The dragon sweeps its wings through the air and soon we’re lifting up off the ground. It has my stomach swooping and I curse, but soon we’re up among the glittering stars, and I’m too distracted to care about anything else.
“Shit,” I say. “Maybe flying is all right after all.”
I find the northern star in the sky and point out the direction. Then we’re soaring away, leaving the others far below us.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Briony
On the journey to Onyx, I’d slept most of the way and missed the changing landscape outside the window of Beaufort’s vehicle.
I’m not going to make the same mistake tonight.
Instead, I lie down flat on Blaze’s back, Dray seated behind me, and gaze down at the realm below us.
It’s nighttime, but the stars and the moon are bright, the sky clear, and I can see the ghostly outline of the land below us. We fly over the capital first – jam-packed with shining towers and glistening buildings, all lit up. Then we’re through the city and passing over the rest of Onyx Quarter.
Much of it is neatly manicured, with tall, fine trees, neat hedgerows, and little patches of flowers. Every now and again, there’s a grand house standing proud in the landscape, and Dray tells me that each one is occupied by an Onyx family.
“Just one family?” I say. “They’re so big. Why does one family need all that space?
“There’s seven of us brothers, and we all need space. Otherwise, we’d be killing each other, I promise you.” He pauses, then nibbles at my ear. “In fact, how about …”
“How about what?” I say.
He peers down at the landscape, scanning his gaze across it. “There,” he says. “Over there. That’s my house. Fancy a little visit?”
“Now?” I say. “We’ve got to reach the border. We’ve got to meet Beaufort, Thorne, and the soldiers.”
“Yeah,” Dray says, “but the soldiers won’t be there until daybreak. We won’t be crossing the border into the demon wastelands until then. We’ve got plenty of time. This dragon is way faster than I realized.”
I gaze over at the grand mansion. It sits in the middle of prairie land, tall grasses blowing softly in the nighttime breeze, and a river shining in the moonlight some distance off.
“You really think we have time?” I say. “You’re not just saying that?”
“Kitten,” he says, “would I lie to you?”
“Hmm,” I say, twisting my head to look up at him.
But to be honest, I am curious. I’ve seen where Beaufort comes from, and I’m curious to see where Dray comes from too.
“Okay,” I say. “But only for a little bit. We can’t be late.”
Dray rests his hand on his chest. “Just for a little bit,” he promises.
Then I point the house out to Blaze and, with a disgruntled grunt – because I think he knows it’s Dray’s house – he spirals us downward until we’re swooping low over the rooftop.
The house is much bigger than it looked from high up in the sky. In fact, it’s gigantic – sprawling with rooms and dotted with so many windows I lose count. A grand veranda rings the property and is scattered with elegantly carved furnishings. There’s a little patch of garden, carefully manicured, with allsorts of flowers I’ve never even seen before, their petals all closed up for the night.
“There,” Dray says, pointing to one of the windows. “That’s my room, Kitten. The one right at the top of the house. The biggest, because, well,” he puffs out his chest, “I’m the alpha.”
I twist to look at him again. “What does that mean?” I say. “The alpha?”
“You don’t know?” he says, looking a little bit hurt.
“Dray,” I say, “before I met you, I’d never met a shifter before. In fact, I wasn’t a hundred percent convinced they even existed. I thought it was just some scary fairy tale the grown-ups back in Slate liked to tell us. You know, ‘wander too far into the woods and the shifters will get you’.”
“You didn’t think we were real?” Dray says, one side of his mouth lifting in a half smile. “You know I’m real now, though, right? You know you’re not dreaming when my cock–”
