Leo looked at her for half a second, then laced his fingers through hers. “Anything.”
She led him farther into the clearing, then stopped and looked up toward the mountains.
“I want to take you up there,” she said.
He followed her gaze, then looked back at her. “You want me to fly with you.”
Estelle nodded. “I’ve never done it before. Carried anyone, I mean.” She let out a small breath. “But I want to. I want you to feel what I feel when I fly.”
Leo understood, with a sudden and almost painful clarity, what she was giving him. Not just flight. But a part of herself that no one else had ever known.
“I’d be honored,” he said.
She stepped back, and a second later the air popped and crackled. Her dragon stood before him once more, scales gleaming as the last light slid over them.
She lowered herself and stretched one foreleg forward like a step.
Leo approached slowly, then climbed onto her back. Her scales were warm beneath his hands, smoother than he had imagined.
“I’m ready,” he said.
He felt the shiver that went through her before she launched.
Then they were airborne.
The ground dropped away beneath them, the clearing falling small, then smaller still. Wind rushed against his face as Estelle climbed, strong and sure. The mountains opened around them, emerald forests spilling down into mist-filled valleys, jagged peaks rising dark against the last of the light.
For a few breathless seconds he could do nothing but hold on as the world below fell away until there was only sky, stars, and the beat of her wings.
Then wonder took over.
Wind tore past him, cold and clean, and for the first time he understood that the sky was not something separate from her. It was part of her, as natural as breathing. As if the earth alone could never be enough for such a creature.
They flew over ridges painted gold and rose by the last of the light. Estelle banked wide, then higher, then down again, showing him the world from her height, her freedom.
When she finally descended into a high meadow tucked beneath the mountain, she landed with a gentleness that made him smile. She crouched so he could climb down, then shiftedback, standing before him with wind in her hair and color in her cheeks.
For a moment neither of them spoke.
The meadow was quiet around them, all wildflowers and evening light, and the first cool touch of night coming on.
“Now you know,” Estelle said softly.
Leo stepped toward her and took both her hands. “Thank you,” he said. “For that. For coming back. For all of it.”
Her eyes shone as bright as any star. “I love you,” she said, plain and clear. “I have since that first moment I sensed you.”
“I love you too,” he said. “You. Adara. All of it.”
He kissed her then, slower this time, deeper. She had come back to him. Not because fate demanded it, but because she had chosen him. And somehow that meant even more.
Epilogue
Estelle stood at the kitchen window with a tea towel in her hands, though she had long since stopped drying the mugs.
Outside, Adara was in the garden with Margaret, showing her something with the grave importance only a child could manage. Margaret had lowered herself onto the little bench by the flower bed, all her attention on Adara as the little girl talked and pointed and rearranged her treasures exactly how she wanted them.
She kept her promise,Estelle’s dragon said softly.
