Even in this position, his torso was longer than hers, and she had to look up to see his face. His crimson eyes were wide, wild, intent, and a muscle flexed furiously in his jaw with the effort of his sawing thrusts. His sensual mouth was folded in a tight line.
Every time he drove himself into her, her sex clenched at the sweetly brutal pounding. She writhed against him, not sure whether she wanted to protest or beg for more.
Then he did something, some clever roll of the hips, and suddenly he started hitting exactly the right spot. Each thrust became a spike of delight that wound her building orgasm tighter and tighter in a creamy ball of heat.
She threw back her head with a shout and started grinding against him, arching back in his strong arms, trying to get that last little bit of friction that would shoot her over the edge. Yet it remained frustratingly out of reach…
Until suddenly he changed his grip on her ass and traced a finger between her lips. And made contact.
The detonation of her orgasm was silent and blinding, a white-hot blast that tore a scream of raw pleasure from her mouth. As she convulsed, her entire body clamping, he stiffened and roared. Deep inside her body, she felt the hot jets of his pleasure.
And somewhere in the distance, she sensed the goddess’s power flare bright. “Ah, yessss…”
Nineva sprawled across Kel’s panting chest and concentrated on breathing. He’d conjured an enormous feather tick a moment ago and dumped them both onto it as if his muscles had suddenly given out.
For a long moment, she thought nothing at all, her mind deliciously blanked by pleasure. She felt boneless, euphoric. At peace, despite the Dark Ones’ imminent invasion, despite the need to convince xenophobic Dragon Lords to help. As if she and Kel were up to any challenge, as long as they were together. Too many years of being her father’s daughter told her that was a dangerous delusion, yet she didn’t care. Not when she could hear his heartbeat against her chest, solid and strong.
Nineva wondered exactly when she’d fallen for him. Love seemed to have crept up on her while she’d been busy doing other things. He’d built it bit by bit from steamy passion and comforting touches, from his willingness to believe the unbelievable, from the rage in his eyes whenever anyone threatened her. He’d shed blood for her without a second thought, taken blows that would have killed her. Who wouldn’t love him?
The only question was, why did he love her? Oh, by human standards, she was pretty enough, but Nineva suspected Eithne was the Draconian equivalent of a raving beauty, at least judging by the startled look in Kel’s eyes when she’d flown in. And Eithne had the added advantage of being the right species.
Yet against all logic, Kel loved Nineva anyway. She didn’t even question that. It had been there in his eyes when he’d said the words, unmistakable as a shout.
Kel, Dragon Knight of the Round Table, loved her. She, who’d never been loved by any man because she’d never let any man get that close.
But then, Kel hadn’t exactly asked permission.
A big, warm hand came up and cupped her cheek, tilted her head until she met his eyes. “Are you okay?”
She gave him what she suspected was a catlike smile. “Oh, I’m much better than merely okay.”
A faint frown formed between his cobalt brows. “Are you sure? I was a little rough there at the end. I got carried away. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She rolled over and stretched, smiling in sated pleasure. “It was wonderful.”
“Good.” He smiled, but there was something a little troubled in his eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“Did you mean it?” He searched her gaze.
She didn’t have to ask what. “Yes, I meant it.” She brushed his hair back. “I love you, Kel. I don’t know what’s going to happen between us, I don’t know if we’re going to get some kind of happily-ever-after, but I know how I feel now. And it’s something I’ve never felt before.”
He searched her gaze a moment before his crimson eyes lit with such joy, she had to smile back. “You mean it.”
“Oh, yeah.”
His smile warmed her to the bone. “I love you, too.”
“Good, because feeling this way alone would really suck.”
Kel’s laughter boomed through the cave.
Knowing they were running out of time, Nineva conjured her armor again. From the sound of it, she needed all the protection she could get before meeting with the Dragon Lords. Kel returned to dragon form while she tried not to wish he could remain human. It was painfully apparent that wouldn’t be politically wise.
Even so, she thought his expression softened as he looked down at her from his Draconian height. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Nineva.”
She forced a smile. “I know you won’t.”
The thunder of wings drew their attention to the mouth of the cave. “Are you decent?” Soren called from somewhere outside.
Nineva shot Kel a mischievous glance. “‘Decent’ doesn’t do it justice.”
“Bad girl,” he murmured, then lifted his voice. “Yes, we’re ready.”
“Good.” Soren touched down in the cave mouth, though he kept his wings spread for takeoff. “I talked them into meeting with you by invoking Cachamwri’s name, but we don’t want to keep them waiting. I don’t know how long their patience is going to hold.”
Kel crouched and boosted Nineva astride across his back with a clawed forelimb. “I thought it best not to wear a harness this time,” he murmured for her ears only. “Can you manage bareback?”
“I’ll give it my best shot.” She settled herself into place at the base of his neck, hooking her legs over his shoulders and wrapping both hands around one of the spines that jutted from her neck. Her heart started pounding as he moved toward the cave entrance. By an effort of sheer will, she managed not to scream as he threw himself from the cave and dropped like a stone into the bright morning sunlight. Just as her stomach stuffed her mouth, his spread wings finally caught the air. They soared upward, borne on thermals and magic.
They didn’t go far, spiraling upward a thousand feet or so before following Soren into another cave mouth. This one was even wider than his own, as though created to allow multiple dragons to take off and land.
It was dark inside the cave after the sunlit flight upward, and Nineva couldn’t see a damn thing as she clung nervously to Kel’s warm back. When her vision finally cleared, she realized they were moving down a long tunnel lit by that dim green light the dragons seemed to favor. Like Soren’s cave, the tunnel was obviously artificial, with smooth rounded sides that made it look as if it had been cut by a huge drill bit. It sloped gradually downward, curving off into the dim green light. The Dragon Lords must meet deep inside the mountain.
Neither dragon spoke as they walked, their claws clicking on the stone, their breathing deep. Nineva could hear the faint whisper of scale rubbing on stone as they moved. Something about that sound made her sharply aware of being a mammal alone among huge reptiles. She was grateful all over again for Kel’s solid, comforting presence.
He wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
They rounded a bend, and a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. Draconian voices rose in argument.
“…could this creature possibly have to say that would be worth hearing?”
“At least it should be entertaining.”
“If Cachamwri told Kel to guard this female, we would be ill-advised to refuse to listen to her.”
“I’m not convinced the god said any such thing. Kel’s probably lying.”
Kel growled at that, a deep rippling rumble of rage.
“Why would he do that?”
“Probably out of some worm-witted desire to force us to have contact with those disgusting pets of his.”
“Oh, yeah,” Nineva murmured to Kel in dry sarcasm. “This is going to be a piece of cake.”
“Better put her down,” Soren whispered before Kel could reply. “I don’t think it’
s a good idea for her to ride you into the chambers.”
“Good point.” Kel hunkered down and lifted a foreleg. She gingerly planted her foot in his clawed hand and dismounted. When she stood on her booted feet again, she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, aware of Kel’s worried gaze. “You ready?” he asked.
“Yeah.” It was a lie, but she forced a smile anyway and strode into the chamber beyond. Kel and Soren followed, looming at her back like a pair of dragon bookends.
It was one of her better attempts at bravado, but she almost ruined it with a gasp as she got a good look at the chamber.
It was even vaster than she’d expected, an echoing egg-shaped space the size of a football stadium. Twelve dragons in shades of gold, red, blue, and green lay on a curving stone ledge that took up the other end of the chamber. Their eyes gleamed like cats’.
In the center of the ledge lay a huge, glowing egg. It radiated magic in waves that seemed to thrum against Nineva’s senses. “What the hell is that?” she whispered to Kel.
“Cachamwri’s Egg,” he whispered back.
“You mean it actually exists?” She gaped at him. “I thought it was a figure of speech!”
“Oh, it’s a lot more than that. It’s the embodiment of the Dragon God’s power among us.”
While they’d been talking, Soren slipped forward and made a complicated snaking dip of his long neck in the Egg’s direction. Then he turned and climbed the ledge to settle his great body into the one empty spot among his fellow Dragon Lords.
The dragon who sat closest to the Egg lifted his golden head. “Kel of the Bloodstone Clan would address the Dragon Lords?”
“Stay here,” Kel murmured to Nineva, then rustled over to repeat Soren’s neck dip to the Egg before drawing himself to his full height. “I come accompanied by Nineva Morroc, Princess of the Morven Sidhe and Last Avatar of the Goddess Semira.” He looked back at her, and she hurried forward, her mouth dry.
Unsure what to do about the Egg—after all, Cachamwri wasn’t her god—she dipped a full court curtsy, her armor clanking. “My thanks for your willingness to hear my petition, Dragon Lords.”
The golden dragon grunted, then turned to address Kel. “You claim Cachamwri instructed you to protect this creature?”
“Yes, Lord Piaras. He approached me wearing a guise of flame and told me to find the princess and the Sword of Semira.”
“Sword of…? I have never heard of this.” Piaras reared back, looking down his long nose at Kel in arrogant disbelief.
“There’s no reason you should have,” Nineva said. “It’s a holy object of the Morven Sidhe people that is inhabited by our goddess, Semira.”
“This is absurd,” a red dragon snapped. “Why should Cachamwri care about some foreign goddess? This is some plot of yours, Kel, intended to embarrass the Dragon Lords again. Like that business with the Dark Ones’ spawn.”
“That was Tegid’s plot, not mine,” Kel grated. “I make no plots. I only serve Cachamwri as my duty demands.”
“The sword has been stolen by rebels in league with the Dark Ones,” Nineva said hastily. “Along with Merlin’s Grimoire. It’s our belief the rebels intend to use the two objects to crack the planetary wards that keep the Dark Ones from invading. If that were to happen, all our people—Sidhe, Dragonkind, and human—would be at their mercy.”
“Lies,” the red dragon snarled. “The wards are just as they’ve always been. You are attempting to trick us into some involvement with your ape ways.”
A rumble of agreement rose from the other dragons, who stared at them with anger and suspicion.
“What would I gain from such a deception?” she demanded. “As to the wards being solid—that’s because the rebels haven’t broken them yet. If you wait until they’re destroyed, it will be too late for us all.”
“The wards draw their power from the Earth itself,” another of the dragons said. “It would be impossible for a gang of Sidhe rebels to break them. And with such pitiful weapons—a sword and some alien book? Preposterous.”
“If Cachamwri indeed wished us to take some action, he would tell us so.” Piaras gestured at the Egg. “We have the very manifestation of his power right here. He would not send some ape with such a vital message.”
“Aye,” Draconian voices rumbled. “It’s so!”
“The creature surely lies. Kel brought her here because he wishes to shame us again.”
Kel and Nineva exchanged a hooded glance. He’d been right, she realized. This was an utter waste of time.
An hour later, she and Kel walked from the chamber, leaving Soren to continue arguing their case.
“They’re not going to listen to him, either.” Nineva scraped her hair back from her face, feeling battered with discouragement. The three of them had tried every argument they could think of, but the Dragon Lords greeted each one with ridicule.
“No.” Kel sounded as exhausted as she felt. “They’re too afraid of looking weak or stupid to the clans they lead. Among the Dragonkind, that sort of thing can get you killed, since a weak leader will soon find himself challenged by someone younger and more ambitious.”
“I gather we’re not talking about an electoral challenge?” Nineva asked drily.
“More like a battle to the death. In fact, I could have taken Tegid’s seat on the Lords after I killed him.”
“Why didn’t you? No taste for Draconian politics?”
“That, and no desire whatsoever to live among the Dragonkind.”
Nineva snorted. “After what I’ve seen the last couple of hours, I can understand that.”
Kel boosted her astride his back, walked to the cave mouth, and leaped out into a long, swooping dive. Nineva was too dispirited to flinch, despite the sickening drop.
The cliffs were lined with dragons, watching them with hostility and suspicion. Some of them hurled catcalls. She fought to ignore them. “For the first time, I’m glad my father’s dead.”
Kel glanced back at her, a Draconian frown on his muzzle. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
“The only thing I was born to do, and I keep fucking it up.” She knotted her hands into frustrated fists and beat them against one of his spines. “I lost the sword, I can’t power the goddess, I can’t even find either of them. Now Merlin’s Grimoire is gone, too, and the fucking Dragonkind won’t listen to us.” That last was a snarl of raw rage. “Nothing I do is working, Kel.”
“So what you’re saying is, I’m a fuckup.”
“What—you? No, I meant—”
“But we’re partners, right? Cachamwri told me to protect you and recover the sword. I haven’t, so by your reasoning…”
“You and I both know Arthur Pendragon would not make a fuckup a Knight of the Round Table.”
“And I assure you, a Knight of the Round Table would not let himself be partnered with one, either.” He aimed a glare at a male dragon who darted too close. The other immediately lost his courage and veered off. Kel continued, “If I thought you were that kind of liability, I would pat you on your little head and leave you back at Avalon with lots of my friends to keep an eye on you. Then I’d go off to find your goddess. Since I have not done that, you are obviously not a liability.”
He spread his wings and came in for a landing in Soren’s cave, his muscled legs bending to absorb the impact. Nineva was already scrambling down from his neck. “Then why the hell do we keep failing?”
“A lack of instant success does not make you a failure, Nineva. Quitting makes you a failure, and I know you too well to think you’re going to quit.”
“Fine. It’s not over till it’s over. Insert stirring speech here, rah rah.” She stalked into the cave. “But that still doesn’t answer the question of what the hell do we do now? The Dragon Lords don’t believe us, they’re not going to help us, and the Dark Ones are going to invade. We have to do something.”
He followed, his expression thoughtful. “Maybe not.”
“What, we wait to
become Purina Demon Chow?”
Kel sighed and sat back on his haunches, flipping his tail around his feet. “Sweet, I’ve been at this a long time, and I’ve found that when you’ve done all you can and it doesn’t work, it’s because your timing is bad. Sometimes when you wait and try again, the opportunity you need falls into your hands.”
“But what if it doesn’t, Kel?”
“It will.” He shrugged. “Or we’re screwed. At this point, those are our only two options.”
FIFTEEN
Nineva still looked so unconvinced—and thoroughly miserable with it—that he was about to try comforting her in human form when a soft voice interrupted. “Kel? Are you in there?”
He grimaced. Just what he didn’t need with Nineva in meltdown—an amorous young dragon honing her skills at flirtation. Unfortunately, females in season were prone toward flights of melodrama, and he knew trying to get rid of Eithne would probably just set her off. “Yes, we’re here, Eithne.”
She came in for a featherlight landing that spoke of both youth and agility. Her large blue eyes scanned the cave anxiously as her tail lashed like an agitated cat’s. “Are we alone?”
Kel managed not to sigh. “Nineva’s here.” Maybe Eithne would display a little sensitivity.
She made a dismissive gesture. “As long as Soren’s not, I don’t care.”
Standing by his side, Nineva rolled her eyes. “Just pretend I’m not here.”
Kel gave the toe of her boot a brush with his tail tip, a gesture meant to comfort. Patience, darling. “What do you want, Eithne?”
She moved toward him, her white scales almost glowing in the light of the cave. “I want to go with you, Kel. To Avalon.” Seeing him open his mouth to explain just how impossible that was, she stretched out a foreleg in a pleading gesture. “I can’t bear it here any longer. I feel as if I’m suffocating under endless layers of expectation and tradition.”
“Eithne, you know I wouldn’t be allowed to take you with me, even if I thought it was a good idea. Your clan is just not going to permit it.”
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