by Chant, Zoe
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “Just one moment. I contacted colleagues of mine about that earthquake.”
Autumn’s look of disappointment immediately turned into one of concern. “Are we still in danger?”
“I don’t think so,” he said as he drew his phone from his pocket.
On our way. Be careful. Jared, the text said simply.
Damon sighed at the griffin’s answer. He didn’t relish the thought of meeting the water dragon again so soon, but with his mate in danger, he’d be happy for any support.
“No danger,” he said to reassure Autumn. “But they caught the next plane to Reykjavik. One of them’s a specialist for water, the other specialized in wind and weather.”
Autumn gave him an amused look. “I didn’t know mining needed so many different specialists. Now all you’re missing for this country is a fire expert.”
Damon froze for a heartbeat, thinking of the fire dragon they currently had locked up in Sky Home. Had their prisoner known of this attack?
Maybe he should’ve told the others to interrogate the fire dragon again and find a way to make him speak...
Locking him away was all very good, but if there were other fire dragons on the loose, maybe now was the time to stop being honorable.
The chimera was old and powerful, after all. And Damon knew all the rumors of his hidden secrets and powers. If there was one creature still in this world that knew how to creature a truth potion, it was the chimera.
Humans had managed to do it, from what he’d heard. And while their medicines and drugs wouldn’t work on a dragon shifter, Damon had no doubt that the chimera could find a way to use that knowledge and alter it for a dragon...
“Hey. You okay?” Autumn waved a hand in front of his face, biting her lip in an unsuccessful attempt to hold back her laughter.
“Sorry,” he said chagrined. “See, I didn’t lie when I told you that I’m boring. Enough talk of rocks and I get completely carried away.”
With a grin, Autumn tugged on his hand, then pointed at the green valley spreading before them. “In that case, tell me about this place.”
Damon pushed his phone back into his pocket. While they were flying across the ocean, there would be no communication anyway. He’d get at least a few more hours without having to worry about the council and their next plan of action.
“Now, if I were a tour guide, I’d tell you that this is the place of the oldest parliament in the world,” he began.
Autumn beamed. “I read all about that on the plane.”
“I expected that.” He winked at her. “Which is why I’m going to suggest that we’ll take a walk through it, and I’m going to tell you all about the fascinating rock formations to our left instead...”
Autumn gave the dark stones a skeptical look. “And that’s going to be interesting?”
Damon grinned, reaching out to the rock below with his senses, which in return offered up fascinating secrets of men in armor who had once gathered there centuries ago. “Well, if you take a look to the mountain to our right, it once witnessed a secret rendezvous exactly 612 years ago.”
Damon nudged the rock with his mind to see the old love story unfurl. Flashes of a bearded man reaching out for the hand of a woman appeared before his mind’s eye.
“She was supposed to marry another, you see,” he began, but then fell silent when he noticed that Autumn had stopped paying attention.
Her head was tilted up at the sky, and she had turned pale.
“What is that?” she asked, her voice trembling. “It looks like a... a dragon.”
Even before Autumn had stopped speaking, a terrible awareness rushed through Damon’s senses.
Fire. Menace. Destruction.
The fire dragon’s aura made the air around him thrum. The dragon within him rose up immediately in protective anger.
His mate was in danger. That was the only thing his dragon knew, and the only thing it cared about now.
“Duck,” Damon shouted, grabbing hold of Autumn’s hand to hastily pull her down behind a large rock.
There, he saw to his relief a narrow path leading down. It was shielded by the overhanging rock. It would not be enough to protect them from an angry fire dragon, but it might give them precious moments to get as far away as possible...
“What’s going on?” Autumn’s voice was trembling in terror. “Damon, what’s going on here?”
“Run! There’s no time for explanations!” His heart was pounding in his chest as he tried to focus his dragon’s senses to figure out where exactly the fire dragon was.
Had they managed to fool him?
The dragon was too close now. All Damon could feel was the alarming thrum of danger that pulsed through his blood.
He’s close—way too close.
Before them, the narrow path turned a corner. When they rushed around it, Damon saw to his dismay that the overhanging rock pulled back, no longer shielding them from view.
And a second later, with no warning at all, a lance of fire fell from the sky.
Dragon fire, scorching hot, enveloped the narrow gorge. It burned the lichen that clung to the rock.
Autumn cried out in utter terror when the flames surrounded them, threatening to devour them.
Just in time, Damon threw himself atop her, covering her with his own body. In his human form, his powers weren’t as strong. Still, it was enough to throw up a small shield, channeling his power over rock and metal to erect an invisible barrier around them that was as strong as diamond.
It deflected the dragon fire, which continued to sizzle down through the gorge. Only a circular spot around Damon was spared by its destructive force.
As soon as the fire was gone, he pushed himself to his feet again, grabbing hold of Autumn’s wrist. He could feel her terror—and her fear only increased his own dragon’s protective anger.
They couldn’t escape. Not from this enemy.
But this gorge was too narrow to shift...
“Run,” he gasped, “run!”
Before them, he could see the rock pull back, the narrow path opening up into another small valley.
If they could make it there...
Then, above, he heard a roar. Autumn cried out again when a large shadow swept past them. When Damon looked up, he saw the red-scaled dragon finishing his turn, his wings lifting as he prepared to dive straight at them again.
Autumn was panting. Her terrified heart was beating in time with his own as Damon counted the seconds it would take the fire dragon to come into range again.
Any second now—any second...
They spilled out of the gorge, nearly tumbling down into the small valley before them. Damon turned his head—and there, so close that Damon could make out the rage gleaming in its black eyes, the fire dragon opened its maw.
Another shower of fire streamed towards them. Autumn clutched at his arm in overwhelmed terror.
And then Damon’s dragon broke free.
In the heartbeat before the flames reached them, he surrendered to his dragon’s protective anger. Power streamed into him. Its energy sizzled through him, filling him with the strength of his element: the steadfastness of rock, the hardness of metal, the brilliance of diamond.
A split second later, he stood above Autumn, spreading his wings as he roared his own challenge at the enemy dragon. With his blood thrumming with his dragon’s powers, he pulled on the earth’s strength to shield him. This time, the shield that protected them was larger, effortlessly diverting the burning dragon fire.
He dug his claws deep into the earth, feeding on the strength of soil and rock. His shield steadily grew in strength despite the fire dragon’s continued attack—and then the dragon swept past them, roaring a mocking goodbye as he made straight for the clouds.
“Holy shit,” Autumn said out loud, then clasped her hand over her mouth when he turned his head to look at her.
Her eyes were very wide, and even as he looked at her with worry, torn between
the need to make sure that she was okay and his dragon’s desire to pursue the fleeing fire dragon, her knees gave in.
“This isn’t real. This can’t be real,” she muttered, still staring straight at him.
This wasn’t how I wanted to tell you, Damon thought in misery.
He lowered his head deeply in apology, his dragon’s senses still intertwined with the power of the earth, listening for any sign of a further fire dragon ambush.
A moment later, when the rock murmured a calming song of quietness and reassurance in his mind, he shifted back with a deep breath.
“Holy—” Autumn gasped again, then fell silent, her mouth still open.
“I’m sorry,” Damon said.
Slowly, he moved closer, then went to his knees in front of her. He saw her tremble when he carefully reached out with one hand, but she didn’t flinch back when he touched her shoulder.
“You’re a dragon,” she said. “You’re really a dragon!”
All Damon could do was nod in misery.
Chapter Seven: Autumn
Her first thought had been that she’d gone insane.
Her second thought was that maybe there’d been something weird in the hot chocolate the nice grandma from the bus had offered her.
Or perhaps the people who’d warned her about elves had managed to leave out dragons, and this was all real.
“This is stupid,” she said out loud. “Dragons aren’t real.”
“Umm,” Damon said. He gave her a chagrined look. “Actually—”
“No,” Autumn said firmly. “I don’t want to hear it. Everyone knows dragons aren’t real. Neither are elves, actually. This is all just some sort of elaborate joke. It’s some sort of conspiracy to fool unsuspecting tourists. Admit it.”
“I’m a dragon, Autumn,” Damon said. “Sorry.”
He didn’t look particularly sorry.
Even now she could see the way he’d looked moments ago. The entire experience had been terrifying—but still, there’d been something glorious and graceful about the large creature that had spread his wings over her to protect her.
While fire had rained down all around them, his wings had shielded her. The dragon’s body had been covered in gleaming scales that ranged from black to a glossy brown—the colors of rock and expensive wood. He’d had large wings and a long, graceful tail, too. She’d even seen his claws, which had dug deep into the earth close to her.
But it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real!
“No,” she said again, determined. “I’m not stupid. I might not travel a lot, like certain other people, but everyone knows that dragons aren’t real.”
Inexplicably, she felt tears rise up in her eyes. Angrily, she blinked them away. This was supposed to be the best week of her life, and instead she’d almost died several times, had felt the earth give way beneath her, and had been nearly burned to death.
Well, this would stop now. She’d go back to her hotel, take some aspirin against the headache building behind her eyes, and when she woke up in the morning, all of this would turn out to be a dream. A really stupid, disappointing dream, where she got a date with a hot guy, only for her subconscious to add in earthquakes and dragon attacks.
She took a deep breath, pushing herself up onto her feet despite the fact that her knees were still trembling.
She made herself ignore the worried look in Damon’s eyes. She was just going to go back to the trip schedule she’d worked so hard on, and everything would go back to being the safe, touristy experience she’d been looking forward to.
And then Damon’s hand shot out. He grabbed her wrist, his neck arching as he searched the sky.
Involuntarily, Autumn found her eyes following his. Her heart gave a painful thump when she saw three tiny, black specks in the distance.
Birds, she told herself.
Or maybe helicopters. People did helicopter tours here. She’d looked at the websites herself, only to realize that those went way over her budget.
A second later, Damon jumped up onto his feet, grabbing hold of both of her hands. He was peering into her eyes with an intensity that made her tremble, her stomach contracting at the way his eyes had taken on that strange, metallic glow again.
“Autumn, do you trust me?” he asked urgently.
She felt like she was sinking into his eyes, dimly reliving that strange experience of drifting through caverns, past veins of metal far underground, guided only by his deep, comforting voice.
“Do you trust me?” he asked again, his voice echoing with a power she didn’t quite understand.
But she understood the urgency in his voice. He was afraid. And there was only one thing that could make a man like Damon afraid...
When she looked up, she saw that the three specks were rapidly growing in size. They didn’t look like helicopters, or like anything else she’d ever seen.
No, that was wrong. She knew exactly what she was looking at. She’d seen it before, after all.
There were three dragons in the sky, rapidly approaching.
Her heart skipped a beat as her stomach contracted with instinctive fear.
None of this made sense. She still wanted to close her eyes and pretend that all of this was simply a nightmare.
But from somewhere, she could feel waves of concern and urgency come flooding through her. It wasn’t her own terror, not quite.
It was the fear of someone else. Someone who was concerned for her...
She didn’t question how she knew. With the three dragons quickly coming closer, she made her decision right then and there.
Her heart pounding, she clenched her fingers around his, meeting his gaze.
“I trust you, Damon.”
Even as she watched, the metallic gleam in his eyes intensified until it seemed like his eyes had turned to liquid gold.
“I can outrace them,” he said, his shoulders tense. “There’s no time left. Whatever happens, don’t be afraid—just hold on tight. Trust me, Autumn. No matter what—trust me.”
Silently, she nodded, unable to speak. There was a strange ball of emotion glowing in her chest— but they weren’t all her emotions.
Some of them were Damon’s, even though she had no idea how that could be. But she knew that she felt what he felt, and the alarm that made this strange connection between them throb with urgency wasn’t something she could ignore.
Damon let go of her hands. He took a few steps backward.
And then, just like that, his outline began to shimmer. A heartbeat later, Damon was gone.
In his place stood the large dragon, glossy scales shimmering in all the many hues of rock and metal.
Damon.
He bent his neck, kneeling down. He spread out his wing in invitation for her.
Her heart racing, Autumn grabbed hold of it with trembling fingers. She pulled herself up onto his back by it—which turned out easier than it had looked. There were ridges that ran across his wings, and once she figured out what to do, it was a little like pulling herself up a ladder.
“I still don’t believe dragons are real,” she said, her voice trembling a little as she settled into place on his back.
Through the silence, she felt a wave of amusement wash over her—almost as if Damon was laughing in her mind.
Then the urgency flooded back in. She felt his muscles tense beneath her as he gathered himself. She remembered what he’d said—to hold on tightly—and clenched her hands around the ridges closest to her.
And then he beat his wings, and they lifted off the ground.
A surprised gasp escaped her. She pressed herself against his neck, her arms going around it when she caught a glimpse of the ground suddenly terrifyingly far below.
This wasn’t a plane—on the plane, she’d felt safe. It had been almost like sitting on a bus, and there had been seat belts.
Here, if she let go, she’d slip and fall, and keep falling until she hit the ground below...
You’re safe, something seemed to wh
isper in her mind.
Regardless, she kept clutching at him tightly, her eyes closed as she trembled. She only dared to open them again when nothing terrifying had happened for a minute or two.
She was just in time to see a cloud rapidly coming closer.
Moments later, they were enveloped by it. Everything around her was white. She couldn't even make out her own legs and arms.
She blinked against the wisps of whiteness, then tentatively stuck out her tongue to see what a cloud tasted like.
Disappointingly enough, it mostly tasted of cold air and wind. Again she felt a sensation like soft laughter in the back of her mind.
For long minutes, they continued like this. Damon was using the clouds to hide from the fire dragons, she realized, tightening her arms around him again as she imagined the others closing up from behind.
Also, if the fire dragons couldn’t see them in here, that meant that they wouldn’t be able to see the dragons attack until it was too late...
But Damon had been certain that he’d be able to outrun them, and what did she know of dragons? She’d just have to trust him.
And all alone on a dragon’s back up in the sky, it wasn’t like she had any other options.
When they finally rose above the clouds fifteen minutes later, she’d begun to relax. As terrifying as it had been at first to imagine herself slipping, it turned out that riding on a dragon was remarkably comfortable.
Perhaps it was just that Damon took care not to endanger her, but so far, after her initial terror, she hadn’t once been afraid of losing her grip.
And it was strangely warm on his back, too. When she’d sat on the plane, she’d been able to watch ice form on the outside of her window—but Damon’s body was hot beneath her, and the air around her was pleasantly warm, so much so that she would have stripped out of her coat, if she’d dared.
“Dragons,” she murmured, feeling the wind tear the words from her lips.
It was ridiculous. She knew dragons weren’t real.
But this time, when she felt Damon’s amusement wash through her, she found herself laughing out loud together with him.