I have good news that Cast by Flames (ebook version) is now available for pre-order on all major retailers. Links are below.
For those who’d like to get a peek at the novel, I’m posting the first chapter as well. Keep in mind that it’s with the editor, so some minor changes may be made to the final version. I hope everyone’s week is going great!
Chapter 1
Bailey
The massive green dragon lay on its side with its tongue lolling from its mouth, having expelled its final breath moments before. A puddle of blood pooled under its chest. I’d hardly had to try when I killed it despite the fact it likely weighed twenty times as much as me.
The beast and two of its buddies had been chasing down a group of kids, hoping to snack on them. Their prey looked like preteen orphans who’d formed a gang—not all that uncommon after more than six years of living with dragons in our world.
So many people had died in that time.
According to very rough estimates, the Earth had lost at least half its population. Of course, an official census was impossible, but many of us suspected the percentage was far greater than that. Lack of modern medicine, clean water, law and order, changed landscapes, and numerous other factors steadily eroded mankind.
My friends and I had intervened in this latest attack, using magically enhanced bullets and arrows we’d acquired from sorcerers to shoot at our targets and bring them to the ground, but my part in the fight had ended too soon for my liking. The dragon I’d attacked hadn’t even recovered from its fall before I stuck a sword in its heart. Any true slayer wanted a bit of a challenge before the battle ended.
At least the kids we’d saved had the sense to run away the moment we intervened.
I glanced over at one of my hunting partners, Rayna. “Any trouble with yours?”
“Nope.” She blew a lock of her long, coppery brown hair from her face. She’d put it in a tight braid, but her wavy strands often came loose while fighting. “It’s annoyingly disappointing.”
“It seems like only the weakest and dumbest members of the Shadowan hang around here anymore.”
She nodded with resignation in her hazel eyes.
We were currently on a hunt in south Oklahoma City. As slayers, Rayna and I had to fight at least once a week to quell our dragon-killing urges, but even that pushed our limits if we spent a lot of time around our innate enemies. Considering I was mated to the pendragon of the Taugud—a shifter clan—and lived in his castle with him and our son, I tried not to wait that long.
Rayna lived away from the fortress but still ran into enough dragon shifters while residing in their territory that she needed to play it safe, too. No matter how hard we fought it, our hard-wired instincts would win if we weren’t careful despite the fact the Taugud could take on human form. We had to stay on our allies’ good side with a much larger war looming against a powerful force to the West.
She wiped her sword clean and slid it into the scabbard strapped to her belt. “It is getting annoying. We haven’t had a decent fight in over a month, and our prey used to be tougher when we first started hunting here. These days, they don’t even hurt me before I finish them.”
“Yeah,” I said, humor and sarcasm lacing my voice. “It’s terribly frustrating when you walk away from a battle without a scratch.”
She grinned. “Right?”
Grunting and cursing came from about a hundred feet away, where Conrad still fought to finish his dragon. He wanted to be a slayer like me and Rayna. He’d been gifted with immunity to flames almost six years ago and used that advantage to fight our fiery-mouthed foes. I suspected he’d eaten a couple of hundred dragon hearts over that period, hoping to make the transition as we did. It was part of the initiation process for those of us born with the gene who accepted our duty. Conrad’s distasteful diet had made him stronger and faster, so I supposed he was on to something, but I was glad I only had to eat the heart once to become a full slayer. He was attempting it the hard way as a regular human.
Also, unlike us, he took his time with his prey and killed them slowly with sword strikes and verbal mockery. I’d begun to feel sorry for whichever dragon he targeted since it would die a slow and ignoble death. Conrad really enjoyed the job for someone not born into it.
“Man, eweee! Do you Shadowan ever clean your asses after you shit?” Conrad wrinkled his nose and sliced the green beast’s snout. “Seriously, ya’ll stink. You might breathe fire, but a little water can be your friend, ya hear me?”
I hadn’t noticed a difference in their scent. Slayers had heightened senses, so I could smell one if it got near me, but most pure dragons had the same odor as a reptile, as far as I could tell. Shifters were another story. Their odor tended to have a trace of musk regardless of their form.
“Do you know what he’s talking about?” I asked Rayna.
She shook her head. “Nope. I’ve never been bothered by their scent, but breath, on the other hand…”
“Oh, yeah. Pure dragons are the worst,” I agreed. They ate raw meat all the time as part of their diet and never cleaned their teeth, unlike shifters, so one had to gird themselves whenever the beasts opened their mouths. Not even their flames killed whatever germs lurked in their saliva.
Maybe that’s what Conrad meant, come to think of it.
“Just kill the damn thing already,” I said.
It had taken us hours to find a group of dragons to kill. The roving guards had gotten smart and begun avoiding us, so we had to go deeper into Shadowan territory near an apartment complex to find a cluster foolish enough to attack. Or rather, ones who flew close enough to the ground to hit with our projectiles. Twice, we’d gone to hunt Bogaran instead since they were easier to find, but that meant hours of travel to cross the state and reach Arkansas. It had to be an overnight trip. I hated being away from Aidan and our son, Orion, for that long.
Speaking of which…
“Come on, Conrad.” I put my hands on my hips. “I’ve got plans and don’t want to be late, or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
He grumbled about how I shouldn’t rush perfection. Then he kicked the dragon in its damaged snout and thrust his sword into its chest while it roared in pain. In seconds, the beast sunk to the ground as life left its eyes. Damn, he had good aim.
After pulling his sword free, Conrad glared at me. “Happy?”
“I would be if we could leave now.”
He snorted. “Just a few more minutes, and I’ll be done. Chill, girl.”
Wanting to hurry things along, Rayna and I helped him push the dragon’s body to its side. He used a short blade to cut through the soft underbelly and then ripped it open. Blood and guts came pouring onto the pavement. Those of us with sense leaped back to avoid getting our boots dirty, but Conrad didn’t hesitate to thrust his arm inside. Once he’d grabbed the heart, he used his other hand to cut it loose from the chest cavity. The large, squishy organ was about the size of his head.
“Hmm, dinner,” he said, taking a big bite from the top as blood leaked down his hand and arm. It smeared all around his mouth as he chewed.
The twenty-five-year-old man remained impeccably clean most of the time except when fighting dragons. Now, he looked like he could have auditioned for a part in a zombie movie—if anyone still filmed those. I nearly hurled. Rayna coughed and turned away.
He ignored us and continued consuming his “treat.” My memory of eating a dragon heart six years ago resurfaced, and I recalled it didn’t taste too horrible despite my reluctance. The closest comparison might have been chicken giblets after being cooked in a soup—with disturbingly red broth. None of that made a difference as I watched the seeping blood drip to the ground from Conrad’s grip. It was enough to ruin one’s appetite, and I never wanted to eat one again.
“Oh, damn.” Conrad stumbled, half the heart still in his hand. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
His dark skin had taken on an ashen pallor, and his brown eyes turned unfocused. Could the dragon have been ill and passed the disease along? I wasn’t sure if that was possible, especially not that fast.
“What do you mean?” I asked, concern bringing me a few steps closer.
“I feel dizzy.”
Dizzy? Light-headed? Hmm.
A light bulb went off in my head, and I snapped my fingers at Rayna. “Think this is it?”
She spun around to study Conrad, whose knees had begun to wobble. The heart fell from his loosened grip, plopping to the ground with a wet thunk. He sank to his knees and bowed his head. More memories surfaced of how I’d felt the night I’d made my full transition to a slayer. It looked a lot like he did now.
“Yeah, almost definitely.” She threw her hair back behind her shoulder. “Good thing, too, because I didn’t think I could take him eating any more dragon hearts.”
On that, she and I could agree.
“We gotta get him out of here fast then,” I said, urgency in my voice.
Rayna gave a shrill whistle and then furrowed her brows, a sign of her using her telepathic ability. She was likely letting her horse, Onyx, know to come quickly. The whistle just helped him narrow down our location. We’d left the animal hours ago while hunting, and he knew to stay a safe distance away under cover. Usually, the stallion found a nice, shady spot to munch on grass.
Conrad rubbed his head. “Why does it hurt so much?”
The pain was setting in, which meant he was going to be in full-blown agony before long. One didn’t get to be a slayer without making serious sacrifices every step of the way. If we wanted to be immortal, heal quickly, and gain super strength, our bodies had to transform on a cellular level. All the advantages Conrad had gained so far were what anyone born with the gene would have had before the transition. It took the rite of passage to complete the changes and give him full power.
“That’s just the beginning, my friend,” I said, kneeling to put an arm around him. “It’s gonna get a whole lot worse over the next two days.”
He let me pull him up, wincing. “Shit. I forgot how bad it was for you. Must have blanked out about it, but it’s comin’ back to me now. This is gonna fuckin’ suck big time.”
Conrad had watched my transition, staying in the room almost the entire time as my most loyal friend. From what I understood, I screamed in pain a lot, convulsed, went through a stage of being too hot and then too cold. Thankfully, I didn’t remember much of it, but everyone told me what they’d seen, and it sounded awful.
“I tried warning you, so don’t say I didn’t.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll still think it’ll be worth it once it’s over.”
Rayna had retrieved her horse and brought Onyx toward us. The black stallion was a beautiful baroque Friesian with a long, lustrous mane and tail. He also had feather hair on his lower legs, covering his hooves. I never tired of looking at him, and he loved attention.
Conrad gritted his teeth. “I’m gonna have to ride that horse, aren’t I? The same one you used to pull that trick on me a few months ago?”
He’d be lucky if he had thirty minutes before the pain became unbearable. We were about five or six miles from the border with the Taugud, where it would be safer for him to transition. Walking wasn’t an option. I doubted he’d be able to stand much longer, even with me holding him, which was why Rayna hadn’t wasted any time retrieving her horse. She’d also been through the same process and knew what to expect.
“You’ll pretty much lose control of your body soon,” I said, guiding him to the other slayer. “The pain will feel like being burned alive, except it will last a whole lot longer and won’t have the good grace to kill you.”
“Thanks for that comforting description,” he grumbled.
I smiled wide enough to show teeth. “You hate it when I sugarcoat things, so why bother?”
“Damn, psycho women.”
Rayna and I worked together to boost Conrad onto the horse. It wasn’t that he felt heavy with our superior strength, but rather that he’d become limp and awkward. I feared we’d have to tie him onto the stallion like the time I’d gotten my revenge on him in Tennessee. He’d been asleep for that, but I swore this time, it was even harder to get him settled as he began to tremble with pain.
“I’ll ride with him and hold him,” Rayna said, mounting the horse behind Conrad. She looked down at me. “Will you be okay?”
“Of course. Don’t worry about me. Take him to the safe house right past the border, and the lady there will help. Oh, and if you see Esphyr, let her know I’ll be along shortly.”
I’d made a few allies before leaving for North Carolina. Thankfully, they welcomed me back after five years away with no problem. Sometimes, I needed a place to store stuff or recover from injuries after a battle. A few people around the city were happy to help whenever I needed it, and I’d introduced Rayna to most of them, so she’d have support during those times she hunted without me.
Conrad arched his back and groaned. “Damn, this sucks.”
It was too bad I couldn’t stay with him during the transition, but I no longer had that luxury as a pendragon’s mate. Duty called. “I’ll get word to Rosalie so she can come be with you.”
His girlfriend would be a better source of comfort anyway.
“Why can’t I just go home?” he asked, misery in his brown gaze.
“Sorry.” I shook my head. “You’re barely gonna make it across the border before it gets so bad you’ll be out of your mind and praying for deliverance. Every movement and touch against your skin will feel like agony. Trust me that you need to get to the nearest safe place.”
Most of my memories of the transformation process were hazy, but a few key things stood out from that time—pain being chief among them. I didn’t envy Conrad that experience, but at least he’d finally get his wish and be stronger for it. We had a war to fight. He’d become an essential asset as a full slayer and feel a hundred percent better afterward. There was a significant difference between fighting dragons before and after the process, especially with a slayer’s rapid healing abilities. It took a hell of a lot of damage for us to die.
“Take care,” Rayna said with a wave, then nudged her horse into a smooth lope.
I watched them go while Conrad begged her to slow down, moaning in pain. She’d have to weave through wrecked city streets, roving gangs, and who knew what other obstacles to get him across the border fast. He’d have to tough it out until then.
I took off at a jog, following in the same direction. They left my sight moments after I started, but I didn’t worry. There wasn’t a green dragon in the sky. We’d been seeing fewer and fewer Shadowan in recent weeks, likely because they put more of their forces at the Thamaran border to the west. Or rather, the Kandoran border since their evil army took over without making it official. The urine markers hadn’t been updated by any clan on that side for at least a few years. Shifters told me that since I wasn’t about to sniff around and check.
Avoiding the main streets, I ran through neighborhoods. Some had burned down at some point, but others remained standing. None of them looked like anyone had maintained them in a long time. It didn’t mean people didn’t continue to live inside, though. They knew better than to advertise signs of habitation that would trigger the pure dragons to investigate further, so they let the outside become overgrown, littered with trash, and dilapidated.
Garbage and the noxious odors of overflowing sewage were major problems outside of Norman. Humans beyond the town’s limits hadn’t organized in any meaningful way beyond maybe protecting each other in certain neighborhoods, so the living conditions continued to worsen. I’d heard the city planners hoped to expand and include more places for clean-up, running water, and electricity wherever enough humans agreed to cooperate.
I’d run about a mile when I spotted three men sitting on a porch with pistols and rifles in their hands. They tensed when they first saw me but didn’t stand or lift their weapons. I didn’t change my pace, choosing instead to meet their gazes and wave.
“Slayer,” one of them called as I passed, a grin splitting his face. “Keep up the good work!”
Word had gotten around that I was back, and they knew how to recognize me with my black camrium uniform—along with Conrad and Rayna, who wore the same. Our specialized clothing was fireproof and bulletproof and didn’t tear easily due to the strong leather-like material and magical properties imbued into it. No one with any sense messed with us. They knew we wouldn’t hurt them unless provoked, and we only came out to kill dragons. Nobody minded that. Only the occasional idiot with a chip on their shoulder considered challenging us, but that rarely happened anymore.
I considered passing them without replying, but I felt obligated to say something. “Have you heard what’s coming?”
The man who’d spoken to me grimaced. “There’s been rumors.”
“It’s gonna be bad,” I said, a warning in my voice. “We’re gearing up for battle and can use all the help we can get, so if you feel up for it, talk to someone on the shifter side about joining us—or just make sure you get underground during the war to stay safe. We hope to win, but it’s gonna take a while with the army coming our way. Stock up on all the supplies you can.”
The three men glanced at each other with wary expressions before the same one replied. “We appreciate you tellin’ us. We might think about joinin’ but no promises.”
“It’s fine, whatever you decide, but could you pass the word along?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “We can do that.”
The Norman city council had been distributing flyers around the Oklahoma City area over the past few weeks to get the news out, along with Hank—the radio guy—doing the same. We were trying to prepare everyone the best we could and recruit anyone willing to fight. Some people were too tired from years of barely surviving to care about the big picture anymore. It was simply one more problem in a long list of many.
We’d all been through a lot since the dragons arrived, and many didn’t have much left to give. I tried not to judge despite lacking that choice myself. Like it or not, I had to face the enemies coming. Every slayer in the area would feel compelled to do so.
“Stay safe, guys,” I said, continuing on my way.
The skies remained clear as I picked up the pace and resumed jogging through the city. Relief filled me when I finally spotted I-240 up ahead, knowing it marked the neutral travel zone before entering Taugud territory. A quick sky check told me no green dragons currently patrolled the area. I put on one last burst of speed as I made my way under a bridge and crossed into my safe zone.
Esphyr stood waiting for me on the other side in her human form. She was Aidan’s aunt, and his cousin Donar’s mother. One wouldn’t know it by looking at her since she appeared no older than her early thirties. She had a large bone structure filled out with toned muscles, light olive skin, and long black hair that fell past her shoulders. This was a female who could cook a delicious meal and kill a few green dragons in a single afternoon. I respected her.
Her yellow eyes had black slits, something common to all shifters, and she narrowed them as I ran up to her. “A pendragon’s mate should not be out alone in pure dragon territory.”
Aidan had impressed upon all of us that I was not to go out fighting alone since returning. He understood and accepted that I had to hunt but wanted me to be as safe as possible. Ever since we’d reunited, he’d had more difficulty letting me out of his sight. I couldn’t blame him since I hated every time I had to leave him as well. But we both knew if I didn’t go out regularly, I’d turn on him or others in his clan.
“Conrad is transitioning to a slayer, so Rayna had to rush him to safety.”
Esphyr grunted. “They told me as much when they passed here half an hour ago, but you shouldn’t have let them leave without you.”
“We already patrolled the area, so I knew I was safe,” I argued.
She sighed. “Honestly, I know that, but I don’t enjoy explaining it to your mate. He’s cranky when you’re away.”
From what everyone told me, Aidan had proven to be the best pendragon they could recall ever having, and they were bonding with him in a way shifters had never done before with a leader. The catch was he didn’t tolerate any threat to me or our son. Everyone knew that was one line they couldn’t cross, so they did their best to protect us. It was nice, sort of.
I’d worried it would make the shifters resent me, but most said they believed I was why he didn’t let his newly acquired power go to his head. It was hard to get too cold and ruthless when you slept next to someone genetically programmed to kill you. They knew that despite being a slayer, I still thought much like a human, and I had certain expectations he had to live up to for our relationship to work and for me to hold back my instincts. Despite all the odds, most of the clan had grown to appreciate our arrangement. Other pendragons didn’t have someone like me to keep them in check.
“Don’t worry.” I smiled. “I’ll make him see reason and help him forget all about it tonight.”
Esphyr laughed. “Please. See that you do.”
Her body lit up in flames, and a few minutes later, she reappeared as a red dragon. She was smaller than Aidan in beast form but plenty strong. Esphyr grabbed hold of my body, and a moment later, we lifted into the air. I gritted my teeth against the urge to fight her. It was always there to some degree, even after freshly killing a dragon. My instincts warred with my intellectual side, but I’d developed iron control over myself. Only with my son, Orion, did I not feel an urge to kill at all. My brain didn’t even recognize his dragon side as a threat—to my relief after his first shift. For that matter, he didn’t trigger any slayer that way. It had come as a surprise to us all.
We flew over the rooftops of nearby houses. Based on the sun’s position, I was running a few minutes late. She must have also realized that because she put on a burst of speed despite the awkwardness of carrying me in her arms.
The flight south from Oklahoma City, over the town of Moore and then past Norman, took just over thirty minutes instead of my estimated forty-five. We still had to go further south into the countryside and past Lake Thunderbird before reaching the fortress. The enormous slate-colored stone walls and inner castle emerged with the backdrop of mountain ridges a few miles beyond them. Their towering heights with blue-gray peaks weren’t there until the dragon dimension collided with ours, changing parts of the land in unexpected ways. They spanned about fifty square miles.
As soon as we touched down on the landing pad—a scorched circle of earth—a guard came to escort me while another ran toward the gate. Aidan didn’t like it when I was late, so he must have asked someone to alert him when I arrived. This evening was going to be super fun.
“Milord expected you sooner,” Boden said as I joined him, censure in his voice.
He was one of the guards assigned to me when needed. He didn’t scare easily and had a sense of humor—when I wasn’t in trouble—which made it easier to get along with him. I didn’t like killing people who could make me laugh. It also helped that he had a son Orion’s age. They often played together and practiced their wing-strengthening exercises in the field.
“It’s getting harder to find Shadowan to kill. The guards keep their distance from us, and the smart dragons avoid that border now. We had to go farther today for our hunt.”
Boden lifted a brow. “Already have an entire dragon clan afraid of you?”
“All but the young and dumb.”
He chuckled, but then his expression turned serious.
“Forgive me, but I must check you as usual,” he said, referring to the chance I’d gotten infected by dark magic while away. It hadn’t affected any slayers so far, but we never knew if the Kandoran might find a way around that immunity.
“Of course.” I lifted my camrium top to reveal the lower half of my torso. No smudges of black tainted my skin. “I can’t wait for this to be over.”
“None of us can,” he said grimly.
I gestured for us to walk so we could keep things moving along.
“Anything significant happen while I was away?”
He shook his head. “No, thankfully, all has been quiet today.”
We passed through the gate, where two guards stood at attention with swords at their sides. Both gave me a brief bow. “I suspect they’ve got their hands full elsewhere and decided it was best to avoid slayers rather than face us. We do have a highly successful kill rate.”
“I never thought I’d see the day,” Boden said, a hint of humor gleaming in his yellow eyes. “Shadowan quaking in fear at tiny women who likely get knocked over by a mere breeze.”
I scowled at him. “You’re pushing it.”
“You should worry about your mate, not me.”
“I could tell Rayna what you said. Just because I like you too much to kill you doesn’t mean she won’t feel differently.”
Boden grunted. “Keep her away from me. She’s a pretty little thing, but the look in her eyes says she’ll have her vengeance if you cross her. Add in her sorceress powers, and she’s lethal. That slayer scares the zishkat out of me.”
Zishkat was a word I learned early, meaning dragon shit.
“You should be scared of all slayers,” I said, giving him my fiercest look.
He clapped me on my back, causing me to stumble a step. “You get less scary every day.”
“Oh, really?” I pulled a small blade, knicked his neck before he could blink, and then returned my weapon to its sheath. “How about now?”
Boden rubbed the wound, his palm revealing a tiny smear of blood even as the cut healed. “Okay, you’re still scary, but I’m glad you’re on our side.”
I grinned.
We walked in companionable silence along the main thoroughfare to the castle. Some shifters gave me smiles when I passed, others a curt nod, and only a few still had wariness in their gazes. When I had the time and energy, I tried to get out and talk with them to put them at ease despite the fact it made me uncomfortable. Aidan encouraged it. Boden often accompanied me during those excursions so the shifters I approached wouldn’t get too nervous. It was slowly making a difference, but I had my work cut out to win over everyone.
We climbed the wide stone steps of the castle, and I got my usual shiver of unease. No matter how many times I reached this point, the memories and guilt came flooding back into my mind. Would I ever stop thinking of the day I attacked shifters—while under the control of a sorcerer—and was forced to leave Aidan for five years? Probably not anytime soon.
The great hall was bustling with activity as everyone sat for the midday meal. It was amusing that shifters called it that when it was six in the evening, and humans would consider it dinnertime. Dragons ran on a different schedule, though. The Taugud didn’t rise until almost noon, so that was when they ate their breakfast, and their final meal was at midnight. I’d slowly gotten used to the strange timing of their lives since moving into the fortress seven weeks before. Orion preferred the different schedule to the early mornings we’d woke to while living in North Carolina. That likely came from his dragon side.
When we reached the stairs, I paused and turned to Boden. “I can make it on my own from here. Go be with your family and eat.”
“Very well.” He gave me a short bow. “If you insist.”
He really was a good guy, and I could see why Aidan chose him to escort me. “I do.”
After he turned back toward the great hall, I hurried up a couple of flights of stairs until reaching the top level where the pendragon’s quarters were located. Aidan stood outside the door with his arms crossed, looking stern. Two guards stood near him, casting their gazes elsewhere.
“You’re late,” he said in a displeased tone.
I smiled brightly. “Then tell the Shadowan to stop hiding from me like little cowards.”
One of the guards snickered. Try as they might, they couldn’t remain stoic in my presence as they got to know me.
Aidan cleared his throat. “I’ll put that on my long list of things to do.”
“Oh, good.” I stepped in front of him and gave him a brief kiss on his lips. “It pays to be mated to a pendragon.”
He scrutinized me, checking for wounds like always after I hunted. “You appear to be unhurt, but you should wash the dragon blood from you before we eat.”
“Do I have to do it with a bath?” I asked, then leaned closer. “Or could you light me up with your fire?”
As I’d learned years ago, a shifter’s flames could clean me even better than water and soap. Whenever I felt extra tired and lazy, I’d make Aidan do it to save time and energy.
“Everyone is already waiting inside—and hungry. If I shift to clean you, I won’t be able to change again for a while, which is hardly convenient inside the castle,” he said, giving me a reproachful look.
“Right, okay.” I sighed, though I should have known better. He wouldn’t even be able to get through a doorway in his beast form. “The good old-fashioned way it is. You should have told them to go ahead and eat without me.”
“Absolutely not. If I did that, you’d be late every time.”
I snorted. “Sometimes I hate that you know me so well.”
We walked inside his chambers. Not long after I’d moved in with Aidan, we’d done a little rearranging. The sitting area was now on the opposite end of the room from the bed, and we’d put a large dining set next to the balcony. The fire-proof oak table and chairs could seat up to a dozen people. This allowed us to have a family dinner once a week where everyone dropped their busy schedules to eat and socialize together. It was cozy and intimate. With war looming, we needed that now more than ever.
I spotted my mother, Orion, and Paul on one side. Phoebe, Ozara, and their two-year-old daughter Leilany sat across from them, everyone with empty plates. On the sideboard, huge platters and bowls of food waited with a young human woman—Kayla—standing ready to serve.
She was now the head baker in the castle kitchens after proving no one could do better at the job. When I’d first met her, she’d only been fifteen years old, but now she was twenty-one and had grown into a beautiful woman. Her bright red hair hung in a braid down to her waist, similar to when I last saw her years ago, but her slight form had filled out with more curves under her white camrium dress that laced at the front.
Kayla had green eyes that missed nothing as she watched me enter the chamber. One would think a girl like her would stand out, but she had an uncanny knack for going unseen when she chose to do so. As soon as Aidan became pendragon, she resumed her spy work for him like in the old days. Anything she heard while working in the kitchens or walking through the castle, she passed to him.
As far as the rest of the clan knew, he requested Kayla to serve our weekly meals to reward her hard work and please me. In reality, the girl had no family anymore. She’d crossed into Kederrawien—a hellish world where dragons were banished a thousand years ago—as a child and lived with the shifters ever since, returning to Earth with them when the two dimensions melded together. While Nanoq had tolerated her during his reign, she’d been lonely and feared for her life as he grew more fanatical due to the dark infection spreading within him. Aidan wanted to give her a sense of belonging, so he included her in the meals as one of us. She’d sit and eat as well after serving the others.
“Start filling your plates,” I announced to the assembled group, giving them an apologetic look. “I just gotta wash up, and I’ll be right back.”
Chairs dragged across the stone floor, and they formed a line at the sideboard. Normally, I would have taken care of Orion’s meal, but I noticed my mom grabbing his plate for him. This was only the second time I’d been late in the past six weeks. No matter how often I said not to wait for me, Aidan insisted we all eat together.
Except when we were alone together at night, sitting with our family was when he was most content. It was the one time he could relax around other people without worrying about what he said and did and how it might be perceived. My poor mate was constantly hiding the stress of becoming responsible for a clan and preparing for war. Despite the fact he hadn’t wanted the position, he did a great job at it.
He followed me into the washroom. Before I could grab a clean cloth to moisten, he had me pressed against the wall. He took both my hands and held them above my head, pinned to the stone. A fierce look came over his yellow eyes.
“I should punish you for being late,” he growled.
I lifted a leg and rubbed it along his hip. “Mmm, that sounds like a good idea.”
He groaned, barely keeping up his stern expression. “You’re not supposed to enjoy my punishments, slayer.”
“Every time you say you’re going to discipline me, it turns out to be the best part of my day.” I smiled. “It’s not my fault if I like it.”
Steam came from his nostrils, heating my skin. “I’ll never grow tired of you and how you surprise me, misanna.”
I loved when he called me his “beloved one,” and the way the word rolled from his tongue with heat and finesse. “The same goes for you.” I freed my hands and cupped his face. “I love you and will never leave you again. You’re my everything, Aidan.”
He needed to hear me say that every day because the trauma of our separation still affected him a lot. It also did for me, but at least I’d had our son and a life to keep me busy. He’d suffered every day for over five years while we’d been absent, and he’d had no anchor to keep him sane. Even his family and friends had been kept away from him. No one except me saw how badly that time had damaged him, and I worked hard to help him overcome the trauma.
His eyes lingered on me for a moment longer, and then he crushed me in a deep kiss. The way he melded himself into me felt like he was a drowning man clinging to me for his life. Soon after reuniting, I realized he needed my support to keep him going. He’d handled himself well in those first couple of weeks after defeating Nanoq, but he knew I was returning soon, which kept him motivated.
Now, I recharged him each night so he could go without me during the day and be the best leader possible. I’d never been prouder of him for overcoming a lifetime of doubts instilled by his own family.
After a minute of kissing and touching each other to reestablish our bond, and because we enjoyed it, we broke apart. His yellow gaze revealed how relaxed he’d become in those moments. I loved how much a powerful dragon needed me.
Aidan stepped back and swept out his arm. “You may wash now.”
“Oh, milord.” I gave him a mock bow. “You are too kind.”
He shook his head. “I will have to punish you thoroughly for that later, but for now, I’ll prepare your plate. You must eat, mate.”
I couldn’t argue with him there and appreciated that despite becoming pendragon, he still performed menial tasks for me. “Thank you.”
“You’ll have to tell me tonight exactly what happened during your hunt.”
I started scrubbing my face with the washcloth. “Oh, definitely. There’s even a plot twist at the end that I didn’t see coming, though I suppose I should have.”
He arched a brow. “What’s that?”
“Conrad is transitioning into a slayer right now.”
“Shifitt,” he swore and ran a hand through his dark hair. “Is that why you were late?”
“Partly.”
Aidan worked his jaw, deep in thought for a minute as I finished cleaning myself and combing my long, black hair. Sounds of the others digging into their meals and chatting reached our ears. We really needed to head out there soon.
“Perhaps it is good timing,” Aidan said, straightening his shoulders. “Your annoying friend will be more resilient in battle and likely to kill more of our enemies.”
“Yes,” I agreed.
“Then I will try to see it as a good thing.”
I gave him a peck on the cheek. “Very wise of you.”