Page 59 of Dark Dragon’s Mate

Trish ran her hand down the length of his neck, walking next to him, and stroked his furled wing. “A dragon,” she said, her voice full of wonder. “It’s like magic.”

I am magic, he said, forgetting she couldn’t hear him.

Her eyes got huge. “You can talk in my head!”

You heard that?

“Wasn’t I supposed to?”

I didn’t think you would. Most people can’t hear us. Brock can, with his abilities. And Layla can. That’s how I knew her name.

And I can. She walked up and stroked his eye ridge again, looking pleased.

Emon said, I’m going to pick you up now, so we can fly. He sat up and grasped her carefully with one of his foreclaws, making sure he didn’t cut her with his talons. He set her in the palm of his other foreclaw, cupping it slightly to make a comfortable place for her to sit. Then he loosened the hand that held her, but kept it wrapped around so that it encircled her like a safety cage.

Hold on. And he jumped off the cliff.

He felt Trish gasp as they plunged toward the valley below. Then he snapped his wings out and glided across the valley before he beat them powerfully, lifting them into the air.

Trish let her breath out in a loud whoop. “Oh my god, this is amazing!”

She climbed to her knees, peering out over the talons that held her safe. “It’s like the best amusement park ride ever!”

What’s an amusement park?

“Never mind. This is better.”

Trish’s mind was freaking blown. Traveling by dragon was by far the most amazing thing she’d ever done. She could see the ground below them like a tapestry, a hundred shades of green and brown. In the distance was the castle, dark and brooding, amidst its emerald green fields dotted with sheep.

She put her cheek against Emon’s front foot. It had fingers, like a lizard foot, covered in the same teeny-tiny scales as his head, so supple and warm they felt like the softest of skin. She wanted to pet him like a cat. She didn’t know how his dragon would feel about that, though he’d seemed to like it when she was touching him before.

Maybe he wasn’t such a terrifying monster after all. Maybe he was just lonely, and starved for love. Maybe he and Emon both were. She knew Mayah loved him, but Emon had always taken care of her. He’d never had someone to take care of him.

They landed on the huge flat roof of the castle. Trish almost didn’t want to get out of his arms. She had the wild urge to just fly off with him, into the mountains, into the sunrise, and leave everything else behind.

Except the darkness—Layla—would still be with her.

But Emon had seen her darkness, seen the killer wolf that lived inside her, and he still wanted her.

He was a dragon—the one person she couldn’t hurt, who Layla couldn’t destroy.

Hell, he even liked her.

Trish suddenly wished she could talk to Layla. See what it was the dragon liked—assuming it was something other than her murderiness.

But she wasn’t going to think about that now. She was going to think about sunrises and kisses and glitter sneakers.

She climbed down. “Thank you for the beautiful flight,” she said.

said a dry, grumpy voice in her mind.

Oh my god. The dragon was talking to her.

He suddenly reminded her of Kane, their Enforcer. Who pretended he hated everyone, but on the inside, wanted nothing more desperately than to belong.

“Nah, you love us both,” she said. “Especially glittery me.” She held out her foot.