Chapter Twenty-Two
Dela
As it turned out, my math was slightly off.
“Holy shit.” I stopped dead, stunned at the sight before me on the rooftop of Fire Castle.
Over a dozen fire dragons, their scales ranging from bright red to a crimson nearly as dark as Ember’s, were arrayed on the platform, their wings tucked into their sides, waiting patiently for the signal to take off.
As I looked, another pair were already circling high in the sky, moving around the castle with lazy sweeps of their wings.
All of this … for me? I hesitated. Never before had I felt like such a burden. Such a procession just to take the human back home. It was a waste.
Ember emerged from the crowd, still in his human form.
“There has to be another way,” I said, preempting whatever he planned to say. “I can’t let you risk all this for me.”
“Come,” Ember said, reaching out with his hand to take mine and pulling me away from the door.
“Did you hear what I just said? You can’t do this.”
Ember chuckled, his hand still holding mine, a firm clasp of his strong fingers around my palm.
I tried to ignore the slight roughness of his palms and the size difference between our hands.
He was so much larger than me. It would only take one of his to hold both my hands and pin them above my head.
His knee spreading my legs apart, the press of his powerful chest just below my head so that I could hear the thudding of his heart.
Easy, I told myself, shunting aside images of him like that, his free hand tearing off my clothes, eager to get to my body, to run fingertips over my skin. My chest rose at the imagined sensations, wanting to arch toward him, to press up against him even as he towered over me.
“Not now,” he growled in my ear. “Control yourself. I can smell your lust from here.”
I stiffened. He could smell it? I could feel it, my body responding, blood flowing between my legs and swelling my clit and insides, making them eager for his entry. Yet he could smell it?
“We must get you home,” he said, guiding me toward an opening at the center of the formation. “This will see you safely out of our realm.”
“And out of your life,” I added somewhat unhappily. “You can focus on the throne once more. That’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it? I’m a weakness for you, and that’s why you want me gone.”
“I want you safe,” he said, his fiery temper showing through in some sort of odd angry-protectiveness. “That is what I want most.”
How was I supposed to argue with that?
“I wonder,” a nearby dragon said, its scales almost as dark as Embers. It took me a moment to associate the melodious bass with Pyre's more familiar voice, but it was one and the same. “Should she perhaps ride on another dragon since you will be the primary target?”
“No,” Ember said loudly and firmly. “She rides with me. I will protect her.”
I shivered at the pronouncement. They were just words. Why did that affect me so? I was ready to throw myself at him with how he spoke about protecting me. It was just so … so … I don’t know. Hot?
“What do your different color scales mean?” I asked, trying desperately to distract myself as we moved to the center of the large opening. “Most of them are much lighter than you, except for Pyre.”
“The darker the scales,” he said, “the more noble is your blood. Pyre is my cousin on my mother’s side.”
“Ah.” I hadn’t realized the two were related, but that was another blank filled in, which explained more of their relationship.
“Now, come,” Ember ordered. “On my back as before.”
I climbed on him, carefully not getting lost in the firm swells of his muscles as he casually held me. My legs wrapped around his firm abs and obliques while my arms crossed over his chest, the power of his pecs at my fingertips.
Then the world swirled slightly, and Ember changed, becoming the mighty scarlet dragon.
His scales were warm to the touch. Several spike-like protrusions ran down his neck, stopping just before the base where I sat.
Glancing behind me, I watched his long tail curl around his body while the giant wings folded tight against his flanks.
He truly was mighty, in whatever form he chose to wear.
His dragon all but thrummed with a power I would never know, the wings moving ever so slightly, ready to be put to work.
This body was born to fly, and it all but sang with delight as we launched into the sky with powerful sweeps of the wings.
Muscles and tendons moved, and I reveled in their strength.
I could feel so much of the process from my perch at the base of his neck.
It was a remarkable experience and one I knew I would miss. I would never grow sick of watching the land fade below us, the horizon stretching ever further into the distance.
It was a strength I would never know. A strength only Ember possessed.
Though he would be even stronger with someone at his side.
I frowned at the twinge of jealousy toward Ari and the other dragon women I knew had to be out there. One of them would be lucky to have Ember.
I snorted at the thought.
“Something wrong?” Ember asked as we strove to gain height, the other dragons rising with us.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Just entertaining ridiculous thoughts.”
Like me being with a dragon shifter. Why I would even think of it, I don’t know.
It’s not like I really even know the man.
Plus, he’s not human. Are we even compatible?
How does that work? He’s just really hot, and I can’t seem to stop imagining us fucking.
But that’s not the basis of a relationship.
It was, in actuality, the basis of my last few relationships.
What I was finding out, though, was that decent-to-good sex was not enough to plaster over the failings of the rest of the relationship.
Whenever I decided to let myself date again, I would look for someone who could do more than just use their cock well.
They had to be able to talk to me, express themselves.
Make me laugh. Things that could sustain a relationship.
“I can feel you squirming back there,” Ember said, curling his head around so he could keep his voice lower. “Are you uncomfortable?”
“Ember,” I said. “I’m flying on the back of a dragon. I’m not on Earth. We might encounter other dragons who will try to kill us, all while flying toward a huge mountain straight out of an evil villain’s playbook.”
There were several long moments of silence. “So, you’re saying you are uncomfortable?”
I laughed hysterically, resting my arms on his neck and bracing my head against it as the laughter threatened to unseat me. “Yes, you could say that,” I replied eventually, once I could compose myself.
“You’ll be home soon,” he said a bit gruffly. “Then you won’t have to deal with any of this anymore.”
“I mean,” I started to say, looking around, “the view is certainly great. So it’s not all bad. Although, you’d make a poor flight attendant. I just can’t imagine you being bubbly and chipper.”
I giggled at the expression on the dragon’s face at my suggestion. He sighed heavily from two giant nostrils, then turned his head around.
“What happens when I get home?” I asked soberly. “Is it just, drop me off, and goodbye? Or will you threaten to burn me from the inside out if I tell anyone a word about what happened?”
Every muscle in Ember’s dragon body seemed to stiffen. He whipped his head around until his snout was feet from my face.
“I will never hurt you,” he hissed. “That I vow.”
“O-okay,” I stammered, swallowing through an abruptly dry throat. “But that doesn’t totally answer my question. Will I ever hear from you or see you again? Or is this the end of our experience together?”
He was silent for a moment. “It would be safer for you,” he said as he swung his snout back around to the front, “if I left you alone. Others might not be as inclined to leave you unharmed as I am.”
“You mean like Albright.”
“Yes. It’s risky enough, even bringing these others. He has spies everywhere. Word will reach him about you now. I cannot escape that. All I can hope for is to get you home before he finds out too much about you. There, you can remain anonymous until I secure the throne and his threat is no more.”
You mean, until you take Ari as a mate.
I fought an eruption of anger at the idea of Ember and Ari together.
It was ludicrous, of course, to be jealous of two dragons being together, but there I was, jealous nonetheless.
And fiercely so. I’d done nothing but kiss Ember—well, he’d kissed me, but it was the same thing—and now I thought I had some sort of claim on him?
No, I didn’t. In fact, he was taking me back to Earth, so he could be rid of me forever. He didn’t want me around. He wanted me to leave.
Just like Paolo and Derek and Jeff and everyone before them who’d gotten rid of me. I wasn’t wanted, and he was making no secret of it.
Well, I would finally listen. I wouldn’t do anything crazy.
I would respect and listen to what was said to me.
I would heed the fact that he was a dragon and that there was nothing but some lust between us.
Well, I knew how to deal with that once I was on my own.
Freshly charged batteries are a girl’s best friend.
I wasn’t going to make a fool of myself. Not again. I would go home and get over it. Like a normal person, I promised myself, just like Chelsea said. It was time to grow up and listen to the words and actions presented to me. No more reading into things that weren’t actually there.
“Sir!” one of the dragons at the front shouted. “Dragons. At our three o’clock high!”
I nervously swallowed as we adjusted formation.
Yes, I would get over him indeed. Assuming I got home at all.