“Well, all of us are coming in. The rest of the team will be in tomorrow.” Asha smiled. “It’ll be small. Is that okay?”
“Perfectly fine.” Varis nodded once. “I’m uncertain as to what a dragon wedding amounts to.”
Asha grinned widely. “I think we need Rydel for this.”
Varis sighed happily. “I think I’d speak a vow before a seabird at this point just to call him mine.”
Asha glanced out the window, nose wrinkled. “I have opinions on seabirds.”
“As do we all.” Varis stood, and Asha followed, muttering something about getting Jeron if he was rested up.
Chapter Sixteen
Ghreid
When Varis said he wanted their ceremony to be small, he’d meant it wholeheartedly. They would say their vows on the wyvern’s paddock, take their first flight, and hopefully spend the rest of the full moon—which was painfully few days away—rutting into the night. That was the plan, at least.
They sat together, side by side, staring out at the setting sun that evening, the stars only beginning to wink and sparkle at them. Ghreid reached for Varis’s hand and did his best to ignore Asha and Rath and their stolen kisses sitting not too far away, legs dangling off the cliff face. Their little ones, asleep for the night, gave them time to fraternize and go for a flight—one that Varis would discover himself during.
“I’m thinking silver,” Draenvir said, admiring his own green scales smattering his hand. “What do you think, Pryd?”
Pryd glanced over and shrugged. “Water is his element, so perhaps a seaborne blue or the gray of the lacemaker beasts.”
Falustus hummed. “He has eccentricity in his heart. I vote for something vivid, like a flower. Bright like silks.”
Slath, who had lounged about taking in the sights, waved his hand dismissively. “It’s all about the pallor. He’d fare well with a darker color, perhaps dark magenta, or violet. But he will bear some element of water. I say bicolored. Say it is my artist’s eye, but scales do match our form.”
That was true. Ghreid shrugged. “I’ll make no guesses. Whatever scales the fates give him, are the scales I will love the most.”
Varis rolled his eyes with a shy little smirk, but he didn’t fight back when Ghreid lifted his hand for a tender kiss. “Keep staring at the moon, my mate. When your heart races, we fly.”
The coordinated flutter and flap of wings passed between the eight dragons standing vigil, ready to welcome in the ninth. The leathery ripple in the sea breeze made a music that Ghreid would hold in his heart for all time. Brothers standing together.
“This is so different than when it happened to me.” Asha laughed as he leaned into Rath’s side and hummed.
“You were flying on Heckle, right?” Varis glanced over.
“Falling off Heckle,” Lapryda corrected.
“Falling would imply it was by accident. I jumped.” Asha laughed and Rath clutched the male tighter. Back then, he’d been beside himself with fear and anger.
Rath flinched and shook his head. “My heart still stops when I recall that. You dove with Heckle and leaped into my arms.”
“Hmm…” Varis swung his legs as the moon’s gibbus form glowed through the fading light.
Ghreid couldn’t have stopped him if he tried; the reaction so sudden. Varis stood and took a few steps back for a stretch. He stripped his tunic and rolled the hems of his pants up before making one stride then another. Ghreid swore the instant he did it, running full speed toward the edge of the cliff face.
The turbid, churning water below had few in the way of rocky, jutting outcrops, but Varis knew what he was doing. He ran, jumped, and flew, his body in perfect form.
He didn’t fight the current of gravity or the whipping wind; rather he streamlined his body and aimed for the water in a way that made him shoot like an arrow through the air.
“Fuck!” Ghreid dove after him, wings arched. His brothers cried out, and Lapryda, as pompous as he was, threw his hands out with magic, trying to slow the male’s descent. Asha and Rath followed suit, with Envi, Galatan, Lust, and Slath joining in. Wind and water—fire in the way the heated air created an updraft. But beyond all logic, Varis twirled in the air, spinning until he slipped into the water’s surface seamlessly.
He’d used the aiding magic to avoid the rocks, controlling his aim, and as the jettisoning form of his body shot out into the ocean, a glow suffused his flesh, glowing spots over where his freckles lined up. Ghreid followed his flow through the water, gliding above him until he shot out of the water with a gasp of delight and laughter, hands rising to reach for Ghreid as he passed over.
“Varis!” Ghreid grasped Varis’s hands and pulled the male into his arms and twirled to re-situate his weight.
Above them, seven other winged males joined their flight, their rippling shadowed reflections hovering along while Asha laughed with delight—much to Ghreid’s chagrin.
