Chapter Ten
Ember
“Are you sure about this?” Pyre asked uneasily.
“Do I look sure about it?” I snapped, unable to hold back the scathing tone. “Sorry.”
Pyre just shrugged.
“Everything is wrong about this,” I said. “There’s no fucking way she should even be here. It’s the Watching Mirror, for fuck’s sake. Not a summoning mirror. Have you ever heard of such a thing?”
Pyre shook his head as he helped me secure the ropes to Dela’s wrists and ankles. Although I felt bad about rifling through her purse, it was nice to know her name finally. Anyone who could make my skin burn the way she did was someone I wanted to know more about.
“What if you’re caught?”
I glared at him over Dela’s unconscious body. “Don’t you think I’ve considered that?”
The wind blew across the top of Fire Castle. The square landing pad that was the roof of the central building was empty except for the three of us. Pyre had engineered it so that we could have a few minutes alone up there for me to depart.
“And what did you consider?” he asked.
“That I might get caught.”
Pyre stopped tying the rope to look at me. “Did you get past that to what you might do if you get caught?”
“No, because I won’t get caught,” I said as a gust of warm air brought the refreshing steamy heat that was the best part of the Fire Realm.
“God-King, give me your sense of inexplicable confidence,” Pyre said, finishing his knot.
“I don’t have a choice,” I said tautly. “If Albright discovers there’s a human here, he’ll be able to sway some of the purists away from me. Even if he can’t get them to come to his side, they might no longer back me. I need every bit of support I can get, and you know it.”
I almost told him that was why he was so valuable to me—that he’d remained loyal when much of my extended family was backing Albright. It meant a lot on several levels. But Pyre had exactly as little time for mushy bullshit as I did. He knew it, I knew it, and that was what mattered.
“Well, I hope you’re right,” he said. “I’m ready over here.”
My fingers finished tying the knot around her other ankle. “Same.”
I straightened, adjusting my uniform’s collar. I’d gone with this look instead of the suit, just in case I did get caught by Albright’s men. The more I looked like I belonged on the throne, the more sway I hoped it would give me.
Walking to the center of the landing pad, I opened myself to the magic within my body, infusing my entire being with it.
Heat rippled along my skin, bringing scales to the surface as the warmth passed from my head to my toes.
At the same time, fog swirled around me, and my body exploded in size, my scales dimming to a dark red, the color of nobility.
Power surged through me, and I flexed my shoulders at the exact moment my wings burst free. I sent them wide as if I were gliding through the sky instead of grounded on the rooftop.
Everything felt right in dragon form. It was my true form, after all. I was not a human who could summon a dragon, but a dragon who could assume a human form. There were so many more practical uses to being a biped that it simply made sense to spend most of our time in that form.
But when I could fully stretch out—over fifty feet long from snout to tail—the world seemed to shrink until I was at peace with everything. It was how I belonged, and I found myself longing for the days when I could simply roam the skies of the Fire Realm without worry.
The days before the clan had been sundered in half by my uncle. Albright thought he was doing the right thing, but his actions would bring us more harm than good if I couldn’t stop him. That meant direct, open conflict, which I did not want, or finding a mate, which did not seem likely.
Pyre landed heavily on my back. I grunted at the unexpected weight, lost in my own thoughts.
“Quit your whining,” he muttered, laying Dela face down at the base of my neck.
I hissed in surprise as her skin made contact with my scales. It wasn’t the weight. It was the heat. Her skin practically burned me.
“Pick her up!” I barked.
Pyre hesitated for a second, then lifted her off me. “What? Did you change your mind?”
“Check her skin,” I ordered.
“Her skin? For what?” Pyre was already looking even as he tried to understand what was happening.
“Burn marks. My scales, too.”
“ … burn marks? Ember, you’re a fire dragon. Fire doesn’t hurt us. What is going on?”
“Just check her,” I ordered, stifling my smoldering fury at the idea of someone else examining Dela.
What the fuck is going on with me? Pull it together.
“She’s fine,” Pyre said. “You are, too. What is going on?”
“Nothing,” I said, closing both sets of eyelids as he laid her back down. Once more, I burned wherever she touched me, the heat beyond palpable. How could Pyre not see it? Something was wrong. Something was very wrong, but I didn’t know what it was.
“Fine,” Pyre said, irritated. Then he flung the four ropes down my sides and hopped off.
Dela was still quite unconscious, so tying her to me like she was some sort of cargo was our only hope.
Perhaps with more time and the confidence that nobody was out to usurp my throne, I could have found another way to get her back to Mount Drakonus, and thus Earth, but her being in the Fire Realm was too dangerous.
I just had to fly—and fly fast. Which meant strapping her to my back, as Pyre was doing, tying the ropes tight around my neck and under my belly.
“All done,” he said, stepping out and past my head, so he could look me in the eye. “Ready as you’ll ever be.”
“Thank you,” I said solemnly, the scales on my back ready to combust.
“You sure you’re up for this?” he asked as I spread my wings wide, my powerful, scale-covered legs crouching. “I could come with you.”
I shook my head. “No. You stay here, keep everything together. With luck, I won’t be gone long. Ashe will be waiting on the other side, and he can take her home. Tell her it was all a bad dream or bribe her. Whatever. As long as she’s gone from here.”
There were enough other things for me to worry about. I couldn’t add Dela to the mix. She had to go.
“You know me,” Pyre said.
“I know, I know,” I chuckled. “Anything for the Throne!”
Then I launched myself into the sky, the massive down swoop buffeting the air, messing up Pyre’s unruly hair even further.
The ground dropped away below me, and I climbed ever higher.
That was my goal. Fly higher than they would be looking, assuming Albright had men waiting to intercept any fliers going from Fire Castle to Mount Drakonus.
There was no official word yet that he was ready to move openly, but all the back channels were talking about it. I needed to be on guard.
I looked over the terrain of the Fire Realm, from the rocky, blasted landscape nearest Mount Drakonus, the lush farm valley at the core to the highlands near the outer edge of the realm, where the crashing sea met green and rocky mountain meadows.
It was all awash in a warmth that comforted and blanketed the soul.
Then I turned to the southeast. There, rising above everything else, loomed Mount Drakonus, the imposing mountain at the core of the realm, stretching higher than any other peak by over double. Home to our immortal God-King, it was also home to the portal that would take Dela back to Earth.
Flapping hard, I rose into the cloud cover, flying as fast as I could, my wings beating a continuous rhythm as I worked to increase our speed.
I craned my neck back to look at the woman draped across my back. Her mouth was open, and she was drooling on my scales. Not what I’d expected. I watched her anyway, feeling the cooler temperatures flow across my scales, chilling them everywhere. Everywhere except the spot where she lay.
That patch continued to simmer, far hotter than it had any right to from her body heat alone. There was something else going on. Somehow, despite me being fire, she was burning me. There was no sign of it, no mark, but what I felt.
“Who are you?” I whispered to the winds. “How do you do this to me?”
There was no answer, but I hadn’t expected one. From her arrival to the way her touch scrambled my mind, I’d never experienced anything like it.
Whatever it was, it was ridiculous. I knew that much. She might be attractive, with her curves and lovely face, but she was a human. The fact that she could make my body sizzle was an abnormality I would have to learn to control.
Though I wished one of the female dragons made me feel that way.
If they did, I would mate them in a heartbeat and put myself on the Throne.
Once I passed the Test with my mate, the God-King having declared us compatible and “true” mates, there would be no more issues about the line of succession for the Fire Throne.
It would be me. I just needed that one crucial element. The mate.
Again, I mourned the loss of my elder brother, Blaze, who should be the Fire Prince.
Unfortunately, by failing the Test, he and his mate had disappeared, never to be seen again.
I mourned him, but there was no point in dwelling on what would happen if I, too, failed my Test. If I did, I wouldn’t be around to see what happened next.
Dela jerked.
I went still immediately, gliding through the air, afraid that one of her restraints had come loose. However, she stayed in place. Though, she was no longer completely still.
She was coming awake.
Fuck.
I was still miles away from Mount Drakonus. An hour or more flight at least. There was no way she would stay unconscious that long, which left me with two options, both of which were terrible.
Either I kept flying and hoped she’d listen to reason and not panic or make enough noise to attract any nearby fliers hidden in the clouds.
Or I landed and tried to figure things out from there.
Waking up on the back of a dragon wasn’t likely to result in a calm, rational response. Especially once she figured out she was tied down.
Frustrated and more alert than ever, I started angling down. It was the worst-case scenario. Not only would I not make it to Mount Drakonus, but I had to land.
Right in the middle of Albright’s territory.