“I need you to kiss each body part,”I say to my regina.“Many kisses on each one to make them better.”
“Yes,”her voice is all dragony in my mind-ears.“Each one, my wolf.”
I swing my legs in happiness, making Lyle grumble behind me. I’m riding shotgun at the front and centre. Scythe is behind Lyle, and Xander is behind him, but The Collector’s head is riding in Aurelia’s front claw because she’s refusing to let it go.
At one point, I lie down on her warm, hard shoulders, wanting to be close and skin to scales. I love her so fucking much, and if the treasure haze means she’ll love on me even more, I’m so excited and ready for it.
By the time daylight is bright in my eyes, Aurelia cloaks us in her special invisibility shield. Too tired to talk to my brothers, I snuggle into Lyle’s arms for the rest of the ride.
I smell the sea, and my eyes fly open as we arrive on the coast. Aurelia tilts her pretty snout down, and we veer toward the ocean itself. Putting my arms up in the air, I enjoy the rush of the wind on my skin, the feeling of infinite freedom after being cooped up so long like a battery hen. Aurelia’s claws skim the water’s surface, and her wings snap out in a paraglide across the water as we head a little out to sea where humans won’t accidentally see us.
She flicks her wings up like a sail, and we slow down. “Are we—” Lyle asks before Aurelia levels out as we breach the ocean’s surface, the droplets of sea spray sprinkling on my cheeks.
“Yes!” I cry as she settles on the ocean, and I imagine her little legs paddling like a duck under the water’s surface. There’s a splash on my right, and I see the soles of Scythe’s feet disappearing into the water. I too get to my feet and dive in after him, and I feel Lyle doing the same.
I swim to wash the night’s sweat and blood off my skin, but the problem is that I immediately miss my regina’s touch and I have to swim right back to her, gasping for breath at the surface right near her side.
Pressing my cheek against her wet scales, I breathe in her smoky scent. “I hated it, regina,”I tell her.“Hated every second not being near you.”
“Me too, precious wolf,” she says, making my heart swell to the size of the moon.
A black blob, which is Xander’s body against the sun, still sits on Aurelia’s back, staring at the water as if it might hurt him. I catch my regina’s eye. “He may start to smell, regina.”
She snorts before a ‘gust of wind’ knocks Xander right off her back into the water. I cackle with happiness, diving under again, only this time, I come face to face with the mighty ol’ shark that’s Scythe. I boop him right on the nose before following the mass of bubbles to Xander’s flailing body.
We break the surface at the same time as he gasps dramatically for air and I thump him on the back. Lyle appears out of nowhere, his blonde hair plastered to his face, looking happier than I’ve seen him in ages.
Our regina paddles around us, suspiciously surveying the water for enemies.“We must go soon,”she says.“But I will not leave Scythe. Lyle, hold this for me.”
The Collector’s head flies out from under the water, and Lyle catches it with his telekinesis. Aurelia shifts, shrinking until she’s only a grey dorsal fin above the water. I dive under again, only to see the two sharks circling around us like hungry predators. Above the surface, there’s just two fins chasing each other.
“So cute!” I say to Lyle. “Remind me to get a fin for next time.”
Xander is floating on his back, looking sort of glum and over the entire situation. He was awake the whole time and The Collector made him do all sorts of awful things, and I think it’s affecting him now. I scowl at the black mark on his neck because it’s not even shining like the rest of his wet skin is. Like it sucksall the light from outside and swallows it. Lyle treads water next to me, also staring at the floating dragon. We exchange a look and leave him alone.
An hour later, Scythe is calm, and Aurelia paddles the rest of us to the beach. There are a few tourists here, so we stay invisible as we climb onto the shore. Nakedness, the humans can deal with, but the severed head maybe not so much. Rufus is waiting for us in the carpark with a black Jeep and bags of supplies. Aurelia snaps her teeth at him and possessively draws Scythe away when he tries to speak with our jaguar manager.
“Home,” she snarls. “We go home now.”
I love her so much.
Aurelia blocks Lyle when he goes to take the driver’s seat. “No,” she scowls, grabbing his hand and pointing to the sky. “We fly again where it’s safe.”
“Sweetheart,” Lyle says, cupping her salty cheeks. “We need to go to a safe building for today where we can eat and shower.”
Her face lights up in the most adorable way. “I can get food! Lots of it for my big mates.”
“We can get it together,” I offer, stepping forward and taking her hand. “All of us.”
She shakes me off and crosses her arms. “No,I’mgetting it.”
“Regina,” Scythe’s rasp gets her attention as he pushes me aside and tries to talk to her. “We have an apartment here. It will be safe for all of us.”
“No,” she says firmly. “We go back to the nest where it is surely safe, then I get food, we feast, then I clean my mates. End of story.”
“Step aside,” Xander drawls. “Aurelia, going to the academy nest will take too long, and I feel unwell. We have a closer nest here that we can use. I need healing.” We all turn to stare at him. Xander runs a hand through his wet hair, flexing a bicep as he does.
“What?” Aurelia says sharply, shoving past me and pressing her nose against Xander’s chest and rapidly sniffing all over his body. “You’re unwell?”
