19. Chapter 19
Chapter nineteen
The Day
Ana couldn’t calm Lucia so she chose instead to obey Emilio’s command to go to the inn at the end of the road.
“This is ludicrous!” Lucia didn’t bother acknowledging the townspeople strolling on their daily tasks along the roadside.
“What if he chooses to leave us here as some cruel joke? I should never have agreed to this trip with you. I should have refused the instant I found out we were traveling by beast.”
Tears swelled in Ana’s eyes, but she refused to let the sting of defeat slide down her cheeks.
Ana had always been a mostly obedient daughter, with one weakness: Celestia and riding through the skies.
Her first true rebellion had proven a complete disaster.
Yet the moment she saw the pink inn at the end of the path, she turned into the establishment without a glance back at Lucia.
Ana marched up to a skinny old man behind a counter who she took for being the innkeeper. “Good day, sir. She and I are here for a room on Federico Vega’s account.”
“Senor Vega!” The older man chuckled under his breath and patted his sleek white hairs back from his forehead. “Where is he? Is he racing again?”
An assault of thoughts clogged Ana’s mind. Racing again? Federico had never been part of the Santolaria races. He’d been an airman in the military who’d run into pirates and merfolk.
She shook her head in response to the innkeeper. “No, he sent his stableman, Emilio.”
“Ahh”—a question marked his tone—“I thought he finally found a senorita friend who might share in his love for dragons. You know, every senora in town has been trying to get him to notice their daughters.” The old man opened a cabinet behind him and plucked two keys from the hooks.
“I suppose Senor Vega has his reasons for not wanting to settle yet. You two can take the stairs up to stay in room five and the stableman can have room six.”
Ana took the keys from the older man. “Thank you.” She spun to face her sister who had stopped complaining to herself though her expression did as much protesting as her mouth.
“Don’t make an agonizing situation worse.
I’m going for a walk.” She shoved the keys and her luggage at her, determined to give Emilio a piece of her mind—though she knew he wasn’t the culprit.
Truth be told, she couldn’t quite pin the blame on Padre or Federico for her misfortune at having to find an appropriate suitor nor would she change her decision to race.
Celestia would never leave me. Ana’s thoughts tumbled through her mind like the crashing of sea waves before a storm. She stomped back through the roads to where she’d been left by the dragons, letting the townsfolk blur by in her peripheral.
If Federico did this as some form of revenge, I’ll …
I’ll trip him in the middle of a social ball.
I’ll spill tea on his shirt. I’ll … She grunted.
The heated breeze across the mountainous grasses brushed up the stray hair that had loosened from her ride.
She lifted her hand over her forehead, squinting into the sky.
Besides a foreboding cluster of clouds to the east, the skies shone a pale aqua blue.
A thump shook the ground at her feet, and before she could process what had transpired, a hot tongue flicked up her face. Celestia nuzzled her giant head into Ana’s stomach with all the affection of a pup.
Another thump sounded nearby, and the quake turned her legs into unbaked dough. Celestia was the only reason Ana didn’t take a tumble onto the dried dirt.
“Are you ready to take flight?” Emilio asked.
“Why should I trust you?”
Emilio adjusted the cloth over his face, concealing whatever sentiment twitched over his unknown features. “Isn’t it a bit late for that?”
Ana clenched her jaw, chastising herself for acting on impulse.
“I suppose you’re going to have to trust whatever instinct led you here.” Emilio held the reins of his yellow beast in a proud stance that wouldn’t back down.
“What are you going to teach me today?”
“That’s more like it.” Emilio patted the side of his dragon’s neck. “I’m going to teach you to keep your mount.”
The tender bruises on the side of her body throbbed from her last injury, reminding her how much she needed the lessons. Back home, she’d learned to fly, dive, soar, and steer, but somehow with the races in only a few short days, that wouldn’t be enough.
She climbed up Celestia’s back and settled on the base of her neck. A goofy grin overtook Celestia’s wide mouth, revealing her jagged teeth. Whatever she could say about Emilio, he hadn’t treated Celestia poorly because the Lord knew the dragon would never follow him otherwise.
They launched into the air, streams of rushing wind undoing the last of her braid.
Emilio directed his beast over the open sea where he dove straight down as if to plunge in the waters.
Ana snapped the reins for Celestia to follow.
The angle and velocity of their descent had her bottom flying off her mount.
Digging her feet into Celestia’s side, she rocked her hips forward to keep balance, but when Celestia pulled up at the last second, Ana went flying into the water.
The sea smacked against her body, and the warm liquid filled her nostrils. Ana paddled to the surface to meet Celestia’s cocked head and pitiful squinting eyes in her I-messed-up face.
“Let’s do that again.” Emilio chuckled. “This time, stop fighting momentum and lean forward.”
After what Ana would call a plethora of rounds, she neither flew off her mount nor wanted to try Emilio’s other exercises.
A flash traced across the sky, and a quick rumble roared an instant later. They hadn’t kept track of the brewing storm to the east.
“There’s a cave just south of here.” Emilio didn’t bother waiting for Ana to agree with such a plan and rode low to the tumultuous water.
Celestia fell in line despite a protest—or possibly a bug—lodged in Ana’s throat. They arrived at a cave three-quarters of the way up a cliff overlooking crashing waves.
Emilio unbuckled the mount off his beast and patted the dragon’s scaly side. “We might be here for a while.”
As if in response, another bolt of lightning pierced the darkness, and a roar deafened their ears.
Ana undid the buckle of Celestia’s mount and tossed the contraption to the side.
Celestia trotted deeper into the cave, set fire to a spot just enough to heat the dirt, and curled into a comfy nest of her own making.
“But Lucia.” Her sister would surely invent the worst-case scenario where Emilio had turned out to be a scoundrel attempting to blackmail Padre out of what remained of his fortune.
Or possibly he was a thief who’d stolen her dragon and left Ana for dead.
But when Ana turned to face Emilio, he sat atop the solid cave floor, grabbing a tuft of his cropped hair and looking at her with sincere worry painted into his gaze.
She wished to see his face and what he might be thinking.
He must have considered her mad for following a complete stranger to win a game.
The need to explain herself gurgled up her throat until she could take it no more.
She’d always stayed silent when it mattered most, but in this secluded location, she felt the world and expectations didn’t have such deep claws into her soul.
“Why is this race so important to you?” Emilio asked.
Ana surprised herself. “I’ve always dreamed of becoming a dragon rider. I promised my friend I’d do this one day.”
“A friend?” A cold tone marked his voice, though Ana didn’t understand why.
“He was more than a friend.”
“A suitor then?”
In spite of the heat in her cheeks, Ana shivered from her soaked dress.
“We haven’t wood for a fire, but I’m willing to lend you an arm.” The gruffness in his voice disappeared and now sounded more familiar.
It couldn’t be. She told herself that Federico wouldn’t stoop so low as to trick her, but she remembered the earnestness and deep affection when he’d asked to be her betrothed the day of her birthday celebration.
She recalled the way he’d ignored her when he’d offered to buy her family estate.
Every stray glance she’d caught bespoke a pain he never wanted to touch again.
Perhaps this was his way of guarding his heart, not knowing how much she loved him in return.
An ache overwhelmed her chest at such a thought.
“Take off the mask.” Ana could barely make out the person beside her in the darkness. “Celestia, can you give me some light”
Her dragon obeyed, providing a dim fire that illuminated the man beside her. The shape of his face, the set of his body, and his cropped hair all matched Federico’s. She drew near, only needing to remove the covering from his face for the last confirmation.
She reached behind his ears, his warmth grazing her fingertips and leaving behind a thrill of excitement.
His brown eyes rounded, but he didn’t protest her removal of the mask.
It was Federico Vega Perez—the lanky boy with the crooked smile who’d wait for her escape each day from her governess.
The one who’d taught her to fly and sent her letters when he was away.
How she’d missed their time together, talking about the things she’d never shared with anyone else.
He was her best friend and the one who had captured her heart.