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  Just thinking about it caused my cheeks to redden. The heat rising into my face made my mind up for me. Maybe going into the dark cave where he couldn’t see just how much he’d affected me wasn’t the worst idea after all.

  I took his hand and let him lead me into the darkness. He was much warmer than he had any right to be after being naked in these freezing temperatures. His hands were softer than I had imagined they would be and that source of heat was both comforting and thrilling at the same time. The whole thing was confusing—the insane condition I had found myself in and the feelings the situation was generating inside me. I was probably in shock. Perhaps riding a dragon could do that to a person.

  “Something tells me you know something I don’t,” I said, feeling my way along a narrow tunnel. The ground was rocky beneath my feet and the going was slow. How he was managing with no shoes on was beyond me.

  “Very astute,” he replied, infuriating me further. I stumbled on a rock, tightening my grip on his hand to stop myself from falling. The walls of the tunnel were damp back here. My hand dragged against the side of the cave and the water accumulating there.

  “You know where you’re going, don’t you? Those clothes weren’t there coincidentally.”

  “That’s right.”

  I could actually feel him smiling. I couldn’t see him at all but I knew the corners of his mouth were turned upwards. He was having fun at my expense.

  “Are you going to enlighten me?” I queried.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Who are you?” I figured we’d start with the basics. I’d get on to the whole question of why he was naked on a ledge later.

  “My name is Ash.”

  “I’m Julianna,” I said, then paused. “Is that all? Are you going to tell me where you come from?”

  “My people live up here on the mountain.”

  I laughed, thinking he was telling a joke, but his silence told me he wasn’t.

  “You’re serious? No one lives on these mountains. The terrain is too difficult to climb. There’s no possible way to get back to the village from here without falling to your death.”

  “Who said anything about going to your village?”

  “But how do you get food without going down the mountain? It’s too cold to grow anything up here.”

  “You’ll see,” he replied. “Look, there’s light ahead.”

  And he was right. The cave wasn’t a cave at all but a tunnel through the mountain. As it grew lighter, the less I needed his help. I could see well enough to navigate the rough ground beneath me but I was reluctant to let go of his hand. He didn’t seem in any hurry to let go of mine either.

  We emerged on another ledge with no way down. Below, a lush, verdant valley spread out into the distance, surrounded by snowy peaks. A tiny town hundreds of feet below us looked like a toy village from this height. The view took my breath away. It was like nowhere I’d ever seen before and not in a million years would I have guessed that the aged Triad Mountains would hide such a utopia.

  “It’s…it’s…stunning!”

  “It’s home,” he replied simply, shrugging his shoulders.

  As I gazed in wonder at the spectacular view below me, it dawned on me that two tiny dots on the horizon I’d taken as birds were in fact dragons.

  “Don’t you have a lot of problems with dragons up here?” I wondered aloud, glad that they were so far away.

  “Much more than you could imagine,” he smiled again.

  “There’s no path down the mountain,” I pointed out. The cliffs were as sheer on this side as they were on the other. “How are we supposed to get down there?”

  “You really haven’t figured it out yet?” he asked, amusement filling his voice. He pulled his shirt over his shoulders, exposing his muscled chest, before moving to his belt.

  “Hey, hey,” I shouted, taking a step back in alarm. The ground crumbled beneath my feet and I could feel myself begin to fall.

  A pair of strong hands caught hold of the coat’s collar and pulled me away from the edge.

  “You need to be careful.”

  “I need to be careful?” I shouted, my heart hammering at my near death fall into the valley. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Oh God, I’m sorry.” He pulled away from me and sat at the mouth of the tunnel on a smooth boulder, his head in his hands. “I sometimes forget. We’re so isolated up here that I didn’t realize how rude I was being.”

  “Darn right you were being rude. What is it with you and having no clothes on?”

  “I promise, I wasn’t trying to scare or offend you,” he said looking at me, contrition filling his features.

  I didn’t know what to think. He was acting so strangely and yet I could see that he was genuinely upset at scaring me.

  “I have to take my clothes off to get us down the mountain.”

  “I really don’t see the connection between the two.”

  For the life of me, I had no idea what he was trying to tell me. Not unless he had a plan to build a makeshift parachute out of his pants.

  “I can’t change with my clothes on. They’d rip to shreds.”

  “Change? Change into what?”

  “Those dragons over there? They’re my family, Julianna. I’m the dragon that brought you here.”

  Chapter Six

  “You’re what?” I looked at him uncertainly.

  “We are an ancient colony of dragons. We’re shifters.”

  “The dragons are humans?” I asked incredulously.

  “Not quite, no. We have a human form, that is true, but we do not identify as such. Nor do we really identify as full dragons. We are somewhere in between and happy to be that way. We keep to ourselves and only ever come down the mountain when absolutely necessary.”

  “But I’m a dragon slayer,” I muttered, feeling a mixture of confusion and intrigue, not to mention a healthy dose of guilt about my own ancestry.

  “Are you?” He looked at me with such warmth that my guilt began to melt away. “Julianna, I’ve lived up on these mountains my whole life and I’ve been brought up on stories of our enemies, the men and women of your village who call themselves dragon slayers, but not once have I known anyone to do what you did today.”

  “What did I do?”

  “You hesitated. You could have killed me but you didn’t. You actually risked your own life because deep down you really didn’t want to harm me, did you?” The warmth in his eyes made me feel unsure of myself.

  “I thought you were a mother dragon. I saw the egg and thought it was cruel to take a mother away from her baby.”

  He laughed which only added to my confusion. “The egg is a decoy—polished rock in a fake nest. It’s been there as long as I can remember. As you can see below us, we live in houses, much the same as you do.”

  “But why?”

  “I guess it was put there in a misguided attempt to ward the slayers off.” He shrugged. “We hoped that your people would leave us alone if you thought we had babies to look after. Of course, the opposite happened. They saw that we were breeding and stepped up the amount of people coming here.”

  “I didn’t know,” I said, feeling ashamed.

  “I know you didn’t, but you’re the first of your kind to think before mindlessly killing us. I’m going to give you two choices, Julianna. There is no way off this mountain without wings. I will happily transform back and take you home, or at least to a place that will be safe for you to get home.”

  “I want the second choice!” I butted in.

  His mouth curled up at the edges as he regarded me. “I’ve only given you one choice so far.”

  “You were going to invite me to your village.” As soon as I said it, I hoped I was right. Now that I knew it existed, I knew I wasn’t ready to go home and forget its existence.

  He chuckled. “You’re a mind reader, no? I was indeed going to offer to let you come to my homeland but I must warn you, if that is what you choose,
it will not be without risks. My people are fiercely proud and much like your people, we have a deep-rooted fear and dislike of outsiders.”

  “So why were you going to invite me?”

  “Because fear is brought about by misunderstanding. War could so easily be avoided if the two parties communicated.”

  “Is this war?” I asked.

  “Isn’t it?”

  I looked over the pretty little village hundreds of feet below us. I wondered for a second what my father would make of it.

  “I’m going to have to strip again. You might want to cover your eyes.”

  Despite my fear of heights, I walked to the edge and sat, dangling my feet over. The village looked tiny from here, not scary at all as long as I didn’t think of the fact that it was full of dragons, or dragon people. Dragon people who had spent centuries being hunted by my people.

  I tried to ignore the sickening sounds coming from behind me. Shifting sounded really painful. I’d heard of shifters before but they were creatures in distant lands and were spoken about in almost mythical terms. It was difficult to imagine a whole colony of them so close to where I lived. My shoulder suddenly got very warm as a blast of fire flew over me. I turned to see a dragon waiting for me to climb aboard his back.

  Climbing up was trickier than I had imagined. He was just so big. He lifted his leg for me to use as a step and I grabbed the base of his wing to pull myself aboard. It felt much weirder sitting on top of him now that I knew what he really was. The discarded pile of clothes only served to make me more uncomfortable.

  Flinging my arms around his neck as we took off, I held on tightly for fear of falling. The wind blew around me sending my hair flying out behind me. It was so strong that I could barely keep my eyes open, but I did, just so I could enjoy the magnificent sight. Adrenaline pumped through my system as Ash circled high above the village, giving me a bird’s eye view.

  “Woohoo!” I shouted as he did a steep dive before pulling back up straight moments later. The thrill of flying was like nothing I had ever felt before, not even close. Blood rushed through my veins and my heart pounding in a mixture of fear and utter excitement. I had never felt as free as I did now, soaring high in the air.

  All too soon, my thrill ride ended and we came to a gentle landing on the very edge of the village. Another neatly folded pile of clothes greeted us, ready for his return. I jumped down and ran towards a fence at the edge of a neatly tilled field while he changed into his human form and dressed. I was eager for him to finish so I could tell him how wonderful the flight down had been, how exhilarating. I peeped around to find him buttoning the top two buttons on his shirt.

  “Oh my goodness. That was amazing!” I jumped up and down making him laugh. “I flew, Ash. I really flew.”

  I knew I sounded dorky but I didn’t care. I felt high as a kite. I might have touched down but I was still flying.

  “Yes, you did. Did you enjoy the dip I did for you?”

  “Next time can we do a loop-the-loop?” I held my hands together almost pleadingly.

  “I know I could but you’d probably plummet to your death. Maybe we should put that idea on a back burner for now. Come on, I’ll introduce you to Spear, our leader.”

  “Okay,” I said, full of excitement.

  “Before I take you into the village, I have to warn you. Spear does not like slayers, with much reason. His mother was killed by one. He makes sure our village is defended from your kind and he will not take well to me bringing you here.”

  My excitement swiftly turned to fear.

  “He will not hurt you; he is a proud man and he is angry with your people, but he is not a bad man.”

  “Are you sure?” He must be pretty livid if we slayed his mother, not that I could really blame him. I would be too.

  “You’ll be safe with me, come on.” He took my hand again, just as he had done in the caves. The warmth of his skin reassured me as we walked past fenced fields. The houses were built in a similar way to ours although they were much closer together. Each house had a flat roof, unlike the ones in my own village which were sloping.

  I wondered why for a second before I saw a dragon land on the top of one of them. They were landing spots. Despite the fact I knew the dragons were really people, I still shied away from the one on the roof. Years of having it instilled in me that dragons were killers was enough to make me wary and afraid. Even Ash’s warm hand was not enough to stop the fear running through me.

  The houses became denser as we got closer to the center of the village, and more and more commercial buildings appeared. I was surprised to see shops although I didn’t know why. Unlike the shops in my world, everything they sold seemed to come from this small valley—grains and vegetables from the fields, a butcher’s shop selling beef and pork, a basic clothes shop selling handwoven attire. All the buildings were made out of wood.

  “That’s our town hall,” Ash said, pointing out a circular building ahead of us. It was thatched with straw which I couldn’t help but think was a fire hazard with all the dragons around. Ash gripped my hand more firmly as we entered through a set of double doors.

  I found myself in a curved corridor, more than likely circling the entire building. Posters of events and news from around the village were pinned up on the walls haphazardly. Instead of turning left or right, we walked through another set of doors ahead of us, bringing us out into a huge circular courtyard with strange holes evenly distributed around the edge. One side was raised slightly like a stage although there were no chairs. Ash guided me forward and slightly to the right where there was a set of stairs leading down into the ground. At the bottom was a heavy wooden door which Ash pulled back easily, despite the fact it looked extraordinarily heavy.

  The room we walked into was the strangest room I’d ever seen. Unlike the building above, this was made entirely of stone although it had some handwoven rugs on the floor to give it the appearance of being homely. The use of the holes above suddenly became apparent—they were windows to let light into this strange room. It looked very much like a courtroom that we would have back home with a raised podium at one side and rows of wooden benches at the other. Behind the podium was a door which was where Ash led me. This time, instead of just entering, he knocked and waited.

  I shivered slightly, partly because of the cold, mainly out of nerves.

  “Maybe I should go home,” I whispered. “This is a mistake.”

  “Come in,” a deep voice boomed.

  “You’ll be fine,” he replied warmly and opened the door.

  “Ash, what are you doing?” asked a great big man sitting behind a long desk. He looked to be in his early forties although his black hair was graying slightly at the sides. His voice was even and calm and his face showed no emotion but his eyes flashed with anger. Anger at me.

  “Hear me out, Spear. She doesn’t want to kill us.”

  “Of course, she wants to kill us,” he replied as if I wasn’t standing before him. “She is one of them.” He spat the last word out as if he was talking about vermin.

  “She had the chance to kill me and she didn’t. Even with all her men behind her, she chose to spare me.”

  “Ash!” Spear stood up and slammed his fist on the table. The resulting boom echoed around the room, making me jump in fright. “I don’t care what she did or didn’t do. She is a slayer. For centuries, her people have been killing ours. That’s all they know how to do. She’s no different. She will need to be killed now that she knows where we live.

  “I didn’t want to kill him. I don’t want to kill anybody,” I replied nervously, trying to ignore his last statement.

  “Nobody needs to be killed. That’s exactly why I brought her here. To see who we are. To give her a chance.”

  “Are you suggesting we just let her go free? Within days there will be swarms of slayers up here and we will all be dead.”

  “You know as well as I do that there is no way they can get up this high on the mountain. We’re pe
rfectly safe up here.”

  “I’ve heard rumors of flying machines built in distant lands. If they know we’re here, it’s only a matter of time before the slayers figure out a way to get up here. I’m sorry, Ash, but she has to be disposed of. We cannot trust her to keep our colony a secret.”

  “I will!” I shouted before I’d even thought about what I was saying. As a slayer, could I really promise anything of the sort?

  “She has said she will keep out secret and I believe her. You can’t make decisions as big as this without the rest of the village elders anyway. There has to be a majority vote.”

  Spear’s eyebrows scrunched as defeat reflected in his eyes. I took a deep breath as I realized that there was a chance of surviving this after all.

  “It will take a week to gather everyone,” Ash continued. “There are still a couple of scouting parties out over the eastern rim. Let her stay here and get to know everyone before just deciding she must die. Let her prove she means no harm.”

  “I don’t like it but protocol must be maintained. If she proves that she can be trusted and the Elders believe her then I am powerless; however, if, like me, they pass the death sentence, then she will have to die. I’m putting you in charge of her, Ash, and if I hear about her putting just a toe out of line, it will not only be her head on the chopping block. Do you understand?”

  “Completely. You have my word, I’ll look after her.”

  “As well you might. She is as unsafe here as we are in her world. With any luck, I won’t have to bring this to the elders in a week. I’ll be surprised if she lives that long.”

  He went back to his writing as Ash and I left the room. My nerves, already frayed from everything else that had happened that day, were now on a knife edge.

  “He’s all bark and no bite,” said Ash in an attempt to reassure me. It didn’t work.

  “No bite? He just sentenced me to death!”

  “The elders won’t allow it. Once they meet you and get to know you, they’ll know that you’re telling the truth. I know that you won’t tell your family about us; we just have to prove it to them.”