11
THE SPIRIT
A half hour to midnight, Kerrigan snuck out of her rooms. Benton and Bayton weren’t heavy sleepers, but they’d given up on trying to get her to behave like a lady. That clearly was not in Kerrigan’s repertoire.
She arrived in the dragon aerie and touched a hand to Tieran’s side. “Ready?”
He released a soft puff of air in ascent.
She climbed onto his back and let him carry her, soaring out of the mountain. Her stomach fluttered in anticipation, even as the flying settled her. The air whipping through her hair. The cool temperatures as she escaped the summer heat for higher altitudes. The peace that suffused her bones. This was where she belonged. It was hard to remember that with everything else always weighing her down, but she had a dragon. One she loved despite their d
