The dragon’s huge gold eyes danced. He said to Pia, “Are you ready?”
“You bet.”
Dragos scooped Pia into one forepaw with extreme care and twisted to set her on his back. With the familiarity of long practice, she scooted up to the natural hollow where the base of the dragon’s neck met his shoulders. As soon as she settled into place, she patted his dusky bronze hide. “All set.”
Her heart leaped as he crouched and launched over the water in a breathtaking surge of power. It never got old. Dragos’s lunges into the air used to scare her, since for flights like this, she rode him without a strap or harness of any kind, but her confidence and trust had grown over time. Even in his dragon form, he was blindingly fast. Once, she had started to slide from her perch, and he had twisted in midair to snatch her up in one paw before she fell.
However, this flight didn’t go as planned. When they went airborne, Liam gave another happy shriek—and shapeshifted.
Astonished, Pia stared down at him. Normally when he rode in the baby carrier, he was strapped snugly against the front of her body, but his dragon form was much longer and leaner than his human baby form, and now the carrier hung loose around his sleek body.
He began to crawl onto her shoulders. She threw her arms tightly around him. He wriggled to get away from her, his head turned and jewel-bright eyes fixed on Dragos’s huge, flapping wings.
“We’ve got a problem,” she called out.
Immediately Dragos stopped his ascent, spread his wings wide and coasted. He tried to look around, but he couldn’t twist far enough to see what happened at the base of his neck. “What’s wrong?”
“Liam changed again—he’s trying to get away from me. I don’t know if I can hold on to him!”
She grabbed Liam by one foreleg and wrapped her fingers around the base of one wing as he freed it from the carrier. Liam flapped his wing and smacked her in the face. Pain flared as he hit her in the nose. Her eyes watered.
Dragos said, “Let him go.”
Pia blinked the tears from her eyes and looked around, her thoughts racing. They were already a couple of hundred yards out from shore. If she let Liam go and he tried to fly but couldn’t, Dragos would to have to lunge to catch him. If he did, she didn’t know if she could hold her seat, or if Dragos could catch them both if they fell.
But it quickly became clear that they might both fall anyway. Liam’s strength in his dragon form was sobering. He wasn’t even fighting with her. She could tell he was excited, not distressed, but he was so determined she could barely hold on to him.
Thank God they were flying over the water. She thought of hitting the surface at the speed they were going. It might hurt, but at this height, it wouldn’t kill her. It would help if she controlled her fall and hit the surface in a dive.
“Okay,” she said. “Ready?”
“Yes.”
She let go of Liam. He pulled free from the carrier, balanced on her shoulders and launched into the air. Heart in her throat, she watched as he flapped his wings enthusiastically and…
Plummeted in an ungainly spiral.
“Watch out, he’s falling!” she shouted.
Fear clutched her. Strong though he might be, he was still a baby. She might survive if she hit the water, but the fall could kill him.
Quick as a cat, Dragos twisted and snatched him out of the air. “Got him.”
“Jesus wept.” She hunched over Dragos’s neck, leaning on one hand. “That sight aged me twenty years.”
Dragos wheeled and flew back to shore. When he landed, he knelt so Pia could slide to the ground. She managed to do so without falling, which was a major feat since her legs were shaking so badly. She walked around to face him.
He held the small, white dragon in one cupped paw. As she joined them, he turned his paw upward and opened his talons. Liam leaped and flapped his wings madly, and fell in a sprawl on the beach. He rolled to his feet and crouched to spring into the air again.
Dragos put a paw on him. “NO.”
Liam froze.
Dragos picked him up, held him between two talons and regarded him. The small, white dragon hung meekly limp in his grasp.
Dragos offered Liam to Pia, who gathered him in her arms. Suddenly sitting down seemed like a good idea. She plopped on the sand, crossed her legs and cuddled the baby. Liam rested his head on her shoulder, his expression thoughtful.
Dragos’s Wyr form disappeared as he shapeshifted. Glancing quickly along the deserted beach, he walked over to kneel beside her and they both contemplated the graceful white form of their son.
Uncertainty chewed at Pia. She angled her head up to Dragos. “Are we terrible parents? I mean, who takes their baby up in the air like that?”
“We’re excellent parents. What we did was natural and normal. Avian Wyr take their babies in the air all the time.”