Aria bumped into Cara on her way to Lucas’s room.
The Watcher’s steady gaze assessed her. “Are you on your way to see Lucas?”
Aria nodded. “I tried earlier, but got no answer. I need to talk to him.”
“He needs to rest,” Cara said. “I’ve healed him but for it to take, I put him into a healing sleep.”
“Oh.” And she’d been hollering at him outside the door. First she almost killed him, then she interfered with his healing.
She had a pretty weird way of showing she cared.
“It’s okay.” Cara smiled at her. “Crap quite literally happens. You need to rest too, before we do another session with Nikolai. It would be helpful if you took more crystal dust.”
“All right. When are we trying again?”
“In a few hours. Give you time to recharge. And we have to hit him at the right times. Galeran prefers to do his destructive work in daylight. Nighttime is best for our efforts. Wherever he is, I think the realm is circulating on a similar rhythm to this one.”
“You didn’t lie down for long,” Aria noted.
“I recharge more from meditation than sleep.” Cara gestured down the hall. “If you do not feel like sleeping, perhaps meditation will help you as well. Do you know how?”
Aria nodded. “My mentors taught me. But my mind is too busy today.”
The Watcher led the way down the hall. “Well, try communing with nature. It can work wonders for the soul.”
Which was how Aria soon found herself sitting on the ledge and watching Mai eat something almost as big as she was. At first she thought the shrew was eating a stick, but it wiggled long, twig-like legs until Mai gave it a good bite.
The sun sank below the trees, throwing the ledge into shadow. Soon, they’d try another session with Nikolai. But it wasn’t the big Perditor that currently dominated Aria’s thoughts. It was the Morph shut inside his room.
How could she have forgotten that Lucas was only just learning to fly? She’d nearly killed him. Aria ran over the events in her mind. What had happened? When had things altered from a flying lesson to something so much more?
Maybe it had never been about the flying. She’d been so disappointed when he’d morphed to the female, a sure sign that deep down, she’d wanted something more. And when he altered to male in the sky, her beast had taken control.
She’d wanted him.
But he was a Morph, not a Dragon. He could never hook his teeth in her throat and carry her above the clouds. Did she really want him to? The beast in her certainly did. And that was unfair. She didn’t have those expectations of Nikolai. The body longing for him was the human one.
Aria spotted movement above the trees—four Dragons, arrowing in on their cave.
Three she recognized, but not the fourth—he gleamed purple in the evening light and was almost as big as Tyrez. A Legion Dragon, for sure. Aria retreated to the doorway.
They needed a bigger ledge.
Dani and Ash came in together, the two hurrying their transformation in order to clear the ledge for the bigger Dragons circling above. Tyrez touched down next, his human form looming in the doorway until the last one landed and shifted.
Tyrez gestured to the other Dragon shifter, now a human clad in a purple-scaled bodysuit. He was as gorgeous as Tyrez. Aria scanned the newcomer’s features and immediately concluded they had to be brothers. The features were too similar for him to be anything else.
Tyrez confirmed it with a bass rumble. “This is my brother, Razir. He brings news from the Legion.”
Aria surveyed the newcomer with interest.
The fascination seemed mutual. Razir’s gaze raked her from toes to hair. “I’ve heard much about you, Aria.”
Aria’s brows rose, and she glanced at Tyrez, who refused to meet her eye. Just what kinds of tales had the big Dragon shifter been spreading about her? “Good things only, I trust.”
Razir grinned. It transformed his face. He was a sharding good-looking Dragon. “Oh, yes. Very good things.”
The emphasis on the “very” had her brows dropping into a frown.
