A devilish smile curves Lyra’s lips, and her orange eyes sparkle as she looks over at him. “Afraid someone will hear your dirty thoughts?”
“N-no, that’s not?—”
“AfraidIwill hear your dirty thoughts?”
He chokes on a strangled cough and looks desperately to his left while pressing out a pleading, “Lavendera?”
Genuine amusement glitters in her pink and purple eyes, which is something I haven’t seen a lot from her. And she even lets him suffer for another few seconds before finally replying, “No. They can only hear the thoughts, or images, that you are thinking directly to them.”
“Too bad,”Draven says in my mind with that teasing smirk still in his voice.“I would’ve loved to hear allyourdirty little thoughts.”
“Oh, you can always have those,”I think back at him before projecting some of my most wicked fantasies right into his mind without warning.
A jolt goes through his huge dragon body, his massive wings flaring out in response.
“Azaroth’s flame, little rebel,”he growls into my mind.
“Testing it out, huh?” Lyra says, a knowing grin on her lips.
I suddenly become acutely aware that there are three other clan leaders and a whole bunch of soldiers that I don’t know watching us right now. While trying to battle a very untimely blush, I clear my throat and quickly turn back to Lavendera.
“So what does this union bond actually do?” I ask. “What’s the purpose of it? Apart from giving us the ability to communicate with our minds.”
“It gives the fae access to the innate magic that every dragon shifter carries in their soul,” she replies. “The magic that is connected to their dragon fire. That’s why they need to be in dragon form for it to work.” She draws a distracted hand through her flowing brown hair. “And it gives the dragon shifter access tothe innate magic that every fae carries in their soul, where the potential for a magical skill is.”
My mind spins as I try to make sense of that. “What does that mean?”
“It means that both partners get more powerful. The dragon shifter gets stronger, faster, and their dragon fire gets much deadlier. If the dragon shifter is a clan leader, his or her magic will also get stronger. And the fae gets more powerful too. Stronger, faster, more resilient. If they have magic, their power gets stronger as well. And if their innate magic was too weak to produce a specific magical skill when the fae was born, it will boost their power enough to give the fae a magical ability. Fire magic, specifically. Since it’s connected to the dragon shifter’s fire.”
Alistair snaps his head towards her. “Fire magic? All fae who were dragon riders but didn’t have their own magical skill got fire magic?”
“Yes.”
Surprise blows across his features. It takes me a moment to understand why. If everyone without magic also gets fire magic when they bond a dragon, then fire-wielders like Alistair will no longer be shunned. Because fire will not just be the dragon shifters’ element. It will be our element too.
“The physical effects, like getting stronger and such, and the powerful magical abilities disappear as soon as the union bond is closed,” Lavendera continues. “But a limited part of the magical effects remains. That initial boost opens the magical power for the fae, so we often unlock new depths to our magic that we can still use afterwards. And the dragon shifters…” Trailing off, she seems to hesitate. “Well, I’m pretty sure there is a specific lingering effect for you as well. But I don’t know for certain if I’m right about this, so we’ll just have to see later.”
“So what’s the catch?” Isera asks. Her blue and silver eyes areslightly narrowed as she watches Lavendera. “This all sounds very convenient, so there must be a downside.”
“There is. The first one, like I said earlier, is that it only works when the dragon shifter is in dragon form.” She glances down at a small pink flower on the ground, looking distracted for a few seconds, before meeting our eyes again. “And the second downside is that while the union bond is open, you kind of share one body.”
I frown. “What?”
“If the dragon shifter gets hurt while the bond is open, the fae will feel the exact same pain. And vice versa.”
Worry ripples through me. “What happens if one of them dies while the bond is open?”
“The other person dies as well.” She shrugs. “But both partners always try to close the union bond before that happens, so that they don’t drag the other down with them. Sometimes death happens very quickly, though, so it’s not always possible.”
Silence falls over our entire group. For a little while, we all just stare at her.
“Oh,” I manage to say at last.
“Yeah, so it’s a bit of a trust thing,” she says with another light shrug. “You need to trust that your partner will close the bond in time if they see a potentially deadly attack coming that you don’t see.”
Orion lets out something between a scoff and a humorless huff of amusement. Then a knife-sharp smile stretches his lips. “So that’s why all dragon shifters only bonded fae from the Seelie Court. Much easier to trust the sweet and virtuous members of the honorable Seelie Court than the wicked and cunning fae of my untrustworthy realm, huh?”
Rin glances away, looking uncomfortable, but she doesn’t contradict him. Next to her, Diana just keeps looking back at him with unapologetically suspicious eyes. The only dragon shifter who speaks is the leader of the Blue Clan.
