“Hey,” she whispered.
“Hey yourself.” I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “How’s the brain? Still scrambled?”
She sat up, wincing at the sunlight. “Feels like I downed half a bottle of whiskey last night, but I’m good. Where are we?”
I jerked my chin toward the clearing. “High ridge. No cameras, no prying eyes. Figured you’d want to learn without an audience.”
She made a face, but her lips twitched. “Good call. I don’t want witnesses when I crash.”
I snorted. “You’ll crush it. Most people take days before they’re this sharp. But you’ve got Taryn now.” The name felt right coming from me.
Tash absorbed that, rolled her shoulders, and let the fire seep back into her posture. “All right. What’s first, then?”
“First, we get you standing. Then we help you shift.”
I hopped out of the cab, jogged around, and helped her down. Her feet wobbled at first, but she gained confidence in no time.
The air smelled pure up here. Clean. I steered us to a flat patch ringed by boulders and grass slick with dew, the perfect arena. We could see the full valley from up here, mountain lines wavering blue and green in the distance.
She squared up like it was an exam. “What do I do?”
“Breathe with me. In to four, hold two, out to six. Feel for the heat along your spine, not your chest.”
She nodded, determined.
We started slowly. “In, two, three, four. Hold, one, two. Now out, two, three, four, five, six.”
I felt the magic in her catch on the first cycle, but sheshook it off. Wanted control, wanted to not fuck it up in front of me.
“Again,” I murmured. “This time, call her by name. Taryn, come on, girl. Get literal if you need to.”
She huffed out a laugh. “You’re ridiculous.”
I nudged her hip. “I’m right, though.”
She reset. “Okay. In two, three, four. Hold, one, two. Out, two, three, four, five, six. Taryn, come on, girl. Let’s do this.”
On the second cycle, her posture softened. Her shoulders got heavy, and heat bloomed across her neck.
On her third breath, she went stiff. There was a ripple, a shiver, and then scales rolled up her forearms, copper and gold and, holy shit. Her scales were all different colors. An incandescent rainbow. It was subtle, at first, more shimmer than armor, but the effect made Caden want to howl.
She glanced down at herself, awed and smug at the same time. “Holy shit. Is that normal?”
I grinned. “You’re already ahead of where most dragons get in their first month. Want to try partials?”
She flexed her hands. The scales retreated, then flared again. She blinked at her fingers, then at me.
“Claws?”
“Go for it. Breathe, just like before. It's all about intent.”
She stared and focused. Slowly, her hands sprouted talons, black-tipped, sharp enough to make a grown man wet himself. She wiggled her fingers, then made a fist and watched them retract.
She flashed me a look, one part “fuck yeah,” one part “I dare you to act unimpressed.”
I matched it. “Now your eyes. Pick a spot on that oak tree and focus. Make every cell want to see it, dragon-style.”
She hesitated, then locked on a gnarled branch. For a second, nothing. Then her pupils went slits, full gold ringed in copper. She whistled at the clarity. “It’s like a zoom lens.”
