“I...can’t.” Ember looked momentarily embarrassed. If she hadn’t already been in dragon form, I suspected she would’ve turned as red as her scales. “They took my Viper suit while I was in Talon, so...”

I tried very hard not to grin and say the first thing that came to mind, which might’ve resulted in a blast of flame to my face. “What about inside the barn?” I asked instead. “No one will see us there, right?”

She nodded, and I led her into the barn, sliding open the heavy wooden door and waiting for the red dragon to pad inside. The interior of the building was spacious and cool, with high rafters and several stalls that were probably used for animals once. Thankfully, the stalls were empty now, as having a large, scaly predator waltzing in would not have gone over well. Bars of sunlight slanted through the wooden planks, gleaming along Ember’s scales as she stalked to the middle of the barn and turned to face me.

“All right,” I said, walking up to her. “We’re alone. Start talking, Firebrand.”

She shook her head. “I need you to do something for me first, Riley.”

“What’s that?”

“I need you to Shift. Right here.”

Surprised, I frowned at her. “Why?”

“Because I...I need to say this to Cobalt. That’s the other reason I asked to go into the barn. I want us both to be ourselves, with no interruptions. Please.”

I sighed. “All right,” I said, even as Cobalt surged up with excitement. “If that’s what you want. Though I do have to point out, a barn full of dry straw might not be the best place for this. Let’s try to remember that everything here is very flammable.”

I stripped out of my shirt, tossing it to one of the hay bales, feeling cool air hit my bare skin. As I started unbuckling my belt, Ember turned away, hiding her head under her wing. I smiled at her bashfulness.

“Still hanging on to that human modesty, Firebrand?” I asked as my jeans joined the T-shirt on the hay bale. “You can look, you know. I don’t mind.”

Her tail thumped the ground, and she didn’t peek up from the curtain of her wing. “Will you just hurry up and Shift?” she growled. I might have teased her some more, but the sudden desire to be in my real form was too great to ignore.

I relaxed, and Cobalt reared up with a growl of impatience, bursting through my skin. Wings and tail uncurled, feeling like they’d been crushed and flattened for far too long, and the rush of fire through my veins made the air around me shimmer with heat. Settling on all fours, talons digging into the soft wood, I raised my head and looked for Ember.