by Olivia Ash
Bane Family: ambitious fire dragons who deal mainly in illegal activities. They view laws as guidelines that hold others back, while they aren’t stupid enough to follow others’ rules. They like to see what they can get away with and push the limits.
Darrington Family: the oldest and most powerful family. Darringtons are mostly fire dragons, and angering them is considered a death sentence. They’re well situated financially, with a vast network of natural resources, governments, and businesses across the globe. They’re notorious for thinking they’re above the rules and can get away with anything… because they usually do.
Fairfax Family: a magical family known as the only one to have thunderbird dragons. They have innate magic and talent, but sometimes lack the drive it takes to use those abilities to obtain greater power. They prefer to think of life as a game, and the only winners are those who have fun. To the Fairfax dragons, adrenaline is more important than money, but protecting each other is most important of all.
Nabal Family: wealthy fire and ice dragons. Money and information are most important to the Nabal, and they have an eerie ability to get access to even the most secured intel. Calculating and cunning, the Nabal weigh every risk before taking any action.
Palarne Family: noble fire and ice dragons known for their honor and war skill. Ruled by their ancient dragon code of ethics, the Palarne family operate as a cohesive military unit. Their skills in war are unparalleled by any other family.
Vaer Family: a secretive family of fire and ice dragons, they’re known to be behind many conspiracies and dirty dealings in the world. Some see them as brutal savages, but most fear them because they have no ethics or morals, even among themselves.
Chapter One
This is about honor.
I duck as Irena swings her staff at my face, the solid wooden handle missing my jaw by an inch. A gust of air hits my face instead. I roll out of reach as she slams the butt of the staff into the stone at my feet, where I stood moments before.
She’s stronger, now, after Kinsley’s bio-weapon screwed with her blood. To me, however, that only makes sparring with her more fun.
Irena watches me with those piercing green eyes that practically glow, and it’s eerie how similar they look to Kinsley’s. To the dragon shifter who has tried to kill me and destroy everything I love.
Several times.
As Irena circles me in the dojo’s center courtyard, she smirks. “You’ve gotten better, baby sister. Think you can duck my blows forever?”
“Oh, that’s cute.” I grin as I swing my staff over my head, aiming at her face. She ducks, and the wooden weapon dives through her thick black curls. “You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into, Irena.”
Oh, how I’ve missed this.
The sparring.
The banter.
The adrenaline.
“Kick her ass, babe!” Tucker shouts from the stairs nearby.
“You got it, honey.” I grin at my goofy weapons expert, lazily spinning my staff as Irena and I circle each other once again.
“Thanks for the support, cheerleading squad,” Irena says dryly with a fleeting glance at Tucker.
“You’re fine,” he mutters dismissively. “Besides, I have a clear bias, here.”
I steal another peek at him. He lounges on the stairs, equal parts gorgeous muscle and devilish charm as he winks at me.
Beside him, my sweet Levi chuckles and bites into a chunk of bread. His brooding, ice blue eyes meet mine, and butterflies shoot through my chest as he smiles at me.
Drew sits a few steps higher than the two of them, his elbows on his knees as he leans forward, intently watching the match. Those brilliantly sharp eyes narrow, studying every movement Irena and I make.
Learning, probably. Seeing how Spectres move.
Well, former Spectres.
Jace is off running his dojo, though I suspect he will stop by before our match ends.
As Irena swings her staff once more at my face, I notice a small huddle of dojo soldiers against the far wall, arms crossed as they watch me and Irena spar.
I don’t love having an audience, but Irena wanted to practice on the infamous black stone of the dragon dojo’s courtyard. It’s a different terrain than either of us is used to fighting on, what with the uneven tiles and unique texture of the ancient black rock, and she wants to learn every inch of this place.
Can’t blame her. I did the same thing when I first got here.
Irena takes a cautious step back, a wry smile on her face as we circle each other. I spin my staff absently, the wood whistling as it breezes by my ear at breakneck speed.
I’m tense and ready to spring at a moment’s notice. With my other hand raised for balance, I never take my eyes off of her.
Until, that is, I notice the soft glow of my skin in my periphery.
It’s like a hiccup—sudden and violent—and just like that, I’m distracted. The soft outline of golden chains climbs up my arm as my sleeve slides up, and my playful grin fades.
I try to focus on Irena, on the match, but I hate that the glowing, magical chains are there.
Mainly because I have no idea what they mean, or if I’m stuck with them forever. Given the choice, I wouldn’t have picked chains as my first tattoo, but I didn’t have much in the way of choices when I was down in that ritual pit.
Down in the hole where Mason Greene left me to die.
Deep within my chest, my baby dragon stirs. She’s growing stronger every day, brighter and more powerful with every moment, and I wonder if the chains have something to do with her.
With doing the impossible—for a human to not only grow a dragon, but shift.
“Pay attention!” Irena snaps.
Instantly, I’m yanked back into the present moment.
At the staff barreling toward my face.
Running purely on instinct, I launch backward and flip through the air as the weapon passes inches above me. The hiss of the staff whizzing by reminds me of a construction truck racing down the highway, and I figure that would’ve left me dazed if it had hit.
I roll onto my feet, crouching as my staff slams against the ground to give me added support.
“I was paying attention,” I lie.
Irena huffs impatiently. “I know that face. You were brooding over something.”
On the stairs behind us, Drew just laughs.
I playfully glare at the dragon shifter who so often likes to make fun of the moments where I lose myself in deep thought. “Quiet, you.”
He shakes his head, flashing that devilish grin of his.
That adorable asshole.
Irena attacks again, brutal and fierce, the staff sailing through the air like lightning. I block and parry, ducking out of the way always a mere second or two before she can hit me.
I grimace in frustration as I avoid blow after blow. This is a familiar technique, one she’s used on me many times before.
She’s trying to end the fight, and she wants to do it quickly.
There was a time not long ago when an attack like this would always knock me down. Even before her freaky Vaer-powers, Irena was wickedly fast and deadly accurate. I could never, for the life of me, last very long.
But I’m faster, now, and I have brilliant magic of my own.
I duck a powerful blow and shove my staff into her gut. It hits. She doubles over, the wind knocked out of her. I move with the staff’s momentum, spinning briefly before I attack once more.
She lifts her own staff seconds before I can take her down, and the ear-splitting crack of the weapons colliding echoes through the courtyard.
In a three-part attack, I knock her staff out of her hands and raise the butt of my staff to her throat. I pause, the end pressed against her jugular, and she stiffens on impulse at the silent demand for her to forfeit.
In a real battle, she would be as good as dead, struggling to breathe as I crushed her throat.
Irena groans and squeezes her eyes shut, chest and sh
oulders heaving as she tries to catch her breath.
I grin.
I won.
I won against Irena.
My dragon curls within me, both in victory and delightful warning. Jace is nearby, and it wants me to get closer to him, to go share our victory with our mate.
Whoa, slow down girl, I chide my dragon. He’s not my mate yet.
He would have to stop being a sexy jerk for more than five minutes to get a commitment like that out of me.
“You really are incredible.” Irena grins, her words a little shaky as she tries to catch her breath. “I’m so impressed. Who trained you since, uh—” Her jaw tenses as she briefly looks around us. “You know.”
Since Zurie.
Since Irena went into a coma.
Since all hell broke loose on us both.
“Jace,” I admit with a nod back to the embassy. “He’s not a bad teacher.”
“Thanks for that glowing endorsement,” Jace says dryly.
I tilt my head toward the stairs, and sure enough, he stands at the top with his arms crossed and a cocky smirk on his face. My heart skips beats as our eyes meet, and my dragon aches for him.
She’s getting tired of waiting for us to complete our strange mate-bond. She chose him. His dragon chose me. The longer Jace and I butt heads, the more I suspect both dragons are getting highly impatient.
“Hey,” I say simply.
His shoulders relax a little as he watches me, his eyes lingering a second too long. “Hey.”
“Oh, get a room,” Tucker says loudly.
Levi grins, but Drew’s smile fades completely. He glares at the dojo master, his body practically radiating anger. Jace seems to notice, and the two have a brief glaring match.
Frustrated, I lean on my staff and shake my head in disappointment. For a time, I really thought they were getting along. Maybe, in some way, learning to hate each other less.
Guess I was wrong.
Irena nudges my arm and leans briefly toward me. “Meet me on the tower roof,” she mutters under her breath, her lips barely moving as she speaks. “Ten minutes.”
“So bossy,” I whisper back.
She rolls her eyes and jogs off without another word, and I give her a few moments’ head start since she seems to want this little meeting to be secret.
Levi jumps up and grabs the staff from me, his fingers gently trailing up my arm as he leans in. The moment his skin touches mine, our strange connection opens—the baffling link that lingers only between us, even when he’s in human form.
You did great, he says through the magical connection, smiling at me.
I smile back, unable to rein in the burst of pride that flutters through me at the compliment. Thanks.
We’ll have to spar sometime, too, he adds with a roguish wink. I might be a little more fun to play with.
I lift my eyebrow in surprise at his sex-charged playfulness, but Tucker interjects before I can answer.
The weapons expert wraps his hand around my waist and plants a big kiss on my cheek. “You guys are way more brutal than I expected.”
I laugh. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Duh,” Tucker says with a playful shrug. “How did you think I meant it?”
Drew stands, shoulders squaring as Jace walks down the stairs toward us. The two of them glare darkly at each other as they pass. Bodies stiffen. Hands curl into fists. Eyes narrow.
It looks like they could start throwing punches at each other at any moment.
“What the hell has gotten into you two?” I ask, frowning at the newfound depths of their hatred for each other.
That seems to snap both men out of it. Drew shakes his head and looks silently away.
Jace runs a hand through his hair, grimacing. “Disagreements. Nothing new,” he answers.
In unison, Levi, Tucker, and I all groan in frustration at the blatant lie.
The sudden instant-rage that makes them both bristle at the mere sight of each other definitely suggests these “disagreements” are new.
And, if I had to guess, it probably involves me. I seem to be their favorite topic to argue over.
This ought to be fun.
Chapter Two
As I hoist myself onto the tower roof, a strong gust of wind whips at my hair. A late summer breeze carries the scent of grass and gunpowder, and I wonder if Tucker’s managed to get into trouble in the five minutes it took me to get up here.
That man sure loves his guns—especially the ones he “borrows” from Jace.
Irena sits on the edge of the roof, staring out at the forest that surrounds the dojo, her dark hair dancing in the wind. As I sit beside her, she doesn’t move. She doesn’t even look over.
She just watches the sky.
“It’s beautiful here,” she admits.
I nod. “It really is.”
A green dragon soars past, casting a wary eye at us as he makes his rounds. He banks to the left, his powerful wings lazily flapping against the air as he coasts along the wind currents.
Irena groans. “But the dragons…”
“It is a dragon embassy, girl,” I point out with a chuckle. “There be dragons.”
She scoffs and lays on the roof tiles, eyes closed as she sucks in a steadying breath. “How are you not in a constant state of anxiety?”
“You didn’t see me when I first got here.” I point out with a laugh. “I barely slept. I was too busy breaking into Jace’s command center and trying to swipe intel on where I could find you.”
Irena sits upright, her brilliant green eyes staring at me intently. Eagerly. “Command center?”
“Irena, no,” I chide, waggling my finger at her. “Bad assassin. Bad.”
She rolls her eyes and lays back down, pouting.
“We don’t have to sneak around anymore,” I continue with a relaxed gesture at the brilliant dojo around us. “Jace basically gave me free rein. If we want to go somewhere, we just walk there. If we have questions, we just ask.”
“This is so weird,” Irena mumbles under her breath. “Excuse me, dragon master sir, can I have all your chatter on Spectre movements?”
I chuckle. “Might want to keep that name under wraps there, sis.”
She shrugs. “You and I both know it’s secure up here. No one can hear us. That’s why you come up here.”
“Yeah,” I admit. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Irena doesn’t answer, and when I peek over at her, her eyes are closed. With her hands behind her head, she looks utterly at home on a roof several hundred feet in the sky, and I wonder if that’s what I looked like any time Jace or Drew met me up here.
Cool.
Calm.
In control.
I don’t know how true it is, but it’s a fun thought.
I lean back, resting my weight on my palms as I let my mind wander. It’s a hell of a thing, letting my guard down, and the dojo is the only place I feel as though I can even consider doing it.
Irena has a point, though. Zurie’s out for blood, and we’re at the top of her hit-list. I killed the one man she could even hope to consider good enough to become her heir, and both Irena and I refused to accept the role.
We made a true enemy of our former mentor, and there will be no redemption. There will be no negotiation or peace agreements, not with that woman.
The next time Zurie and I meet, one of us will die.
It will be bloody. With Zurie out for my head on a platter, I may as well accept that hell itself is after me.
Not to mention the Knights. I screwed up the General’s one chance to brainwash his son into submission, and I don’t regret that at all. If the General comes for Tucker again, I’ll do a hell of a lot worse than blow up a building on him.
If he’s even still alive, of course. A very large part of me hopes that cruel, vindictive man died in the rubble.
More than that, though, is the growing dissent in the anti-dragon communities. I’m pretty sure they all
hate me at this point, even though I’m still technically human.
With both the Knights and the Spectres, there probably won’t be any more requests to capture me. From now on, it’ll be a kill order.
“You’ve really made a life for yourself,” Irena says softly.
I tilt my head toward her, wondering where this is coming from. “What do you mean? I’m fairly certain the whole world wants me dead, Irena. How’s that making a life for myself?”
She shrugs. “As much of a life as someone like us can have, I mean.” Irena pauses, her eyes opening even though she won’t look at me. “A family.”
Oh.
I smile.
She’s right, of course.
My men. My team.
My family.
“You trust them?” Irena prods.
“With my life,” I admit.
Irena softly whistles. “That’s certainly saying something.”
It really is. It took a lot for me to get to this point, and I never want to go back to the way things were.
“You missed a lot, Irena,” I say softly. “When… you know…”
“The coma,” she finishes for me. “I’m sorry I missed this. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I’m glad you trust them, Rory, but I just… I can’t.” She groans and rubs her eyes. “They’re dragons.”
I hesitate, staring at the lines in my palm as I carefully choose my next words. “So am I, Irena.” I hesitate, trying to find the words. “In a way, I mean. I haven’t shifted yet, but I’m the dragon vessel. I carry the magic of dragons in me, now. I have a dragon in me.”
Her glowing eyes dart toward me, and for once, I can’t read her expression. Her face is calm. Emotionless. But her eyes narrow, ever so slightly—like I said something wrong.
As she studies my face in the tense silence, I want to add what we’re both thinking.
You’re a dragon, too, Irena.
But we don’t know that for sure, yet.