Max_Through the Portal

by Celeste Raye

  Her breath caught. “You mean you could die? I thought dragons were immortal!”

  “No, just long lived.”

  “How does…” her mind spun as she tried to take it all in. “How does the fire in your heart go out? Does it just happen because you get older or something?”

  “That and a dragon can choose to unleash it and let it consume his heart and himself: choose to die in that fire.”

  That sounded horrible! “Why would they do that?”

  His body tensed slightly. “It’s an honorable death—a death a dragon must choose for themselves. Nobody can force the dragon fire. It must be their decision.”

  Okay. She had no idea why anyone would choose to die like that, but it seemed that he found it a reasonable way to die. That she didn’t wasn’t really worth arguing about so she said, “I didn’t expect there to be so many humans here. All the ones I spoke to said they were born here, that most of them descended from humans who got sucked through the portal when your ancestors were cursed, or their ancestors refused to give up their loyalty, and since they were not knights, they stayed human while the knights became dragons.”

  Max’s thick lashes covered his eyes for a moment. “It’s true.”

  “So, you really seriously got turned into a dragon by a wizard?” Heather rolled onto her belly to look Max in the eyes. “How does that even happen?”

  “Not me, personally.” His fingers traced along her bare skin, sending heat through her body even though he’d just taken care of her in such a mind-blowing way. “My father. My mother was cursed too, because she wouldn’t leave or betray him.”

  She rolled over, her eyes locked onto his. “Where are they now?”

  “They died.”

  Sympathy hit. “I’m sorry.”

  “Me too.” She wet her lips. Death was the last thing she wanted to talk about, especially the death of a parent. Grief hit hard, but she swallowed it back. Before she could frame out a question or decide not to, he spoke again, “But there’s only so many centuries a being wants to live through. Life loses its luster. It loses its beauty. My mother died because she was old, human’s age, as you know, and when she died from her age, he felt as if he had nothing to live for.”

  She sat up. “Hold up. You said your mom was cursed too.”

  His hands caught her and brought her back to his body. “She was. Cursed to stay at his side, which was no curse as she loved him. But she had to come here with him, that was the curse: that she would and could never go back. The portal would never open for her. Not that she wanted that. That was what the wizard didn’t understand. That it was no hardship for her to give up that world: to give up her life there. He thought that she would refuse to stay knowing he was a monster in that world’s eyes, and that she would not want to give up her station. She was, after all, the daughter of a powerful king.”

  “Your mom was a princess?”

  “Here she was a queen.”

  She asked, “So other women came too? As humans?”

  “Some fought the wizard right along with the men. Aura for one. So, they too were turned into dragons.”

  Aura was the scariest of them all and knowing she was that old made her scarier yet. “How did they fight him?”

  “Aura had magic. My mother had some too, though hers was far weaker. She could spell-cast, but not like Aura. When she came here, her abilities magnified and grew. When she died, she had strong powers, and she had already passed them down to me.”

  “Not all of the dragons have magic.”

  That had not been a question, and he knew it. “No, they don’t. Those descended from the witches and the dragons who had children together did, and still do. Those who were born to human women without power who simply refused to be taken from their husbands never gained any powers or passed them on to their children.”

  “Is that…do those without get jealous?”

  “Some do. Some don’t care. Magic’s a heavy burden. It can corrupt even the strongest dragon heart. After all, it was a corrupt wizard who let his magic rule his ego and heart that made us.”

  She asked, “Why? I mean, why did he do it in the first place?”

  “He was in love with my mother, and she spurned him. If it had been any other man—maybe a king or even a prince—he might have let it go. He would have known that despite his magic he had to bow out because of politics, and he would have used his influence to get what he really wanted, which was power. That was what he loved about her, or so she and my father always said. He did not love her, just her small powers and the power she held as that king’s daughter.”

  Wow. His parents had really loved each other. She asked, “Have other women come here since then?”

  His fingers went tight and then relaxed, but there was an impassive expression settling onto his face. “Yes.”

  “Were they kidnapped?” She was teasing, but his face went flatter than ever, making her instantly regret the words. “I’m sorry. That was rude. I didn’t mean to upset you by saying that.”

  His eyes went lidded and heavy. A flash of what looked a lot like pain moved over his face, but it was gone so fast Heather was not sure that she had even seen it at all. He spoke carefully though, making her wonder if she had seen that pain, and if so, where it had sprung from. He said, “No, it’s okay. And no, not kidnapped. Most were witches or had some kind of power. They found the portal through that power.”

  “Why would they come?” It was a question that came before she could stop it and that flash of pain came back again, making her feel even worse. What was wrong with her that she just could not seem to see he didn’t want to talk about this?

  His hand dropped away from her skin. She immediately felt that absence. His eyes closed and he spoke in a wooden tone. “They came, mostly, because they were hoping to magnify their powers and then return to the other lands.”

  Not going to ask. Just not. “Oh. You look tired.” The abrupt change in subjects made his eyes fly back open. He searched her face with those eyes, and she felt them probing into her very soul. She shivered a little, and his hand came back to her skin, resting on the edge of her hip and stirring up desire and comfort in equal measures.

  He said, “I am. Tomorrow’s going to be a hard day.”

  Her throat went tight. Tomorrow he would fly over to the lands where the Orcs lived to see if they were indeed building those war machines that supposedly could take a dragon down while in flight. Was such a thing possible?

  A new thought came. “If dragons were made by the wizard, did he make the Orcs too?”

  “The Orcs are unfortunate side effects of his evil magic. Any time there is evil, there is trouble. They were born from that evil in his heart and created with this world.”

  Huh. Who knew? “And elves?”

  “Elves are part of nature. Nature exists here so do they do as well.”

  “Are there elves in my world?”

  “Yes, and Orcs too, though in your world they look much different than they do here. In your world Orcs look like politicians.”

  Was he joking? She felt a grin rising upon her lips. Then his lips twitched upward, and their shared laughter broke the tension that her questions earlier had brought up. She snuggled in close to him, letting the warmth and strength of his body soothe her and send her into sleep.

  Chapter Twelve

  Max lay there, not sleeping. The questions that Heather had asked should not have upset him so much; they were harmless. At least on the surface. She had no idea of what had happened when Luria had crossed into Dragon World and took his heart in a figurative way—and Heather also had no idea that Luria had tried to take his heart in a very literal way too.

  Luria.

  The beautiful and powerful human witch who’d wanted his heart, but not because she wanted his love. She had wanted to kill him and take his heart back to her world so she could dry it, turn it to powder, and use that powder in a spell that would see to it that she lived forever, and with great
wealth and power on her side.

  He should have known Luria was the evil wizard’s progeny. But time was different in this world, and he had forgotten that humans lived such short lives: that they spawned generations in the time it took a dragon to reach their flight stage.

  He had also forgotten just how sly, how evil, and how greedy humans could be. That was something he should not have forgotten. He knew not all humans were like that—his own mother had been an example of what was right about humans after all—and so had many others who had either lived there and were now dead or who lived there now.

  His mind wanted to turn away from those painful memories of Luria. Her betrayal had nearly killed him. In every way. She had broken his heart and hardened it as well. Her betrayal had made him turn away from love, and he knew that he was turning away from Heather right then too but he could do nothing to change that fact.

  He could not trust. He would not trust her. For all he knew, she had powers; maybe she was hiding them deep in her skin to keep them from being seen. Perhaps she had seen that stupid profile on that app, something he still did not understand fully, and knew that Blake was a dragon, and had wanted to get to him in order to either gain entry to his world or to try to slaughter him and take his heart.

  But if that was so, she was a damn good actress. Her horror in the first days of her arrival there had seemed so real, and so was her desire to go back to her own lands. His brow wrinkled as he looked down at her sleeping face. She wanted to go home; she said so all the time.

  So even if she was not one who had powers and did not want to kill him, or any dragon that might provide a heart for her to use in spells, she also did not want to stay there in his world.

  Either way, this was all a giant mistake and the best thing that he could do was leave her as soon as possible; right now, would be great. He was getting too comfortable with her, letting his guard down too often letting her see him as he did not let others see him—and all of those things were very dangerous for a lot of reasons.

  The last time he had done that was with Luria, and look how that had turned out.

  That he had some feelings for Heather was clear; he just was not clear on what they were. She was beautiful, and funny, and so smart. She was brave too, and she had something about her, some sort of thing that made her special, though he could not put his finger on just what it was.

  He let his arm curl around her shoulders, and her head rest on his chest. The fall of her hair, sweetly scented and so soft, spread across his chest and he let his fingers trail through it, separating the strands one by one. She moaned softly and her body wriggled closer. His body gave off a hard pulse that he quieted by sheer will.

  He should be doing anything but sleeping with Heather. She would leave soon and eventually he would have to marry, or at least mate. Most of the female dragons would not take his sleeping with a human well, and they might just shun him for it. Oh, they would not shun him forever. His was the bloodline of a king and Blake was forbidden to rule alone or have his children rule—and so if any dragon female wanted to be a full queen, it was him or nothing.

  Eventually, a female dragon would want to mate with him even if he had slept with a human but they’d give him hell about it, and he’d have to live with that for a long time.

  That he would be wanted for nothing more than his crown and place as a king made him hurt all over. The burden of that position often weighed him down, and so did the knowledge that he would never know, for sure, if he was loved for himself or his crown made things even worse. That was why he had avoided mating or wedding for so long now.

  That and he was, at heart, a romantic who wanted that deep and abiding love that his parents had had for each other. He wanted a love that would stand the tests of time and death and everything that happened in between.

  His body ached as he looked down at the sleeping Heather. There was something about her, a strange mixture of innocence and fragility and strength, that called to his heart.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Christy was in the room they had been given the next morning when Heather finally trooped in, her face still glowing from the late night and early-morning sex she had had with Max. Christy did not look like she had had nearly as good a night as Heather had however. In fact, she looked both worried and angry. As soon as Heather opened her mouth to speak, Christy cried out, “Oh my God! I honestly thought they had eaten you!”

  An involuntary grin surfaced at the corners of Heather’s mouth. Christy peered into her face. “Oh. My God. No. You did it!”

  Heather said, “What makes you think I did anything at all?”

  Christy snorted. “Because I’ve known you since we were kids and I know just exactly how long it’s been since you got laid. Also, you took off with Max, and you didn’t come back to the room at all last night, and then you show up here this morning grinning like an idiot and with a hickey on your neck. That pretty much says everything there is to say.”

  Heather’s fingers flew to her neck. “He didn’t give me a hickey!”

  Christy crowed out, triumphantly, “Nope but it looks like he gave you everything else!”

  Heather, torn between amusement and chagrin, gave Christy a level look. “I’m sorry I left you alone all night and didn’t let you know I was okay.”

  Christy said, “Forget about it. I want details; spill, girl, spill.”

  Heather went red. “No.”

  Christy peered into her face. “Oh, it must have been good!”

  It had been good. Mind blowing, in fact. It had been the singularly most exciting sex she had ever had in her entire life. But her emotions were still tangled up, and she was confused by the sudden welter of feeling that she had toward Max. She wasn’t used to hookups, and she had damn sure never had a hook up with the dragon before, and she really had no way to process what had just happened.

  She also had no idea what would happen next between them. She headed for the small sofa set below the window and took a seat on it. Christy joined her there. To divert the subject away from herself, Heather asked, “What were you arguing about with Blake last night at the table?”

  Christy’s eyes rolled heavenward. “That idiot offered me my full weight in gold, gold mind you, to bear his child. Are you kidding me? Wreck this figure by having some dragon baby? I don’t think so. Not even for gold. Besides, if I really wanted a bunch of gold, I would just try to smuggle some of the furniture out of here under my clothes when we finally do get to make it back to our world.”

  Heather leaned back against the sofa’s cushion. “I think you would have a hard time doing that. You might pick out some of these big-ass diamonds though.”

  Christy said, “Oh. Don’t tempt me. I’ve actually considered it already. But then I would have to explain to whoever I tried to sell them to how I actually came about getting them. The last thing on earth I want is to wind up on the FBI’s most wanted list.”

  Heather hoped that Christy was joking about trying to steal some of the jewels decorating the lavish furnishings, but she had a sinking feeling that Christy might just be serious. She was an investment broker after all. She also was not completely against a slight bit of larceny, as witnessed the time she had gotten angry because several of the mean girls in her high school had dared to poke fun at the clothes that Christy had to wear due to the fact that her mother was not only single, but seriously underemployed. Christy had shoplifted an entire wardrobe from the best and most high-end stores in New York, and got away with it.

  Heather said, “I take it you told him no.”

  Christy’s fingers drummed on the arm of the sofa. “Several times. Then he decided to try to get all romantic with me, I guess in the hopes of proving that he is not a jackass and offered to have a picnic with me later today.”

  Heather said, “Oh, that’s sweet!”

  Christy snarled, “Sure it is. If you’re not a dragon trying to impregnate an unwilling woman.”

  Christy had a point. Heather
said, “Max told me that it’s not his fault.”

  Christy asked, “That he’s a jackass?”

  Heather said, absently, “Oh, I’m sure it’s his fault he is a jackass. I meant it’s not his fault that he’s not allowed to have children with the other clans here.”

  Christy shot an elbow into her ribs. “It sounds like you did a lot of talking while you were at it.”

  “I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, but honestly, I think I just had the best date of my life. Don’t mention the sex; it’s not about that. Literally, it was probably the best date I’ve ever had.”

  Christy looked unimpressed. “Well, I’d say he didn’t have too high of a bar to jump over. I know what kind of dates you’ve had.”

  “I’ll give you that. That’s not it though. It was not just the sex either. It was him. He’s a genuinely nice person.”

  Christy pointed out, “He’s hardly a person. He’s a dragon. I don’t think they are really people.”

  “They used to be people. They got cursed by a wizard and turned into dragons. The wizard was in love with Max’s mother, who was a human princess, but she was in love with his dad, who was a human knight. The wizard betrayed them during a big battle and then turned all the knights into dragons.

  “A lot of those who didn’t become dragons were still very loyal to Max’s and Blake’s fathers. They came with them. They refused to leave their side even knowing that they were dragons. I think that’s amazing.”

  Christy said, “Yeah? Well, apparently Blake did something funky because if he hadn’t, they never would’ve forbade him from having kids. I mean, come on, how screwed up you have to be that they insist that you can never bear children?”

  Heather leaned closer. “It wasn’t Blake at all. It was his dad. I don’t know what he did but Max said whatever it was, it was necessary. There’s a part of me, that law-school part of me, that wants to know what it is so that maybe I could, I don’t know, argue his case or something? That seems really unfair. I mean it’s a harsh punishment to begin with, never having kids, but never allowing any member of your family to have them either? That’s uncalled for.”