Ashes and Flame

by Aiden Bates

  “We will let the two of you enjoy the new decorations,” Mikhail said. “If it is of concern, we also installed some additional soundproofing, at Rez’s insistence.”

  Rez rubbed the back of his neck, a toothy, goofy grin on his face as I raised an eyebrow at him. “You know. For privacy.”

  Vance barely hid a smile. “Tam and I are having dinner at Nix and Mikhail’s place tonight before we go.”

  “You will of course join us,” Mikhail said. And, almost as an afterthought, “Assuming you are able to walk.”

  My face burned. Being in the weyr for a couple of weeks so far had shown me that dragons were apparently very open about their sexuality. It was an adjustment.

  When they were gone, Rez pulled me to him, kissed me, and then looked around at the permanent wards and enchantments. “Now,” he said, “you don’t have to be on guard. If you burn, you burn. What do you think?”

  I pressed close to him, my arms around his waist, and gave him a shy kind of smile as I nosed his chin. “I think I’m already feeling a little hot… soundproofed, hm?”

  He waggled his eyebrows. “Yeah. I been taking it easy on you. Up until now.”

  “Have you?” I wondered as he let me go and drew me toward the short hallway that led to his room.

  “Oh, yeah,” he said. “But all that’s about to end. Come with me, sweet thing. I’m about to wreck that ass. We definitely aren’t making it to dinner.”

  “That’s in, like… nine hours,” I muttered.

  Rez pulled me into his room, and practically tossed me onto his bed before he stripped his shirt off. He bared his teeth. “Yeah. I know.”

  Days passed. Then weeks. Then I looked at the date on my new phone—a real, actual smartphone—and realized it had been two months.

  Two months since the book called.

  Maybe I really was free, finally.

  I let myself think that, and eased into life on the weyr. Rez assisted Nix as a kind of vice governor, mostly. They had been in the process of reworking their local ordinances, getting into line with the national charter as part of a long campaign to get reconnected with other shifter territories, with the cabals, and begin integrating with the state and federal programs. Rez didn’t seem to like his job much most of the time, but it became evident very quickly that he loved Nix like a brother. They were a team, playing good cop and bad cop when they needed to, and it worked. They were making progress, even though many in the weyr apparently weren’t entirely comfortable with the idea of modernizing.

  At first, I spent most of my time inside, worried that I might slip up. But I started talking with Amy regularly, and she didn’t charge me to keep giving me advice and guidance from Loup City. Maybe that’s because she was in Loup City, with Laleh.

  “She seems smart enough,” Amy had remarked when I asked her how serious they were, “but she’s still dating, and even lets me sleep over most of the time. So, maybe she’s not as clever as she acts. She ought to know better.”

  Mikhail began urging me out more often. At first it was just to walk around, see the territory, get to know people. Everyone was excited to meet me, not at all worried to have a glitcher elementalist in their midst, and Rez hadn’t been shy about letting people know who and what I was. I understood why he hadn’t wanted to give this place up. Now that I was here, neither did I. And after a few weeks, Mikhail began to teach me cabal magic. I was never going to have the fine control over my magic that other mages did, but there were other, more general kinds of magic for me to learn.

  This was what a normal life felt like. And it felt wonderful.

  And when that was interrupted, finally, I didn’t feel as bad about it as I thought I would. Because I wasn’t alone.

  I felt the call again one afternoon while I was picking up groceries for the house. One moment I was smelling an orange grown right on the weyr, smiling at the fresh scent of citrus, and the next I felt a tingle behind my forehead. Nothing serious, nothing painful. But it was familiar. I finished shopping, tension beginning to fill my body, and then tried to go home unhurriedly. Two months, two weeks, and several days. Like the clock had been rolled back. Why it waited so long, I didn’t know, but it meant I had time on my side again. Years of it, maybe another ten.

  I worried about telling Rez. I would, of course, but I hated to worry him. I rehearsed the conversation a few times on my way back to our house, planning to tell him over dinner, maybe, or after we’d made love. Which was pretty much how we fell asleep every night.

  But I didn’t get the chance. By the time I got home, Rez was already coming down the street, his expression worried. Had someone spotted me, told him I looked tense? It was a small community. Word got around. Fast.

  “Off early?” I asked as I held up the two sacks of groceries. “Just got back from the store. What’s up?”

  He stopped near me, looking me over. “You feel… anything? Out of the ordinary?”

  My stomach sank. I almost dropped the bags. “Let’s, uh… let’s go inside.”

  He took the bags from me, and followed me in. When he’d put the bags on the table in the kitchen, he rubbed his forehead. Same spot I felt it.

  “Shit,” I breathed. “Is it… what are you feeling?”

  Rez shook his head, confused. “Like someone’s got a finger right at my brow, here”—he touched the spot—“but I can’t see them. It’s like it’s inside my head.”

  I sagged onto the couch, my eyes closed. “Gods damn it,” I muttered. “I thought… I thought I was free, and I… you’re not supposed to have to do this, too.”

  “It’s the book,” he said as he moved closer and knelt in front of me. “That’s what you feel, too, isn’t it? It’s the… the thing Mikhail did. Merging our souls. We’re both on the hook.”

  “I’m sorry, Rez,” I whispered.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head as he took my hands and held them in his, then kissed my knuckles. “Don’t do that. Whatever happens to you, happens to me. I want it that way. We’re stronger together. At least now, you don’t have to do it alone.”

  That was some comfort, but not a lot.

  “It’s a curious thing,” a man said from the kitchen. “Sharing a soul. It means sharing a purpose. A unified destiny.”

  Rez startled harder than I did. He turned, shooting to his feet to face the slender-looking man seated at our table. He had golden hair bound in a braid that lay over his shoulder. A white tee-shirt showed off a body chiseled to perfection, and tight jeans showed shapely legs. I only noticed at all because looking at him… he was just painfully beautiful to witness. He plucked a pomegranate from the bag and smiled at it, but didn’t bite down like it seemed he was about to. He just set it on the table, then drummed his fingers as he watched us.

  “The fuck are you?” Rez demanded. “How did you get in here?”

  The man tilted his head slightly, examining my mate with appreciation that bordered on erotic. “You are a fine specimen, aren’t you?” his eyes, dark brown in contrast to his hair, caught and held mine. “Well done. And the way the two of you make love—I wish you could see it like I do.”

  “You’ve been watching us?” I demanded.

  He pursed his lips. “Come now, Daniel. You and I are old friends, aren’t we? What’s a little voyeurism between friends?”

  Rez’s muscles swelled. Scales peeked out along the skin of his arms. His voice was deeper and harsher when he spoke. “Who the fuck are you? Answer me, or you won’t get a chance.”

  The man was utterly unperturbed by the threat of a painful death-by-angry-dragon. “I can’t tell you that. Not myself, anyway. I’m just here to offer a little support, and maybe a spot of guidance. First—Daniel really loves his cock sucked, but you sometimes get a little ahead of yourself. You should slow down, enjoy it a bit more. And Daniel”—he looked back at me again—“tell your mate what you want, when you want it. Don’t be shy. I promise you, he’ll do anything you ask him to. Anything at all, you should see the
fantasies in that head of his.”

  “You’re an esper,” Rez snarled. “What cabal are you from and why are you here? Tell me or—”

  There was a knock at the door.

  The man smiled. “I’ll get out of your hair. And scales. Read the book. Read it to the end. Don’t resist. It isn’t what you think.”

  “What is it?” I asked. I knew him now. The voice from the desert. “Please, you have to tell me. I have to know.”

  Rez glanced at me, frowning, and then at the door when the knock repeated.

  The man sighed. “If I tell you, it will defeat the purpose. You’ve been chosen. And now, so has he. Chosen with good reason. The book doesn’t make mistakes. Promise me you’ll keep reading, no matter what happens.”

  “I…”

  Rez gave me a pained, desperate look. I held it, and waited for him to see. We didn’t have a choice. Not really. His expression softened. We’d be together. That was all that mattered. I knew it, he knew it.

  “I promise,” I said as I turned back to our visitor.

  He was gone. He hadn’t made a sound. No portal had opened, no flash of light, no rush of air. Just… gone. Like he’d never been there.

  The knock came again, more insistent. Rez shook his head, as confused as I was about what had happened, what was happening to us, and went to the door as I stood, anxious to know who was on the other side. Maybe Mikhail? Had he sensed some magic happening?

  Instead, I saw a youngish-looking man with a bit of scruff on his jaw. His neck was set with a handful of hemp necklaces, like his wrists. He had sunglasses on that he took down to look Rez over in a way that was clearly sexual. “Oh… please let this be a thank you.”

  Rez growled low in his throat. “Who the hell are you?”

  I cleared my throat as the intruder smiled in a way that felt a lot like he was about to jump my mate’s bones. Bright blue eyes fell on me, and I was a little surprised to find that I blushed. He was… really pretty.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I was told I would be expected. My boss has… a weird sense of humor.”

  The man in the kitchen. I knew it instinctively, and looked this hipster-surfer-underwear model person over as I joined Rez at the door and slipped my arm protectively around his waist. “Your boss, the blond?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “He sort of… changes things up. But… super-hot, a little lewd, seems to know about your deepest fantasies and doesn’t mind just tossing them out there in front of strangers, your mom, your grandma, like it’s nothing?”

  Rez and I shared a look that made it clear that we agreed that this day was getting way too strange, way too fast.

  The man at the door stuck a hand out. “Sorry, I know, this is weird,” he said. “I’m Timothy Crane. It’s a pleasure.”

  When Rez didn’t take his hand, I did—cautiously. “Daniel,” I said.

  “I know,” he muttered as he shook, and nodded toward Rez. “And you’re Rezzek.”

  “What do you want?” Rez demanded, though he was a bit calmer.

  Timothy spread his hands. “It’s not really about what I want,” he said. “I’m just here because I was sent. See, I’m a prophet. Specifically, the prophet of Eros, called Cupid, Bes, Guaraní, and a bunch of other names. And if I’m not mistaken… you two have met him.”

  “That man,” I said slowly, glancing at the kitchen, “that was… that was the god Eros?”

  Timothy shrugged. “I know. It’s crazy. I’d say you get used to it but… you don’t.”

  “What does a god want with us?” Rez asked, as if he were worried about the answer.

  And if he was smart, he was worried. I was worried. Stories about gods and mortals never ended well.

  Timothy shrugged again. “Oh, you know, the usual.”

  He smiled at me. “He wants us to save the world.”

  Get ready for book 4 of the Dragon Magic Series, Ashes And Prophets

  Available Now!

  Ashes And Prophets!

  Get ready for book 4 of the Dragon Magic Series, Ashes And Prophets

  Available Now!

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  Ashes And Flame

  Dragon Magic: Book 3

  Jill Haven & Aiden Bates

  © 2020

  Disclaimer

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are all fictitious for the reader’s pleasure. Any similarities to real people, places, events, living or dead are all coincidental.

  This book contains sexually explicit content that is intended for ADULTS ONLY (+18)