Page 15 of The Baby Dragon Cafe
He touched her hand, then turned to go. As she watched him leave, her skin tingled, feeling scorched from the contact. She felt the feather-light touch all throughout her body, and she willed him to turn around, to stay.
Even so, he left.
Chapter 5
Aiden walked out of the cafe and into the cool night. Even though it was spring now, the evenings were still chilly. A shiver ran down his spine, and he told himself it was from the weather and not the guilt needling his insides.
He tipped his head back and sighed. His eyes took in the sparkling stars studded into the velvety night. The shine of them made him think of the twinkle in Saphira’s eyes, how she’d lit up when she opened the door to him. Well, he was sure she was only happy to see Sparky, not him, but even if her sunlight wasn’t directed at him, he could still feel the warmth of its rays.
Which only made him feel all the more guilty to think of how the light had dimmed from her face when he said he was leaving. The memory almost made him turn around now, but he kept moving forward, walking down Main Street, then toward the hills where the little cottage he called home was.
The less he was involved, the better. For one thing, Aiden would only be a hindrance because Sparky didn’t even like him. The last thing he needed was for Saphira to see howhopeless—how clueless—he was with his own baby dragon, while she was such a natural.
As for the rider–dragon bond: he knew Saphira was right. It was important. But he also knew he couldn’t bond with Sparky because of what it would mean. Aiden fiddled with the signet ring on his left hand. It had a dark basalt stone in the center, alongside the Sterling family crest.
If Aiden bonded with Sparky, that would mean that once Sparky matured, Aiden would have to ride him. Bonded dragons grew depressed if their riders neglected them, especially young dragons. Dragons whose riders had passed away usually bonded with another family member, while elder dragons were content to retire.
A young dragon like Sparky would need his rider. While dragon riding was a beautiful and harmonious practice, some families did not stop with simply riding—they raced, which had long been an outlawed sport due to the danger it posed for both the dragons and their riders.
Unfortunately, the Sterlings were the forerunners of dragon racing. It was an open secret in the valley that every Sterling received their own dragon egg at age twenty-one, trained them, then got into racing. Aiden had never wanted to, which was why he’d never received a dragon to begin with, but his brother had.
Danny had been a champion racer—a true credit to the Sterling name.
It was something Aiden never understood—how could Danny participate in something so dangerous? Just for fun?
“It isn’t dangerous if you know how to fly,” Danny would always respond whenever Aiden protested.
He’d say it with his signature look: a gleam in his dark eyes, his messy hair perpetually askew from the wind, a smirk tilting his lips. Danny had perfected the devil-may-care attitude.
He was always so full of life, and he especially loved the thrill of dragon racing, something Aiden never could relate to, nor approve of.
Danny always liked danger, and it was the end of him. Danny did not die while racing, but while on a mission rescuing a nest of chimeras from a forest fire.
But Aiden wasn’t as brave as Danny—he knew that if he bonded with Sparky, he would be pressured into joining the races that were his family’s pride and joy, and Aiden wouldn’t have the strength to refuse. Not with Danny gone. Someone needed to defend the good Sterling name.
His younger sister was too young to have a dragon of her own at the moment, but Aiden would do whatever it took to make sure Ginny never got involved with racing, either.
Which left Aiden.
When Danny died and Aiden found out that Danny had left Aiden a dragon egg from his own dragon, a great basalta named Cinder, who had passed away with Danny, Aiden had no intentions of ever hatching that egg. He also had no intentions of giving the baby dragon up, for it was all he had left of his brother, after all. Aiden was content with doing nothing—he wasn’t particularly focused on the dragon egg and its future, anyway, not when his only brother and best friend was dead.
Aiden was too sad to do anything, and it didn’t matter. Dragon eggs were perfectly fine if they weren’t hatched right away, but they did need to be taken care of so the egg wasn’tdamaged, a task he had left up to his parents and their extensive team of dragon caretakers.
Drakkon families always had numerous dragon eggs in their stores, so each family member could have a dragon of their own when they came of age. Genevieve would soon take one of her choosing to hatch when she turned twenty-one in two years. Aiden never chose one, and had no intention of doing so; his family had often tried to persuade him to change his mind, but he never did—not even when Danny had left one specifically for him over two years ago.
Then, six months ago, Aiden received a call to inform him that his dragon egg had hatched, and it was time to decide. He had been upset, but his parents told him quite gently that the egg had hatched on its own, something which apparently happened from time to time. Aiden didn’t know enough about dragon lore to dispute their claim, but he was suspicious they had meddled a little in the matter (as overbearing parents did) in order to force him to make a decision.
He either had to give the baby to the family, or train it himself.
Well, he sure as hell wasn’t going to give the dragon up, so he surprised them all by choosing to raise the dragon himself—which had been his own personal hell these past few months.
Until he met Saphira—a beacon of light in the darkness. With Saphira in his life, Aiden felt everything would work out.
As long as he kept focused on what was important: Sparky. With Saphira training him, Sparky would be alright and, more importantly, he would besafe. Away from the Sterlings, away from racing. It was why Aiden needed to stay out of it—it was best for all of them.
Aiden needed Sparky to be alright, even if he didn’t particularly love the little monster. It was why he hadn’t given Sparky up to any number of his cousins or family members—Sparky was all Aiden had left of Danny. Sparky was Danny’s dragon Cinder’s egg, and Danny loved Cinder deeply; the pair had one of the deepest rider–dragon bonds that Aiden had ever seen.
Aiden would not let the baby dragon get caught up in all the danger of racing.
