Page 37 of Phantom’s Mate

“I knew I shouldn’t have worn a skirt,” she muttered.

“You totally should have. That outfit, with you in it, made my whole day already.”

DB launched himself into the air, a huge interdimensional rift opening in front of them. He flew through—and suddenly they were somewhere else.

The sky above them was late-afternoon blue, the sun sinking down below a ridge of jagged purplish mountains. The mountains sloped down to an enormous lake, at the other end of which was a huge castle, glittering like a diamond, its windows reflecting the glow of the sun.

It was breathtaking.

“Where are we?” Brittany asked.

“No clue,” Nick said. “And the Draken isn’t telling.”

came the voice in their minds.

DB flew them to one of the mountains, circling in slowly so they could get a good view of the landscape below. Brittany knew she would never forget that flight—wild and magical, with her safe in Nick’s arms.

DB landed in a protected spot on the mountainside, where lush grass grew in a small area surrounded by rock walls. With the sun behind them, it was already in shadow, though the lake and the castle were still in bright sunlight.

Nick helped Britt off the dragon. “Is everything set?” he asked DB. In answer, the dragon sang a low note, very softly.

The air in front of them shimmered, and suddenly she saw what DB had hidden from sight. A table set like it was a fancy restaurant—white cloth, candles, silver-covered dishes, a bottle of champagne on ice.

Behind it was a niche in the rock with a fire burning—somehow without fuel or smoke—and a comfy couch filled with pillows and quilts.

Brittany felt like a princess as Nick seated her in an upholstered dining-room chair. She touched one of the platters. “All of this is still hot!” She stared at him. “And I can touch it! Are we still in the spirit world?”

the dragon said.

Britt didn’t know if it was DB or his dragon talking—she suspected they both had an attitude. But he’d obviously gone to a lot of trouble and expended a lot of magic to help Nick prepare this surprise.

She put her hand on his head. “Thank you so much,” she said, kissing his protruding eye ridge. “This really means a lot to me.”

“Good.”

The dragon snorted, exuding a puff of smoke.

“Thanks, buddy,” Nick said, slapping DB’s flank in a friendly way. “I owe you.”

The dragon flew off, and then winked out of sight.

Britt looked at Nick, who was opening the champagne. “What did he mean by ‘the show’?”

Nick smiled at her. “Wait and see.”

A few minutes later, as they were sipping their champagne, the sinking sun suddenly lit up the lake below them in a firestorm of colors.

As soon as it did, dozens of dragons came flying out of the castle in perfect formation.

They flew out over the lake, the setting sun flashing on their scales and in their reflections on the water.

They wove and shifted in ever-changing patterns, some rigid and symmetrical, others in seemingly random waves, like water in a container being tilted back and forth.

The colors shifted and changed with them, forming a moving piece of art in the sky, and on the water. It was the most beautiful thing Britt had ever seen.