Smoked - Mari Mancusi Page 0,48
was hard to believe how fast the two dragons had grown in the last five months. When Emmy had been their age, she’d only been the size of a large dog. Zoe and Zavier were probably double that size now—growing strong and sleek and tall.
At first, the rapid growth had worried him a bit; according to Dracken research, a quick growth spurt could be a sign of hybridity. At the same time, some subspecies of dragons were just quicker to mature than others, so it could have just been something they’d inherited from their unknown father.
Besides, he thought as he secured the saddle to Zavier, if they really were hybrids, they’d be showing other signs by now. Instead, the two dragons were gentle, friendly, with none of the food aggression or antisocial behavior one would expect from hybrids, and they took orders without question. Zoe was a lover, not a fighter, always doting on her brother and making sure he had everything he needed. And Zavier, while fiercely protective of his sister, was a total marshmallow under his tough, ebony scales. In fact, when Caleb had gone and killed a mouse in front of him the other day, the dragon had been so horrified that Caleb had been forced to laughingly apologize for his unprovoked violence against rodents. He was pretty sure if Zavier ever found out where meat truly came from, he might end up becoming the first dragon vegetarian.
Caleb tugged on the saddle, making sure it was secure. Then he turned to Scarlet, who was struggling to climb aboard Zoe without much luck, her feet slipping on the dragon’s sleek scales.
“Watch and learn, young grasshopper,” he teased, then turned back to Zavier, requesting the dragon lower his wing as they’d practiced. The beast obliged, and Caleb scrambled up the wing on all fours, then swung his leg over to straddle the dragon’s back, settling down into the saddle between Zavier’s neck and wings. As he shifted in his seat to find the sweet spot, he couldn’t help a small smile. God, it felt good to be on the back of a dragon again. He glanced over at Scarlet, catching her admiring eyes. He felt his face heat.
“I know, I know. It’s hard to even watch such supreme dragon mastery, isn’t it?”
She rolled her eyes. “Actually, it’s your supreme humility that gets me every time.”
Caleb laughed, watching her as she followed his lead and successfully mounted her own dragon. The two of them had fallen into a comfortable pattern over the last five months, and the awkwardness had all but faded between them. In fact, at times, it almost felt as if they had their own little secret family, and he found himself looking forward to waking up in the morning to sneak out of the terminal to meet her. They’d go hunting at the crack of dawn, before the others awoke, and return to the maintenance shack to deliver breakfast to their hungry brood. Then they’d head back to the terminal to try to sneak in midmorning naps before tackling the daily Team Dragon chores. Sometimes at night, they’d sneak out again while the others worked to put together the evening Emmy broadcast, to allow the dragons a supervised fly in a large crater they’d found about a mile away from the airfield, far from any prying eyes.
“How was that, oh great Dragon Master?” Scarlet teased.
He smiled. “Like you were born to be a guardian.”
A flush of pride colored her cheeks, and it made him happy to see it. When they’d first started this adventure, she’d been so nervous and stressed, always worried she wasn’t doing something right, that they’d be discovered by the others—or worse, by the government. But as the dragons had grown, so had her confidence, and the haunted look had lifted from her eyes. In fact, these days, she was more likely to be laughing and smiling at something Zoe did or said than crying in a corner.
And she wasn’t the only one. Caleb had to admit good clean living had done wonders for his own physical and mental health. Being outside had brought the color back to his skin, and while he might never be quite as buff as his brother, he’d filled out nicely from all the physical labor dragon guardianship entailed. More importantly, he could barely remember the last time he felt the pull of the Nether. Real life was too interesting these days, he supposed.
He looked down at Zavier. Are