Page 32 of Red Marked

We start up the trail toward the ravine, side by side, and the night air carries her scent to me. Smoke and something sweet underneath. Honey, I think. She smells pretty good. My dragon takes notice. I tell him to fuck right off.

Females drift out of the dark to stare as we pass.

We walk a while in silence. I keep glancing her way. I can’t help it. The moonlight runs silver along her shoulder and down her arm, and every time I drag my eyes forward, they wander straight back.

Fuck, but she’s beautiful.

“You act as if you’ve never seen a female before,” she says, without turning her head. “I guess you’ve been a little starved of females since coming to Mistveil Island.”

I shrug. “I’m not starved,” I say.

“I know you don’t trust me, just like I can’t trust you,” she goes on. “I’m responsible for all of these lives. I have been for a long time.” Now she looks at me with something hard in her eyes. “I hope you don’t let me down, Flint.”

“I won’t.”

“Come down that ravine alone,” she warns.

“I will.” I nod.

She stops at the head of the trail and holds my gaze, chin lifted, shoulders square, her hair moving in the wind.

“Let’s shift,” she says. “I’ll fly you to the bend. Then you’re on your own.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Same time.” She lifts her brows.

I nod.

We shift together. Her silver dragon rises next to mine, and when her head swings my way, the same slanted eyes look back at me. She’s just as beautiful in her scales.

Star leaps up into the sky, and I follow.

We fly the ravine low and fast, walls blurring past on both sides, her wingtip holding steady off mine.

As the bend comes up, she gives a low rumble.

I turn into the open air and hover, wings beating, and answer her with a screech that echoes down the gorge.

She rumbles again, deeper this time, and the sound follows me out over the black jungle.

I bank for the trees where my males are waiting.

12

Star

Scarlet is waiting for me when I land.

I knew she would be.

She sits next to the fire pit, her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around them, watching the blaze. The camp is dark and asleep around us. She doesn’t look up while I shift, which means she heard my wings a long way out and chose to stay.

I sit across from her.

“I’m sorry,” she says to the coals. Her voice is soft. “I shouldn’t have gone against your orders. I shouldn’t have fought back when you came at me.” Her jaw tightens. “I’m sorry, mostly for what I said. That you’d betray us over a handsome face. That was low. I know you better than that.”

“I understand where it came from.” I lean forward and rake a stray ember back into the pit with a stick. “We almost always kill males on sight. Certainly, all who try to come up the ravine. And after what happened to Koa…” I pause. “We’re all on edge. Flint is not a feral.”