Page 132 of Realm of Dreams & Shadows

“Handy talent,” I say, and hope to God my voice doesn’t sound as breathless as I feel.

“Occasionally,” he answers, eyes on my cleavage for one bold moment before he remembers how to be civilized and looks back toward the dragon. “Will you fly with me?”

It’s not a fair question, since every part of me is screaming yes so loudly I’m surprised he can’t hear it. Even so, I force down my enthusiasm as I look him in the eye. “I’ve ridden a dragon before,” I say, recalling the feel of my arms locked around Chase’s waist, as the dragon’s wings thrummed against the air.

“Tonight, you ride with me.”

I nod, a wild anticipation filling me as Leth shifts, unfurling her wing. Adric whistles softly, and the beautiful creature dips her shoulder. “We mount when she offers,” he. says. “Never before.”

He goes first, one hand braced against her scaled shoulder, his foot finding the notch at the base of her foreleg with practiced ease. He swings up, then offers me his hand as I mount the same way he did, but with decidedly less grace. I put my foot in the notch, and he pulls me up. I end up with my hips aligned behind his, the contact more than a little distracting.

As if he can read my mind, he shifts, his voice full of low heat when he murmurs, “Reach around me for the leads.” I do, my fingers finding the warm leather straps. “Handholds only,” he says. “Though you’re welcome to abandon them and hold on to me.”

“Oh.” The word slips out, and something dark like shame twines through me as I recall the power and the beauty of flying with Chase.

But I want this too. No matter what else Adric might be—and I truly don’t know—he is the man who saved Chase. More importantly, he’s a man who’s somehow slid into my heart.

And, yeah, he’ll soon be my husband. So I draw a breath, drop the leads, and hold tight to his waist.

“Ready,” I whisper, the smoky scent of the dragon helping to calm my nerves as Leth’s wings flap, making us rise and the terrace fall away as night rushes around us, bathing us in golden-black light.

“We’re flying,” I say, which is perhaps the most obvious thing I’ve ever said. But then my brain catches up. “You’re flying. I thought you were bound to the castle.”

“The castle and its grounds, remember?” His voice carries easily over the wind. “The curse draws a boundary — think of it as a dome, invisible but absolute. I cannot pass beyond it. But within it?” He tilts his head toward the sky, and I can hear something almost like pleasure in his voice. “I have all of this.”

“How far does it extend?”

“Far enough.” He guides Leth into a bank, and the outer wall sweeps below us, the moat a ribbon of dark water far beneath. “I have explored every inch of it. I have had plenty of time to learn all of this realm’s secrets.”

Considering how long he’s been bound, that’s probably the understatement of the millennium.

I press closer to Adric when the dragon banks, and his hands press over mine, leaving me to wonder just how secure we are on this dragon.

It’s a terrifying, exhilarating thought. This man—so in sync with the wildness of a dragon that only the grip of his knees keeps us mounted.

I press closer when the dragon rockets higher, and Adric’s hands squeeze just above my knees as I laugh with sheer delight, my fear evaporating in the certainty that Adric won’t let me get hurt.

We skim the outer wall, the moat a seam of even darker dark below. Bats dive and wheel and slot themselves into the wind behind us. Leth coasts on the wind, dipping and twisting and making my stomach drop when she rises and falls in a slow, sweet arc before climbing in a wide corkscrew that makes the world spread out like a map. The desert is stunning from up here—wild and alive, shifting and breathing, the five moons throwing overlapping shadows that make everything look layered.

I startle a little when Leth opens her mouth, and a sound pours out that’s remarkably like the purr of a humongous cat. I laugh, delighted. She’s happy. And despite all that has happened today—despite the fresh memory of Whistler, despite Chase’s near-death, and my unexpected betrothal—in this moment, so am I.

We bank over the desert, and the castle drops behind us, making it seem as if we’re alone in this dangerous realm that I once feared.

Now, it’s mine. And isn’t that one hell of a strange feeling?

I don’t notice how close I’ve settled against Adric until I feel his hair tickling my cheek. “You were born for this,” he says. “Not just dragon-riding but the height. The altitude. The power.”

“Hello? Human.”

“Perhaps. But you were meant to be more. Stay with me, and you will have it all.”

I don’t answer, just tighten my grip on his waist as reality hits me—I may have agreed to marry this man, but that doesn’t mean I’m bound to the castle or its grounds like he is. I can go back—to Tia, to school, to the world that I know and love. Hell, I can come and go as I please.

I have a choice.

It is, I think, the first true choice I’ve ever had.

I let the air take some of the weight I’ve been carrying, and I laugh, suddenly lighter than I’ve felt in my life, and Leth answers with a tilt that makes the moons skid across the edge of the world.