I reach for Hort’s reins. “Approve?”
“Of your crush on her. You’ve got good taste, kid.”
Riders at the tracks have teased me about my feelings, but never has someone been so blunt. “I…” I flush. “I just want her to teach me.”
“Wait, Farren doesn’t want to teach you?” Jeffrey asks, looking over to Shelly.
She widens her eyes back at him. “Farren loves all things dragons. The trick is how to get her tostoptalking.”
They both stare at me again, implication clear: It’s a huge feat that I’ve pissed off the girl who is nice and chatty to everyone.Still think I have any semblance of a chance? I want to ask. But it’s too depressing to put into words.
Hours later though, as I lay in bed, I realize that for the first time I’ve gotten someone’s approval to like Farren. I can’t seem to stop smiling into my pillow.
Two days later I’m able to ride Hort in short bursts. For the first time, we go airborne with no agenda but stretching his wings. And damn, the views above the Walsh Sanctuary? Rich green cliffs descending into black stones and even blacker beaches. Waterfalls tumbling down at so many points the entire coastline could become a curtain of water with a strongenough storm. Unpopulated islands shaped like crescent moons smile off the coast. Woods lie to the north, looking like pillows of foliage. Empty pastures and farmland dot the area to the south.
Even the sky, the very same sky I’ve flown in my whole life, seems to have a different color palette here. Red and golds soak or backlight the clouds. Late one afternoon I’m high enough on Hort to notice lightning crack across a heavy darkness in the far distance.
I whistle sharply and squeeze my thighs. “Let’s get back.”
Hort lands in the open field between the barn and the Walsh home. Farren’s already there. We both reach for the saddle and her hand lands on top of mine. The first time we’ve touched in weeks. She pulls back first and gets busy with the head harness like it’s nothing.Because it is nothing, Murphy. Get a hold of yourself.I lug the leather away from Hort’s back.
“I think it’s going to be bad.” As Farren says this, rain begins to fall in heavy patters. Hort turns his head to the sky and opens his mouth in unabashed delight.
“It’s like he’s part water dragon,” Farren laughs.
“He’s an odd one all right,” I agree. “Don’t let him near an unattended puddle.”
“Noted.”
I set the saddle over my shoulder. “Here. Let me get him.” I gesture toward the lead. “He’s going to want to stay in the rain.”
“Then give me the saddle.” She moves in front of me and reaches.
I pivot away. “I’ve got it.”
She gives me a contemptuous look, but the rain only grows heavier and we run to the barn. Within those minutes we’re half-soaked. Hort bounces, trying to return outside. The other dragons are in their stalls, a few coated in metal, a normal reaction to what sounds like the world splitting apart above us. I pull Hort toward home, softly whistling to get his attention and crafting silver as a distraction so he’ll follow.
Right when he settles in, thunder rattles the entire building and Farren and I flinch. “My parents are both gone. Dad is stuck in town. Mom drove Jeffrey and Shelly to the hospital.”
“The hospital?” I question.
“A normal checkup.”
A normal checkup that needed three people to attend? I don’t push for answers though. What matters is, it’s just us.
“Not sure the loft is the safest space in here, but you shouldn’t go back to the house,” I say.
Thunder rolls again, but the rain hammers so hard on the roof in a constant cacophony of noise, the pounding almost drowns it out.
“Right.”
We slosh up the stairs, leaving wet footprints as we go. I throw on the light as we enter my room.
“Like what you’ve done with the place,” Farren jokes as she steps in.
All my clothes are put away. I haven’t dared to hang anything. The only new item in sight is a dragon anatomy book Dr. Walsh lent me. Even then, the room looks exactly as it did when I moved in—barren.
“I think it represents me well.”
