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Ignoring Professor Puddlemoan, who continued barking at me, I walked across the floor to join Elliot.
When I got close, Jahrdran pushed away from the wall, said, “See you out there, Markham,” and disappeared through one set of doors.
“Hey.” I came to a stop in front of Elliot.
“Hey.”
Sexy Bad-Dragon.Miki-Leopard had been sleeping all morning,clearly exhausted from her play date the night before, but predictably, she perked up the moment she heard Elliot’s voice.
“I’m sorry about yesterday.” I stared up into his gorgeous, brown eyes and found myself drowning in them. Sexy, indeed. “I was just taken off-guard. My leopard didn’t warn me, I guess because she didn’t know either, so you know, I reacted poorly.”
He just looked at me for a moment. “Finding your mate’s supposed to be a good thing.”
I nodded. “I know. I just have a lot of—” I shrugged. “Anxiety, I guess, around pretty much everything right now.”
“I’m the one who should be apologizing. I shouldn’t have dumped that on you when you’re dealing withso much else.”
“No, Elliot, I’m glad you told me. I-I just want some time to get to know you first. Is that okay?”
“Of course, it is, Mikaela.” He slid his hand around my neck beneath my braid and leaned down as I lifted up.
“Are you serious right now?” Professor Puddlemoan bellowed the words not two inches from our ears.
As if we’d been in sync our entire lives, Elliot and I very slowly turned our heads toward the professor and stared at him. Other than that one slow movement, nothing else changed about our posture. We were still leaning into each other. Elliot’s hand was still cradling my neck and we were still standing so close, I could feel the heat emanatingfrom his body.
Yummy.I assume Miki-Leopard was referring to Elliot andnotPuddlemoan, who stood glaring at us, his face mere inches from our own.
When we just continued to stand there, staring back at him, he finally let out a loud, “Harrumph,” took a couple steps back and snarled, “Well, hurry it up. The obstacle course is waiting.”
He stormed off and Elliot and I grinned at each other.
“He kind of ruined the moment, huh?” Elliot asked.
“If he didn’t, his breath surely did.”
Elliot and I made a face at the same time.
Bad-Breath.
Definitely Bad-Breath.
“Come on,” Elliott said. “Let’s get through this course.” He turned andtossed open a set of the doors, revealing nothing but sky.
“I don’t get it,” I said.
“We’re supposed to figure out a way down so that we can enter that Obstacle Course there.” He pointed down toward the lawns behind the castle and I saw something so terrifying, I wanted to cry.
I shook my head. “No way, Elliot. I’ll never make it through all that.”
He grinned. “Don’t worry about it. Most of us don’t the first ninety-six tries or so. There’s no pressure except what we put on ourselves.”
“What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation?” Puddlemoan shouted.
“No pressure, huh?”
“You just gotta ignore him. The rest of us do. Come on.” Withthat, he pulled me through the doors to stand on a small ledge outside, which was quite frankly terrifying.
“Elliot! What the hell?” I hissed, grabbing hold of the door jamb behind us, but yelped when the doors started to close. I barely got my fingers out of the way in time.
