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The chocolate tasted like love. Like one long hug from a diminutive woman who seemed to have grown smaller even as Mason stretched upward from boyhood to become an adult in his own right. Like the jewel-toned glint in the eyes of a child who’d spent years as a refugee and couldn’t quite believe she was now free to run and play as she wished throughout the Lord Dragon’s domain. Like a dream of the new under cook someday forgetting her fear and chasing Mason out of her kitchen with a long-handled spoon.
Chocolate tasted like Fee’s kiss. All flames and excitement and smoldering fire. And like the touch of his treasure’s lips, its effects warmed him from the inside out.
The other two morsels had begun melting against his fingers when Mason slipped them into his pants pocket for safekeeping. Because, Fade or no Fade, he wasn’t quite ready to leave life behind. Not when he’d yet to enjoy Fee’s delight after tasting a bite of rich, dark chocolate for the very first time.
So, recklessly, he leapt two-legged from the ledge, shifting in a burst of flame seconds before he connected with rocky ground. And when he soared up toward the starry sky, his body was smaller than usual but still quite capable of carrying itself aloft.
Unfortunately, the darkness of a winter night had taken the place of falling snow in the minutes since his brothers left. Which presented a problem. Even a dragon’s ability to pick out infrared light did little good when everything both above and below was layered beneath a blanket of cold and ice.
I have no clue how to find her, Mason realized. In daylight, he could have returned to the charred zone of the former fire and tracked his treasure’s footsteps from the source. But at night? He’d be forced to swoop upon every spark of heat in hopes one might be the woman he ached to hold in his own two arms rather than a rabbit or weasel out for a midnight stroll across the wintry expanse.
The notion threatened to quench chocolate-kindled flame in his belly, but Mason refused to allow the Fade to gain another foothold before he said goodbye to the woman he loved. Tonight, he was on a mission and the disease that clawed against his life-giving fire could bloody well wait.
Instead, he forced aching flight muscles to work harder than ever before as he ascended into the frigid heights of the cloudless sky. Moist air solidified into frost as it streamed from draconic nostrils and ice soon coated his cheeks and neck.
But Mason ignored any discomfort and instead strained his eyes to their utmost. There had to be something for him to see, some clue to point out his missing treasure’s location. If he flew high enough and searched long enough, he had to believe he’d somehow find her again.
When the long-sought clue finally flared to life, though, Mason almost didn’t believe it existed. Because Fee had made it abundantly clear that she couldn’t disobey the man calling the shots on her mission. That she couldn’t even strategize for fear she’d reveal Mason’s secrets to the fire mage on the other end of the cell phone the minute her dragon flew out of sight.
So why did magenta magic wink into existence miles away, midway between the brothers’ meeting place and the Aerie they’d left behind? Was it possible yet another mage was out stalking this wintry waste on what was quickly turning into the coldest night of the year?
Ignoring logic, Mason turned and sped toward the flame even as the glow flickered and went out. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, hoping the light would return.
Nothing. The violet vision might have been merely another symptom of the Fade, his eyes playing tricks as his body edged ever closer to shutting down. Regardless, he set his bearings on a distant star and winged toward the spot from which the spark had initially come.
Twenty minutes later, his faith was rewarded as magenta light flickered on once again. It was northwest of him now rather than southeast, as if he’d both overshot and lost his bearings all at once. Or perhaps the source of light had been traveling in the interim just as he had? Regardless, Mason once again latched onto its location and flew into the darkness, the flame in his belly growing just a little brighter as his wings beat against the wintry sky.
By dawn, he was hovering over a tiny figure that trudged gamely through the snow. Her right heel would be bitterly cold, Mason knew, because his boot had developed a leak at that particular seam, one he’d never bothered to fix while flames were always available to drive moisture away. Her fingers were tucked up into extra-long sleeves. Had he forgotten to offer gloves? And even from this carefully calibrated distance, Mason could see that falling snow had frozen her head scarf onto the strands of damp hair that framed her face.
But his treasure was alive and well. She had almost attained the Aerie, in fact, although she appeared to be purposefully bypassing the towers as she stuck close to the bank of the river. If she continued along her current trajectory, she would soon reach the reservoir that lay broad and blue along the city’s eastern side.
Danger. The thought filled his mind even as flame readied itself in his chest. Because his treasure was walking into peril and he didn’t intend to allow anything to harm a hair on her fiery head.
Previously, Fee had been passing through a dormant portion of the Green where her magenta sparks wouldn’t present a threat to anyone, least of all herself. But now she made her way between trees and vines that retained their leaves, several of those sentient plants reaching out to brush at the mage’s shoulders and arms as she passed.
Mason itched to wing closer and protect his treasure from the creeping enemy’s assault. But he reined himself in with an effort. She knows what she’s doing, he told himself. She knows I’m here if she needs me.
Or at least he hoped she did. Fee had never once waved as he circled above her head. Had never even glanced skyward to stare toward the speck of darkness that marked her dragon protector’s location just beneath the low-lying clouds.
Instead, she’d walked relentlessly onward, twenty thousand steps then a flicker of light. Twenty thousand steps then another flare to prove to them both that she was still alive.
Or was the magic meant to prove her obedience to a man on the other end of the cell phone instead? A man who might even now be watching from the top of the Sunsphere where Sarah used to stand and smile as her boys cavorted in the summer breeze?
Ignoring the sliver of doubt that threatened to take up residence in his skull, Mason swooped northward then eased toward the reservoir from the direction opposite his treasure’s much slower approach. Because Fee shouldn’t be the only one zeroing in on that particular location now that the sun was fully visible in the sky. His brothers would be in the vicinity as well, guarding defenseless humans as the latter slipped out of tunnels and made their way to riverboats poised to ferry the Aerie’s people upstream to safety with the new light of day.
Sure enough, the first boat was already being poled out of its hidden dock as Mason swung closer, the ferry master’s long beard identifying him even from a distance. Lord Dragon bared his teeth in draconic approval. He’d known he could count on the wily old man to evade pursuers and protect the boat he treated like a first-born child, all while maintaining the usual spring in his step.
But wait. Was that Fee jumping nimbly onto the deck? Was that Fee grabbing the older man’s arm and speaking so intently that her companion was left shaking his head as if attempting to dislodge a pesky gnat from his ear?
Despite Mason’s best intentions to remain hidden in the thin haze of clouds now shielding the land, the Lord Dragon mantled his heat and drifted lower. As long as he didn’t beat his wings, earth-bound humans might not even notice as he sank down within earshot.
Before he was low enough to hear, though, something passed between two sets of human hands. A glint of gold, a nod from the ferry master. Then the old man was leaving and Fee stood entirely alone on the deck of the boat.
She raised that dratted cell phone to her ear then tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the person on the other end to answer. And this time, Mason was close enough to hear Fee’s words when she finally spoke.
“Papa Bug. I got turned around in the night, ended up at the reservoir instead of the towers. But it’s a good thing. Because there’s something here you need to see. Come as fast as you can. I’ll be waiting.”
There was something the enemy needed to see? Something like unprotected people soon to be loaded aboard this very same vessel?
Mason didn’t want to believe the evidence of his own ears. Nonetheless, he found himself swirling away from his treasure, his flame flickering as it prepared to wink out.