Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“How was your first lesson?” I drawl the question, knowing what is going to burst forth from her.
“That Wraith! He was so rude to me,” she curses. “He’s insufferable.”
I’ve not seen her in this particular mood before. Frustrated over a mundane inconvenience, dealing with someone else’s authority, and clearly hating it.
It’s quite cute.
“I remember when he taught me. He was demanding, but that’s because there’s a lot at stake when it comes to flying. Come here.”
She flops down onto the bed, tired and annoyed, her wings safely tucked away behind her shoulders for the moment. Our kind undergoes entire shape changes when we shift forms. We do not need to work out where our wings are going to go. She is still struggling with the inconvenience.
I pick up one of her little feathers as it attempts to waft into my mouth. She’s shedding them all over, not intentionally, but because she cannot help it. This wing situation is such an adorable mess. She shouldn’t have them, but she does. And they should probably have scales, not feathers, but who knows how that works. There are more mysteries in this realm than any of us are truly aware of.
The humans have their mechanical mysteries, not knowing how things work. They try to break things down, take them apart. Dragons do things differently. We move with the mysteries. We become them. Melissa is starting to do the same.
“And he talks to me like I’m spoiled or expecting special treatment. Like it’s my fault I’m human. It’s not my fault I’m human.” She keeps complaining.
“Did you learn anything?”
“Of course not. He was talking about self-control and such. How am I supposed to have self-control when I’m not even allowed to flap a little?”
“I’m sure you’ll learn it.”
She looks up at me, resting on my chest with her chin on her crossed hands. “Why won’t you teach me?”
“You want me to teach you to fly?”
“Yes, I would so much rather you than him. At least when you’re mean and grumpy it might be hot. I don’t think that guy has ever had sex. Does he even know what it means?”
“Teaching flying involves strictness and sternness. I imagine you had enough of that from me already, no?”
“Why can’t any of you just relax?”
“Because when we just relax, people have a tendency to sprout wings, steal horses, uncover lost artifacts, and fall from the sky all in the course of twenty-four hours. You are chaos incarnate, my mate, and there is absolutely no relaxing around you.”
“Well, I don’t like the sound of that at all,” she frowns. “That’s what you think of me? You think I’m a big chaotic mess?”
“You are not a big mess, but you are chaotic. The truth is often hard to hear, but you knew it already, didn’t you. You knew it when you were racking up fines in college, and before then too, I’d bet. You’ve always needed some semblance of real order, and now you have it. So yes, you will attend flying instruction, because it is good for you.”
Melissa
I suddenly feel like a little girl who doesn’t want to go to school. It’s strange, because I never felt that way in the past. I loved going to school. It was where my friends were, and where adults had to at least pretend they cared.
All the feelings Ornix stirs in me feel new. He makes me want him in a way I’ve never wanted anyone. He makes me want to run, because I know that he has already changed me forever, and he’s going to change me even more before he is done. He makes me want to stay, because underneath it all, I like the way I am changing.
He wraps his arms around me and snugs me tighter, giving me some physical comfort after all I have suffered in the flying class. It’s like being cuddled by a heater. Just being in contact with him makes me relax.
“I like seeing you like this,” he says. “This feels very real.”
I know what he means. It’s an almost mundane interaction compared to everything else we have been through. All the seal stuff, all the wings, the scares, the dramas. This is just coming home after a long day of bullshit and being cared for.
I close my eyes and I let him hold me for a while. I find myself starting to feel better. More energy, less like I’ve just been drained. It would be so much better if I could just stay with Ornix. I mean, I guess I’m still planning my imminent escape, but other than that, being with him all the time feels amazing. I wonder if I can escape and still come back somehow.
“You really won’t take over and teach me how to fly yourself?”
“You’re going to keep going to the classes,” he rumbles, rubbing my ass with the flat of his hand. “You’re going to do what the instructor says, and you’re going to suffer the consequences if you don’t. Think of it as a do-over from college, all the times you got away with things there, you won’t here.”