Her first thought had been that she’d gone insane.

Her second thought was that maybe there’d been something weird in the hot chocolate the nice grandma from the bus had offered her.

Or perhaps the people who’d warned her about elves had managed to leave out dragons, and this was all real.

“This is stupid,” she said out loud. “Dragons aren’t real.”

“Umm,” Damon said. He gave her a chagrined look. “Actually—”

“No,” Autumn said firmly. “I don’t want to hear it. Everyone knows dragons aren’t real. Neither are elves, actually. This is all just some sort of elaborate joke. It’s some sort of conspiracy to fool unsuspecting tourists. Admit it.”

“I’m a dragon, Autumn,” Damon said. “Sorry.”

He didn’t look particularly sorry.

Even now she could see the way he’d looked moments ago. The entire experience had been terrifying—but still, there’d been something glorious and graceful about the large creature that had spread his wings over her to protect her.

While fire had rained down all around them, his wings had shielded her. The dragon’s body had been covered in gleaming scales that ranged from black to a glossy brown—the colors of rock and expensive wood. He’d had large wings and a long, graceful tail, too. She’d even seen his claws, which had dug deep into the earth close to her.

But it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real!

“No,” she said again, determined. “I’m not stupid. I might not travel a lot, like certain other people, but everyone knows that dragons aren’t real.”

Inexplicably, she felt tears rise up in her eyes. Angrily, she blinked them away. This was supposed to be the best week of her life, and instead she’d almost died several times, had felt the earth give way beneath her, and had been nearly burned to death.

Well, this would stop now. She’d go back to her hotel, take some aspirin against the headache building behind her eyes, and when she woke up in the morning, all of this would turn out to be a dream. A really stupid, disappointing dream, where she got a date with a hot guy, only for her subconscious to add in earthquakes and dragon attacks.

She took a deep breath, pushing herself up onto her feet despite the fact that her knees were still trembling.

She made herself ignore the worried look in Damon’s eyes. She was just going to go back to the trip schedule she’d worked so hard on, and everything would go back to being the safe, touristy experience she’d been looking forward to.

And then Damon’s hand shot out. He grabbed her wrist, his neck arching as he searched the sky.

Involuntarily, Autumn found her eyes following his. Her heart gave a painful thump when she saw three tiny, black specks in the distance.

Birds, she told herself.

Or maybe helicopters. People did helicopter tours here. She’d looked at the websites herself, only to realize that those went way over her budget.

A second later, Damon jumped up onto his feet, grabbing hold of both of her hands. He was peering into her eyes with an intensity that made her tremble, her stomach contracting at the way his eyes had taken on that strange, metallic glow again.

“Autumn, do you trust me?” he asked urgently.

She felt like she was sinking into his eyes, dimly reliving that strange experience of drifting through caverns, past veins of metal far underground, guided only by his deep, comforting voice.

“Do you trust me?” he asked again, his voice echoing with a power she didn’t quite understand.

But she understood the urgency in his voice. He was afraid. And there was only one thing that could make a man like Damon afraid...

When she looked up, she saw that the three specks were rapidly growing in size. They didn’t look like helicopters, or like anything else she’d ever seen.

No, that was wrong. She knew exactly what she was looking at. She’d seen it before, after all.

There were three dragons in the sky, rapidly approaching.

Her heart skipped a beat as her stomach contracted with instinctive fear.

None of this made sense. She still wanted to close her eyes and pretend that all of this was simply a nightmare.

But from somewhere, she could feel waves of concern and urgency come flooding through her. It wasn’t her own terror, not quite.

It was the fear of someone else. Someone who was concerned for her...

She didn’t question how she knew. With the three dragons quickly coming closer, she made her decision right then and there.

Her heart pounding, she clenched her fingers around his, meeting his gaze.

“I trust you, Damon.”

Even as she watched, the metallic gleam in his eyes intensified until it seemed like his eyes had turned to liquid gold.

“I can outrace them,” he said, his shoulders tense. “There’s no time left. Whatever happens, don’t be afraid—just hold on tight. Trust me, Autumn. No matter what—trust me.”

Silently, she nodded, unable to speak. There was a strange ball of emotion glowing in her chest— but they weren’t all her emotions.

Some of them were Damon’s, even though she had no idea how that could be. But she knew that she felt what he felt, and the alarm that made this strange connection between them throb with urgency wasn’t something she could ignore.

Damon let go of her hands. He took a few steps backward.

And then, just like that, his outline began to shimmer. A heartbeat later, Damon was gone.

In his place stood the large dragon, glossy scales shimmering in all the many hues of rock and metal.

Damon.

He bent his neck, kneeling down. He spread out his wing in invitation for her.

Her heart racing, Autumn grabbed hold of it with trembling fingers. She pulled herself up onto his back by it—which turned out easier than it had looked. There were ridges that ran across his wings, and once she figured out what to do, it was a little like pulling herself up a ladder.

“I still don’t believe dragons are real,” she said, her voice trembling a little as she settled into place on his back.

Through the silence, she felt a wave of amusement wash over her—almost as if Damon was laughing in her mind.

Then the urgency flooded back in. She felt his muscles tense beneath her as he gathered himself. She remembered what he’d said—to hold on tightly—and clenched her hands around the ridges closest to her.

And then he beat his wings, and they lifted off the ground.

A surprised gasp escaped her. She pressed herself against his neck, her arms going around it when she caught a glimpse of the ground suddenly terrifyingly far below.

This wasn’t a plane—on the plane, she’d felt safe. It had been almost like sitting on a bus, and there had been seat belts.

Here, if she let go, she’d slip and fall, and keep falling until she hit the ground below...

You’re safe, something seemed to whisper in her mind.

Regardless, she kept clutching at him tightly, her eyes closed as she trembled. She only dared to open them again when nothing terrifying had happened for a minute or two.

She was just in time to see a cloud rapidly coming closer.

Moments later, they were enveloped by it. Everything around her was white. She couldn't even make out her own legs and arms.

She blinked against the wisps of whiteness, then tentatively stuck out her tongue to see what a cloud tasted like.

Disappointingly enough, it mostly tasted of cold air and wind. Again she felt a sensation like soft laughter in the back of her mind.

For long minutes, they continued like this. Damon was using the clouds to hide from the fire dragons, she realized, tightening her arms around him again as she imagined the others closing up from behind.

Also, if the fire dragons couldn’t see them in here, that meant that they wouldn’t be able to see the dragons attack until it was too late...

But Damon had been certain that he’d be able to outrun them, and what did she know of dragons? She’d just have to trust him.

And all alone on a dragon’s back up in the sky, it wasn’t like she had any other options.

When they finally rose above the clouds fifteen minutes later, she’d begun to relax. As terrifying as it had been at first to imagine herself slipping, it turned out that riding on a dragon was remarkably comfortable.

Perhaps it was just that Damon took care not to endanger her, but so far, after her initial terror, she hadn’t once been afraid of losing her grip.

And it was strangely warm on his back, too. When she’d sat on the plane, she’d been able to watch ice form on the outside of her window—but Damon’s body was hot beneath her, and the air around her was pleasantly warm, so much so that she would have stripped out of her coat, if she’d dared.

“Dragons,” she murmured, feeling the wind tear the words from her lips.

It was ridiculous. She knew dragons weren’t real.

But this time, when she felt Damon’s amusement wash through her, she found herself laughing out loud together with him.

***

She’d lost all sense of time. It felt like no time at all had passed, but when Damon began to make his descent back through the clouds, the ground beneath them had changed distinctly from what she remembered.

This was no longer the national park they’d just left. Instead, the landscape below was a pleasant green, lakes and rivers stretching as far as she could see, with mountains rising to their right. Every now and then, she could make out small houses.

They were all alone in the sky—no matter how she twisted, she couldn’t see anything but sky and clouds in all directions. Had they truly managed to escape?

When Damon slowed even more, she immediately forgot all thought of their pursuers. Instead, she clutched tightly at him once more, her heart starting to pound again when she caught a glimpse of the ground rushing towards them.

The roar of wind filled her ears now as Damon’s wings kept beating—and then, suddenly, they stopped.

They had landed, Autumn realized a second later. She hadn’t even felt the impact—despite her fear, this had been more comfortable than the plane, where a jolt had made her clutch her armrest when the wheels first touched the runway.

“I think we lost them,” she said. Her heart was still beating in her throat as she searched the horizon.

She couldn’t make out anything but blue sky and scattered clouds. And the landscape around them seemed quiet as well, untouched by civilization except for the occasional house.

Again Damon went to his knees and spread out his wings for her. Hastily, she descended.

A surprised squeak escaped her when she lost her footing and slid down his wing like a big slide. He changed the angle of his wing to slow her, and to her surprise, she managed a somewhat graceful landing, coming to a stand straight on both of her feet.

Despite the terror of the past hour, she felt a laugh bubbling up inside her. She twirled around and bowed, the way she’d seen gymnasts do on TV.

If dragon riding were an Olympic discipline, I’ve just successfully qualified for the US team.

Once again, there was the strange sensation of Damon’s answering laugh rushing through her mind.

A heartbeat later, the body of the powerful dragon, whose scales had gleamed in the sunlight a moment ago, vanished into thin air. It happened so quickly that she couldn’t even say how exactly it happened—one second a dragon had stood before her, the next second, Damon the human was back, still wearing his woolly sweater.

There was still a smile on his face as he looked at her—but then he, too, twisted his neck to search the horizon.

“We should be safe here,” he said, even though he wouldn’t take his eyes off the sky for a long minute. “I can still feel their presence, but they’re far off. I think they wanted to scare me, not kill me.”

Autumn swallowed as she thought back to the wall of deadly fire surrounding them. “I’d hate to know what it looks like when they actually try to kill you.”

Damon finally turned back to her, his lips quirking. “For one thing, there’d be more than just one—or even three. They know that my element is the earth. What can fire do to rock?”

“Melt it,” Autumn said with a shiver. She thought of that moment when Damon’s voice had guided her through the layers of stone that made up the earth beneath them. Deep below, there was a kernel of heat that could melt even stone and metal.

“You’re right, of course.” Damon had turned serious again. “They’re a threat. We can’t afford to underestimate them. Still—for now we seem to have lost them.”

“Where are we?” Autumn asked, turning again to look around.

They’d landed close to one of the solitary houses she’d spied from above. Up close, it was larger than it had looked from the sky. It was made of wood and built in a curious design. It looked like a triangle—or like a house that was all roof. A bit like a shed—only that even from the outside, she could tell that this was some star architect’s idea of a luxury shed.

While the two walls that formed the roof were solid wood, the entire front and back were glass. Inside, she could make out a spacious living room with a fluffy white carpet, two large sofas, and a real fireplace.

“This is where I’m staying,” Damon said. “It belongs to family friends. No one knows I’m here.”

“But they found you before,” Autumn pointed out.

Damon nodded grimly. “I know. But this is dragon territory. This entire area belongs to my friends.”

“Your friends—who are dragons?” Autumn asked, feeling weak again at the way the world had turned upside down.

How could this be real? And how was it that she, who’d never even left the country before, had ended up right in the middle of all this?

“Earth dragons—distant relatives of mine,” Damon said. “So far, the fire dragons have done a pretty good job of remaining in hiding. I don’t think they’ll dare to outright attack dragon territory. I think they just wanted to scare me.”

Silently, Autumn shook her head. Nothing made sense. But she’d seen him turn from a dragon into a human. She’d even flown on his back.

It was all real, as terrifying as that was.

“I want some coffee. Or a drink. Or maybe both,” she said. “And then I think you have a lot of explaining to do.”