They’re going to the natural history museum to visit the dinosaur exhibit. They’ve been chattering about it all school year, asking me to read dinosaur books for every one of my Saturday story hours.
“Of course. Anything to help,” I say, then spin toward Luke, my hands fluttering. “Oh, I didn’t mean to volunteer you for anything! I meant me.”
“It’s younglings,” he growls, his brow furrowed in a canyon of a frown. “Of course I’ll help.”
“Good,” Severin says, “because unless you’ve become a weather witch, Skye, we need a dragon.”
“Nope. No weather.” Just books… and in-book Luke looking like he wants to eat me up. I shiver. We’re supposed to have another dance lesson and the promised dinner date soon. What’s going to happen? How soon is the book going to get spicy?
Luke’s deep voice snaps me back to the here and now. “Explain the parameters of the problem.”
“Black ice.” Hannah gestures down the old highway. “Patches of it all along the road. The driver says they almost crashed.”
“Can you burn it off?” Severin asks. “It’s several miles before it gets better.”
“I can, but not in this form.” Luke tips his head toward the length of road ahead. “And the town’s protection spell doesn’t extend far enough to hide me as a dragon.”
The shadow fae gestures toward the school bus. “It’s all right. I already have a glamour in place. The kids won’t see anything.”
“What about anyone else who might be nearby?” Hannah asks. “He’s going to be noticeable in the sky for miles around.”
“I can fly behind Luke and cast a continuous invisibility glamour over him.”
“Fine.” Luke fists the front of his shirt. With a pulse of magic, the fabric splits into sections and peels from his torso, like a starfish releasing from a rock. When he catches me ogling his chest, he smirks.
Snickerdoodle! Heat flushes my cheeks. I havenothad enough caffeine yet to hide my expressions.
It immediately gets worse—or better, depending on how you look at it—and hoo, boy, do I look at it.
Luke turns and walks several yards away, his wings spreading as he tears his pants off. There’s a flash of his absolutely gorgeous muscular ass. Then an explosion of magic blasts through the air, and where Luke stood, there’s now a dragon.
A massive, oh-god-is-this-a-movie-special-effect, for-real dragon. The wings and tail look similar to his weredragon form, and the scales covering the rest of his body are the same red. He even has two black horns spiraling up from his head.
But he’s the size of ahouse, standing on four legs as wide as tree trunks, with fangs and claws as big as my arm. Magic rolls off him like heat from a forge—hot and dangerous and powerful.
“Luke?” His name squeaks from my tight throat, a tiny sound.
“Who else would it be?” His voice booms, but it’s familiar, still a bit arrogant and a lot grumpy.
And wonderfully his.
“Yep. You’re right,” I babble, nodding too much. “Just checking.”
He grunts and vaults into the air with another deep throb of magical power, his wings snapping wide as soon ashe clears the treetops. Their first downbeat creates a wind that blasts over us, rippling everyone’s hair and clothes.
“That’s my cue.” Shadow wings emerge from Severin’s back, and he leaps skyward, being careful to stay behind the dragon.
Because Luke opens those fearsome jaws and shoots fire. Seeing him blast his hand with flame the other day had been surprising.
This is world altering.
Flames roar from him, a three-foot wide column of roiling heat and power. With perfect aim, he bathes the pavement of the highway, without a single spark drifting anywhere near any of the trees.
I gasp, and without realizing I’ve moved, I find myself standing shoulder to shoulder with Hannah, my hands clasped in hers. My whole body shivers and shakes as IfeelLuke’s incredible power thrumming through my chest.
I’m shook. Utterly and totally shook, a mix of semi-terrified awe and knee-trembling arousal.
With slow strokes of his wings, he flies forward, keeping up a steady stream of fire.
