Chapter 30

Renzo

When I was a kid,I wanted to be a bird. I spent a fuck load of time trying to turn myself into one. My mom said it was dumb. Flying away? From all that shit? It didn't seem dumb to me.

One time I got far enough that I sprouted feathers all along my fucking shoulder blades. It looked awesome.

Didn't work though. I didn't lift one inch off the ground. All it did was make my mom's face ugly and then she set to screaming. Said I was a freak. Plucked every single one of those feathers out.

Fuck that hurt. Probably more than all the knives plunged into my gut, magic crashed against my body, nails dragged down my cheeks, teeth sunk into my skin.

I gave up after that. Thought my mom was right. Flying was stupid. I was fucking stupid.

Yeah, she was wrong. She was wrong about a lot of things.

Flying is …

Flying makes you feel like the king of the world. Makes you feel like you own the fucking heavens. Flying lifts you above the ground with all its pain and its torture and its confusion and takes you right up into the clouds, coats your face in a fine moisture that tastes like dew on your tongue, paints rainbows in front of your eyes, takes you through and up to where the sun was hiding all along.

And flying with her, flying with my arms wrapped around her waist, flying with her body pressed up against mine is …

Little rabbit screams as we plunge back through the clouds again. But it isn't one of her terrified screams, or one of those screams she makes when I wind her body up tight and then let it go. It's a scream like kids make when they're happy. I can feel it in her magic, her body vibrating with it under the grip of my hands.

"This is incredible," she gasps, wiping the fine cloud droplets from her eyes. But I don't think incredible gives this feeling true justification. This is freedom. Another life altogether.

"You're a natural at this, little rabbit," I say into her ear.

"Me?" she laughs, "I'm not doing a thing! It's all her."

I don't know about that. The dragon reads the girl's desires, taking her where she wants to go, like they're talking to each other without saying any words.

"I could stay up here forever," she sighs, as the dragon catches a current and we skim below the clouds, riding the breath of the wind.

"Let's," I say. "Let's stay up in the sky forever and never go back down to earth."

She laughs again like I was joking. Then she shakes her head. "I need to get back to Pip. I need to …" She hesitates. Then leans down, lying against the dragon's neck, resting her cheek against her scales and gazing down at the ground below us. "Can you even tell where we came from?"

I peer down at the land below, so small I could smash it with the heel of my boot.

"No," I say, even as I spot the gap in the rocks.

Unfortunately, little rabbit is eagled-eyed and spots it too. "There!" she cries, pointing below us. "But how the hell do we–"

She doesn't finish her words, the dragon is already swooping down, spiraling through the air, making me fucking dizzy, until we're right above that crack in the rocks.

"We'll never fit through!" little rabbit cries, closing her eyes. But the dragon masters it with ease, gliding through the gap and landing on the rocks below like she doesn't weigh a fucking thing.

The little pig's still laid out on the rock. He lifts his head and makes a feeble squeak.

"We're back," I tell him, sliding off the dragon's back reluctantly and landing with a thud that shakes the ground.

I hold up my hand to my little rabbit and, without a hint of a pause she takes it, sliding from the dragon herself.

Little rabbit isn't afraid to touch me anymore. The idea doesn't repulse her. It makes that thing in my gut spin like a whirlwind, has the cold blood in my veins warming.

She lands on her toes, and bounces straight up into my arms, flinging hers around my neck.

"That was so incredible. My heart's beating a million miles per hour," she sings right by my ear.

I squeeze her tight, liking the way her soft body feels pressed up against mine, and she throws back her head and looks up into my face. Hers is all bright and I think she's happy, really, really happy.

And so I do that thing I've only ever done once before. Something I've never wanted to do until her.

I bring my face right up close to hers. I can smell her skin, feel her breath, see all the colors in her eyes. Then I press my mouth against her, my lips against her lips. They're tender, and wet, making me think of how my fingers felt inside her, making me hard. Fuck, this always looked boring. Kind of tame. Never thought it would be erotic like this.

She moves her mouth against mine and fuck that feels good, ignites all these sensations in my body, in my magic. I hold her tighter and move my mouth hard against hers, hungry against hers. I want to devour her. I bite at her lips, nibble on her tongue, plunge mine deep inside her mouth.

Her body melts against mine. Her breath turns panty.

And then the spell breaks. Just like fucking that. The dragon rumbles. She pulls her mouth away from mine, then her body. Then she's letting go of my fingers.

She steps away from me, and lavishes all her affection on the giant beast instead, stroking her palms over the creature's gleaming skin, laying her hand on its snout, whispering words of praise.

I glare at the stupid animal. Not only am I competing with a pig, I'm now competing with a fucking dragon. How come little rabbit, doesn't stroke me like that, doesn't whisper nice words to me? Is it because I can't fly?

The little pig makes another of those feeble snorts.

"Yeah, you were out for the count yesterday," I say to him, "don't pretend you witnessed a thing!"

"What?" my little rabbit says, hand still resting just above the dragon's nostril.

"Nothing," I grumble, wondering what I have to do to get her to touch me like that again.

"We have to go," she tells me, giving the dragon one last pat, before walking towards the pig and our discarded bag.

"Are we taking her with us?" I ask, thumbing towards the dragon.

"No, I told you already."

"But, little rabbit, flying her was … awesome." I gaze into the little rabbit's eyes and they sparkle with excitement. "Think where we could go on her back. You wanna get back to Los Magicos, we'd be there in an hour."

"Change of plan. We're no longer going back to Los Magicos." She slings the bag over her shoulder and picks up her pig. "We're going back down the mountain."

I scratch my head. I worked for Lowsky and his family for a long time. Once those guys made up their minds, there wasn't a fucking dragon on a rampage that could shift it. Little rabbit changes her mind like the wind changes direction. It makes me fucking dizzy. Fuck, I love it.

"You going to tell me why?" I say.

She looks at me and then the dragon, then shakes her head. "No."

I kick at the earth. "I could force it out of you."

She rolls her eyes. "You try and knock me unconscious again, I will–"

"I wasn't thinking of that."

"If you hurtle magic at me, I'll–"

I look at her darkly, letting my gaze meander down her lithe body. "I have other ways of torturing you now." She swallows and that fucking dragon rumbles again.

I throw her a dirty look over my shoulder. She's lucky I don't throw a bolt of magic. But she's too beautiful to destroy – not when my little rabbit has worked so hard to fix her up.

She's also deadly. Just like my little rabbit.

"She'd be an effective weapon against your enemies," I tell my little rabbit, although I'm also making my case to the dragon. Someone fucked her up. Someone put her in chains. I bet she has enemies like the rest of us.

"She wants to go," Rhianna says, "she deserves to be free. A creature like her shouldn't be kept as a pet."

I look at the woman before me. I had illusions about making her my pet. I am stupid after all. Because she's right and because she's like the dragon. She can't be owned. Not by me.

The dragon snorts and clouds of black smoke billow from her nostrils, then she spreads her wings again and rises up into the air. We watch her go, flying through the crack in the rocks and then up into the sky. She soars in a circle, golden against the dull clouds and then she's gone.

"There's every chance someone else will catch her," I say.

Rhianna shrugs. "It's beyond our control."

She squeezes through the narrow passage in the rocks and then we follow the meandering path through the maze of skeletons. We're halfway through when I tell her to stop, taking the bag from her shoulder and the pig from her arms, and then her hand in mine.

It takesus the rest of the day to retrace our steps and descend the mountain, the sun falling behind the peak and casting us in shadow, the light and the warmth fading away.

I don't feel the chill though. I'm buzzing, fucking buzzing, bouncing on my toes, swinging her hand in mine, whistling under my breath.

I rode a fucking dragon.

Little rabbit let me kiss her.

I think of all the things I've done in my life. The first time magic sparked in my fingers. The first time I made someone hurt. The first time I watched someone die. The first time I stole a life.

Those were good days. Some of the best.

They pale in comparison to this day.

Who fucking knew making out would be better than torturing a man to death? Fuck me – that is a surprise.

Little rabbit seems happy too. Her magic all sparkly and fizzing. But the lower we get, the closer we come down to earth, the more it fades along with the light. Her hand cools in mine. Her body stiffens. Her gaze flicks around us.

I'm shit at reading people. But with her it's different. There's something wrong. Is she worried we're going to be attacked?

"What's up, little rabbit?" I ask her as the night paints the sky black above us.

"This thing between us …"

"The sex?"

"We haven't had sex. We're not having sex."

"We're going to have sex, little rabbit."

"If we have sex … I'm not talking about sex!" She looks up at me with eyes full of fear.

"I won't hurt you," I tell her. "I know I said I would, but things are different now. I want to make you feel good. I like making you feel good."

She stops. "You promise?" I open my mouth to answer her but she laughs and looks away to the ground. "Why am I even asking you? You'll only tell me what you think I want to hear."

I take a step towards her. "Have I ever lied to you, little rabbit?"

Her brow creases. She's thinking. She shakes her head.

"Do you believe in fate?" she asks me.

"I've never really believed in anything before, little rabbit. Not the gods, not the stars, not fate. Not family or friends. Nothing. But I believe in you, little rabbit."

"Oh shit," she says, "I want to believe you."

I shrug. "Then do." She looks up into my eyes. The world tips on its axis. I see the future and the past deep in her pupils. I feel fate pull me towards her.

"Don't let me down," she says earnestly. And I'm going to kiss her again. Maybe pull her to the ground and make good on that promise to fuck her. But before I can, a voice calls out in the night.

And I'm dropping the pig and the bag and ready to strike.

It's dark. The sky hidden beneath clouds. I can't see a fucking thing. I send a flare of light up into the sky as the voice shouts again.

"Rhi!"

Before I can stop her, my little rabbit steps forward, waving her hands above her head.

"I'm here!" she shouts. "Right here!"

The mountainside flashes with white light and below us I see who she's waving to.

Her friend, the professor and the man in black himself.

Just fucking perfect.