by Amelia Jade
Hopefully somewhere safer than the last time.
She smiled, then frowned as Zeke shifted slightly, exposing his back to her. Reaching forward, she tugged his ripped shirt slightly to the side, inspecting the wound on his back she knew affected his wing when he was in dragon form. The long, deep gash was mostly healed by then, though it had left an ugly welt that didn’t look very comfortable either.
Zeke had made it seem like he would be perfectly fine in the morning, but she knew that something like that would hinder him for a while yet.
Just how badly was he hurt? And why didn’t he say anything?
She couldn’t see his stomach to inspect that opening, but she hoped it was healing the same, if not faster. That wasn’t nearly as pressing though. The fact that his wing had been rendered useless was the big worry. Without it they couldn’t fly away. They were stuck on the ground in the forest.
Amber stood, slowly stretching her body, trying to ignore the shrieks it made as she moved. Her shoulder had loosened up during their flight yesterday, but had stiffened up again overnight. She moved it gingerly, testing it out. As far as she could feel, she was just bruised and sore all over, without any major injuries. Considering how far they’d dropped out of the air, Amber considered that fact nothing short of miraculous.
“You’re up.”
She started as Zeke spoke, his eyes opening, the brown orbs focusing on her almost immediately.
“Yes,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
He sat up, and she saw him do his best to hide a grimace from her. “Doing just fine,” he lied.
“Seriously,” she pressed. “I don’t need the macho man angle.”
Zeke gave her the lopsided grin that always sent her heart fluttering. “Okay, so I’ve had better days. I hurt, but I should be good to go.”
Amber nodded once sharply. “Much better.”
He shook his head, the smile still plastered on his face. “Such a harsh taskmaster,” he teased.
Amber watched as he got to his feet next to her.
“Hey, if you’re going to be carrying me anywhere in the air, I need to know you aren’t just going to suddenly drop out from under me.” She paused. “Again.”
Zeke’s jaw dropped open. “Well played,” he said with a reluctant nod. “Well played.”
“Thank you,” she said, accepting the compliment graciously.
“Let’s see what we can see, shall we?” Zeke said, motioning outside and then leading the way, wary of any traps.
But there was nobody there. With the sunlight to guide them, they made it to a clearing with ease, where Zeke once again shifted back into his dragon form. She noted the smoothness to his transition once again, but also the way he sagged after doing it.
However he’s keeping it contained, it must take a lot out of him.
“Are you okay to fly after that?” she asked, knowing he wouldn’t like being pressed. She had to ask though.
“I am,” he said, then paused. “Where am I flying to?”
“What do you mean?” She was confused.
“Do you want to go home?”
Amber opened her mouth to say yes. That’s where she was supposed to go, but closed it again abruptly as she realized what he was asking.
Zeke was asking if she wanted to stay. For him.
“If I go,” she said slowly, “I’ll never see you again, correct?”
“Most likely,” he admitted. “At the minimum, not for a long time.”
“But if I stay, someone will find me and kill me, right?”
Zeke bristled at that. “I wouldn’t let it happen.”
She eyed him. “Can you spend every single second of every day protecting me, Zeke? I appreciate the sentiment behind your statement, but I think we both know it’s not realistic.”
He sagged, and she moved to the dragon’s side, resting her head against his red scales. They were darker today, closer to the color of rust.
Or dried blood.
“Do I have a choice?” she asked.
Amber wanted to stay. She did. Something about Zeke called out to her. Like he was important, and meant to be in her life.
But how could he be, if she didn’t have one? If she stayed, someone here would kill her. She would be a fugitive at all times, and that was no way to live either.
“No,” Zeke said, accepting the reality of the situation.
“I’m sorry,” she said, and she meant it. She truly did.
Zeke lowered a wing so that she could climb aboard.
***
They didn’t encounter any gryphons along their path to the border. In fact, to their surprise, they didn’t encounter anyone at all.
“This is weird,” Zeke said as he followed her directions to the Imperial Petroleum construction office, at the main camp for the pipeline. This was several miles back from where she had been attacked. “We should have seen someone, a Guardian at least. I wonder what could have distracted them?”
Amber shrugged, then realized he couldn’t see her. “I don’t know. Maybe they’re out looking for us? You should have been back yesterday, so maybe they’re worried about you.”
“I suppose that’s feasible.” Zeke didn’t sound overly convinced.
“Look, there’s a crowd,” she said as they descended.
Indeed, a number of people in navy blue uniforms were forming an arc as they descended toward the ground.
“Is that okay?” Zeke asked.
“I think so,” she said. “They’re probably there as extra security after I got taken. I’ll just make sure they stay close by, so if someone working for IPP did betray me to a rogue shifter, they won’t get me again.”
Zeke landed with a flurry of his wings, the gale force winds sending up a wave of dirt from the earth to batter against the men standing there. She noted how they barely reacted.
Amber slid from Zeke’s back, waiting to give him a hug. They had said their goodbyes in the air, so that they wouldn’t have to do so in front of anyone, but she still wanted to feel his arms around her one last time.
But Zeke stayed in dragon form, eyeing the assembled humans warily.
“Goodbye Zeke,” she said at last, dragging his attention away from them.
She couldn’t blame him for being distracted. They were all armed, and likely the largest group of humans he had ever encountered. It would be natural for him to be nervous. She doubted the guns could harm him through the scales, but she would still rather avoid finding out if at all possible.
“Are you sure?” he rumbled quietly, bringing his snout right down to her level.
“Yes,” she said, spreading her arms wide to wrap them to either side as he gently nuzzled her. “I don’t like it any more than you do, but I think it’s the only way.”
“I know.”
She kissed one of his scales and reluctantly turned to see one of the men step forward.
“Thank you, dragon. We’ll take it from here,” he said.
Amber nodded at Zeke and walked toward them.
She noticed that all the men behind the leader were eying Zeke, not her.
“I said thank you, dragon. You can leave now,” the leader said, pointing back toward Cadia.
“Is everything okay?” she asked. “He’s not going to harm you.”
The man ignored her, even as she was getting closer.
“Leave!” he shouted, and behind him the men brought their weapons up into a more martial pose. They still weren’t aimed at Zeke, but they were no longer down at their sides either.
Amber stopped, looking back and forth between the two sides.
“Listen to me!” she said, louder this time. “He’s just making sure I get out of here safely. Then he’ll leave. Trust me, you don’t have anything to worry about. I’m Amber Klose, I’m back, I’m unharmed. It’s okay, you can all stand down now.”
All along Amber had thought the men were police, but as she looked at their uniforms more closely, she realized that nowhere on the
m did it officially say police. So they must be security brought in by IPP.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Private company, brought in by IPP,” the man said, finally acknowledging her unhappily.
“Mercenaries,” Zeke said from behind her.
“So IPP hired you? And why are you all here waiting? Did you know I was coming?”
The man just gestured for her to keep walking. “Everything will be explained, ma’am. Just come with me.”
Amber looked around at the site. Something was missing. She hadn’t noticed it at first, but now that she was getting more suspicious, it suddenly jumped out at her.
“Where are all the workers?” she asked. That was the problem she had seen. There was nobody around. There should be trucks loading up with material, men yelling and swearing at each other as they tried to get everything done in half the time it should have taken. But the entire place was conspicuously silent.
“Come with me. Everything will be explained when you’re debriefed.” The man motioned over his shoulder and then at her.
Four men out of the dozen or so with him advanced toward her.
Amber frowned. “Nobody knew I was coming back. So how is it that you’re here?” she asked as the four men came closer.
Her mind was working fast now, and she took a step backward. “Tell your men to stop there.”
The man did nothing to stop them. Instead he looked back at Zeke. “This is no longer your concern. Leave, now.”
“Amber?” Zeke called out to her.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” she said, taking another step backward.
All the men suddenly raised their weapons and pointed them at Zeke.
“Come with me, now,” the leader said.
“No,” she told him, taking another step backward.
“Fine, I guess we’ll do this the hard way,” he said, snatching the pistol from his belt and pointing it at her.
Amber barely had time to scream before he pulled the trigger.
The gun cycled a round and she braced herself for the killing blow, the explosion of pain followed by nothing.
Out of nowhere a giant red curtain swept in front of her, stopping the bullet.
A voice thundered above the noise of further gunfire.
“HOW DARE YOU!”
She heard what sounded like the rushing of wind, and then suddenly the temperature rose. Through the vaguely translucent membrane she saw something explode, and that combined with the heat told her what had happened.
Moving to the side to risk a peek, she saw Zeke drawing a line in the dirt with his flames between him and the humans, driving them back under the intense inferno now raging. To their credit the men didn’t cower, but they were forced back, arms flung up over their faces to shield them from the heat.
“Leave, or the next time it will hit you,” Zeke rumbled angrily as the security firm appeared to be trying to reorganize itself.
Someone fired a gun.
Zeke growled and sent a blast of fire right at a knot of men near where the shot had rung out.
The group scattered, and all semblance of coherence was lost as Zeke followed through with his threat. She watched them either holster or throw away their weapons, running away from the enraged dragon. To his credit he hadn’t killed or even really singed any of them, despite the destruction his Dragonfire had wrought.
Once they were gone, the magnificent dragon—his scales a bright ruby red now, a reflection of his mood—turned to look at her.
“Are you okay?” he asked gently.
She nodded.
“We need to go. They’ll be back soon. They were waiting for you, and none of them were surprised to see me. They knew we were coming.”
“But how? Nobody told them.”
Zeke looked angry, a very terrifying look on a dragon. “Nobody told those gryphons either.”
“What do I do now?” she asked, looking around, trying not to panic.
“You come with me,” Zeke said firmly. “Back to Cadia.”
“What? But I’m under a death threat there!”
“It would appear you have much the same here. Someone does not want you talking about what’s going on out here, Amber. If you stay, there is nothing I can do to protect you. If you come back with me, I can at least help. It’s your choice, of course. But I beg you, please trust me for just a little bit longer.”
Amber ran her hands through her hair, trying to make sense of all this.
“Just days ago, my life seemed to be on the right track,” she said aloud, beginning to pace back and forth as she talked.
As she moved, Zeke shifted his wing to keep it between her and the path the fleeing security team had taken. She noticed, reaching out one hand to run it tenderly along the thin membrane in thanks. Her hand stopped when she realized it was his newly healed wing. Her fingertips brushed lightly over the newer material, where it was a much paler red in a jagged line down to the edge.
“Now though,” she continued, turning to look at him, “I don’t know. It’s like it’s happening all over again.”
“What is?” Zeke asked, his head kept above the rise of his wing, watching for any signs of trouble.
More trouble, that is. Amber had had quite enough trouble for now.
“My life unraveling,” she said, then stopped as he looked at her blankly.
“Nine months ago, my father died.”
“I’m so sorry,” Zeke said, dropping his head momentarily to nuzzle it against her.
Amber leaned into it briefly, but then straightened. “Thank you. We were very close. My mother died when I was still a newborn. She had cancer, and she declined the treatments because they would have killed me.”
She steeled herself, willing herself not to cry over the sacrifice made in her name.
It was her choice. She knew what she was doing. You would do the same thing too and you know it.
Zeke made a strangled noise as he looked at her, likely trying to imagine what living with that knowledge must be like.
“Anyway,” she said with a wave of her hand, trying to keep herself calm. “When he passed, I was a wreck. It was bad,” she admitted, telling someone for the first time.
Oh, others had known, but she hadn’t actually spoken to any of them about it. This was the first time Amber had admitted how close she had come to the edge.
“Very bad,” she continued in a muted voice, walking closer to Zeke and leaning against one of his tree trunk-like legs.
“But you made it,” the deep dragon voice rumbled from above her.
“Yes.” She frowned. “But only by selling everything I had and moving out here, halfway across the continent, to the middle of nowhere. That was the only way I got a restart.”
She laughed, hating how close to hysterical it sounded. “Then all of this happens less than six months after I get here. Am I cursed?” she asked plaintively, looking up at him.
Zeke looked at her, then back over his wing for a moment, then returned his yellow eyes to her. “Well, think of it this way,” he said slowly. “You did get to meet me out of it all, which is pretty fantastic.”
Despite everything weighing down on her, the attempted kidnapping just now, the fights with the gryphons, the death penalty awaiting her back in Cadia, despite all that, Amber found herself laughing. It was a full belly howl that bent her over as her shoulders shook violently.
Tears streamed down her face as she tried to catch her breath.
She finally managed to get herself under control and looked back up at Zeke, whose eyes were darting back and forth between her and the view over his wing.
“What?” he asked innocently. “Was it something I said?”
Amber lost control again.
“Take me wherever you’re taking me,” she managed to get out, still shaking with laughter as she climbed aboard his wing. “I can’t believe I’m saying that, but you’re right, this is probably the best bet.”
“I know ju
st the place,” Zeke said, lifting into the air.
Amber looked back behind her.
“As long as you’re close by, I’m sure it will work just fine,” she said, resting her head against him as they flew back into Cadia. “It will be just fine.”
Chapter Eight
Zeke
For three days he managed to keep her safe and hidden. He visited her every night. But on the fourth day, things began to change.
The three of them filed out of the Academy. These days they stayed in their dorms as often as not. The instructors had come to trust them, and from the time they were done with the day’s training until roll call the next morning, the cadets were free to do as they pleased as long as they didn’t cause any trouble.
What Zeke had done could cause trouble, but only if someone found out about it. He had been meticulous about ensuring that didn’t happen. In addition, so had the others who knew about it.
“Thank you again,” he said to Asher as they made their way toward the rows of stone circles behind the Academy.
The Frost Dragon shifter looked over his shoulder, ensuring that nobody was listening.
“I told you, don’t mention it,” he said quietly. “And seriously, I meant that quite literally, Z. I could get in just as much trouble as you for helping.”
“Sorry,” he said as they shifted. Zeke noted how each of them appeared to do it just a little smoother. He’d shared with them what he had discovered out in the forest, about the way he tried to contain his fire, to control it.
“So, Ash, what’s Quinn got prepared for us?” Dom asked as they hurled themselves aloft, headed for Asher’s house. It was the closest to the Academy, and also by far the nicest as well, so it had become the de facto gathering place for the trio.
Which is why it was also the perfect hideaway for Amber to disappear to while Zeke worked out a way to keep her safe.
“Well, for me she’ll have dinner prepared. You, on the other hand, will probably get a hello.”
Zeke chuckled at the lie. Although Quinn was no housewife, she did take a certain joy in eating a full meal. With Amber to help over the past three days, the cadets had been spoiled rotten when they returned. He was looking forward to yet another delicious meal, though he knew the three of them would also be helping to prepare it. They all worked as a team, and it was smooth going so far.
