Page 38 of Rook
Safe. The word should have been ridiculous—she was hundreds of feet in the air with nothing but her grip on a dragon's scales keeping her from plummeting to her death.
But it wasn't ridiculous at all. It was the truest thing she'd ever felt. Rook would die before he let her fall. She knew it in her bones, felt it in the careful way he banked his turns and kept his flight smooth despite the thermals that tried to buffet them.
The fear melted away, replaced by something that felt like pure electricity in her veins. This was flying, real flying, not the cramped metal tube of an airplane but movement through the air as natural as walking. The wind sang in her ears, carrying her laughter back to mix with the whisper of Rook's wings.
It was joy and life personified.
Every cell in her body felt alive, awakened by the rush of wind and the impossible magic of soaring through open sky. Her heart pounded, not with fear now but with exhilaration so pure it bordered on ecstasy.
This was what freedom felt like, not just the absence of constraints, but the presence of infinite possibility stretching out in every direction.
Rook banked left, his wing tip nearly brushing the canopy of a particularly tall tree, and Sasha whooped with delight. The sound was torn away by the wind, but she felt his answering rumble of pleasure through the connection of their bodies. He was showing off for her, she realized, performing aerial acrobatics that probably weren't strictly necessary for transportation. The thought made her heart swell with affection for this powerful creature who still wanted to impress his mate.
The sky above them was the color of forget-me-nots, scattered with wispy clouds that looked close enough to touch. The alien sun warmed her face, different from Earth's star but no less welcoming. This was her world now, her sky, her home.
A year ago, she'd been guiding tourists through familiar forests, her biggest worry whether someone would try to pet a bear. Now she was flying on the back of a dragon lord above an alien world, immune to his fire and bonded to his soul in ways she was still learning to understand.
Her life had become impossible. It had also become perfect.
Wherever her mate asked her to go, she'd say yes.
And she knew she wouldn't regret it.
