All three of them were in a conversation that ceased the instant I stepped out of the elevator. Three sets of eyes gleamed at me—sapphire, garnet, and emerald.
“Very nice,” Xandros said.
“More beautiful than a Draka,” Rhodes murmured.
Zyair strode forward to take my hand. “We can fly later.” His face reflected his battle for health, with new hollows in his cheeks and dark circles beneath his eyes. Those eyes sparkled emerald at me, though, and what pulsed through the link revealed his thoughts were healthy and very male.
I ripped my gaze away, casting a glance to the setting sun. Far below us, theStardriftersat docked near the house, so as not to reveal my new home.
“It will be dark later,” I pointed out.
“The lighting is perfect now.” Rhodes’s eyes were positively glowing as he pushed my hair back to bare my shoulder.
Zyair lifted my hand to his lips. Then he turned it over, and kissed the soft scales on the inside of my wrist. Tingles shot through me, and I wavered.
Slightly.
I tilted my head. “You promised me a sunset flight. Sunsets are almost as beautiful as sunrises.”
Xandros groaned. “You are not going to make us fly, after showing up looking like that, are you?”
I grinned at him and ignored my weakening knees as Zyair began to nibble rather than just kiss. “Yes. Yes, I am.”
“Do you not know that forming scales around a raging boner is a tricky and delicate process?” Xandros protested.
My grin widened.
He sighed as Rhodes cast a regretful glance to the light sparking along my scales.
Zyair removed his lips from me and laughed.
By the expressions on their faces as they transformed, the scale coverage issue was indeed difficult. Considering that things expanded accordingly—I watched the process in fascination, and had to force myself not to weaken.
Minutes later, I leaned back against Zyair’s golden head spikes and let the wind blast my hair back from my face.
Yani had been right. The first thing I’d done, was grow my scales over my shoulders. The air up here was bitterly cold, but my covering insulated me from it. Now, only my cheeks stung, and it added to the sense of exhilaration I experienced.
To one side of us, Rhode’s dark dragon flew, and to the other, Xandros’s fiery red one. They paced us as we rose above the clouds, and I gasped.
The setting sun outlined everything with color. I’d painted sunsets before, but nothing I’d ever rendered could properly portray the way each ray lit the individual strands of vapor that trailed off my Drakes’ wings.
It was pure magic.
Xandros started to barrelroll, stitching the vapor into a spiral.
“Show off,” growled Rhodes.
“Hey,” Xandros rumbled. “You might be a better pilot—emphasis onmight—but up here,Irule.”
“A barrelroll does not declare you king of the sky,” Rhodes countered.
“Pretty sure it does,” Xandros said, mockingly. “You used to get dizzy doing them.”
Rhodes rotated a garnet eye my way. “I was a child!”
“You just hide it better now.” To emphasize his point, Xandros did another roll.
Rhodes snorted and clacked his teeth. “You certainly have never lacked for ego. Too bad it does not help you pilot a ship.”
