I approached and ran my hand along the edge. The surface was warm under my palms and solid as rock. I climbed, and it was surprisingly easy, especially when he lifted his wing like a kind of elevator.
At the base of his neck, a natural dip formed a seat, perfectly sized for me. There was also a curved spike shaped as if it had been designed specifically for gripping.
I settled into place, wrapping my fingers around the spike. With the way the seat dipped, I felt as secure as one could feel on the back of a dragon.
Lucan turned his head, one enormous eye finding me and waiting patiently. I held on to the spike tighter and squeezed my thighs before nodding.
He surged forward.
The world dropped away so fast my stomach lurched into my throat. His wings beat down, and the trees below shrank at a dizzying rate, their tops blurring into a sea of black. Wind tore at my face and ripped my breath away.
I held on.
He leveled out, and we were gliding instead of climbing. The mountains spread out below us, and the lake caught the moonlight and sparkled.
“This is—” I dissolved into laughter and couldn’t finish the sentence. There was no word for this. Nothing in my vocabulary or anyone else’s could capture the feeling of soaring through the sky on a dragon.
Lucan’s wings shifted into a slower rhythm, a lazy, rolling motion that rocked me gently, and the tension drained from my shoulders.
The wind was colder at this altitude, sharp enough to make my eyes water, but the warmth from Lucan’s body wrapped around me like a blanket. I leaned forward slightly, pressing my chest against the back of his neck.
He banked left, and the world tilted. I gasped and gripped the spike again, but the movement was controlled, not frightening. He wasn’t about to let me fall.
We flew in a wide circle over the mountains, and he banked toward a narrow break in the rock. The gap looked small, a jagged split in the mountainside that couldn’t possibly fit adragon. But he tucked his wings in tight and dropped through it like he’d done it a thousand times.
The wind eased as the space opened up around us. We were in a basin, the walls rising on all sides like a fortress built by time and geology. The moon lit the ground below in patches of silver, and the air smelled cleaner than it already had.
Lucan circled, and then he descended in a controlled glide. His claws touched down on a flat stretch of ground with barely a jolt, and his wings folded in against his sides with a rustle that echoed off the rock.
I loosened my grip on the spike and shifted my weight forward, testing my balance. My legs were shaky, whether from adrenaline or the cold or both. I couldn’t tell. I swung one leg over and slid down his wing as he lowered it for me, my shoes hitting solid ground.
The basin was quiet, and there was no wind or rustling trees. The walls trapped the stillness and made everything feel smaller and more intimate.
I stepped away from his wing and turned to face him. He was watching me with that same intensity he’d had in human form, the kind that made me feel like I was the only thing in the world worth paying attention to.
I reached out and pressed my palm against his chest, above where his heart would be. “Thank you.”
He rumbled again, and a second later, Lucan stood in front of me, my hand on his bare chest.
Chapter 22
Lucan
My bare feet landed on cold rock, Liz’s warm palm pressed flat against my chest. My heart was hammering under it, and there was zero chance she couldn’t feel that.
She looked up at me, her eyes wide, still carrying the remnants of whatever the flight had done to her. Her cheeks were flushed from the wind, her short hair wild in every direction, and she was the most stunning thing I’d ever seen.
I didn’t move. Didn’t reach for her. My dragon was roaring triumph through every inch of me, but I held still because the look on her face wasn’t quite ready for what I wanted to do.
Liz dropped her hand and took a small step back.
She let out a short breath that turned into a laugh, shaking her head as she looked around the basin. The rock walls rose around us, silver and shadow under the moon. Her gaze returned to me, and there was something lighter in it that hadn’t been there before the flight.
“Show-off,” she said under her breath.
I huffed a quiet laugh and stepped closer, reaching around her to ease the backpack off her shoulders. She let me take it, watching as I unzipped the bag and pulled out the sweatpants.
Her eyes dropped as I stepped into them.
