I blew out a long, low breath, dampening the arousal fizzing through my blood and between my legs, instead focusing on the mystery of my wyrm.
And forced my mind to flow back to the Uzrek.
You have soared above the heavens and chewed beneath the earth. You are familiar to me, yet a stranger.
Familiar because I was a wyrm. Or was there more to this, to Graysen and me, than that?
A strange feeling plucked at my senses. There was something hidden within those carefully chosen phrases the Uzrek had shared. And therehad beensomething else he’d told me, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what it was.
The same humming came from Draxxon’s body that I had felt when I’d snatched up Graysen’s cursed sword after falling off the cliff, using the weapon to protect him. Moving sideways, I raised both hands flush with the plated foreleg of Draxxon and allowed the power to spark against my flesh. “I felt the same thing when I touched your cursed sword.”
“Wyrmbone.”
Maybe that had been the connection. My wyrm had recognized its own kind. The curse couldn’t afflict me either. “Do you feel it?”
“A dull hum. I always have. But I never put it together with you and me.” Graysen sauntered over to my side. “I feel more from you. It’s different, more intense,” he added, his mouth pursed in thought. He raised a hand, and I let him ghost it down my upper arm, both of us feeling that strange electric hum bouncing between us, watching the way the fine hair rose on my arm wherever his hand passed, raising gooseflesh. “There was a bond between them that linked their minds, and Hamon could holdswayover Draxxon to a point.”
“To a point?” I asked, craning my neck back to look up at him, worried that he’d hold the same power over me.
He gave me a lopsided grin, cocking a brow. “It’s a fucking wyrm. Full of fire. Temperamental. And at times seriously moody and pissed off. I’m pretty sure Hamon often said‘fuck this shit’and bailed.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. The joyous sound bounced off the stone walls and scaled wyrm. I strode off to the other side of the hall, shaking my head and grinning, but needing distance to get away from the intense, charged connection that bound us together. I rubbed my arm to erase the pleasure from my skin. “It makes sense now. I never understood why I felt drawn to you.” I drifted along the length of Draxxon’s long serpentine tail that thinned to a bladed note. The tip curved upward, the wyrm-stinger much like a scorpion’s . I turned around to face Graysen, who had followed me over as if he wasn’t able to stop himself. “Could you holdswayover me now we know what we are?”
“As your tamer?”
I scowled at the term—tamer.
He threw his head back and laughed, a deep, hearty belly laugh that grew louder at my peeved expression. When his chuckles finally subsided and his shoulders stopped shaking, he rubbed his stubbled jaw with the flat of his fingers. Life sparkled in the endless depths of his inky eyes. His lips twitched as he raised a brow while his upper body canted forward. “Holy fuck, Wychthorn, I’d have more chance of holdingswayover Sage than you.”
My wraith-wolf chose that moment to give a bored little huff.
Graysen darted a glance at Sage, who scratched and sniffed at the foot of the stool tucked under a table, but when his gaze returned to mine, his expression had sobered. He took a couple of paces closer, and I held my ground. I braced myself against his scent, the acute awareness of how close he was, yet refused to move. Maybe in truth I couldn’t. Maybe if I were being honest, I didn’t want to. Awe glittered in his eyes as he stared down at me for a long moment before saying softly, “I think you’re untamable.”
My breath caught tight in my throat.
There was something in those words. I wasn’t certain if he saw me as a challenge or if he liked that I wasn’t tamable and preferred me that way.
The moment stretched out, and my heart sped up. His too.
He reached out as if he were about to push his fingers through the tendrils that had escaped my braid and tuck them behind my ear, and froze when I said quietly, “It doesn’t really matter though, does it? In a few weeks’ time, you’ll own me completely with the Alverac.”
His hand fell limply to his side. He swallowed, and the vibrant life gleaming in his eyes died.
Sage reacted first, lunging into motion.
He bounded from beneath the table to place his massive, fur-hackled form in front of me. Hunkering low, thin lips pulled back from his fangs that glistened with saliva. His snarl ripped through the large hall.
Graysen surged forward, a rush of speed.
I was caught off guard. I lurched backward, tripping over my feet.
He grabbed me by the arm, righted me, spinning me around. He pushed me up against Draxxon, his hard overlapping scales digging into my spine. My hands instinctively grabbed hold of his biceps to steady myself.
Graysen wound his calloused palm around the nape of my neck beneath my heavy braid and tipped my head back so all I could do was stare wide-eyed into his fearsome glare, but there was a genuine fear too shining in his gaze. “Do not give in to your temper.” His touch was gentle, the thumb stroking my fluttering pulse point a caress. He bowed his head and whispered into my ear, “Give them what they want to see.”
And then he was gone. So terrifyingly fast, this time I hadn’t even been able to track his movement.
I swayed off balance, sucking in a sharp breath.
