Chapter 28: Bianca - Fall - Change

Bianca
Fall

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The jarring snap of awareness took away my breath as the scene shifted to the present. The memory must have taken only a second to reply in my thoughts. I was still holding tightly to Titus’s shirt, and we were still in mortal peril, but now my emotions were jumbled and my thoughts scattered.

And—more importantly—why would I remember this now as we were falling to our doom?

“He blames himself for what happened,” Mu continued. “He was wounded that day and hasn’t flown since.”

My vision wavered. The ground was growing closer, we must have only seconds left before it was too late.

“It’s never been life-threatening, but he stopped the healing process. He never had any reason to move past it or to forgive himself. Dragons are very stubborn,” my alter-ego explained. “He was content with the status-quo because it worked for him and served as a reminder. You need to be the one to make the first move—give him a reason to change.”

I gasped, realization righting my thoughts.

That idiot.

I refused to die for such a stupid reason. Who the heck cared about what happened who knew how many years ago?

Anger filled the place left behind by grief, and I glared at the unconscious dragon. I was supposed to be his mate, what could possibly be more important than that?

We were supposed to have dragon babies and do shifter mate things. But, unless he woke up and took some responsibility, our only future was as splattered remains over the super dense countryside.

Whatever issues we had personally could always be worked through, but if he didn’t shape up, we would never get this opportunity again.

It hit me with a shock and my breath caught in realization—I was just as much to blame. He’d been trying to bond with me, and I’d been running away.

There was no reason to be scared of him, or what being with him would entail.

“I’m sorry.” The words flowed effortlessly from me now, and I bit my lip. I studied the line of his jaw, trying not to focus on the looming horizon. “I really did want to be your mate.”

And this time, the thought didn’t fill me with dread. For the first time, I wanted it.

The air stilled as Titus’s eyes popped open—a bright garnet that instantly caused my fear to wash away. His chest vibrated with a low rumble that shook me to my spine.

“Let go.”

There was no time for hesitance or doubt—his features were already sharpening. Titus was already in the early stages of a transformation. So even though I had no idea what might happen once I obeyed, I listened with a quiet confidence that everything would be okay.

His undershirt pulled from my fingers, and the wind dragged me from him as his form elongated and grew. He changed from man to dragon in an instant. But by the time his giant wings uncurled into the air, he was already out of my reach.

And time seemed to still as, for a moment, nothing changed. We were still falling, almost to the point of no return.

He still wasn’t flying.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

I didn’t want to die. What good was being a fairy if I was just only going to fall to my demise? Out of all the injustices I’d suffered in my life, I’d never felt more cheated out of anything more than this moment; folklore had promised me the ability to fly.

I hadn’t even had my vengeance yet.

Before disappointment and regret had a chance to settle in, I was shocked out of my thoughts as I’d crashed onto something hard, warm, and not with the deadly force of my body splattering in pieces across the ground. The howling wind stopped echoing in my ears, and my fingers twitched at the unexpected texture of sudden solidness under me.

I opened my eyes to the sight of Titus’s smooth, almost-iridescent scales, and my arms tightened around the dragon’s long neck. We were still falling, but it was controlled downward movement as his wings arched toward the sky above us.

He was flying.

My vision wavered as my dark thoughts lightened.

He’d done it. It had worked.

At least one of us had wings.

He twisted his face toward me, pressing his snout against my forehead.

‘Look behind you,’ his voice echoed in my head.

I was almost hesitant, the pressure against my back had been a mild annoyance before—easy to ignore in the face of impending death—but now was growing into something more concerning.

So, per his order, I did.

Sage and gold flickered in the corner of my vision, and my mouth went dry as the magnitude of what I was seeing began to process.

That—and the long-forgotten memory of one of Damen’s lectures. He’d even told me this from the very beginning, and I’d completely forgotten!

I could fly, he’d even said it was possible! Although, at the time, since no one knew who I was, I was told it was unlikely I’d have this skill. But I was, and so here we were…

So, obviously, flying necessitated some manner of apparatus.

I shivered, and the wings fluttered in response, but outside of that—nothing.

Now that I’d thought about it, there was something different in the feeling along my back. It was a strange, foreign sensation. I furrowed my brows in concentration, and a tingle shot across my shoulder blades. Still no movement, however—or enough to give me any confidence in flight.

How did I use them?

I’d loosened my grip on Titus—reaching back to touch an edge of the thin, lace-like appendages. They were feather soft and entirely too fragile.

Would they even work? It didn’t seem like they were made for flying.

I’d barely had time to dwell on my doubts before Titus dropped down from under me, moving so quickly I hadn’t even had time to try to hold on to him again. I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my hands over my mouth, panic clawing its way into my throat as I was suddenly freefalling once more.

But only for a second.

The heart-lurching drop I’d expected never came. In fact, it was rather quiet and calm.

I opened my eyes, looking for Titus.

The dragon soared around me in the air, stretching and turning his attention between me and the land below. The pressure against my spine increased, and this time I didn’t have to look to know what was happening.

I was flying, somehow. It really wasn’t the time nor place to worry about the logistics, because that would probably throw off my focus and undo this newest development.

All that mattered was that it worked.

Except, however, how was this suddenly possible?

It didn’t matter, as the adrenaline faded, so did my focus. My thoughts wavered in between light and dark, and my head spun as my limbs began to weigh me down.

I was falling into darkness, and there was no use trying to fight it anymore.

An ear shattering roar pierced through the sky, and the air stopped as Titus’s soft, yet claw-like—talons wrapped around me. I was almost entirely covered from head to toe, but I could still feel the wind rushing against my face. My head fell back as my empty stomach lurched, and a frightening darkness began to swim in the corner of my vision. It was only thanks to Titus’s persistent conversation that I didn’t give in.

‘Don’t go to sleep,’ Titus said, but I was focusing less on his words and more on the way his words seemed to persistently break through my walls. Something about his voice made it difficult for me to drift away, ‘We’re going to be there soon. Julian can help you. Stay awake.’

But even his order was beginning to lose its pull. It’d been too long since I’d rested.

We were moving fast—the wind whipped at me until my skin felt raw—but eventually, despite really trying my hardest, I couldn’t stay on the surface any longer.

A roaring cry sounded, penetrating down to my bones as I drifted off into oblivion.