Her Dragon eyes widened. “Flying isn’t likes walkings. Its takes practice.”
“So show me how to do it.”
“Yous might splatters yourself alls overs the swamp.”
“Or not. I’m pretty adept at picking up new abilities. Kinda comes with being a Morph.”
If she’d been in her human form, Lucas was pretty sure the fists would have firmly planted on her hips. But she finally rolled her eyes. “All rights then. Let’s gives its a whirl. But ifs yous face-plant ins the first fives seconds we’res going backs tos Plan A.”
Lucas didn’t reply. Instead, he reached out and touched her forearm. The scales were surprisingly warm, and soft. His fingertips tingled, sending pulses shooting up his arm and straight through to his core.
Dammit.He pulled away from her, took an unsteady breath, and let the new template rush through his body. The impending shift did little to cool him off, so he turned his back when he slipped out of his loose pants. Moments later, he began the change.
He’d morphed to an animal shape many times. Lucas had used them to gain access to areas he ordinarily would not, or to gather intel. There were, however, two tricky things about morphing to a Dragon. Lucas was about one hundred and fifty pounds. He couldn’t go much smaller, and larger was only possible if he wished to use crystal power.
Aside from the size, the next tricky thing was the wings. They were usually reduced and kept hidden below the shoulder blades when in human form. But Lucas had to grow his own. To create the bones, muscles, and tendons from scratch required a ton of resources. Fortunately, Nikolai had provided an abundance of it for Lucas to draw upon.
Aria’s effect on him led to a final complication, as his morphs were near perfect replicas. Which meant that certain things had to reform into something else, and in his current state that was a particularly painful and difficult process. So much so that he considered not doing it—but it would mean maintaining a human appendage on a Dragon’s body, and that was more complicated than a full morph.
He’d have enough to worry about with the flying.
Lucas was certain that some writhing he’d done might be less than decorous, but the result was that the Dragon that crouched at Aria’s feet was a perfect copy. Except much, much smaller.
When he turned to her, her eyes were huge. “Is thats whats I reallys looks like?”
Lucas fought to get his tongue to behave. No animal he’d ever became had spoken. “Yess. Only yous biggers.”
“Anys other times I mights takes exception to that comment. But yous are kinda small.”
Lucas winced. “Yeah. Ifs I tooks crystal dust, I coulds go much bigger. But thats comes with its owns sets of problems.”
She tilted her head. “Manys do gets addicted. Not Dragons.”
“Morphs haves issues, yeah.”
Her gaze scanned him. “Um... So if you’res a perfect copy, ares yous female?”
Lucas was glad that scales didn’t reveal flushed skin. “At the moments, yes.”
Her lips twitched, and Lucas was pretty sure it was an attempt to stifle a grin. He narrowed his Dragon eyes.
“So. Ares yous going to teach mes to fly, or nots?”
19
For Aria’s first few baby flights, Danao had shown her the basics of climbing, banking, and tilting one’s wings to make fine-tuned adjustments.
She’d done it all while holding on to his tail, and she’d never appreciated how the method also provided a navigational challenge. Dragons used their tails to steer. Having Lucas attached to it hampered her maneuverability.
But he needed to learn, and turning a rookie loose in the skies might ensure a rather messy stain upon the damp landscape. So in the interests of his education, she tilted her wings and banked, working hard to keep her turn smooth.
Lucas’s efforts to copy her maneuver at first offered only an anchoring weight before he got his own wings angled properly.
She called encouragement back to him. “That’ss its. Much betters this times.”
Lucas gave her an entirely new appreciation for just how tough the first lessons could be. She’d only been able to transform to her smallest Dragon among the confining trees. She still outweighed Lucas almost tenfold, but his mass on the end of her tail threatened to unbalance her with every turn. Would she have carried him any easier? She wasn’t sure.
The thought had no sooner occurred to her than the weight at the end of her tail was suddenly gone. She backwinged to a halt, searching behind her—
