The Air Witch's Dragon

by Severine Wolfe

  Ryluth watched Sofia, who stared into the fire, as if all the answers in the universe were there.

  “I thought you knew more about us,” he finally spoke when he saw her shoulders relax.

  “Yet, you never debased yourselves as the Demons did,” she said quietly, still staring into the fire and Ryluth wondered which horrors she was reliving in her head. He longed to bond with her, know what she was feeling. “Why did you not resort to kidnapping and rape to continue your race, as the Demons did?”

  “There is no honor in that. Besides, we are unable to breed with uncooperative females. We are a race of honorable males so we came up with the only solution we could, we offered magical females a boost to their power in exchange for young. It was, to us a fair trade, and as the years progressed, we longed for mates, but the females never stayed.”

  “Do you think it’s part of the curse or the contract?”

  His Sofia was astute. “It is part of the curse.”

  She sat, silent for long moments. Ryluth just watched her. Watching her had become his favorite pastime. She was clearly processing all that she had learned that night.

  “I would like to go back to your home, if you don’t mind,” she finally said, and stood up.

  He nodded and led her back to the landing area where he could shift into his primary form and fly her away. If only he could do the same with the thoughts that seemed to now weigh on her.

  *****

  As they flew back to his home, Sofia pondered all that she had learned. She didn’t know enough, yet. Those two baby Dragons weighed on her heart. The thought of them going through their lives without a mother’s love hurt her heart, even the Demis had had that on the Demonworld.

  She thought to Seth and his mother, whom she had only known a short time before the woman was raped to death. Marisol had loved her Seth like any normal woman. She had protected him, even in her madness. She had taught him to hide himself with his weak magic, or what had been weak, thanks to his blocks due to the death of his mother and his hatred of Demons and Demis. Luckily, Brigid had brought him out of that and shown him his worth. He was now a Demi of worth and standing on his world, although being who he was, Seth was possibly the most humble of souls, despite being loved quite openly by their Goddess, Siletha.

  She was so lost in thought that she was surprised when Ryluth landed outside his hoard room and declined his wing so she could step down. Watching as he shifted this time, she saw a golden halo and then his Human form. He was a gorgeous male, she had to admit, and she grew warm watching him. He held out his hand and she didn’t hesitate to take it, feeling connected to him in that small way. It felt good, but she didn’t want to contemplate that.

  “Can you explain this curse for me?” She asked him as they entered his actual dwelling.

  “Our God, Threlzin, lost his mate, Coalna, due to treachery by one of our families who allied with the Faerie to steal her blood and scales for use in their rituals.”

  Sofia gasped and turned to him, tears in her eyes. “That is horrific!” She cried. She didn’t step back when Ryluth took a step towards her, his hand raised as he wiped away her tears with his thumb.

  “It was the worst thing to ever befall my world, and Threlzin took back so much of what he’d given us and we’d taken for granted, our females and our young, for the loss of her life by treachery. His grief was terrible. Everyone in the line of the one who had betrayed us all immediately died and he took the longevity of our mates away, those from worlds where the restorative power of the magic is not that strong.”

  “Like Earth,” she said.

  He nodded, looking down into her beautiful green eyes. “We are doomed to never know love, never know family until one of us manages to take a mate and...” his voice trailed off and Sofia’s tears stopped.

  “And what?” She asked.

  “That Dragon will then lose her as Threlzin lost his Coalna, and the curse will be broken.”

  Sofia gasped and stepped back, as if avoiding his words.

  “Threlzin demands you take a mate, bond with her and then she has to die to appease him?” She looked around, clearly agitated. “That’s barbaric!”

  Ryluth just looked at her sadly. “It is what we must do.”

  “So, those women,” Sofia swept her arm across her body and to the side. “Are to be sacrificed on this altar so the rest of you can have mates?”

  He hung his head, but managed to nod to her.

  “What happens to the Dragon who loses his mate?”

  Ryluth looked up at her with very sad eyes. “He will die as well, as they will be bonded.”

  “He demands this of you?” She nearly screamed.

  He nodded and Sofia was so angry, so furious that she turned on her heel and nearly ran to her bed chamber. She didn’t hear Ryluth follow her, so she slammed her door shut, falling onto her bed and crying all the pain inside her out onto the pillow. She sent up a message to Cassie. She desperately needed guidance. She was not surprised at all to find the Demi there with Ava and Lauren a few minutes later, while she tried to hide that she’d been crying. All three women flocked to her, and hugged her and each other.

  “Sofia, you never cry,” Ava chided.

  “Where is Brigid?” She asked.

  “In some room with my brother, most likely,” Cassie smirked. “You’d need a crowbar to separate those two. All those frustrated years to make up for.”

  They all laughed, and the three women all climbed up on the bed with Sofia and it made her feel better, this familiar group. This was familiar, something they had always done, even in the harem days. No matter where they were, if one of them needed support, the others were always there. Cassie made sure of it.

  She told them about the Dragon world and their curse and remedy for it that was not working out for any of them. All three were horrified by the curse and the remedy to cancel it.

  “None of the women ever stay?” Cassie asked, clearly amazed by this. “But the Dragons are smoking hot!”

  All of them laughed.

  “Better not let Bax hear you say that,” Lauren teased.

  Cassie rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at the French illusionist.

  “Sofia, how do you feel about being here?” Ava asked, always more in touch with the other woman than the others had ever been.

  Sofia thought a moment before answering. She had always been the most reflective of them, putting careful thought into whatever she spoke about.

  “I had the elf twins alter my memories, dull the edges of them so I could cope with being surrounded by so many males again,” she shuddered but it wasn’t as bad as before.

  “But, this Ryluth, how do you feel about him? Being here with him?”

  “This is his private home, not his palace,” Cassie explained. “This is where I found him when we had to go after Ava and Penelope.”

  Three sets of eyes stared at her. Sofia cleared her throat.

  “I am not afraid around him, and I have let him hold my hand...”

  Cassie looked at her. “And...”

  “And he kissed me and it did not frighten me or cause me to freeze.” She bit her bottom lip. “But, there was a moment where he stepped towards me and I just froze, as I would do in the harem, trying to be invisible to the males looking for someone to rape.”

  Cassie’s eyes hardened. “Did you think he was going to take you without your consent?” Her voice was hard and Sofia instinctively shook her head. Cassie could end worlds. And, would end worlds if one of her women were threatened.

  “No! He stopped the moment he saw me freeze and came no further, but then he had to go and handle something,” she looked away from them all shyly. “I felt bad about freezing up so I made him a spaghetti dinner.”

  All three of her friends laughed.

  “How does he make you feel?” Lauren asked, for once, very serious.

  Ava and Cassie’s eyes once again locked on her.

  Sofia huffed out a breath, b
lowing her hair away from her face by boosting the radius of air leaving her mouth.

  “I find him attractive,” she admitted, her fingers on her left hand rubbing her right one. “He makes me feel... warm?” She looked at her friends who all smiled back at her. “I genuinely like being with him... alone with him.”

  All three seemed to sit back, in unison and look at her.

  “So, he does not scare you and you are not repulsed by his touch,” Ava repeated. “This is a good start.”

  “I liked when he kissed me,” Sofia smiled shyly.

  “When my brother was dealing with Brigid and his attraction to her, it drove him crazy that he could not stop to be gentle with her the first time he had her and mated her so hard. He told me that she had never known kindness by a male and he was so scared of how hard he had taken her that he stayed away from her to avoid doing it again, until he found out she carried Letha.” Cassie laughed. “He had no idea that Brigid had enjoyed the whole experience, because he’d never been with a woman before and didn’t know how a willing woman responded.”

  “I have never known kindness from a male, or at least the memory of it is so far removed from my recent experience that I cannot remember them,” Sofia said, deep in thought. Then she looked up at Cassie. “How did Brigid feel about Seth’s advances?”

  “She wanted him, but didn’t realize exactly what she was feeling because he was the only male she’d ever wanted. But, to hear her tell it, it was a transcendent moment which she keeps making him enact after all these years.” She smirked. “That’s why we are always finding them... in flagrante delicto.”

  Sofia laughed as well, having walked in on the pair in the throes of passion, so involved with one another they never knew she’d entered the room or opened the closet where they made love. And, it was love, Sofia had no doubt. Brigid had loved Seth way before they had ever been freed. He had worked with her for years and years, but they knew, if they gave into the feelings, both would be killed.

  “Does he ever get off her?” Ava teased.

  “You and Bax are not much better, especially once you got pregnant,” Lauren said as Cassie was about to open her mouth. “How many meetings were canceled when you two just disappeared?”

  “I guess we’re both just horn dogs, you two witches who can’t stop dancing on your mate’s poles.”

  Ava’s jaw dropped and then snapped shut. The other three women burst out laughing.

  “It’s rare to see Ava silent, we should cherish this moment,” Sofia grinned at her friend.

  Lauren reached over and took Sofia’s hand in her own. “We must get back soon, it’s nearly time to feed my boys.” Her friend looked shy, uncharacteristically shy. “Do you wish to try to have more with Ryluth?”

  Sofia thought a moment and then nodded. “I am afraid that even with my memories dulled that I will disappoint him, as I have no idea what to do to please a male.” She became silent and thoughtful. “I am afraid that I cannot react as a normal female would. I have never known any sort of joy with a male.” She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders and looked at her friends. “I am afraid to even try.”

  “I wish you liked to read,” Cassie said. “I’d just send you some erotica so you’d have some idea what to expect to feel...” The Demi chewed on her bottom lip and looked far off in the distance even though they were in Sofia’s bed chamber.

  “I could read that, I guess... It’s, uh, instructional and accurate I am supposing?”

  Cassie grinned in delight. “Oh yeah, way instructional, almost a primer on how to give head or receive it.”

  Sofia gulped and Lauren and Ava grabbed her hands that had begun to worry in her lap.

  “I will send you a couple of books I highly recommend, by authors my mother swears by.”

  “Are you in a good place now, Sofia?” Ava asked, still concerned for her.

  Sofia nodded. “I want to figure out this curse to help these people,” she told them. “I don’t know why, but it seems to be very important to me. I cannot believe that any god would demand not one, but two deaths of innocents to appease his anger.”

  Lauren whispered and leaned forward to place a kiss on her forehead. “If anyone can figure it out, it’s you.”

  “I hope so or one of those women will die.”

  None of her friends pointed out that she was leaving herself out of the equation. They didn’t mention it as they said their goodbyes, because they didn’t want her to panic. And, she would have.

  Chapter Eight

  Ryluth had heard females laughing as he passed Sofia’s door, saddened by her response to their curse. He felt no shame in stepping closer to her door to listen to them. He recognized Cassie’s voice and vaguely remembered the other two voices and scents as two of the females who had provided refreshment when they visited the Demonworld and had spoken to him at the Portal on the Demonworld. These were her friends. She must have called for them.

  He should be mad at Cassie for once again trespassing, but he found that the thought of her comforting Sofia to be a kind one and would not deny the female he hoped to mate. He listened to everything they said, and especially Sofia’s answers to their questions. She was remarkably honest and open with them, and it made him feel hope when she admitted she wasn’t bothered by his touch or attempts to be close to her. When they left, he quietly walked to his own bedchamber and decided to take a hot bath, trying to make sense of it all.

  He reclined in his bath and tried to process what he had learned of Sofia by his listening at her door, and didn’t that make him feel small? In truth, it did, to a small degree, but he had learned so much about her. She had no good experience with males, and doubted she could please one. Even with nothing sexual between them he was pleased to his toenails with her. It was his duty as her mate, yes, he accepted that he was, whether she did or not, to teach her how to please him, by pleasing her. He felt his cock harden at the thought of all the ways he would love to please her.

  Continuing to think about what he’d learned, he took his cock in hand, as he had every night since she had come to him. He worked his cock as he thought about her admitting she had actually liked his kiss, and dived into the fantasy about how he would love to kiss her, and where, and before he knew it he felt his balls draw up tight to his body and then he shot his seed into the bath, gasping her name.

  Laying back against the edge of the huge tub, he caught his breath and swallowed at the force of his ejaculation. Being with Sofia was going to be as transcendent as Brigid had claimed her mating with Seth had been. He closed his eyes and just remembered their words, what she had said, the emotion deep in her voice. He wanted her more now than he had when he’d first caught her scent and realized what she was to him on his first visit to the Demonworld. He had not realized, until he had returned from that visit, just how lonely he was. And, he was lonely. Very lonely.

  He thought of the males who had contracted with females for children, and he wondered if they felt the same way he did. They got that female until she delivered her egg and then nothing but caring for their young until they were old enough to care for themselves. It took approximately seventy years for males to mature enough to leave their aeries and set up caves and treasures of their own.

  Dragons were very long lived, due to their restorative magical world. He had had many, many years on his own since his own father’s death. His sire had contracted with a mage for another son, and had fallen for her. When she, too, left, after handing over the egg, he had begun to decline and due to his inattention, the egg had withered and died. Unable to accept that loss as well, his father just gave up completely, pining for the mage until the bitter end.

  The same thing had happened to Dannash’s father after the female left to go back to the Technomage World. He had not given up completely until Dannash was about 8 summers and then he slipped away in his sleep. Thanks to daily visits by Dragons, the male had not been left defenseless, but unwilling to leave his father. The young male
had been in the house with his father’s body, reverted to Dragon form, for hours before another Dragon had come into the village, smelled the stench of death and found the young Dragon crying over his father’s ashes. The male, Groffur, had volunteered to stay with Dannash until he was mature enough and then welcomed him into his aerie. Dannash had only recently separated from Groffur and took up a guard post at Ryluth’s palace to train for battle.

  Things like that had happened occasionally over the centuries and there was always a male to step up and raise a young male. He thanked the gods for that. However, most of those males chose not to ever have young themselves, feeling like it was that action that killed their own fathers.

  Ryluth knew for a certainty that was why he had spent so long trying to find a way out of the curse. He wanted all fledglings to know what Glym and Kristo had found that night, a mother’s care and love, and Sofia was already in love with them, he could see it clearly. It was why she had asked to return to the village. With the Twin Dragons there with their young, he had no problem taking her there. It would be quicker once they were back at his palace, as a small gate to the village stood just inside the training grounds.

  He sighed and sat up, feeling the water had cooled significantly while he pondered his options. He wanted Sofia, that was at the center of everything. He just didn’t want to lose her.

  He got out of the bath and magically pulled the cork in the drain with a gesture, and grabbed a huge towel and dried himself off before walking into his bed chamber, completely nude. He never slept in clothing as it chafed him. He hated wearing clothing, and in fact, when females were not on the world, most males went nude in their human form and conjured no clothing, because it was too restricting. However, now that there were many females here, all males had grudgingly put on clothes in the hopes of attracting one of them.

  He lay in his cold bed, lonely as ever, but with the hope that soon he might not be. If only he could figure it out.

  Then his thoughts turned towards the Faerie that were left in his dungeon and he wondered how Lennalth fared in his interrogations. Let the Dragon take out his sexual frustration on the Faerie to find their traitor.