Sorcha's Heart Read Free Page B

well without you. Let go, little sister. Your body knows what to do.” A silvery cascade of laughter highlighted his words.
    Indignation replaced determination, and Sorcha glared at the rapidly disappearing dragon. So humans worried too much and tried to control everything, did they? She’d teach that arrogant lizard a thing or two about humanity!
    A moment or two later, realization filtered through her irritation. Nothing hurt. She swooped across the sky, executed a tumbling aerial somersault, rose back to her previous level and hastened to catch up.
    Exhilaration sizzled through her system as she pulled level with her mentor.
    “ I did it!”
    She screamed the words into the cloudless sky, where the wind carried them away before the strange harmonics could abuse delicate dragon ears. On a whim of delight, she switched to their private link and crowed, “I am Sorcha and I can fly!”
    She saw his smile and wondered how she could ever have found it threatening.
    “ Thank you, Sorcha,” he said. “I am honored by your trust.”
    A wave of nausea swept her gut. She’d given her name to a dragon; she’d put her life in his keeping. A magic user could bind a being with their true name, and dragons were powerful magical beings. What if she’d made a mistake? Had she allowed the elation of flight to cloud her judgment?
    But Caedyrn had trusted her with his name, how could she do less? She flicked her tongue against the lump on her palate and spat a gout of flame. Too late to worry now. The words couldn’t be unsaid. She’d discover soon enough if Caedyrn was worthy of her trust.
    No sooner had she soothed her qualms than her belly erupted in an onslaught of pain so intense she almost fell from the sky. Caedyrn arrowed beneath her and supported her until she found the rhythm of her strokes again.
    “ We must get you fed,” he said. “Follow me and observe what I do.”
    Caedyrn streaked across the sky with Sorcha close behind. They swooped over thickly forested lands, where tree canopies made green waves of restless movement in the afternoon wind, and washed ashore on a far-reaching prairie. The golden undulation of the grassland fascinated Sorcha — until she saw their bovine prey.
    The power of the longing, the white-hot need of dragon instinct shook Sorcha to her core. She tried to maintain distance, to watch and learn in a rational manner. She wanted the brutal immediacy of slaughter to horrify her. She wanted the lack of proper gratitude and respect to offend. But those human niceties failed to materialize. Her focus narrowed and her dragon side took over; she lost the thread of any thought not directly connected to the hunt.
    Peripherally, she observed Caedyrn’s technique, but was too focused on her chosen prey to emulate his precision. She arrowed toward her kill even as Caedyrn plucked his victim from the herd. The sheer physical pleasure that burst through her system as her claws ripped into the bull’s hide strengthened her wing beats, and she shot back to the sky’s embrace, dinner dangling from her front feet.
    “ Do we eat in the air?” she called as she rushed to Caedyrn’s side.
    His laughter roared aloud before he answered through their link. “No, little one, we will feast in a glen just past that outcropping rock.”
    The thrill of the hunt evaporated as they flew, so that when they landed Sorcha faced her kill with human sensibilities. She dropped the bull in the glade, and circled back to the sky. Caedyrn’s massive black bulk filled the northern portion of the clearing among the trees. Two broken bodies of cattle lay in the center, their mangled limbs flung in impossible angles. Shame flooded Sorcha’s soul, and she averted her eyes. Not only had she killed without proper ritual, without praise for the animal’s life, she had stolen from the village folk. She shot higher still, seeking solace in the clean serenity of sun and wind.
    But her wings grew heavy and she angled toward the