Page 59

"That is hardly the point."

"He did save the world."

"He located the problem."

"Same difference."

Azaren sighed the sigh of a male who had clearly lost an argument before it had even begun. "Very well."

He looked directly at Reggie. "If you shed on my wings..."

Reggie answered with a loud, contented mrrrp and burrowed deeper into my arms. Azaren closed his eyes for a brief moment. "I believe he understood every word."

"Probably."

"I dislike that immensely."

I smiled. "You're secretly happy he's coming."

"Woman."

"Yes?"

"Not another word."

"Yes, dear."

His eyes narrowed. "You are enjoying this entirely too much."

"Maybe just a little."

This time, the smile he gave me reached all the way to his eyes. Strong hands settled at my waist. He lifted me as though I weighed nothing, and I wrapped my legs around his hips, arms around his neck. The position pressed every inch of me against the hard heat of him. His wings unfurled fully with a soft, powerful sound, and then the ground fell away. We rose above the treetops of Screaming Woods.

"I like having you in my arms," he murmured against my ear, nuzzling the side of my neck. His breath was warm. His lips brushed the sensitive skin just below my jaw.

"I like being in your arms," I did, more than I thought possible.

The wind rushed past us, cool and clean, carrying the scent of pine and distant woodsmoke. His tail—something I had only glimpsed in brief flashes before—curled around my calf, the tip stroked lazily along the back of my knee. Careful. Always careful.

"Oh—"

He chuckled low against my throat. The vibration traveled straight through me.

Below us the forest stretched in every direction, gold and scarlet and deep green, the little town of Screaming Woods looked like a toy village at the edge of the trees. Steve the dragon soared past in the distance and gave us a friendly wing-wave. I waved back automatically, then laughed because I was currently wrapped around an enormous infernal hunter several hundred feet above the ground.

"Wow," I whispered. "This is incredible."

Azaren's arms tightened. "You are safe."

"I know." I rested my cheek against his. "That's the incredible part."

He flew lower over the quieter stretches of woods, banking gently so I could see the sparkling surface of the lake, the curling smoke rising from cottage chimneys, the patch of frost that had started everything now completely gone.

"Oh my gosh..." I laughed, the sound whipped away by the wind. "Azaren!"

He glanced over his shoulder, one of his dark eyebrows lifted in question.

"I'm flying!" The words burst out of me before I could stop them. "I'm actually flying!"