Defender Dragon (Protection, Inc 2)

“I believe you,” Journey said. “I’m sorry I ran away from you without giving you a chance to explain. Now let’s see you turn into a dragon!”

Though he was obviously still in pain, Lucas’s startled grin made him look unexpectedly lighthearted and boyish. “I think I make things too complicated, sometimes. You make them so simple. Now stand aside. When I become a dragon, you can ride me. Don’t worry about being seen. Once you get on my back, I’ll make myself invisible.”

“Invisible!” she breathed delightedly. “So it’ll be like I’m riding on air?”

“I don’t think so,” Lucas replied. “I believe that even people who are not dragon shifters can see me if they’re actually touching me. In any case, we will soon find out.”

Journey stepped back.

The air around Lucas sparkled. Though the moonlight made everything else look black and white, the sparks around him glittered gold. He stood within a whirlwind of spinning fireflies. The golden cloud expanded, getting denser and denser until Lucas vanished from sight. Then it dispersed, and Journey stood before a dragon.

Like the sparks, the dragon was the only thing in the landscape that had color. It was pure gold, gleaming bright and true as the precious metal. She stared at the dragon, marveling. The membranes of his folded wings were thin as cloth, semi-transparent. His claws were sharp as golden daggers.

But he wasn’t changed beyond all recognition. The man’s wounds had transferred to the dragon, the bloody slashes shocking against his gleaming hide. And his eyes were Lucas’s eyes, translucent amber. Even if she’d seen the dragon without warning or explanation, she felt like she would have known him.

Her entire life, Journey had always longed for magic to be real. As a child, she’d crammed herself into every closet in the house, forever hoping that this time the back would open into Narnia. When she got older, she gave up on magical doorways to other lands and instead pinned her dreams on airplanes that would take her away from Lummox.

And here she was, face to face with a dragon.

A dragon who was also the man who had saved her life.

A man who might be free to love her.

Journey mentally shook herself. She might believe in dragons, but she wasn’t sure she believed in love at first sight. But she thought back to the look in his eyes when he’d first seen her, that bright regard like molten gold. To dancing with Lucas, and how they’d moved together like two bodies with a single heart. To how upset he’d gotten, his smooth charm shattering like glass, when that pair of horrible old men had marched up and tried to poison her mind against him. To Lucas squaring off against six assassins, placing his own body between her and danger.

The dragon spread out his magnificent wings, like sunlight made flesh. Then he reached out a claw and delicately tapped her shoulder.

Journey stepped around to the dragon’s side, her thoughts whirling as fast as the glittering cloud that had surrounded Lucas. Did he really love her? Did she love him?

Did she dare love him?

Journey pushed those thoughts aside. She could worry about that later. Right now, she was going to get to ride a dragon!

The dragon offered her his bent forearm. She stepped on to it, then threw her leg over his back. Journey settled into a hollow behind his neck, big enough for her to fit into but small enough to hold her in place. She stroked his neck. The scales were smooth and soft, more like suede than snakeskin. A few blunt spines at his neck provided something for her to hold on to.

A huff of breath warned her to tighten her grip. Then the dragon leaped into the air. She gasped in surprise and wonder as they rose above the earth. The river became a thread of silver as the dragon soared higher. She could see the entire city spread out below her, a patchwork of buildings, roads, and forests. The castle gleamed in the center of the city, but she could see the towers and walls of other castles, some topping hills, some nestled in the woods.

Above her, the stars glittered like diamonds and the moon gleamed like a great pearl. The air was cold but bracing, with a faint scent of rain and pine. Journey had never felt more awake or alive, close to the stars and one with the night.

She supposed that Lucas must have made himself invisible by now, but he’d been correct that she could still see him. His wings steadily stroked the air. She knew he was in pain and weary, but his flight didn’t show it. But she had the sense that flying made Lucas feel better, not worse. The thrill and joy she felt soaring through the air had to be felt by the dragon too. It didn’t seem like the sort of thing it was possible to get tired of.

The three treasures of the dragon, she recalled Lucas saying. Honor. Gold. And the open sky.

They flew out of the city and into the countryside, then above a dense forest. The dragon began to spiral downward to where a castle’s towers pierced the mass of trees. Down he flew, over the castle walls, and landed light as a feather on a courtyard on the roof.

Journey slid off and stepped back. Golden sparks gathered and spun around the dragon, then dispersed. Lucas was left standing on the courtyard, his sword buckled at his side and his tunic covered in dryi

ng blood.

“Please tell me there’s a doctor here,” Journey said.

“I’m afraid not,” he admitted. “It’s one of the royal family’s winter retreats. This time of year, there’s no one here but guards outside the walls and weekly caretakers. Nobody will even know we’re here.”

“But—”

He took her hand. “I told you, dragons heal quickly. I don’t need anyone but you.”

Journey drew in her breath, hearing a double meaning in his words. “Let’s go inside. It’s cold out here.”