed again. “We’ve been searching for you for hours. Look, I can’t reach you while you’re in there. Can you come down? Over there to that big rock on your left.”
“You bet I can.”
Returning to the sea wasn’t easy, but I made the trek to the slippery rock and managed to climb up it. Willow, unable to hover for long, circled over my head while I worked to reach it, then poised over me with her front talons extended.
“Don’t be scared,” she said, closing those wicked swords around my body. “I won’t let you fall.”
After having faced flight while clutched in a dragon’s hand before, escaped down a rocky cliff and nearly drowned, flying again didn’t scare me at all. Willow winged her way up and over the cliff, banking northward.
“You came nearly a mile and a half from where you went down the cliff,” she said. “That’s why it took so long for us to find you.”
“Us?”
“Alaric and I, sweetie. Who else?”
“How’d you know where I was?”
The wind created by her flight chilled my wet body. I shivered, glad to see the estate’s house hove into view. Willowroared, flaming, a noise loud enough to all but pop my ear drums. Within seconds, Alaric swept up from the cliff beyond the house, his jaws wide as he, too, sent a burst of fire into the sky.
“Hayley, are you all right? Are you hurt? How’d you get down, shit, you’re shaking all over. Willow, let’s get her into the house and into a hot bath.”
As Willow set me gently in the walled courtyard, Alaric’s enormous dragon form dropped lightly to the cobbles beside us. That’s when I saw the deep cuts and gashes, crusted with dried blood, all over his body. He fought with another dragon. Was it Damon? If Alaric and Willow were here, then where were Damon and Fiona?
I wasn’t given the chance to ask, however. Willow, her dragon’s face as expressive as her human one, smiled down at me. Her eyes were lost, grieving, and tears sparkled deep within them. She lifted her talon to touch me lightly on my cheek.
“I’m so glad you’re alive.”
Her wings wide, shading me, Willow jumped into the air. Dust and dirt swirled around me, stinging, as she circled higher and higher to gain altitude. Then she banked over the house and was gone.
“D-Damon’s d-dead,” I stammered, my teeth chattering. “I-isn’t he?”
Alaric looked down from his great height, his face filled with sorrow. “I killed him. Willow needs time to grieve his loss.”
“F-Fiona?”
“Not here.” Alaric shifted into his human body and took me into his arms. Holding me tight against his chest, he murmured in my ear, “We tricked her into leaving, but she hasn’t come back. She may have guessed we’d take Damon down.”
He started to guide me toward the mansion’s front entrance, but I balked. “No. Home.”
Alaric cupped my chin, smiling. “You’re right. Fiona may come back. I’ll just grab a blanket to wrap around you.”
He limped away, and I once again saw how badly he was hurt. Fortunately dragons healed overnight. I, however, desperately needed some aspirin and that hot bath. My ankles and legs were scraped raw, and my head still pounded.
Coming back, Alaric wrapped me in a fleecy blanket, then held my hand as we walked to his truck.
“We need to talk,” he commented as he helped me into the passenger seat.
Oh, great. Now comes the divorce. This isn’t a good time, dude. Not at all.
Still, I said nothing, and neither did he until after we reached his house.
