The Dragons of Paragon

by Genevieve Jack

  Never had a simple touch turned him inside out as hers did. His brow furrowed. “What do you want, Leena?”

  Her eyes narrowed, and she licked her lips. When she spoke, her voice was low, as if she feared someone might hear them. “There’s something I’d like to try, something I could never do in the temple and may never have the chance to do again.”

  Colin held absolutely still. “What’s that?”

  She closed the space between them. Both her hands moved to his chest, her touch a brand through the thin material of his tunic. The tips of her nails scraped over his shoulders, into the short hair at the base of his skull. He forced himself to swallow, and the sound of it blared exceptionally loud in his ears, the pounding of his heart a background rhythm that grew louder with her nearness.

  And then she kissed him.

  Colin was no stranger to temptation. He locked his hands at his sides, his mind reeling with the feel of her mouth on his, her floral scent invading his space, a welcome and intoxicating storm of his senses. He tentatively returned the kiss, completely lost to the moment. Her lips parted, and there was no denying his need. His inner dragon took over, and his hands lifted of their own accord.

  One hand fisted the back of her dark copper hair, and the other banded her waist, clutching her against his body. He invaded her mouth, stroked along her tongue. Mine, his inner dragon bellowed inside his head.

  Desire clamped him like a vise. He needed her. Needed to be in her, deep. Under her skin. To mark her as his.

  Leena welcomed his response with a moan, opening wider for him. Her nails scraped along his back, under his wings. He wanted nothing more than to remove his shirt, but no way would he break the kiss to do so. Instead, he endeavored to show her with his mouth exactly what those nails did to him. His trill rumbled in his chest.

  She froze. He pulled her closer, but she shoved her hands against his chest and another sliver of space appeared between them. “That sound…”

  “My inner dragon.”

  “Your mating trill.”

  He nodded. “Be mine, Leena. Don’t go back to the temple.” It was out of his mouth before he could question his sanity.

  All the color drained from her face, and she pushed him away. “No. I can’t. I’m so sorry. Oh dear goddess, this was a mistake.”

  “What? No—”

  “Colin, I can’t.”

  The words crushed his soul as completely as if a tsunami had risen from the sea and flattened him to the beach. Cool air rushed between their bodies. It might as well have been a bucket of ice. He stared, stunned silent, as she turned on her heel and ran.

  Chapter Four

  New Orleans, LA

  Raven blinked into existence on a sidewalk in the Garden District of New Orleans, her sisters’ hands sweaty in her own. Even their mates looked beat. They’d sailed to Crete and hadn’t wasted a breath before using a series of portals to reach Louisiana. Dragon magic or not, three hops across thousands of miles drained a person.

  “Please tell me this is it,” Nathaniel said, eyeing the Greek Revival home that stood to his left, set well back from the sidewalk and behind a wrought-iron fence. “I don’t think I can do it again.”

  “Aye. Feels like someone’s squeezed me ’bout the middle like a lemon,” Xavier added. Even his kilt seemed to hang crookedly, the fabric itself drained of color like the rest of him. Avery leaned heavily into the Scot’s side, and it was unclear who was holding up whom.

  “This is it,” Gabriel confirmed.

  Charlie was asleep in her carrier strapped to his chest, one fluffy white wing peeking out from the navy-blue fabric sling.

  Raven’s stomach rumbled, and her muscles trembled with exhaustion as she hobbled toward the gate. For the middle of the night, it was remarkably bright in the Garden District. The homes on either side of their Prytania Street address were adorned with twinkling lights. Across the street, a small herd of glowing reindeer nibbled on the lawn. The others seemed to notice that at the same time she did.

  “Fucking hell,” Avery said. “What day is it here?”

  Raven frowned. “I have no idea.” Her phone was at the bottom of the ocean, lost in the shipwreck before they’d reached Aeaea. “Let’s get inside and find out.”

  “It looks like Christmas, but it couldn’t be. We haven’t been gone for that long,” Clarissa said.

  Gabriel groaned. “Time flows differently here than on Ouros. Raven’s right, though. We should move inside. We’re not safe here.” He glanced furtively in both directions.

  Nathaniel puffed on his pipe. “No worries. The time shift is a bit disorienting but nothing a few days of rest won’t cure.”

  “Are you kidding?” Avery asked incredulously. “With it being the holidays, once my mother finds out we’re in town, we won’t rest for a minute.”

  “Shh!” Gabriel gestured toward the gate. “Raven, if you please. We can continue this conversation across the threshold and inside the wards.”

  She approached the gate, the granite slab under it inscribed with to aíma tou aímatós mou, roughly translated: blood of my blood.

  Xavier stared at the dingy home beyond. There were no lights up in their yard, the front garden was poorly tended, and the window screens of the butter-colored house looked as if they’d started to rust. He grunted. “Have you no oread? The place looks abandoned.”

  “No. It looks exactly as it did the day we bought it,” Raven said. “Nothing to see here. An old home in need of renovation but not dilapidated. The type of thing the eye simply skips over.” Raven reached for the gate, its wrought iron showing the slightest bit of rust and wear.

  Nathaniel took a puff off his ever-present pipe. “The dreadful appearance is intentional, then?”

  Holding open the gate, Raven smiled. “Touch Gabriel or me as you step over the threshold.”

  Avery’s hand landed on her shoulder. As she stepped across the granite, her expression morphed into one of pure wonder. Raven helped the others through and then followed them inside, closing the gate and the wards behind her.

  The scene around her changed. The grass greened brighter than it should have for the time of year, and the house took on a fresh coat of butter-yellow paint. The shutters straightened themselves, and the windows lost a coat of grime, each one glowing from within with the light of a single candle. Lights twinkled from the rooftops like Christmas jewels.

  “Holy shit.” Clarissa sidled up to Raven on the lawn and elbowed her side. “You’re some kind of magical genius. This spell held up even while you were gone?”

  “It’s complicated magic. Draws on the supernatural energy of the city. We’re not the only thing that goes bump in the night here.” Raven watched her mate stride to the front door. It opened before he reached it, and he stopped, spreading his arms. She pictured Juniper and Hazel clinging to him, feeding off his energy. She couldn’t blame the two oreads for choosing to remain invisible. Not only were they in the presence of strangers, but they’d also been left alone without her mate’s energy for months.

  Finally, Gabriel lowered his arms and passed inside. She followed him, the others filtering in behind her.

  “Welcome home, mistress,” a silvery, disembodied voice said. “The rooms are prepared, and Juniper is serving supper in the dining room.”

  “Thank you, Hazel.”

  Inside, the house glowed. Bows of lighted evergreen hung around each doorframe and along the stair rail. The bright smell of pine and cinnamon filled her lungs. The feast that awaited them at the long ebony table of the dining room included hot chocolate and some sort of fluffy peppermint dessert that made her mouth water. Suddenly she was starving.

  “Mama?” Charlie stirred in her carrier, and Gabriel lifted her out of the sling and put her on his hip. She spread her fluffy white wings and pointed at the leg of lamb at the center of the table.

  “Out of the mouths of babes.” Xavier selected a plate and handed one to Avery.

  Stomach rumbling, Raven
didn’t hesitate to reach for a plate too but screamed when a blur of calico leaped toward her face. She dodged, and her cat, Artemis, landed on the floor near her feet.

  Whoosh!

  Charlie dove from Gabriel’s arms in a flurry of white feathers and swooped to the floor. Artemis screeched, and when her daughter turned, Raven could see why. Charlie gripped Artemis in her teeth.

  “Charlie, no!” Raven yelled, finger pointing at the girl’s button nose.

  Charlie’s mouth dropped open. Artemis fell to her feet, meowed angrily, and scrambled away in a tornado of claws and flying fur. Tears welled in her daughter’s eyes, which had grown as wide as saucers.

  Gabriel swept her up and patted her back as a wail broke the barrier of her shock. “She doesn’t know any better, Raven. Try not to yell. You’re scaring her.”

  “She tried to eat the cat!” Raven said tersely. “Something had to be done.”

  With another poof of white feathers, Charlie wiggled from Gabriel’s grip and flew to the table, where she landed near the lamb and unceremoniously sank her teeth into it.

  “I guess she’s hungry,” Clarissa said, hiding a laugh behind her upturned plate.

  Raven shook a finger at her sister. “Don’t encourage her. It’s not funny.” She tried her best not to laugh and only succeeded in pressing her lips tightly together as the sides of her mouth lifted.

  Avery snickered.

  “Charlie, come here. I’ll fix you a plate.” Raven reached for her daughter, but the little girl tore off a piece of meat and flew to the top of the china cabinet, where she ate from her hands while she surveyed them all from above.

  For a second, Raven just stared at her daughter, thinking how feral she looked tearing into the meat with her teeth. Then panic planted a seed and grew a little garden in her mind. “She can fly.” Raven gaped at Gabriel. “Our daughter can fly!”

  “Yes, she can,” Gabriel said proudly.

  “What are we going to do? She looks like a wild animal. I can’t have her flying across the room every time she sees something meaty! What about Mom? The last time she saw me, I was pregnant. I can’t bring this with me into her world.” She pointed a hand at her daughter.

  Nathaniel tapped his pipe against his chin. “We could drug her if you’re not averse.”

  Raven gave him an incredulous look. “Of course I’m averse! I’m not going to let you tranquilize my baby.”

  “Perhaps ye could make a changlin’ baby from magic. Animate a doll or such,” Xavier offered.

  Clarissa tipped her head. “That is a tall order. Sarah and David are going to want to hold their grandchild. It would take one hell of a spell to make a fake Charlie seem human.”

  “Can we borrow a baby?” Nathaniel asked. “Surely you must have some American friend who can—”

  “Lend me their newborn?” Raven fixed him with a pointed stare. “Sorry, no.”

  “Now that you say it, it does sound like a rather steep ask.” Nathaniel tugged at the cuffs of his suit jacket. “Only trying to help.”

  Avery’s face turned solemn. “Maybe we should tell her the truth.”

  “Now I’m sure you’re crazy!” Raven blurted. “Maybe I could pretend to still be pregnant. Technically, I conceived in February, which would make a human due date of November, but we were married in June. Could I convince her the pregnancy happened after?”

  Avery rolled her eyes. “She suspected you were pregnant on your wedding day. Plus, you must have mentioned a due date to her.”

  “No. I don’t think I did.” Raven tried to remember. “It’s the simplest solution. We can leave Charlie here with the oreads, and I can pretend to be”—she did a quick calculation—“seven months pregnant with a March due date.”

  “And in March, then what?”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

  Avery sighed and started loading her plate. “It’s Christmas, Raven. We are going to show up at Mom’s, and she’s going to have a million questions about where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing. Do you know how hurtful it’s probably been for her not to hear from us all this time? All she knows is that her three daughters have fallen off the face of the earth for months. How long can we keep this up without breaking her heart? What excuse could you possibly give for not calling her when the baby is born?”

  Raven felt her face grow hot, and she tossed up her hands. “I don’t know, Avery! I’ve been a little preoccupied with staying alive and finding the golden grimoire. Oh, and raising a flying, meat-eating baby. Cut me some slack here!”

  “I’m just saying sometimes the truth is the best option.” Avery used her fingers to pop a green bean between her teeth and then took a seat across the table.

  Gabriel rubbed a hand over his face. “What would happen if we told her the truth?”

  Raven gasped. “Not you too? She’ll never believe it. She’ll think we’ve all gone mad.”

  Avery pointed at Charlie, who’d finished her meat and was dangling her chubby feet over the side of the china cabinet. “How can you deny it with that in front of you?”

  Raven scowled.

  “I think you underestimate your mom,” Clarissa chimed in. “She’s run the Three Sisters for most of her life. She herself told me the restaurant is steeped in folklore. Maybe she’d take it in stride.”

  With a shrug, Nathaniel raised his pipe in her direction. “If it goes terribly wrong, I can always wipe her memory.”

  Raven looked to Gabriel for backup, but her mate wasn’t any help. He had the look on his face of a man who desperately wanted someone else to solve this problem.

  He growled deep in his throat and rumbled, “If she did know the truth, it might make it easier for us to find what we are looking for. She could be a huge asset.”

  Raven crossed her arms and stared up at Charlie. The babe pushed off the cabinet, her little wings catching the air, and soared down into Raven’s arms. Her big blue eyes seemed to hold a question and an apology. Raven hugged her and kissed her cheek. “I love you, but no cat. Artemis isn’t food.”

  Charlie giggled in response.

  Raven sighed. “So we tell Mom the truth. What could possibly go wrong?”

  “Why focus on the negative?” Clarissa said, cutting around Charlie’s bite marks to serve herself a chunk of meat. “Think about all that could go right.”

  Avery lifted her glass of wine and tapped the glass to her chin. “Personally, I’ll consider it a win if Mom doesn’t die of a stroke.” She gave a breathy chuckle.

  Raven met Gabriel’s gaze. Neither of them laughed.

  Chapter Five

  Aeaea Island

  What had she done? Leena bolted to her tent, so distracted she almost ran into the wrong one. All she’d wanted to do was feel what it was like to be kissed. She’d never been kissed. She’d lived in the temple since she was nine years old. Who would she have kissed?

  Oh, but she hadn’t realized what a single kiss could do. It seemed so innocuous from the outside, a simple touch of lips. With Colin, it had been so much more. She pressed her fingers against her mouth as she remembered the heat of it, the way her stomach had dropped and her body had tingled deliciously in his arms. That kiss had kindled an ache in her she’d never experienced before.

  His flesh had been sinfully hard against her chest, but his lips had been soft and welcoming. And the longer their mouths touched, the more a strange and wonderful pressure had built inside her. It lingered even now, her inner self fluttering like a leaf in the wind while an unexpected weight pooled between her legs. How could one both ache and feel light as a feather at the same time?

  The way his tongue had danced with her own enchanted her. She might have explored that dance for hours had the rumble in his chest not alerted her to how the encounter was changing. His hands, his mouth, had grown more demanding, and when he’d asked her to be his, she knew she was playing with fire.

  Of all the sensations the kiss had ignited in her, the warmth t
hat had blossomed at the center of her chest at the sound of his trill had been the most surprising and alarming. At that point, she knew without a doubt that the kiss would never be just a kiss. It wasn’t only an experiment. The feelings it stirred up were far more permanent, more dangerous. She shook her head.

  “Leena?” His voice came from outside the door to her tent.

  She tangled her fingers together in front of her stomach. If she remained quiet, would he assume she wasn’t there and go away?

  “Leena, I know you’re in there. We need to talk about what just happened.”

  Drawing a deep breath, she released it slowly and steeled her spine. She was an adult and an elf scribe. She could handle this.

  “Come in,” she said in the lightest, most unflustered voice she could find, even though inside she was trembling.

  He slipped through the tent flap and moved to stand in front of her. Dear goddess, his gray eyes sparked silver in the dim light, and the muscles in his arms bunched as he crossed them over his chest. Nothing short of stunning. That fluttering ache grew stronger still.

  “You kissed me.” He stared at her as if he was expecting an explanation.

  “It was an accident.”

  His eyes narrowed to slits. “An accident?”

  “Can we forget it ever happened?”

  “No.” He chuckled, low and gritty as if his throat were lined with cinders. “Your lips didn’t fall from the sky and land on mine.”

  She focused on his right biceps, on the wavelike scar that ran its length. He was not a man who was easily distracted from his goals. He wouldn’t be the type to let this go.

  Turning from him, she rubbed her palms together in tiny circles and paced the length of the tent. How could she explain? “I just wanted to try it. This was my one and only chance. Once I go back to my old life, I won’t be free to… indulge in any… experimenting.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” He rubbed the side of his jaw. “Why did you choose to experiment with me?”