“And to you. Get the girls to safety quickly. If you can’t come to Britannia, go farther north to Germania.”
Caesar had few strongholds on Germania. It would be the safest place for fugitives to hide.
“I’ll protect them. I promise.” He gave Lela a polite bow. “Farewell, lovely Lela. Take care of him.” He gestured to me then walked to the edge of the terrace, already shifting.
Lela smiled, seemingly unaffected by our nudity or our quick transformations from man to half-skin and back again. She was remarkably unbothered or shocked as most humans were. Of course, she’d lived among our kind for many years. However, she was a little frightened of riding dragonback.
She watched my grandfather shift into half-skin and take flight. “Will he be safe?”
“He may be old, but he is very smart and still quite strong.”
“What did he mean, he’d go by water to the coast?”
Grandfather then continued to transform, his body elongating,wings expanding until he was the giant, pale blue dragon I hadn’t seen in years. Then he disappeared beyond the tree line.
“Sapphirus dragons are magnificent swimmers,” I told her. “He’ll go faster beneath the ocean.”
She turned to me. “You’d travel faster without me then.”
I scoffed. “I wouldn’t go anywhere without you.” Then I took her hand. “Come over here.”
Guiding her to the widest part of the terrace, which Grandfather had built and ensured was big enough to hold a dragon, I nudged her closer to the entrance of the house.
“Stand under the archway while I transform,” I told her, taking the rope and tying it around her waist, double knotting the rope and leaving the ends loose. “Once I’ve shifted, you’ll be able to crawl onto my back. There are spikes all along my neck to my shoulder. Tie these ends in a double knot like I’ve done here around two spikes.”
She stared down at the knot. “Show me again.”
I demonstrated two more times until she seemed satisfied. Then she marched under the archway.
Stepping to the center of the terrace, I faced her.
“What if I fall?” she asked. “What if the ropes don’t hold?”
“I’ll catch you, darling. Don’t worry.”
Tension wound her body tight as she watched me transform again. The sharp pain that accompanied the stretching of skin and realignment of bones was gone in a blink as I let the dragon take full hold. My humanity shrank inward into the beast until he held full reign and all I felt was power and adoration.
Stretching my neck to the sky, I opened my jaws and roared with triumph, finally free of the man’s vessel. To gaze upon my mate.
“Oh, my,” she spoke to me.
She liked my form, thought me glorious. As she should. I was magnificent. I would protect her from the world’s evils.
She was more lovely than all the gold across the kingdoms. I crouched onto my belly to get a closer look. She was not fearful as other men have been. She knew I was mighty. She knew that I was hers. And that she wasmine.
XXVILELA
Goddess above, he is enormous. And beautiful.
The strangest thing of all about looking into those giant blue eyes—pale in the middle, ringed with sapphire—was that I could see Trajan in them. But the beast who lived inside him, who looked at me now, was indeed a wild creature. I hesitated to approach.
He crouched lower, huffing out a hot breath, a feral rumble vibrating from deep in his belly. He extended a paw with claws as long asmy arm from elbow to wrist. He huffed out another breath, narrowing his eyes.
Easing close, I placed a hand on the side of his snout. He purred louder, closing his eyes, reminding me of a stray cat we’d taken in when I was a girl. She wouldn’t let anyone touch her but me. Late at night, she’d curl on the hearth and purr while I petted her.
“You’re a gentle giant, aren’t you?” I crooned, petting him along his snout, his scales smooth to the touch.
He pressed himself as low as he could to the terrace, his spiked tail curling around him. Crawling up his paw and arm, I hesitated where I reached, afraid I might hurt him. But he never flinched, waiting patiently as I made my way to his back.
