by Maia Starr
She sat with her legs drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them nestled in the corner of the couch.
I took a breath and sat down beside her.
“I see the way men look at you,” I said, my eyes trailing her still bare body and taking in the way it was showered in freckles and warm toned skin. “It must be inconceivable in your mind that somebody doesn’t like you.”
She raised her head from her hands in a show of shock, and her eyes widened toward me.
“I’m pretty sure you can go now,” she managed to stammer out through tears.
I went to say that I wished I did like her, but the truth was I didn’t want to feel anything for her. I had a chosen one, once. She was who I wanted to feel for. Not this spoiled, arrogant, impatient woman in front of me.
“Come on, Celeste,” I nudged her with my elbow, and she jostled, looking over at me with annoyance. “This is what we do. Where’s my verbal sparring partner?”
“You know… I may spar with you, but never once have I been mean about it.”
“I find that hard to believe,” I said with a raise of my brow.
“I don’t call you useless or tell you you’re just a job to me.”
“No, you just go screw someone else,” I spat.
Her tears stopped then, and she turned briskly to slap me across the face.
Her hands were small, but the cold of them still stung my cheek, and I couldn’t help but let out a bemused laugh as I rubbed the space she had slapped.
She didn’t think twice about it. I wanted to pick her up by the neck. It’s what I would have done with anyone else… but instead, I was charmed. She wiped her eyes gingerly with the backs of her hands. She pulled her legs up to cover her chest and reached a hand out in front of her foot, playing with the fabric of the couch and staring down sadly.
I took a deep breath and couldn’t help but think how sad and pathetic she looked. Usually, this would fill me with satisfaction knowing I’d won, broken my enemy down.
Then I realized… I’d made her my enemy somehow. It was easy, in fact. She was my opposite, and she expected things from me that she wasn’t entitled to. She was impulsive and unrestrained; I was a soldier under orders. She was unsure and rash; I was confident and headstrong. She was arrogant and spoke her mind even at the most inopportune times.
Well… we were alike in some ways at least.
“Come here,” I said slowly and reached over, picking her up and taking her whole body into my arms like a small child.
She curled up there, pulling her legs up on my lap and resting her head on my shoulder. She looked up at me and got quiet as she studied my features methodically.
I pressed my stubble cheek against her forehead and took in her warm, sugary scent. This was the first time we’d ever actually touched, save for our empty sex and a few hand holds in public.
“You’re such an asshole to me, and I was about to do you the biggest favor of your life,” she pouted quietly.
I raised my brows in disbelief. “And what’s that?”
She grabbed a strand of her hair between both of her hands, caressing it close to her breasts and pointedly ignoring me.
I moved my cheek off of her and she looked up at me again. “First apologize,” she said confidently.
“You’re kidding?”
“You hurt my feelings, and then you slept with me.”
“You came in asking for it!” I argued, holding her away from me so I could get a better look at her.
She stuck her legs straight out and down the couch so she was sitting on my lap. “Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”
I took a deep breath. “Celeste,” I said through gritted teeth. “What do you want?”
She widened her eyes in frustration. “An apology,” she enunciated forcefully.
I set my jaw. “I’m sorry.”
“And a kiss,” she added.
Without another word I grabbed her by the chin and brought her lips to mine, grabbing her pout with my mouth and tilting her head to the side to get a better angle. Our lips met and parted several times before she dipped her tongue into my mouth, teasing mine with little flicks and wet saliva that never seemed to last long enough.
I took over and explored her mouth with my tongue and took in her sweet taste. I finished by nipping at her soft, oversized bottom lip and pulling it gingerly with my teeth.
She offered me a seductive smile as she opened her eyes and in a matter-of-fact tone said, “You’re forgiven.”
“I’m honored,” I snapped.
She stood from my lap and disappeared into the bedroom, throwing on a robe before coming back out into the living room. “I was thinking… This whole thing is probably going to come to battle, right? You guys and the rebels?”
I gave a hesitant nod.
“And you guys are all shifters, right?”
“Your observations are astounding.”
She rolled her eyes. “Shut up! What I’m saying is, there’s really nothing they have that you don’t, and vice versa.”
“So?”
“So! You need something they don’t have so you can have the upper hand. If anything, if you attack their base, you’re giving them the upper hand since they probably know the land better.”
She wasn’t wrong, but I couldn’t see her point.
“You need fire. A dragon with fire,” she clarified. “You can char the whole base, and there won’t be a thing they can do about it.”
“Yeah, that would be great. But, if you recall, which you don’t because you never listen to me, red dragons can’t use fire anymore. Smoke, maybe. But, not fire.”
“And that’s where I come in.”
“Wait a second,” I said playfully, walking over to her and grabbing her by the waist, tipping her mouth open with my finger and giving an exaggerated glance inside. “Do you breathe fire?”
She stood here with her jaw wide open, my finger still firmly sitting on her teeth as I inspected her throat and then she burst into surprised laughter. She smacked my hand off her face, my second smack of the day, and backed away from me.
“Listen to me, idiot!”
I laughed. “I’m listening to your ridiculousness.”
“Remember when I said I would make you like me?”
I cocked a brow, nodded.
“Well, you’re about to. Because I know a dragon who can.”
Chapter Seven
Celeste
I stood in the sleek, white building that occupied the Koth and all their time. I told Sigisvult I had a plan, but he had to be completely willing to throw caution to the wind.
To my surprise, the stick in the mud actually agreed.
I told him to gather a small team of people that he trusted and I would tell him everything.
We sat in the offices in the Koth district of Udora, and he looked over the white walls and transparent chairs, staring at me with curiosity. I insisted I would explain everything to him once he assembled a team. I took the whole ordeal as a giant pat on the back since he obviously trusted me enough to work fast with only a few details.
“Do you know the name Caridan?” I whispered across the lobby. “Purple dragon?”
“Dead.” Sigisvult frowned and shrugged. “So, what?”
“No,” I corrected quickly.
“Yes,” he snapped. “Poammenus’ father killed him in battle after he took a wife against orders. He had a long history of disobeying the Koth.”
“No, idiot. Would you listen to me? Caridan killed Brenem, not the other way around. Then he was banished from Udora and taken in by Zaphira.”
He flinched and drew his brows together as he considered my words.
“And how do you know this?”
“Zaphira was a friend of my moms, back in the day.”
I was the youngest of five children, and my mother was a family friend of Zaphira Reneau, program coordinator of the Riddell organization. It was how I’d managed to get into the ch
oosing to begin with.
Having Zaphira around as a child was what started my fascination with the shifters. I used to hide in the hallways of my house and eavesdrop on their conversations about space and how Zaphira encouraged certain pairings, as well as the drama between the factions.
I also heard about a secret project she was working on. A cultivation project on a planet some distance from Udora. She’d taken a group of humans and one Weredragon to populate and cultivate it. It wasn’t hard to put the incidents together.
“Ariella Klein was his mate, and they were removed by Zaphira and some other people to a secret location.”
“And you know this based on some conversation you overheard when you were… what, a kid?”
“No,” I shrugged playfully as I spotted the dragon I’d been waiting for coming down the hall. “I know this because I got it out of Ikar yesterday.”
The while shifter walked down the hall with a bag in his hand, and Sigisvult quickly stood in a show of respect. Bewilderment washed over his face as he eyed his superior and his eyes quickly glanced back over to me.
Ikar had been a member of the Koth until Galsthenn took over and declared himself the only ruler over Udora. Before that, he had been the head of security, leader of all soldiers. Ikar had been moved from Koth to council and then back to commander of the Were soldiers. He’d also had a lengthy affair with Zaphira over the years.
“Well, you’re certainly full of surprises,” Sigisvult said with a raise of his brow.
“She is,” Ikar said gracefully. “And persuasive.”
The man was handsome as ever. He had long white hair that flowed down his back and strong white wings that fluttered as he approached. His tail was long and thick, cascading with shimmering iridescent scales. He had a strong face and white horns that protruded from his temples and curved back toward his wings.
“So she speaks the truth?” my chosen asked and Ikar gave a nod.
The white shifter leaned down to Sigisvult and set a strong hand on his shoulder. “Caridan lives,” he said with some reservation.
“And he breathes fire?”
Another nod. “Who else did you tell?”
“Vordamm,” Sigisvult admitted. I knew he would tell the orange shifter. He told him everything. He pushed his lips to the corner of his mouth and looked up at the shifter bashfully.
“Not Poammenus, I hope,” the white shifter cautioned.
“No.”
“Good. Something tells me he’d be all too eager to exact his revenge. He has the same spirit of his father.” Ikar sighed. “Then it’ll be the three of us going to fetch them.”
“And me,” I pouted and stood between the shifters. There was no way they were traveling to a new planet and leaving me behind. I wasn’t about to let them take credit for my idea or leave me to be killed in some rebel fight.
Ikar offered Sigisvult a pitying smile and lowered his brows dismissively. “I’ll leave that between the two of you,” he laughed.
“She stays,” Sigisvult snapped and gave me a warning look. “That’s not up for discussion.”
The shifter didn’t give me any leeway to argue with him. He stood and announced that he was going to gather Vordamm and ready the shuttle, and then he disappeared down the sterile hallways.
Ikar looked over at me with empathy and then gave a large sigh. “Am I going to see you show up at that shuttle station?”
“Of course,” I grinned.
He pressed his eyes shut and gave a small smile. “Then come with me.”
The white dragon walked with me down to his personal landing station. The shuttle station was man-made and sat atop several cliffs. The clifftops had waterfalls spewing azure liquid down their sides. The reflection of the shimmering waters made it look like the shuttle stations sat on glass.
Ikar made a small noise, and he looked out over the bridge that guarded the shuttle station from the deep water below. “So you’re coming along,” he said, more as an observation than a question.
I nodded and watched him a moment longer before sitting down on the bridge before me. I gripped an iron bar that prevented onlookers from falling off the bridge and put my legs through the bars, rocking my legs back and forth as they hung there. Ikar did the same, moving his legs through the bars, enjoying the sense of free falling.
The bars were dewy and cold. I watched as Ikar looked out over the miles of canyon down below, the moss that crawled over it and the waterfalls that filled it up with their mystery.
“The truth is,” he said, testing his words, “we can use all the help we can get.”
“Then you should be happy to have me.”
The shifter said nothing but offered a smile that quickly disappeared. He picked up a thick twig from between us and began to test its strength, bending it back and forth before snapping it clear in half. He watched his breath exiting his body in puffs of white air. He tilted his head and said, “I have nothing left.”
“I thought you were, uh,” I stammered, careful to choose my words correctly. “I thought you attended a choosing?”
“She died some time ago now,” he admitted. “I always imagined myself with someone else, but life doesn’t always work out the way you think it will.”
“Zaphira,” I nodded absent-mindedly. My eyes suddenly widened, and I looked to him with apologies as I remembered that was supposed to be a secret. “Sorry!” I insisted, biting my lip in horror. “She told my mom.”
“Huh,” he breathed incredulously before relenting to a small smile. “I didn’t think she’d told anybody.”
“She’s still free and single, if you’re interested,” I laughed.
“No, no… She made it clear she was done with shifters. Besides…” He shrugged. “She isn’t as she once was.”
“Mentally?” I blinked.
He laughed and shook his head. “When I first met her she was so young. She’d just formed Riddell, and I was so sure her alliance would benefit the Weredragons, I did anything I could to support her.”
“Are… wait, are you saying that…” I paled and burst into small bouts of laughter. “You’re done with her because she’s old?”
He exhaled and rubbed his face with his hands. “I guess that didn’t come out right.”
I blinked. It was true, I assumed. Weredragons could live for centuries, and Zaphira was well into her 60s now. I looked over at him sadly and suddenly couldn’t imagine what that would be like.
“Must be sad, to fall in love sometimes.”
“Sometimes it is,” he agreed. “She kept ending it.”
“Well, if you’re anything like Sigisvult then I don’t blame her.”
“No, no,” he chuckled. “I was enchanted to have a human as my partner. But, she… there were complications. Caridan, for one.”
“How’s that?”
“She pushed me away.” He shrugged. “She drifted to Caridan before pushing him away, as well. I don’t know if she told you, but it was her niece that Caridan was first paired with.”
I nodded. I remembered the story. Her niece was sent up, but another took her from Caridan and violated her. The purple shifter ended up killing the dragon in question, and the Koth punished him by killing his wife and banishing him from the choosings.
“Just years after that she began sleeping with him off and on, as she did with me. It was part of the reason I hated him so much. By the left with Ariella, I was already paired with another.” He shrugged.
“Why are you telling me all this?”
“I guess I’m telling you because this is a dangerous idea, and coming with us could deny you all of your rights. Your right to move on should anything happen to Sigisvult, your rights to stay on Udora, your life.”
I smiled and peered over the edge of the bridge, feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline as I began to realize exactly how high up we were from the ground.
Initiating eye contact, he said, “Look, I understand you’re looking to make something of yourself, but thi
s isn’t a game.”
“You said you needed help, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“Then why are you fighting me on this?” I asked as I slapped my hand on top of my other one.
“I’m not,” he said softly. “I’m just warning you of the risks, because beyond telling you ‘no,' I don’t think Sigisvult will.”
I stared at him for a moment and then smiled. “I think you’re right.”
I paused and hid the smile that was forming at the corners of my lips just from watching the break in his resolve. “What do you say?”
He cocked a brow and said, “To be blunt?”
I nodded, and he continued, “The last thing Sigisvult needs is another problem to deal with. “He’s been through,” he paused, “an ordeal. You and the little one you’re obviously shielding from his knowledge may be the only things he has left.”
He watched me bite my lip. I felt like I had taken a verbal punch. I grazed a hand over my stomach and looked up at Ikar, my expression somewhere between amazed and terrified. “That was like… magical mind-reading.”
“I know the glow of pregnancy,” he said, and somehow it didn’t seem like a metaphor. It was early, maybe just a few weeks, but the way he looked down at my stomach I could tell he could sense life there.
“What ordeal has he been through?”
“A loss,” he simplified. The way he said it, I knew I wouldn’t get any more information out of him than that. “And you’re sure you want to do this?”
I nodded. “You’ll be glad you brought me, I swear.”
I didn’t know if Ikar had any right to deny me permission aboard, but his countenance made me feel like I had to answer to him on some level.
“It’s a bad idea.” The white dragon looked over at me and with a relenting huff he finished, “Having said that… Welcome aboard.”
Chapter Eight
Sigisvult
How did I know Celeste would end up on board? I held my tongue as she entered the shuttle on Ikar’s arm and grit my teeth the whole time she emptied her things into one of the staterooms.