The sword very nearly slips from my fingers when my wings begin pumping furiously.Even flapping fast, I can’t seem to get the angles right, and I’m plummeting so fast that I’m about to collide with the snow-covered earth.
Where I’ll crumple into a pile of Liz goo.
That’s a twist I didn’t see coming.So much for leverage.
I close my eyes, but a split second before I hit, the same unyielding red claws clamp my torso and bank to the right and upward.Azar slams into the side of a building in the process, shearing off chunks of the roof as we shoot back upward.
You’re the worst flier I’ve ever seen.
Seeing as I’ve been doing it for eleven seconds.I can’t seem to breathe, so answering him telepathically is my only option.
You weren’t oriented the right direction.Your wings were pushing you down.
I finally draw in a breath, and then I cough until I can make some kind of sound.“I wonder how much your first flight sucked, you stupid red bully.”My sword’s still dangling from my hand, my fingers clenched so tightly around the hilt that I’m losing circulation in the hand.“I need to resheathe my sword.”
The one you were going to use to cut off my foot?
“Not your foot—just a toe.You’d barely have noticed.”
The massive, toxic red dragon who seems to hate me starts to laugh.I can tell, because he’s shaking and heat’s puffing around us both as he snorts.
I shiver hard when the cold air rushes back.
Are you cold?
“Is there snow on the ground, big red bully?”
Are you implying that was a stupid question for me to ask?I know only what I’ve researched about humans, and you’re the first winged one I’ve ever seen.
“Me too,” I say.“I’m also the first winged one I’ve ever seen.”
Azar blows a column of fire straight out into the air ahead of us.This entire place is quite cold.
“Totally agree,” I say.“It’s almost offensive how cold it is.”
He veers hard to the right until we reach the ocean, and then he follows the line of the water until mountains spring up to the left.He makes a hard turn, and lands on the top of the closest mountain, dropping me from a few feet.
I drop my sword, roll twice, wrenching my shoulder on a very hard rock, and finally stop without breaking anything.I think.If I’m limping a bit when I walk back toward my sword, well, anyone else would too.
You’re fragile.You should have used your wings to balance when you landed.
“I’ve had wings for less than half an hour,” I say.“When you saw me fly to Selfoss, that was my first-ever flight.”
Selfoss.His beautiful scarlet head tilts, smoke streaming from his nostrils.Iceland?
I can’t help my smile.He may be a bully, but he’s my gorgeous, brilliant bully who studied up on Earth before coming.Before I swiss-cheesed his memory, he was doing pretty well with human stuff.“Yes, we’re in Iceland.That’s why it’s so cold.”
Why are we in Iceland?We were going to Houston.
I sigh.“You know, you could get this information from people you actually know and trust if you just head back to the volcano.”I frown.“Don’t you think that would be a better use of both our time?I doubt you’ll believe anything I tell you anyway.”
We were bonded.
I nod.
Why?
“Are you even going to believe me?”I pick up my sword and clean it on my weird white tunic.“And for the record, you never told me why you bonded me in the first place.You did it without any explanation—but I think it was a mistake.You didn’t knowhowto bond a human, and you didn’t know youcouldin your earth-dragon form.”
