“How did you—”
“I foresee things,” he reminded her. “In some visions, you are a Dragon. A beautiful, black Dragon.”
“I have dreamed of being one,” she admitted. “But it might never happen. I am Dire. A few scales and talons may be as far as I’ll get.”
“You’ve grown talons?” His brows rose.
She planted her fists on her hips. “Are you always this good at prying information from people?”
“I have no idea. I guess so.”
“Am I going to turn into a Dragon?” she demanded.
He tilted his head. “In some futures, yes. In others, no.”
She flung her hands in the air. “You are no help at all.”
“Always in motion—”
“Stop right there. If you are going to quote Yoda to me, I’m leaving.”
His golden brows rose. “Who is Yoda?”
Dani couldn’t help it, she laughed. Her emotional overload pushed it rapidly toward hysteria. Her eyes watered as she gasped for breath and struggled for control.
Ash bent and ran his fingers over the ground. When he rose, he held something in the palm of his hand.
“I think you have answered your own question.”
“What—” she broke off, as she stared at what he offered to her.
It was roughly round, and glittered in the light of the rising moon. She recognized it from her dream.
“A Dragon tear,” he said softly, and dropped it into the palm of her hand. “Goodnight, Dani.”
Rolling the crystallized tear between her fingers, she stared after him as he disappeared down the tunnel.
* * *
Cara had been tired, but pleased, when Tyrez offered her and Bess a ride back to the gate so that they could return to the human realm.
The Watchers slid off him after he landed. Cara held a wrapped bundle beneath one arm.
Ash’s collar? Tyrez eyed it. “Hows was he? Afters yous tooks it off, I mean?”
Cara offered a tired smile. “He seemed a little clearer. Able to speak in complete sentences. Aphostra should be able to make headway with him now.”
Tyrez flicked his wings, unsure how to voice his question.
Cara laid a hand on his foreleg. “He just needs time.” She patted his leg before she turned away. Bess had already passed through. Tyrez watched as the gate fluoresced around Cara’s small figure.
On the short flight back, his mind raced. He landed on one of the uppermost ledges to the Gryphons’ lair, where he’d created a mattress of gathered grasses for himself. Since his exile, he preferred to sleep curled up as a Dragon beneath the stars. The caverns were spacious, but he could never quite forget about the tons of rock above his head. It was much worse since Demeti had dropped a fortress on him. All that stone made for restless dreams.
If he set himself up at the cave on New Britain, he’d have to do some creative wrangling to get air and light throughout the tunnels. A new home. But was he destined to live there alone? Dani was elusive as ever. Ash was so fragile he had no idea how to approach him.
At least the golden Dragon shifter was now free of his collar.
You need to teach him to fly.
