Yeah, baby! she taunted Caleb. Wingspan definitely matters.
Oh, you think so? he replied without missing a beat. He gave her a cocky grin. Watch and learn, princess.
Trinity glanced over just in time to see Caleb waving his hand in the air. To her surprise, a piece of raw meat, dripping with blood, seemed to appear out of thin air. He grabbed it in his hands, then tossed it in the direction of her dragon.
The meat flew temptingly through the sky, causing Emmy to stop short, her eyes locking onto the bloody snack. Before Trinity could protest, the dragon was suddenly dive-bombing for her dinner, the race all but forgotten.
No, Emmy! Trinity tried. Go back!
But the dragon either couldn’t hear her or chose not to answer. A moment later she caught up to the meat, snapping it into her massive jaws. Trinity sighed as she watched Caleb and Fred come in for a triumphant landing on the ledge above. First by more than a snout.
“Cheater!” she yelled up at them, shaking her fist. But Caleb only laughed, sliding down his dragon’s wing in a graceful dismount.
“The first rule of the Nether,” he yelled back. “There are no rules in the Nether.”
“Now you tell me,” she muttered as Emmy finished her meal and headed up to join Caleb and Fred on the ledge. Once she’d landed, Trinity attempted a graceful dismount, but only managed to land painfully on her butt.
“Better luck next time,” Caleb teased, holding out his hand. She refused it and stuck out her tongue at him—childish but pretty satisfying all the same.
She looked around, taking in their surroundings; they’d landed on the edge of a rocky cliff face, with an overhang that created a small cave. As she watched, Caleb started gathering a few chunks of wood and branches that the wind had blown their way, creating a makeshift fire pit. When Trin looked at him questioningly, he shrugged. “I don’t know about you, but I’m freezing.”
She nodded, letting out an involuntary shiver as the icy wind pricked at her skin. It was strange—she hadn’t felt the least bit cold when she was riding Emmy. Maybe it was the adrenaline. Or maybe dragons were just hot-blooded. Whatever the case, she hastened to help Caleb with the wood.
When they had finished, she stepped back, regarding the fire pit with critical eyes. “Do you have a match?” she asked.
Caleb laughed. “Are you kidding? Watch and learn!” He turned to Fred. “Light my fire, baby!” he crowed to the mighty beast. Fred cheerfully obliged, puffing out a small fireball in the direction of their woodpile.
Trinity smiled. “I should have known.”
As the fire crackled to life, she settled down on a nearby log, holding out her hands to warm them by the flames. A moment later, Emmy curled up by her side, contentedly snorting a few puffs of smoke from her snout before closing her large blue eyes. Trin reached over and stroked the dragon’s nose, thanking her for the amazing ride.
But next time, no lunch breaks! she scolded her gently. And no letting them win. They’re already too cocky as it is.
She heard a loud snort and glanced up to find Fred looking at Caleb expectantly, her golden eyes shining with eagerness and a large splotch of drool dripping from the corner of her mouth. Caleb rolled his eyes and waved his hands in the air. Once again, a piece of meat appeared, even more bloody than the one Emmy had devoured if that were possible.
“Okay, okay, I guess you deserve this,” he said grudgingly. “I’m still in shock you let the other one go.” The meat dropped to the ground with a bloody plop and Fred dug in with gusto. When she had finished, she looked up, her mouth smeared with blood like some crazy clown lipstick, batting her eyelashes at Caleb, obviously hungry for more. Trinity giggled. She was worse than a Labrador Retriever.
“No more!” Caleb cried, playfully shoving her huge snout away. He turned to Trin. “Lesson one when raising dragons: they’re all complete gluttons. They’d eat until they exploded if you let them.” He gave Fred a scolding look. “Now settle down and go to sleep. You’re not getting anything else from me today.”
Fred hmphed her disapproval but eventually gave up, settling down beside Emmy. A moment later, her eyes drifted closed and she started snoring like a buzz saw. Caleb groaned. “Gotta love dragons,” he said derisively, poking the beast with his boot to get her to quiet down. Then he settled in front of the fire himself, closing his eyes and holding out his hands, as if he were meditating. Trin was about to ask what he was doing, but before she could speak, a bag of marshmallows dropped from the sky, out of thin air, just like the meat. Two large toasting sticks soon followed.
“Wow,” she breathed. “How are you doing that?”
“Ask and the Nether shall provide,” Caleb replied nonchalantly, though Trin caught him wiping a sheen of sweat from his brow. Whatever he’d done, it’d taken a lot out of him. “That’s what makes this place so cool. We can do anything we want to do. Be anyone we want to be. It’s limitless! Well, until you get back to real life that is,” he amended. “Then you have to face the fire.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember how you felt after using your gift on that cop?” Caleb reminded her. When she nodded, he added, “Imagine that but ten times worse. Like a hangover, I guess. And your spark is totally depleted.” He gave her a rueful look. “Sorry, I probably should have warned you in advance.”
She shrugged, taking a marshmallow and stuffing it onto her stick. “Whatever,” she said, waving a hand in dismissal. “This is well worth a little hangover.” She looked out over the valley below, at the sky, flaming red from the setting sun. “To be here. To see this.” She shook her head. “It’s unbelievable really.” She gave him a shy look. “Thank you. It’s just what I needed—a chance to get my mind off everything.”
“So you enjoyed your ride?”
“It was incredible,” she admitted, watching the marshmallow turn a golden brown as she held it over the flames. “I can’t even put it into words. And it wasn’t just the flying either. But the chance to let go like that—to just be able to enjoy the ride.” A warm glow flowed through her. “Let’s just say that’s not something I’ve been able to do much in my life.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” he said with a slow smile. “I’ll never forget my first time. I thought I was going to die. Instead, it’s when I finally started living.”
A silence fell over them, each lost in their own thoughts as the fire crackled between them. She looked over, watching him gazing tenderly at his dragon and she felt a warmth settle in her stomach. He was so different here than he acted in the outside world. As if just being here allowed him to shed his prickly skin and reveal his true self underneath. Here he seemed relaxed, gentle, kind. Almost sweet. So unlike the sullen, sarcastic boy he pretended to be.
He looked up, catching her gaze. His eyebrows raised. She felt her face heat and she turned quickly away. As she stared purposely into the fire, she could feel his eyes rake over her with curious intensity, as if asking a question she wasn’t sure how to answer.
“Wow, this fire is pretty hot,” she stammered, pushing back on her log.
“Yeah,” he answered slowly. “Some might say scorching.”
Scorching. Yes, she felt scorched all right. But not by the fire. She cleared her throat, trying to still her pounding heart as her stomach flip-flopped madly. She tried to tell herself it was because she still hadn’t eaten. But deep down, she knew that wasn’t it at all.