Page 182 of Night's Fall
Two steps from the top, he hurled me bodily through the door.
My world burst in pearlescent pink stars.
AndIlanded on her clawed feet.
Her long neck turned just in time to see the ferocious black dragon explode from the stairwell, immediately taking flight.
He made a half circle and banked, coming back in.
Seeing him right there, with the excess of energy bounding through her, she hunched, then took to the skies.
He glided to her side.
He soared.
She rolled, spun and dipped.
When she dipped, he zoomed under her, his wingspan wide, his body powerful, guiding her to the airspace above the courses of crafts zipping around the city.
Mindlessly, finally free, she gloried in the movement, the wind whispering through the silken strands of her long, pearlescent pink fur, caressing the sheer coral and gold feathers that burst from the back of her head in the place of horns or spikes, the night breeze rustling through the opalescent feathers of her wings.
She played with the wind.
She played with him.
Swooping and gliding and climbing and bombing.
He kept her safe, away from tall buildings, out of the path of crafts.
She made flight a dance.
He made it a sentry.
She teased him, gliding below him, her wingspan half of his, she reached, twining their long necks, her silken fur tangling with his fearsome spikes.
At the touch, his dragon roared.
She detached on a delighted whinny and ascended toward the quarter moon.
He followed her.
Flight was a frolic.Ascamper.Aromp.
And he kept her safe through it, until he sensed her energy waning.
And then he guided her home.
They landed, and with a pretty sneeze, she became me again.
He shook his body and becameAleksei.
We looked at each other.
And thenIwas over his shoulder.
Down the steps, with the doors whooshing closed behind us.
Up the steps, with the door to our bedroom remaining open.
