In a Dragon’s Dream by Riley Storm Page 0,47

him, from his foot-long talons to the razor sharp teeth, was a weapon.

That didn’t include the dragonfire he could breathe from his mouth, incinerating his foes in one solid blast.

“Well, here I am,” he said, his scales glittering in the light from the house. They were a bright, bright red. Hot-rod red, he’d been told. It was supposed to make him fast, but Rakell hadn’t been blessed with speed.

Instead, his dragon was big. He was easily an extra five to seven feet longer than most of his kin. Only the biggest of the big, like that brute Blede and some others, were larger than he.

It made him a terrible foe in combat, an advantage he had exploited numerous times.

“It’s beautiful,” Laura said, not waiting for any permission to approach. Her hand shook slightly as she reached out to touch his flank, the smooth hard scales passing by under her fingertips. “Just like grandpa said. Majestic.”

“Thank you,” he said, touched by her clear approval of his non-human side.

“You know,” she added in a slightly mischievous voice. “Did I ever tell you how grandpa wrote about some of the battles that happened in the valley, outside of the mines? Where human and dragon would ride into battle together? He was one of them. A Dragonrider, they called it.”

“There’s no battle to be fought today,” Rakell said, though he had an idea of what she was after.

“No, maybe not. But I would still love to experience what he experienced,” she whispered, though his dragon hearing picked it up clearly.

“Laura,” he said, speaking through his dragon mouth. “Would you like to go flying?”

“Yes,” she said in a rush. “I would love that.”

Rakell carefully kept his mouth closed as he stifled a smile, not wanting to scare her at the sight of all the exposed teeth. Extending a wing toward Laura he gave her a smooth ramp so that she could climb up onto his back.

“Is this safe?” she asked, wedging herself between several of his horns at the base of his neck.

“Of course. I am not going to go too fast, or too high, nor will do I do anything to knock you lose. Just hold on to the horns, squeeze your legs. Just like riding a horse.”

He spread his wings wide.

“But I’ve never ridden a—”

Rakell leapt from the roof out over the sheer descent.

“HOoooooorrrseeeeeeeeeee!” Laura’s voice trailed off into what could only be described as a shrill scream.

Rakell very carefully did not let himself laugh. He flexed his wings and body and they bit into the air, slowing the descent and angling the pair out away from the cliff edge. In the span of several seconds they went from falling, to soaring.

“Oh my god this is amazing!” Laura shrieked happily.

“I’m glad,” he said as the wind lessened and they glided through the air, able to converse. “I’m glad you trust me enough for this.”

Rakell didn’t receive a reply, but he was too busy showing off to really notice. It was only as they banked in toward the roof to land a few minutes later that he realized Laura hadn’t spoken recently.

In fact, she hadn’t spoken in quite some time. She was still there, perched on his back, but her face was closed off, eyes thoughtful.

What changed?

Chapter Twenty-Six

Laura

“Is everything okay?” Rakell asked in his smooth, melodic dragon voice.

“Mmmm hmmm,” she said, extricating herself from the horns and climbing back down the wing. She wobbled slightly when she hit hard ground, but Laura quickly recovered her land legs.

“Did I scare you?” he asked, shuffling around to look at her with one giant yellow dragon eye, the black pupil more oval shaped than circular.

“No, no,” she said, waving her hand at him. “It’s not that.”

“Was it no fun? I…I hope you weren’t disappointed,” he said awkwardly.

“No, it was none of that Rak,” she said, biting her lip. “Can you shift back?”

“Of course.”

She waited, chewing on that same lip while he returned to his human form and hurriedly put his clothes back on. Such was her mental distraction she didn’t even stare at his naked body.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, approaching swiftly but slowing to a halt, sensing she didn’t want him in her personal space.

“You said that you’re grateful I trust you,” she told him.

“I am,” he repeated. “I thought that was a good thing.”

“I do trust you,” she said. “There’s no reason I should have. You showed up at the hospital, some random, saying you were sent there to make things right. Then you offered to