Chapter 5
five
AVERY
When I woke up the next morning with a scale under my sweats-clad ass, I rolled off it with a wince.
There was another one under my ribs. Thankfully, the sharp side was parallel with the mattress, so it didn’t cut me.
I spent a handful of minutes combing through my blankets until I had a whole stack of those sharp bastards. There were seven of them, in my bed alone.
That meant Talon had lost nine scales the day before. He did have a ton of them, but the number still seemed concerning. What if something was wrong with him?
I didn’t care, of course. I wouldn’t let myself.
But still.
Concerning.
My mind drifted back to the night before, and my body warmed immediately.
Sex had never been like that for me. Never. As soon as a guy was snared by my magic, he was lost to my control. He couldn’t pull away. He definitely couldn’t get me off without undressing me. Or spend ages with his mouth on my tits and make me come so easily.
The night was surreal.
Absolutely surreal.
And I wanted more.
I couldn’t let myself have it, of course. Not even maybe.
But that didn’t stop me from wanting it.
I’d just act like nothing happened. That was probably the best call.
Yep.
So, I carried my stack of scales over to the fireplace’s mantle and spread them over it. I could only fit a few extras, but I didn’t think Talon would lose that many more. Not after the crazy number he had already dropped.
I padded into the bathroom to grab the ones I’d left there the night before. When I picked the first one up, I frowned.
It felt… warm.
That was strange.
I checked the others, and realized they were the same.
Huh.
Maybe there was some kind of magic in them or something. I’d have to ask Talon. Or maybe his sister. Stella seemed more likely to tell me facts about dragons.
I added those scales to the rest of them, and took a few minutes to make them look nice. I wasn’t sure why I did. They were gorgeous even when they weren’t arranged nicely. Some part of me just wanted to make them look like they belonged there, I guess.
It was ridiculous. I knew that, but I still couldn’t walk away until they were perfect.
When they were properly placed, I padded back to the closet and changed into a new pair of clothes.
I hadn’t packed the right clothes. Mostly because I didn’t have any warning about how cold it was going to be. I’d assumed we were going to Dragon Manor. Honestly, I didn’t even own clothes that were warm enough to keep me from shivering in the dragons’ castle.
So, I put on a clean pair of jeans and a cropped, long-sleeve tee. Ripped jeans and cropped black tops made up most of my wardrobe, to be honest. I didn’t aim for variety.
I was debating which sweater would be the warmest when the door to my bedroom opened, and the smell of pancakes flooded the room.
Yumm.
I ditched the closet immediately when the gorgeous, gigantic dragon I’d just been thinking about came in with two plates of pancakes. The monstrous stack was clearly for Talon, but the smaller one was more than enough for me. And there were bacon, eggs, and sausage with it.
Maybe I loved Talon’s castle a little bit.
Or maybe the stupidly good orgasms the night before made me sappy. It was hard to say.
I stole my plate from Talon, ignoring his gorgeous face and ridiculously tight ass. He looked tired, and there were circles beneath his eyes, but I didn’t bring that up.
I was sitting on the edge of the bed and stuffing my face with food a moment later. I thought I heard him chuckle, but when I looked over, he was just eating next to me.
He was still finishing up while I dabbed syrup off the corner of my mouth with one of the napkins he’d brought, and my gaze went back to the scales he’d left.
I wasn’t sure why, but looking at them made me feel sort of proud. Logically, I knew they were shitty decor. They basically looked like large, flat gemstones. But that didn’t matter to the weird pride I was feeling.
Dragon Manor was making me insane. Scales were like toenail clippings, and I was the creep who was collecting them.
“You can have your scales back,” I said, though some part of me silently dared him to try to take my scales.
That part of me needed to take a hike. A long one.
“No,” he said.
I blinked.
He went back to his food.
“Should I… throw them out?” It was difficult to say the words.
Apparently, I was attached to them.
Like a collector. A toenail collector.
Yikes .
“No.” He growled, that time.
“So I should just keep them for you?”
He grunted.
Guess that was a yes.
At least I could tell myself I was collecting the trophies for him. He could be the creep, while I stared at my pretties.
His pretties.
Even though some part of me kept insisting they were mine. I was totally losing it.
I slipped into the bathroom to brush my teeth while he finished eating. When I came back out, he was gone again.
I stared at the door.
Okay, then. Guess I was on my own .
I was pretty sure I was supposed to meet Stella down in the jail, so I headed out alone. I wasn’t a fantastic navigator, but I could probably find my way down there. And I could ask for instructions if I needed them.
Halfway down the hall, I stopped.
Abruptly.
I’d forgotten what I was. A siren.
We were desirable.
There could still be dragons who might try to force me to mate with them.
I should probably go back to my room.
“What are you doing?” Talon’s voice sounded kind of amused when he stepped up next to me in the hallway. There was a pair of thick socks in one of his hands, and a hoodie in the other.
I really, really hoped they were for me.
“I was going to walk down to the jail on my own,” I explained, eyeing the socks.
He handed them over, and I pulled the pair apart before he could ask for them back. Leaning against him for balance, I pulled them over my thin pair and tugged them into place.
When he didn’t comment on me taking the socks, or what I’d said, I kept talking.
“I made it over here before I remembered that it’s not safe for me to walk around alone. People could try to take me. Clementine was stolen away to the fae realm a few months back, and Zora was imprinted on by that monster asshole.”
“You’re safe in Dragon Manor. The worst our people will do is proposition you.”
His words relaxed me more than they probably should’ve.
“I’m not against being propositioned. I have it on good authority that dragons know what they’re doing in bed,” I said.
He pulled the hoodie he’d brought over my head. “You have it on good authority that one dragon knows what he’s doing in bed.”
“I won’t admit that.”
“You don’t have to. We both know it’s true.” He poked my side with the hand that wasn’t pulling my new hoodie down into place, and I swatted his hand.
We both fell silent as we resumed walking. His hoodie fell to the middle of my thighs, warming my entire body. It smelled like him, and was hot after being cradled against his body.
There were serious perks to dragonhood. Warmth was one of them.
His socks were blissful too. I could still feel the cold of the tile through them, but it was significantly better with the second layer.
I looked down at the hoodie, and saw a faded sports number and logo.
“What did you play?” I asked, and he glanced over.
“Football, at Mistwood Prep.”
“The boarding school for rich kids on the very outskirts of the city?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t as fancy back when I attended. All of the dragons used to go there.”
“How many years ago was that?”
“Too many.”
I slipped my hands in the pockets of the hoodie, and found three more scales waiting. The edges weren’t sharp, and my forehead creased as I pulled one out and checked it. “You smoothed them?”
“Didn’t want them to cut you again.”
That was sweet.
Really sweet.
But why was he giving me his scales in the first place?
“Do all dragons collect their scales when they lose them?” I asked.
“Yes.”
Oh.
We weren’t being creepy, then. That was a relief.
“What do they usually do with them?”
“Keep them.”
That was about as far from useful information as you could get, but at least he was talking to me.
“Is there anything special about them?”
He grunted.
The conversation seemed over.
Oh well.
I tucked the scale back in my pocket and slid my fingers across the surface of it. It was smooth, and warm. Calming, even.
At least I wasn’t a weirdo for collecting them, since everyone did it.
If I remembered, I’d ask Stella for more information about the fallen scales. He seemed to be losing an excessive amount of them. Surely no one collected eight to ten scales a day, every single day. They would be overrun by scales after a while.
I tried to memorize the route as we made our way down to the prison. I also tried to come up with a plan as far as Sylvester went, but that would really come down to whether or not the dragons let me in his cell to try my hand at seducing him. If I could hit him with the force of my magic while I was touching him, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to resist shifting for me.
It was only a theory, though. A dangerous one. Which was why they wouldn’t let me try it.
If we attempted enough other things and still couldn’t get anything to work, I’d just have to figure out a way to sneak in on my own.
Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
Stella was in the middle of a discussion with two male dragons when we made it down to the prison. There was an extra camping chair down there, too.
Talon blocked my body with his when we approached.
“Hey, Talon,” one of the guys said.
The way the guy spoke to him made me think he really wasn’t their king. Not in their eyes, at least. To the rest of Mistwood, he was.
“Where’s your siren?” another guy asked.
I stepped around the big, protective bastard and waved. “Right here. And I’m not his.”
I didn’t even know why he was being protective. He’d only bitten me casually. Fed me casually. Gotten me off casually. Brought me socks and a hoodie casually.
All because he needed me to try to take down the scaly asshole in his prison. He was protecting me as a tool he needed, and nothing more.
But I obviously wasn’t in danger with the dragons. He’d said himself that the worst they would do to me was try to proposition me.
Both of the guys were hot, and they both grinned at me. Talon stiffened at my back, but I ignored his reaction, stepping past the guards and flashing Stella a quick smile. “How’s the fucker?”
“Still alive and kicking, unfortunately. The effects of your magic faded as soon as you were gone, and he went back to his normal thing.”
I stepped up to the bars over his cell’s window again, and I studied him as he did nothing.
“Do you think he knows you have a siren?” I asked.
“I think he’s been in there so long that he doesn’t trust his own mind anymore. Whatever sanity he possessed is probably long gone. I think hitting him with your magic every day will throw him off,” Stella said.
I grimaced. “It sounds like torture.”
And yeah, he deserved to suffer and die for what he’d done, but I didn’t know if I could really stomach that.
“Your magic isn’t painful. The bastard will be lucky to feel it. It’s his mind that we’re trying to break,” she countered.
I didn’t think breaking someone’s mind was all that different from torture, but what was the alternative? Let him stay in the prison until he figured out a way to escape and hurt more people?
Obviously, that wasn’t an option.
“Can we stay when you use your magic?” one of the guys I didn’t know asked.
“No.” Talon’s voice was sharp.
“That’s fine,” I countered, shooting Talon glare.
His eyes flashed in warning, but he reluctantly agreed. “At the far end of the hallway.”
“They can stand with me,” Stella said. “We won’t get too close.”
“If he shows any sign of resistance to your magic, we stop immediately, and take time to come up with a better plan,” Talon told me. “If it’s only going to work a few times, we have to be more strategic.”
I nodded.
He stepped up behind me, blocking me from the other guys’ view. I lifted my hands back to the bars, and focused on the scaled bastard in the cell.
“Not yet,” Talon said. “They’re still walking.”
“If I just went in there with him,” I began, my voice low.
He interrupted me. “That’s not happening.”
“But—”
“Nothing is going to convince me otherwise. I’d rather babysit this fucker for the rest of his life than risk you.”
He must’ve been really worried about going to war with the other kings, if he was that adamant about it.
I dropped the argument and refocused on Sylvester. “Now?” I asked.
“Move back further,” Talon called out.
“It wouldn’t kill them to feel a tiny bit of my magic.”
“Further.” He raised his voice higher.
I thought I heard Stella scoff.
“I’m not dangerous,” I reminded Talon.
“I am.”
Arguing wasn’t going to get me anywhere with him, so I gave up. “Try not to feel me up when my magic gets strong this time.”
“Your virtue is safe with me.” His nose brushed the side of my throat.
“No biting, either.”
“I’m not going to make any promises about that.”
“I’m serious, Talon. No biting, and no touching. Not while we’re in this hallway and your sister and guards are watching.”
“Fine.” His nose brushed my throat again anyway. “They’re far enough. Go ahead.”
I refocused on Sylvester and tapped into my magic. The scales in my hoodie’s pocket grew hot as I sent my power out into the air, and watched the scaly monster’s reaction.
He was affected by it slowly at first, but responded faster than he had the day before.
Talon’s fingers dug lightly into my skin, but sure enough, he maintained control. I guess feeding me the day before had helped him adjust to it or something.
I pushed my magic harder than I had last time, throwing everything into it.
Sylvester crawled across the cell and pressed his body to the door. Talon’s chest rumbled low, his grip tightening but his claws staying hidden as the imprisoned bastard tried to get closer to me.
When my energy finally waned, I was panting and trembling, exhausted with the effort. Sylvester groaned, pressing his scaled forehead to the metal door.
“You found a siren to torment me with, didn’t you?” he asked, his lips stretching in a wide grin as he lifted his face toward the window. He couldn’t see me, but it felt like his soulless blue eyes were staring into mine.
I shuddered.
Talon growled, “He’s talking to me, not you.”
Sylvester laughed humorlessly. “I like pain with my pleasure. Send her in and we’ll have some real fun.”
Talon had me ripped away from the door and pressed against a nearby wall a moment later. I heard him yank on the cell door—heard the locks slam against the wall as he tried to tear the damn thing open.
A wave of some strange, intense magic cut through the air, and I sucked in a sharp breath.
It felt… good.
Right.
Perfect.
“Stop, Talon.” Stella’s command rolled through the air along with another wave of magic. That one just felt foreign.
Talon snarled, and my eyes widened as I heard a few locks slide open.
Stella snarled back.
I turned around in time to see her shove him against the door. The magic in the air thickened, cutting off the sound of their voices even though I could see them arguing viciously.
When the power finally dissipated, Talon stormed down the hallway with a growl in my direction.
“Stay with Stella.”
He disappeared around the corner, and the guards in the hallway followed him, leaving me alone with his sister.