Origin (Scales 'n' Spells 1)

That was interesting. Cameron hadn’t been at the castle all that long, granted, but he’d seen almost every dragon’s form at this point. A lot of them went for evening flights. All but one—Alric. It was a rotten shame the king wouldn’t even change over. Perhaps hiding his scars under clothes felt more comfortable to him. Cameron wished he could ask, wished he could talk this over with Alric, but they weren’t nearly intimate enough to do so.

The thought was lost as Ravi moved toward the cliff’s edge. This side of the mountain range had very little in the way of trees, the valley below opening up to a wide sweep of grass and a picturesque lake at the bottom. It was the perfect place to fly through, without any trees to trip a person up. Cameron doubled back to put his glasses in the Jeep, just in case. It would be a pain to lose them out here.

“Let me get airborne first,” Ravi instructed, wings spreading. “I’ll shout when it’s safe for you to jump.”

The timing on this would have to be rather close. But Ravi was the expert, having done this before. “Okay.”

With a strong upthrust of wings, Ravi threw himself off the ledge and caught an air current. He let out a whoop as he gained altitude and speed. Cameron lifted a hand to his eyes to watch him go, shielding it from the morning sun.

Ravi came around in a deft circle and then bellowed, “GO!”

Cameron’s adrenaline spiked as he raced for the edge, throwing himself off with a whoop. The air rushed past his ears, eyes watering under the force of it. The exhilaration swept through him like a typhoon. Cameron felt like laughing, it was so freeing being in the air like this.

Strong claws caught him against a firm chest, jerking him to a stop, and then Ravi swept upwards, his wings beating hard. Cameron clutched what he could of Ravi’s arm, laughing like a loon. “Oh my god, that was amazing!”

“Let’s do it again!” Ravi called back, just as delighted.

“Of course we’re doing it again!” What was he, crazy? Cameron could do this all morning. Maybe all day.

Ravi deposited him back on the cliff, then hopped back into the air. Cameron was off as soon as Ravi barked out the first syllable. This time, he did a flip off the cliff, daring to do something he’d never quite managed to land in a pool. But he didn’t have water to slap at him out here.

Ravi was laughing as he caught him. “Six points for acrobatics!”

“Bastard! That was worth an eight at least!”

Ravi kept laughing, the tone a bit evil. He dropped Cameron off again, taking into the skies. Cameron eyed the edge of the cliff, trying to think of a way to improve that flip. He wasn’t a natural athlete or anything, and he’d never done gymnastics before. Just messed around in a pool with Cassie and a diving board. Hmm, what to do?

His head came up, and he focused more intently on Ravi. The dragon had said something, but the wind snatched half of it away. Something about behind? Behind him? Cameron half-turned, but only got that far before an arm banded strongly around his chest, pulling him back from the cliff’s edge. He would have fought it but he recognized the scent of the man holding him.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing,” Alric growled into his ear.

Uh-oh. Cameron got the distinct impression he was in trouble. “Um, skydiving?”

Alric turned him sharply, hitting the belts of the parachute open and pulling it off with no finesse. There was a sharp, angry tension in his jaw as he worked on them. Cameron wasn’t sure why he was so mad but meekly helped get the parachute off.

Holding it up like a dirty dishrag, Alric growled, “Did you think it was safe because you were wearing this?”

“Um, yes?” Cameron thought that was rather obvious.

Alric closed his eyes, breathing deeply and visibly reaching for patience. “Cameron. A parachute only operates at certain altitudes. Anything less than two thousand feet above ground level, it’s not safe to deploy. You’re at two thousand eight hundred while standing on this cliff. You lose altitude the minute you jump off. What altitude do you think you’re at when Ravi catches you?”

He eyed the distance he normally fell, made some guesstimates, and winced. “Yeah, probably not two thousand. And all the equipment was right here, so I thought it was safe.”

Alric sighed again, deeply, more resigned than angry now. “This is where they land. They store their gear here for convenience. They launch from the top of the Alps, not here. The top is eight thousand feet elevation.”

“Oh. Uh, oops? In my defense, I’ve never gone skydiving before.”

“So this was Ravi’s idea?”