Blazing the Trail by Deborah Cooke Page B

The yellow one had a silver setting that made it look like it was the orb of the sun, while the opalescent one was set into a silver crescent of a moon.
    “The sun and the moon,” I said.
    Nick and Isabelle, I thought. In his dragon form Nick has glorious golden scales and glowing amber eyes. Seeing him as a dragon is like looking into the radiance of the sun. Isabelle, meanwhile, is ethereal and a bit dreamy. When I’d dreamed of the past Wyvern, Sophie, her dragon scales had been so pale that they could have been made of moonbeams. I touched the pendant with a fingertip.
    “Well?” Nick was practically bouncing in his anxiety. He swallowed visibly, obviously concerned that I wasn’t saying more. “Do you think she’ll like it?”
    “I know she’ll love it.” I met his gaze. “It must have cost you.”
    He shoved a hand through his hair again and grinned, as nervous as I’d ever seen him. This was saying something. Nick does confidence like he invented it. “Yeah. I had the jeweler make it special. I wanted it to be right.”
    I looked down at the pendant, awed and wary, too.
    I had to say it. “It’s not a trinket, though, Nick. You shouldn’t give it to her unless you’re going to see her more than you do now.” He looked worried when I said that. “Isabelle—well, anybody—would think this was a pretty serious gift. A declaration, maybe.”
    “Yeah, I know.” He shuffled his feet again. “I guess that’s what I really wanted to see you about. You know that night after the big fight with the Mages, before your birthday?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I went back to her room at the dorm and we sat and talked.…”
    “Uh-huh.”
    He grinned. “Really. We talked all night. It was awesome.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and heaved a sigh. “It was easy, but electric, too.” He grimaced, but I knew exactly what he meant. “I don’t know, Z. I don’t know what to do. Can you see some future for me?”
    That was not an easy question to answer.
    The hall had emptied out and Nick’s stomach growled right on cue. “You hungry?” I asked. “Let’s get something to eat while we talk about it.”
    “Good idea,” he said, and slung an arm around my shoulders. We headed to the cafeteria, grabbed some pizza, and sat in the corner together, talking—which gave all sorts of people all sorts of things to speculate about.
    Nick is the kind of guy people notice.
    No:
girls
notice him.
    I felt every female eye in the place on us, even after we sat down. In fact, I felt more than one gaze boring into my back. I bit into my pizza—they actually had my favorite combo today, feta and green pepper, a sign from heaven that I was intended to eat lunch in the cafeteria on this day—and glanced over my shoulder.
    Suzanne and her cronies were obviously talking about Nick. I knew this because Fiona and Yvonne were looking our way, Trish was snickering, and Anna was whispering something to Suzanne that made the Queen Bee smile. I also could hear what Anna said, courtesy of my sharp
Pyr
hearing.
    Her comment made Nick and me smile, too. We exchanged a glance at the conviction that he must be my cousin to be seen eating with me.
    “Right,” Nick said with a teasing grin. “I should kiss you just to mess them up.”
    “Who cares what they think?” I said, dismissing them. “Anyway, a few months ago you were sure it wouldn’t be fair to spend more time with Isabelle, in case you have a firestorm with someone else.”
    “In case destiny isn’t on our side,” Nick agreed, making a slice of pizza disappear in record time. He met my gaze. “But what if it is?”
    “Something changed your mind,” I insisted. “Was it really a night of talking?”
    “I can’t stop thinking about her.” Nick flung out his hand. “It pisses me off a bit. I’ve never had this happen before.”
    “Could it be love?” I teased, and he flashed his usual confident grin.
    “Well, doesn’t it make sense to find out?” He leaned