“Cans I turns arounds now?” she asked.
“Gives me a minute.”
His voice—she turned to see the last seconds of his transformation. She expected to see a golden Dragon. Instead, a red one stood before her.
Female, just like her.
Much smaller than her, but itwasher. Why had he morphed to her Dragon form, when he also had access to Ash’s?
“I thoughts—” she cut herself off, but her disappointment must have shown in her face.
Lucas stretched his wings. “I knows this one betters,” he hedged.
“Oh.” Aria swallowed. It made sense. And why did it matter, anyway? She wanted a flying buddy, and now she had one.
Before she could ponder any further, a red blur shot over her head. Lucas seemed to have the takeoff thing down just fine—and his smaller size meant he was much more agile.
He? He was a she, at the moment.
The disconnect that thought caused slowed her reflexes. Her takeoff was unusually clumsy as a result and it took her a moment to join him as he hovered above the trees.
Aria stifled her pique. Flying could get him killed, if he wasn’t careful. She needed to teach him how to do it safely, starting with praise where it was deserved. “Good takeoff.”
His jaws opened, and he panted like a dog, the Dragon equivalent of a laugh.
“Okay, now follow me,” she instructed, and took him up above the clouds.
The island was only sparsely inhabited in the heavily forested mountains, but this was a virgin realm. In daylight it paid to use the clouds as cover. As she led him above them, he gasped.
The sunlight lit everything in silver and gold, tracing the lazy swirls of vapor below them. Aria experienced a brief pang of pity for those who would never see such things without a mechanical means to get them there.
Lucas banked, passed beneath her, and popped unsteadily out the other side.
“Okays,” she said. “Follows mys lead. Copys whats I do.”
She led the way with a slow series of banks. He followed her. His keen powers of observation had him perfecting the moves in a remarkably short time, and soon she got more elaborate, staging slow, graceful spirals. She dipped her wingtips into the clouds and created trails of vapor in her wake.
Then he startednotfollowing. He moved up alongside her and began to mirror her moves. It became a game, she’d try to fool him into doing one thing, while she did another. But he read her too well, ducking and diving in perfect sync with her, far more graceful than he had a right to be.
It was a dance, and something deep inside her responded. She forgot that he was anything other than a Dragon, or even that he was a copy of herself.
He was Lucas. And he washers.
Her heart pulsed within her chest. She swooped into the clouds, and out again, playing with the swirling vapor like it was water. Lucas sketched a graceful arc around her. The sunlight gleamed gold off his wings.
Not just his wings. Off his body.
Her breath caught. At some point in the flight, he’d shifted form. She no longer flew with a smaller version of herself. What chased her was a smaller version of Ash. Long and sleek, graceful yet powerful.
And male.
Instinct grabbed hold. Her heart raced as Aria closed her wings, and dove.
Lucas came with her. She sensed him, intent, driven, right on her tail. Caught up in the pursuit.
Yes.
It was the Dragon mating game, the chase, before the catch. Aria’s thoughts spun away as her beast took over. She folded her wings tighter, increasing her speed. The clouds whizzed by. When she broke out beneath them, she glanced over her shoulder, eagerly anticipating the pursuit.
