Our mate, the mistress of the sky,Colton's chimera said dreamily.The sovereign of storms. The queen of?—
It hesitated, and Colton waited a moment, too, wondering if the chimera could come up with another alliterative title. After a few seconds, it muttered and subsided in his mind, clearly annoyed that it hadn't thought of a third phrase to describe Jo Talbott's flying skills.
Because she really was agoodpilot. Completely confident in the low visibility. More confident than Colton himself would have been, and he had actual wings attached to his actual body. At least, part of the time, he did.
Warmweather flyer,the chimera reminded him.
I remember,Colton replied dryly.Otherwise we'd be flying to Great Falls on our own.
The chimera gazed at him steadily until Colton felt abashed.All right, maybe Great Falls is a little far, anyway.
You bet it is.His chimera settled down again, and Colton smiled out the windshield, which was within touching distance. He was, in fact, in what he supposed was the copilot's seat; there were two more just behind him and the pilot's seat, butJo had offered him a headset and the seat next to hers, and Colton hadn't been about to turn down the opportunity to sit right beside her for a couple of hours. He adjusted his headset's mouthpiece and said, "Am I allowed to talk while we fly?"
Jo chuckled. "Yeah, that's fine. I'll tell you if I need you to be quiet."
"I've never flown in a plane this small before. It's louder than I expected."
"Tell me about it." She tapped her own headset. "That's why these. Technically we can talk without them, but it's much easier to with them. Also I'd have lost half my hearing already if I didn't use them. You warm enough?"
As long as she kept casting quick looks and smiles his way, Colton thought he could never be cold again. Instead of cracking out that incredibly cheesy line, though, he lifted a booted foot and waggled it. "Warm as toast."
Nobody said that. He winced. "I mean, toasty warm."
He could hear Jo's grin as clearly as he could see it. "I kind of like 'warm as toast.' Good. We've got a headwind, so it'll probably be closer to an hour than forty minutes, but I should get you safely to Great Falls pretty soon here."
Colton had never heard such simultaneously good and terrible news. Hedidneed to get back to New York. He also never wanted to leave Jo Talbott's side again. "Don't rush on my account. I mean, I'm not going to get out of Denver before this evening anyway, so if we have to detour around a storm front or something, let's not try to fly through it."
"I wasn't going to," Jo promised. "So how'd you get into environmental law?"
"Outdoorsy kid," Colton said, which wasn't alie. It just didn't exactly cover thewholetruth. But explaining shifters was always difficult, even if one wasn't a mythological animal to boot. "Iwant my potential kids to have the same opportunities I did, so I decided I'd better work for it."
Under her breath but still directly into the headset's mic, Jo breathed, "Well, that's sexy," and sounded like she meant it. Colton, trying not to make it obvious he'd overheard, turned his head to shoot a grin out the window. Aloud, Jo went on, "Good for you. Putting your money where your mouth is. I hope you win the case."
"Thanks. So do I."
CLOUDS!
Colton flinched, gaze darting around the plane, which was indeed surrounded by clouds.Clouds???
Queen of clouds!His chimera sounded very, very smug.
Colton's mouth opened to voice a protest, then closed again on it. Partly because he didn't want Jo to think he'd lost his marbles. Partly because althoughqueenandcloudsdidn't start with the same letter, he couldn't deny thesoundof them was alliterative and pleasing to the ear.Queen of clouds,he agreed with a smile that turned into a chuckle.
Jo glanced his way. "Winning the case is funny?"
"No, not at all. I was just thinking about and admiring your piloting skills," Colton replied honestly. "Coming up with nicknames for you. Mistress of the sky. Queen of clouds."
"That's flattering. You should add 'avoider of humans' into that list."
Both Colton and his chimera stuttered mentally at that.Our mate is not a shifter…?
No. No, I'm sure she isn't.Shifters generally had a sense about other shifters in their vicinity, and Jo Talbott was as human as they came. Or at least, Coltonthoughtshe was. Cautious and a little confused, he said, "Avoider of humans?"
"Well, you know, people in general, but dogs are fine. Birds. Bison. Cats. Whatever. Humans are hard."
Colton, still trying to tread very carefully, said, "But…you're human?"
She laughed, a big sound that almost drowned out the propeller's roar. "Last I checked, yeah, but that doesn't mean I like hanging out with other humans all that much. Present company excepted," she added with a smile.
