“Like when a wolf has pushed itself too hard and can’t turn back into a human until it rests.”
“Yes and no.” Her eyes brightened, and a hum slid over my skin. “Dragons have magic in ways other shifters don’t, but it depends upon the breed as to how much and what kind they possess. Rather than four legs, we tend to revert to two, which isn’t ideal in the middle of battle. And, like witches, we can only summon so much magic before we burn out. A dragon unable to shift or call fire is as vulnerable as a human.”
“Okay, I feel it, I think, but it’s not budging.”
“Visualize us sharing breath. I inhale, you exhale. Each of your exhales should push magic to me, just as each of my inhales draws magic from you.” Her lips curved higher. “This will be much more fun with a handsome partner.”
Ah. There it was. Fayne always had a trick or two up her sleeve, and this ranked as one of her less subtle schemes. “Are you training me or suckering me into holding hands with your grandson?”
“Can’t it be both?”
“With you?” I didn’t so much as pause. “Yes.”
“Focus on your breathing.” She clucked her tongue like she wasn’t the problem. “Not on Rían.”
Just like being told not to picture a pink elephant, a pink elephant stampeded through my thoughts.
This morning in the kitchen with Rían had been…nice. His strong arms caging me. The soft brush of his lips across my skin. Sharing our hopes and fears.
“Well done.” Fayne grinned at me. “I thought that would help.”
“I did it?” I homed in on the circular breathing between us, amazed to sense the ebb and flow of energy as it entered and left my body. “How…? Wait a minute. You thought what would help?”
“You started thinking about Rían and forgot to stop believing in yourself.”
“You’re sneaky, you know that?” I paid closer attention to our exchange, slowly getting the hang of it until I was the one in control. “I don’t hate it, though.”
“I’m trying to be more forthcoming with you, but it goes against my nature.” She fell silent, her gaze dipping to the ground. “I hope you can forgive me when I slip up from time to time.”
Guilt soured the back of my throat, but I got the feeling I had to toe the same hard line with her that Rían did with Goldie to avoid being steamrolled at every opportunity. I had leaned into her hard after she turned our recon mission for the Pampered Pooches employees into a rescue op without giving me—or Rían—a heads-up that was her intention from the start. But this situation wasn’t that one.
“I won’t hold benign sneakiness against you.” I ducked my head to catch her eye. “I needed to get out of my head, and you knew just what to do.” I smiled at her. “We’re all still learningabout each other, so it’s okay if we don’t have it all figured out yet.”
“You sound like your father.” Fondness softened her features as her focus grew distant. “Deitrich was a peacekeeper, always ready to mediate squabbles or break up fights.”
To hear I was like my father…myrealfather…struck me like a second arrow. This one to my heart.
“What about my mother?” I thought back to the videotapes from this morning. “What was she like?”
“She was more likely to be in the thick of things, swinging her fists or screaming at the top of her lungs.” Fayne’s attention returned to me. “Liesel was loud, fierce, and a terrible cook.” She exhaled one more time, and the energy cut off between us. “She gave Deitrich food poisoning so often, I don’t know how he braved dinner every night.”
“It sounds like they loved each other very much.”
“To a sickening degree, yes.” She scrunched up her nose. “They were true mates. Almost unheard of these days. The only known pair of their generation.”
“Because there are so few dragons.”
“Yes.” She released me. “We can fall in love the same as anyone else, and that love is no less valid than any other, but mates are two pieces of a soul cracked down the middle. They’re not whole unless they’re together.”
“That sounds beautiful.” I had to admit, “And painful.”
The sting of missing a vital piece of myself was a familiar one. I had mourned the lack of a wolf my whole life, but it would be different if the part of yourself that was absent was a person. With so few dragons, I wondered how many held out for lightning to strike, granting them that bond. Most likely not many.
“I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
“Thank you.” I scuffed my foot in the dirt. “For the tapes.”
“You’re more than welcome. As soon as the wards come down, a friend is coming to visit who can burn them onto a DVD. She’ll also upload them to your storage cloud as well. I would prefer to have physical and digital copies of our old home movies, just in case, and the VHS tapes will need to go back in climate-controlled storage when you’re done.” She checked a slim gold watch. “We should get going.”
