Noah chuckled.
It was a low, quiet sound, more breath than laughter, but genuine enough that Kael would have caught it.
"It wasn't that I doubted you," he said, his voice carrying a mild ease that hadn't been there during the tension of the prison room. "I just never expected that you could actually carry someone along with you."
Kael immediately vacated his position on Noah's head.
He pushed off with a small but dramatic flap and took to the air, gliding in loose, self-important circles around the room.
The space wasn't large enough to be impressive, but the dragon carried himself as though he were soaring over open sky, his chest forward and his wings angled with the kind of deliberate flair that only he could manufacture from nothing.
