Trial By Fire (Going Down in Flames #3)(58)

He reached over, and despite her grandmother’s presence in car, laced his warm fingers through hers. “Stop it.”

“Stop what?” she asked.

“Stop worrying about me,” Valmont said. “It’s my job to worry about you.”

Easier said than done.

…

Monday morning Bryn was up and out of bed before her alarm went off. A strange sense of anticipation tingled under her skin.

“How much coffee have you had?” Valmont asked as she bounced in her chair at breakfast.

“My normal two cups. Why?”

“You’re like a Mexican jumping bean this morning.” Clint yawned wide enough for Bryn to see his molars.

“Wait a minute.” Ivy looked over her shoulder at the tables where the Blues congregated. “Look at them. They’re talking with their hands and laughing and fidgeting.”

Valmont tilted his head and studied the Blues. “They’re acting like normal people. And that’s not normal for them.”

“I’ve got it.” A huge grin broke out on Clint’s face. “It’s going to snow.”

Just the mention of the word had Bryn bouncing in her seat. “What? How do you know that?”

Valmont laughed. “I should have guessed when you woke up before the alarm. I was too tired to think clearly.”

What were they talking about? “I don’t understand. Blues get wound up when it snows?” She observed Jaxon. He spoke with his hands, gesturing wildly in a manner she’d never seen before. “Yeah, that’s not right.”

“It’s puppy weather.” Clint sat up straighter like he’d made some sort of decree.

Valmont narrowed his gaze. “Please explain that so I can decide if I should be offended on Bryn’s behalf.”

Clint leaned in and spoke in a low voice. “It reminds me of how our dogs act when the weather changes. No matter how old they are, on the first cool day, they run around chasing each other and acting like puppies. Therefore, cool weather that hypes them up is puppy weather, and the first snow is puppy weather for the Blues.”

Valmont grinned at Bryn. “I kind of like it.”

“Puppies are cute, so it doesn’t bother me.” Bryn peered out the windows checking for white flakes. “I don’t know how I’m going to pay attention to anything today. Will this happen every time it snows? My grade point average might take a nosedive.”

“It’s usually just the first snow.” Valmont pointed to the windows. “And here it comes.”

Bryn’s breath caught as she watched fat white flakes drift through the air. She needed to go outside, to touch it, to glide, to exalt in the wonderfulness that was winter. Okay, that last thought was weird. Whatever. She thrust her book bag at Ivy. “Hold this for me.” And then she was up and out of her seat and headed for the door.

Valmont followed along behind her, chuckling.

Bryn glanced back at him and stuck her tongue out. “Don’t mock me. I can’t help it. It feels like Christmas morning and my birthday and a shoe sale all rolled into one.”

A dozen Blues made it outside before she did. When she stepped into the air and felt the snowflakes swirling around her skin, she shifted.

“Not without me,” Valmont put a hand on her flank.

“Of course not.” Once he was in place, she pushed off, flapping her wings and heading straight up into the sky. The snow was thicker the higher they went. The flakes skimmed along her scales like a caress. If the snow came down heavier, she wanted to roll in it on the ground. Wait a minute. Now she did sound like a puppy.

“Not too far,” Valmont warned.

“Hang on tight.” She twisted mid-air and dove toward the ground in a corkscrew spiral.

When she was a dozen feet from the ground, she banked right and zipped back up again altering her path to avoid the other Blues who had taken to the air. In the back of her mind, she thought about how it was strange that none of them were vying for territory or insisting they had the right of way. They were just enjoying themselves. Why couldn’t it be like this all the time?

After a few more looping rolls and dives, Valmont said, “Clint and Ivy are walking to class if you plan to join them.”

Nooooooo. “All I want to do is fly.”

“Doesn’t matter to me, but Mr. Stanton might mind.”

Maybe Blues got a pass on the first snowy day. That would be the right thing for the Institute to do. Declare it a holiday, or a snow day, like they used to have at her old school.

No such luck. The Blues around her all headed toward the ground and shifted. Dang it.

“I reserve the right to pout about this.” Bryn swooped low to the ground and flew toward the science building. She landed a few feet from Clint and Ivy, and crouching low, she used her wings to try and balance her landing. She tipped forward a bit and had to shuffle her feet, but all in all it wasn’t an awful landing.

“Not bad,” Clint said. “I was afraid you were going to do a face plant in the snow.”

After Valmont dismounted, she shifted back to human form.

Ivy passed off her book bag. “Feel better?”

“Yes, but I’d still rather fly.” Bryn entered the door Valmont held open for her. “I wonder if I could convince my grandmother that we need to declare the first snow day a holiday.”