Thirty-Eight
Kai
After the best sex of my life, we took a nap, and when we woke up, Ember cooked us lunch. The more time I spent with my mates, the more I learned about them.
Like how both Micah and Ember loved caring for their mates, but in wildly different ways. While Ember did it by keeping us fed and taking care of most of the chores around the house, Micah did it by making sure we were okay emotionally, and also by taking care of all our needs during sex. I hadn't failed to notice he'd been the last one to come, and I was curious if it was for the same reason.
While Cam was more mischief-maker than caretaker, it didn't mean he cared about us any less. He was really good at sensing when someone needed cheering up, and he was always happy to cuddle and just be, even though lying still for long wasn't something he was really good at.
I knew there was a lot I still didn't know about my mates, but that didn't change the fact that I was quickly and rapidly falling for them. I knew Cam and Micah already adored each other. It made sense since they'd been together for more than a decade, and while Ember had been with them for around two months now, I didn't think they'd shared the three words yet.
"What do we do now?" I asked as we were finishing lunch, and Cam hummed thoughtfully. He was sitting beside Ember on the other side of the small dining table, while Micah sat beside me.
"How about Micah and I give you a proper tour of Mistvale? With everything going on, neither of you got to explore our town," Cam said, his eyes flicking between me and Ember.
"I'd like that."
"Me too," Ember added, his blue eyes bright with curiosity. Then his face fell. "But maybe I should stay back. My symptoms are... unpredictable."
Cam waved it off like it was no big deal. "We'll manage. If something happens, Saaya can hide you. And if it's something really bad or painful, we'll come back home."
"But—"
"We're not going on a date without you, Ember. Either we all go, or we all stay in and watch a movie," Micah said, and I shivered a little because his voice sounded exactly like it had in the bedroom.
Hearing my stray thought, his gaze turned to me, and a pretty blush stole across his cheeks. Shit, he was so beautiful.
Since I could now, I leaned over and gave him a peck on his pink lips before glancing back at Ember.
"Micah's right. So what would you like to do?"
Ember glanced between the three of us, then sighed loudly, though I could see the slight curve of his lips. "Fine, fine. Let's go out then."
Cam grinned triumphantly, and then insisted on helping Ember clear up the plates, which he grudgingly agreed to.
"Would you like to take your coat with you, or would you feel safer leaving it here?" Micah asked, and I turned to him, surprised. I would've thought about that soon, but Micah beat me to it.
While usually I wouldn't feel safe leaving my coat anywhere, even if it was in a safe only I could open, this was our home. More than that, this was a dragon's home. No one would be stupid enough to try to rob Cam, right?
"I'll leave it here. If I take it with me, I don't think I'll be able to focus on anything else."
Micah nodded, a look of understanding on his face as he gave my knee a squeeze.
"Oh, you can keep it with my hoard, if you'd like. It'll be even safer there," Cam chimed in from the kitchen, and my eyes widened.
"Wait, you have a hoard?"
Cam snickered. "What kind of dragon would I be if I didn't?"
"Can I see it?"
"Of course. What's mine is yours. Come on, Ember. You should see it too. And I'll add both of your magic signatures to the ward so you can go in whenever you want."
So we all trooped after Cam up the stairs and down the hallway to the last bedroom, the one which was always locked. I'd just assumed it was because they hadn't furnished it yet or because it wasn't of use at the moment. I was pretty sure Cam had mentioned his hoard at some point, but I hadn't been paying attention.
"I'm so glad you two haven't seen DD's hoard yet, or I'd be embarrassed to show you mine," Cam said as he pressed his palm on the door and magic stirred in the air.
"He's had 2,000 years to create it. You'll get there," Micah said, sounding amused.
"Why do you call him that? DD?" The question had been in the back of my mind since the first time I heard him say it, but I hadn't quite managed to find the right time to ask.
"Oh, that. Well, keep in mind I was like, nine, when we met. Anyway, as soon as I found out he and Dad were mates, I wanted him to be my dad too. And my nine-year-old brain decided the best way to differentiate them was to call Raiden dragon-dad. Which was too long, so then it became DD. And then it stuck." Cam shrugged, and I smiled widely, shaking my head at the cuteness. I wondered what a nine-year-old Cam was like. Was he just as mischievous as he was now?
"He was worse," Micah said in a mock-whisper. "Cam caused trouble everywhere he went."
"I still do," he added proudly as he pushed the door open, and I was tempted to kiss him.
But then we stepped into the room, and I forgot all about it as I took everything in.
In the stories, dragons hoarded gold or jewels, riches beyond human imagination. That clearly wasn't the case here, because unless it'd belonged to an Olympic gold-medal winner, I didn't think the ratty old tennis racket hanging in the place of pride had much monetary value.
"I collect memories," Cam explained, as if he could sense my confusion. "My mom was a tennis player. I learned the sport because of her."
I blinked, surprised to realize I'd never asked him about it, even though I knew his mom had died when he was a kid.
I walked over to a bookshelf that was full of framed pictures instead of books. I'd seen some of these displayed around the house, but there were a lot of new ones as well.
A picture of a beautiful woman with dark hair, bright blue eyes, and a very familiar smile caught my eye, and I pointed at it. "Is that her?"
Cam nodded, a bittersweet smile on his face. Ember pulled him into his side, and Cam smiled up at him before sinking into the offered support.
"She was beautiful."
"Her name was Veronica. She was the best woman I knew."
I took in all the pictures, smiling at the ones of Raiden, William, Cassian, Gus, Cam, and Micah. It was clearly taken before the twins and Amelia joined their family, and I wondered if that was why it was in here instead of on one of the walls.
One picture in particular gave me a pause, and I stared at it. It was one of William and Veronica, with a blue-eyed kid between them. The kid had dark hair tied into pigtails, and wore a pleated dress.
"Is that..." I trailed off, confused.
"That's me," Cam said with a wince. "As you can see, I hadn't quite figured myself out back then. Atrocious fashion sense," he joked, and I shook my head.
I knew Cam was trans; he'd told me so quite early. That wasn't what had given me pause.
"But your eyes?" I asked, meeting his very green eyes, the same shade as his dad's.
"Oh, that! Yeah, when I used the dragon magic to switch into my true human form, it changed my eye color for some reason. DD thinks that if I ever changed into a female form, my eyes would turn blue."
That was interesting. I'd assumed dragons' shapeshifting ability was the same as an actual shapeshifter's, but it sounded like they couldn't change specific features after all.
"I like them green," I said, making Cam's grin reappear. I was starting to realize Cam really didn't look like himself without a smile on his face.
Looking back at the pictures, it was clear when exactly that smile appeared on his face too: right before his eyes switched from blue to green. I knew it'd taken Cam months of practice with his dragon magic before he could change his human form, but looking at his journey through these pictures, I could tell it'd been worth it.
We spent a few more minutes looking over Cam's hoard, finding everything from glitter bombs—one that almost exploded in Ember's hand when his fire suddenly popped up and he accidentally squeezed it too tightly—to old journals (Cam's mom's), picture albums, and random knickknacks that seemed to hold meaning only for Cam.
Afterward, I brought my coat safe down and placed it on a table where Cam had emptied some space for it. When I stepped out of the room and Cam locked it again, I wasn't the least bit worried about my coat. It was safe.
Twenty minutes later, we were dressed and ready to go, Micah as always the sexiest of us all with an off-shoulder top showing off his mate mark and a pleated skirt that ended just above his knee. I didn't think I could ever pull off an outfit like that, but it seemed to be made for Micah.
We decided to walk instead of driving so we could get the 'full experience,' and within minutes of walking, I realized Mistvale was a magical place, and not just because of its supe residents.
While most human cities looked like concrete jungles where nature had been pushed to the side—or relegated to clearly defined places like nature could be bound—that wasn't the case here. In Mistvale, Mother Nature thrived.
Trees lined the sidewalk, offering shade from the sun and shelter when it rained. While there wasn't a lot of empty land in the middle of town, the ones that were there were overrun with weeds and bushes, spilling out into the streets.
The buildings themselves were a mix of old and new, with stone structures covered in moss and ivy standing right beside ones made of steel and wood. It shouldn't look good together, but somehow it did.
"This town is beautiful," I said after we'd been admiring our surroundings in silence for a few minutes. Cam and Micah had been telling us about the various places we saw as we walked, and they were better than any tour guide.
"Right? I could live here all my life," Cam said happily, and I turned to look at him.
"But we can't, right? I mean, people will start to notice it in ten or twenty years when we look like we haven't aged at all," I said, and Cam frowned.
"Yeah, that's true. DD was planning to close Mistvale to all humans and turn it into a supe-only town, but then he and Cass had a talk, and he changed his mind."
"What? Why?" A supe-only town sounded amazing. We wouldn't have to worry about revealing ourselves to the humans, and we could safely be ourselves. Why would that be a bad thing?
"Because that's exactly how Ravenshire was built," Micah said, and my eyes widened.
"What?"
Micah sighed, his eyes turning to the skies before he shook his head. "The mage who created Ravenshire, he did it so the mages would have a safe place to practice magic, away from prying human eyes so they wouldn't be persecuted. But once they locked themselves away, they were cut off from everything. Losing touch with humans made them lose touch with themselves. They became insular, started making their rules stricter and stricter, started punishing anyone who was the least bit different.
"DD didn't want that to happen to this place, to us. Then there are humans like Jai and Joy, or even Neel, who belong with us even though they're human. What if a supe who lives here is mated to a human, but they're unable to find each other because humans can't come to Mistvale?"
"That...makes sense," I realized, and I also realized why Raiden was the one watching over this town. It wasn't just because he was a powerful dragon, but because he was an experienced one. He didn't just think about the now like younger people did, like I did, but about the future too.
Still, I didn't like the idea that we'd have to leave Mistvale someday.
"What if..." I started, then trailed off, unsure if it was my place to say.
"Go on," Cam urged, clearly curious about what I wanted to say.
"What if instead of us having to leave, we made it so humans wouldn't want to stay for too long? This is a tourist town, right? We could lean into that, make it even more touristy, maybe even use magic in explainable ways. So a lot of humans would visit, but none would stay. Since Raiden already owns most of the town, it'd be easy to make sure humans don't settle here unless we want them to."
There was a moment of silence, and I worried I'd overstepped, but then Cam grabbed me and pulled me into a kiss.
When he pulled back, his eyes were sparkling, his lips spread in a wide grin. "That is a marvelous idea!"
"Oh no," Micah muttered behind him, and I had a feeling I'd done something I shouldn't have.