Page 42 of Bryce

14

I’d flown hundreds of times.

I’d crisscrossed the world.

This was the first time I’d ever truly been awed by flight.

More than likely because I was flying on the back of the dragon of the woman I loved, the one my lion knew was meant to be our mate.

And because there was nothing between the wind and me. Nothing but Isla’s dragon’s powerful body, her wings propelling us onward.

Gate sat in front of me, holding onto one of the horns running down her back.

“Are you all right?” I called out. He couldn’t possibly be, not in his condition.

Yet he seemed to be enjoying it. “I’ve never flown this way before!” he called back to me, grinning madly.

I supposed he hadn’t, since he was a dragon and usually flying in his dragon form.

“Neither have I.” I wasn’t entirely certain I enjoyed it, not nearly as much as I appreciated Isla’s ability to fly.

I ran a hand over her scales and wondered if she could feel it when there was so much going on.

I wished we’d been able to travel this way all along. Why the hell didn’t we? Would the rancor between Isla and myself have even kept us from suggesting or acquiescing?

The mountain came into view, looming larger all the time. Leslie flew to our left, and the look of slack-jawed amazement on Logan’s face told me I was not alone. This was truly as remarkable as I thought, and between the two of us, we’d seen much of what the world had to offer. But nothing like this.

It was almost a disappointment to land, though I was hardly unhappy to put my feet back on solid ground. “We’re going to need to do that again,” I murmured, patting Isla’s snout.

She growled in response.

“They’re here!” Martina shrieked, sprinting from the cave. “They’re here!”

“Careful,” I warned Gate just before his mate crashed into him, throwing her arms around his neck and weeping brokenly as he held her. There was little taking care when she all but mauled him out of sheer joy.

Our eyes met over his shoulder. “Thank you,” she mouthed before turning her full attention back to him.

Pierce and Smoke emerged at the same time and took in the sight of two dragons before them.

“What happened?” Pierce asked, gobsmacked.

Hours later, after telling the full tale—the explosion, the guard—and turning over what we’d found, we were greeted by silence.

“You could have been killed.” Martina buried her head in Gate’s neck, trembling.

“I wasn’t. Thanks to my surgeon.” He winked. “And we knew what we were possibly walking into when we left. I can’t sit here now and pretend I wasn’t fully aware of the danger. We know the Gwydions well enough by now to know how devious they are.”

I looked over the game room, watching. Waiting. Knowing there would be questions once the shock wore off.

It was Cash who spoke first, scratching his chin as he did. “This mansion you described sounds familiar.”

“You’ve been there?”

“Not there. Not exactly.” He looked at Carissa, seated at his side, and she nodded.

“I was thinking the same thing.” She turned to me. “When Tommy was held captive, while I was testing Cash and developing the antidote to the allergy dragons have to iron, they had him in a place like that. A large mansion in the middle of nowhere. Very grand.”

“We all but destroyed it when we were freeing him,” Cash smiled.

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