Page 8 of The Sapphire Dragon Prince
“Of course she would, my darling,” Azurus said, sweeping his hand around my face. “I don’t know why I didn’t think to take you to her sooner.”
I pressed my cheek into Azurus’s palm and closed my eyes for a moment. Bits and pieces of the love he felt for me actually were poking holes in the cold wall that surrounded me and leaving me with bits of warmth. It had to be part of being magical, being fated mates. Nothing else had been able to penetrate the fear and darkness my father had left me with for so long.
“I will do whatever you wish me to, Azurus,” I said earnestly, opening my eyes and staring up at him with as much affection as I could find in my broken heart. “If you think Queen Gaia can make me better, then I’ll go with you to see her.”
“Good,” Azurus said, smiling with the first hint of confidence I’d seen in him since he’d brought me to the castle to keep me safe. I saw more than hints of the strong, commanding dragon he was, and the tiny, trapped omega part of me that just wanted to belong to my mate shivered with excitement.
Azurus stood, placing me on my feet. “We’ll go to Mother right away,” he said. “Her throne room can be hard to find, but I think she’ll feel the need we have to see her and draw us to her.”
I blinked, confused by those statements as Azurus took my hand and led me out of the water garden and into the wider, more open field beside it. “What do you mean hard to find? Don’t you already know where it is?”
Azurus laughed. “This is a magical kingdom, and my mother is queen over it all and more. Sometimes she is needed at one end of the kingdom and sometimes at the complete other end minutes later. Her throne room moves around to suit her needs.” He glanced around once we were in the field, and when he was satisfied with whatever he was searching for, he turned to me with a smile. “Sometimes I think her throne room appears in other worlds entirely.”
“I thought people weren’t permitted to travel between worlds except under special circumstances,” I said.
Azurus laughed again. “Mother is her own special circumstance.”
He didn’t elaborate, but I suspected I knew what he meant. My brothers and I had met Queen Gaia before, when Selle and Gildur had defeated the sorceress Saoirse, but I had stayed to the back of our group then, too overwhelmed with the woman to approach her in any way. Since that event, my brothers and I had discussed the Queen, and I, for one, believed her to be something greater than any of our understanding.
“The best way to find Mother at any given moment is with magic,” Azurus said, turning to me with a glint of excitement in his eyes. “And the best way to do that is in magical form.”
I caught my breath, guessing what he meant.
“Are you ready to ride your dragon?” he asked, confirming my suspicions with a smile.
I didn’t know what to say. A silly part in the back of my mind giggled at the double meaning of the question. The fact that I could even think something so ribald was its own sort of encouragement, even if that lusty feeling felt miles away.
“Yes,” I answered in any case, meaning it in both ways.
“Then grab hold now,” Azurus said, turning his back to me. “It’s easier to position yourself before I transform, and I’m not certain if….” He paused, suddenly looking anxious. Then he sucked in a breath and said, “No, this will work. But it will be easier if you’re already in position.”
I nodded and stepped forward, wrapping my arms around my mate’s neck when he crouched for me and pressing myself against him when he stood. He didn’t stop there. With a powerful leap, he jumped into the air, and as he did, his body changed and expanded under me.
For a moment, I felt Azurus wobble and I wondered if I was too much for him. I caught my breath and gripped him tighter as his back stretched and pulled, and huge, leathery wings unfurled just under where my knees rested. The fine clothes that Azurus wore transformed into glittering blue scales that caught the morning sunlight. The warmth of Azurus’s body seemed to increase as well, as did his delicious, rain-like, alpha scent. After a few wingbeats, Azurus felt stronger under me and radiated confidence.
“Are you secure?” Azurus’s voice surrounded me as we rose higher and higher, though I couldn’t figure out whether I heard it in my head or whether he’d spoken aloud. It might have been both.
I blinked, focusing on his question, and squirmed slightly on his back, adjusting the way I sat as he reached his full, dragon size. “I am,” I called out, hoping he could hear me. His neck had elongated as well and his head was farther from me than before.
I could feel Azurus smile and I could see the sparkle in his dragon-shaped eye as he turned his head to glance back at me. “Then hang on,” he said. “We’re in for a ride.”
I tightened my grip and flattened myself to Azurus’s back as he sped forward through the air, soaring over the meadowbeside the castle. He flew higher and higher, and within seconds I was able to see the entire expanse of the area around the castle, complete with the dancing pavilion where my brothers and I had first come to know the magical world and the bejeweled forest that surrounded it.
I’d never been up so high before, never flown like a bird, or rather, like a dragon. The world seemed so small and harmless from up so high. The sky and the sun were so much more prominent. The few clouds that dotted the sky were so close that I was certain I could reach out and touch them, if I dared to let go of my mate’s neck.
There was so much more to the magical world around the castle than what I’d explored. From the sky, I saw cultivated fields and wild meadows. I saw tiny villages and a few larger towns that I hadn’t known existed. Azurus flew us off to the north, toward a ridge of mountains with snowy caps that stood majestically against the blue sky. He turned and flew us off over a vast ocean that was so clear I could see its depths and some of the larger creatures living in it.
I wasn’t sure how long we soared and wheeled through the sky. It was hard to tell whether Azurus was showing off, giving me a tour of the magical kingdom, or simply searching for Queen Gaia’s throne room. Everything we saw and everywhere he took me was new and exciting and filled with wonder…but it felt as though I was looking at it through a glass or thumbing through illustrations in a book. It felt distant in a way it shouldn’t have.
I should have felt more joy at what I saw and what I was doing. Flying should have had my heart pounding and my body buzzing. I should have been whooping with excitement and laughing with pure delight at the unique experience. I could feel all of those emotions waiting, but it was like I couldn’t reach them, couldn’t touch them.
By the time Azurus spotted a patch of shimmering, pinkish light on a hilltop near the sea, the happiness I knew flying on my dragon’s back should have given me had turned to an even deeper sadness than I’d felt before. I was wrong, all wrong. I would ruin this wonderful thing Azurus was trying to do for me.
Those dark feelings only grew as Azurus descended into the shimmering garden that was Queen Gaia’s throne room. It was difficult to say what it was or how we actually arrived in it. One moment it was as if we were seeing it from afar, and the next Azurus was landing and transforming back into his human form without me noticing our descent and arrival. We were suddenly just there.
“You did well,” Azurus said, panting slightly as he shrugged me off his back then turned to brush me off and make certain I was stable. “Did you enjoy your first flight?”
“I did,” I said, forcing a smile to try to hide how hollow I actually felt.
