My breath caught. Tavish was beautiful, his scales a dark, glittering blue. His tail whipped the air, raising a wind that tugged at my hair and stirred straw on the ground. The chickens scattered, squawking indignantly. In the paddock, the horses snorted and moved to the far fence.
Albie gave Tavish an admiring look, then turned to me. “Ready, lass?”
No.I nodded. “Okay.”
He gave me one of his searching looks, and I could almost picture little question marks popping into the air around his head.
“Could you turn around?” I asked, unhooking my jacket.
He startled, his brows drawing together.
“I’m not going to run away,” I said, shrugging out of the jacket. Too late, I remembered my corset and its stubborn laces. Any other time, I’d shift to smoke and let my clothes drop to the ground. But when I tugged at my magic, it remained dormant. Heat touched my face as I half-turned, showing Albie my back. “Actually, could you…?”
“Ah, yes,” he said, coming to me. A few tugs later, the corset loosened enough for me to slip my arms free. Albie stepped back, then averted his gaze.
I stripped off the rest of my clothes and stuffed them into the satchel.Please,I begged my dragon.Please let me shift.
Just as my worry reached a fever pitch, my dragon rushed under my skin. Instantly, the itch was fierce and demanding. I twisted into smoke, then shot into the air and spun into my beast. Flapping my wings hard, I gave a loud snort of relief.
But irritation was hot on its heels. My dragon didn’t want to leave, so she was selectively cooperating.
Tavish swooped past in a ripple of glittering blue wings. Claws bared, he alighted atop one of the castle’s towers and curled his body around it, his tail flicking the stone.
Snorting again, I pivoted away from him with a swish of my wings. Albie was a small dot on the ground. He stared up at me, his glasses winking in the morning sunlight. Even from a distance, the naked emotion on his face shivered all the way to my soul.
Wonder, longing, and grief stamped his features. Something like guilt swept me. His mother and every other female he’d known had died from the Curse. And now I wanted to deprive him of a chance to be with his mate.
Except I couldn’t stay in his world. Which meant I couldn’t be his female. I just couldn’t.
Tavish snorted, smoke curling from his nostrils. He jerked his massive head toward the sky.
Albie swirled into smoke, spiraled into the air, and took shape as a golden dragon with amber-colored eyes. He was smaller than Tavish, but his movements were lightning fast as he dipped back toward the courtyard and snatched the satchel from the ground. Then he sped toward the north.
Tavish gave me an unmistakably mischievous look, one brow ridge climbing toward his horns. With another obnoxious snort, he shoved away from the tower and hovered in the air.
“After you,”he said in the dragon tongue, the sibilant words rolling from the clouds of smoke that billowed between his fangs.
I pumped my wings.“Try to keep up,”I answered in the same language. Then I shot after Albie with Tavish’s rumbling laughter echoing in my wake.
Wind rushed over my scales. Cool, clean air filled my nostrils and swirled down to my lungs. I pumped my wings, climbinghigher. Albie was a brown speck far ahead of me. He’d sliced through the air like a knife.
Tavish appeared beside me, his eyes a brighter blue in this form.“Albie is faster than any dragon on this plane or any other. If you’re thinking of trying to evade us, don’t. He’ll catch you.”
I huffed, smoke rolling from my nostrils.“I’m not going to run.”
Tavish dipped his head in acknowledgment.
“Yet,”I added.
He slanted me a warning look, flames dancing in his eyes. Then he stretched his neck and flew faster.
After a moment, Albie circled back, and the three of us swooped and darted among the clouds. The land below was the green carpet I’d seen a thousand times, but now it was dotted with forests and castles with bustling courtyards and smoking chimneys. Villages with stone houses and thatched roofs huddled in valleys.
Horses pulled carts and carriages. Sheep and shaggy Highland cattle grazed in the fields. More castles appeared. More villages. Not a car or power line in sight.
And the colors were brighter. The air was like a gulp of cold water at the end of a long, hot day. Every breath I drew was cut like crystal, each facet achingly pure.
An island appeared in the distance, its craggy coastline jutting from the sea. Waterfalls spilled down the sides of jagged cliffs, and a strip of golden sand hugged the base of the rocks.
