Page 132 of Wind Whisperer

What’s wrong?Nash landed and looped a huge wing over my shoulders — a move with serious potential to terrify, though I found it strangely comforting.

So why was I crying?

I blubbered incoherently. Because of everything, I supposed. Everything I was, and everything I’d spent years believing I would never be.

Why are you crying?Nash asked, sounding genuinely torn.

Well, lots of reasons, though they were hard to pin down.

One was joy — the sheer joy of flying. Something I’d grasped at my whole life, only to achieve now. Because, wow. I could transform into a dragon!

Another part was sorrow. All those years I’d wished for a tiny crumb of my father’s magic or my mother’s abilities…only to realize they had been there all along, deep inside me. I just hadn’t been connecting the puzzle pieces properly. Now, they all clicked into place, and I felt whole — really whole, and reallyme— for the first time ever. Not the me IwishedI could be. The me I was destined to be.

Which brought me back to joy again. The bittersweet kind you only tasted after a long period of struggling.

So, I supposed that was why I was crying. For all that, and for Nash, who’d made it possible.

For so long, I’d harbored a lot of dreams, but finding a man like Nash was a little like dreaming about world peace. A nice idea, but unlikely ever to be achieved.

And yet, here we were. Amazing.

So, hey. Next stop, world peace?

One thing at a time,I reminded myself.One thing at a time.

I pulled myself together and whispered into his mind.You know how you said you only came alive once you were free of Angelina?

He nodded tersely.

I feel like that now,I explained.Alive. Free.

Nash nuzzled my head with his chin. A huge, chunky, battering ram of a chin, but it felt like heaven to me.

I sniffled a little longer, leaning into him. When my breaths steadied out again, I looked up.

Sorry.

Nothing to be sorry about,he assured me.

I nuzzled him. And oh, was that good, especially when I rubbed my thick brow against his chin. I made a mental note.

Maybe not sorry,I agreed.Just grateful for so much. Grateful for you.

His smile came with a puff of warm air.I’m grateful for you.

We stayed there, enjoying a dragon cuddle — not at all as counterintuitive as it sounds — for a few minutes. Then I took a deep breath and straightened.

I’m ready now.

Nash cocked his head.Ready for…?

Flying, silly,I said, as unabashed as I could manage, seeing as I was the one who’d rushed into an emergency landing to bawl my heart out for a while.

Nash’s eyes sparkled, and he stuck out a wing, indicating the miles of wild, open landscape we could fly over. Heck, we could do better than just fly. We could soar. Glide. Spiral upward and swoop downward… All over a stunning landscape bathed in moonlight and blessed by a friendly breeze.

After you, my mate,Nash rumbled happily.After you.

Epilogue