“Yes,” he said quietly. “That’s what worries me.”
Across the table, his mother’s eyes gleamed with mischief.
Of course, it didn’t take long for that to change.
Maya had just left, taking Tomás to his carer’s before her shift at the bed-and-breakfast started.
Igraine had obviously been waiting for this moment to strike.
“You’re flying in dragon form?” She snatched at his sleeve, tugging him to face her. No mischief in her eyes now, only maternal sharpness. “There’s no need for that. I’ll call Odie with the helicopter—”
“Flying is faster.” He crooked an eyebrow at her. “Youflew here.”
“I needed to get here quickly. And I can afford the price.” She sighed. “I’m not going to convince you, am I?”
“I need to talk to my grandfather.”
“By phone?” she suggested.
“Inperson.”
“And it can’t wait for you to fly by non-magical means?”
“Mother—” He bit back an exasperated groan. “I’ve been flying cloaked in our magic my entire life. I can handle it.”
“And I wish you wouldn’t.” She looked uncharacteristically downcast, even for someone who’d flown overnight using the same magic she seemed determined to make him avoid. “I can’tconvince you? Why do you want to speak to your grandfather, anyway?”
There was no way in hell he was telling his mother that he needed to ask her father-in-law how to corral his dangerous magic in order to claim his mate. She had raised him to be the head of the Blackburn clan. If she knew her son couldn’t even control his own power, she would be devastated.
And she would try to help.
He swallowed. “You must have heard by now. A thief has ransacked our family vault.”
“Oh, yes. Of course.” She pressed her lips together and let out a frustrated sigh. “And you need to go all the way there to inspect the vault yourself?”
“If necessary.”
“Well, what if it isn’t necessary? Don’t you have your people looking into it? Go and talk to them first,” she suggested breezily. “And while you’re at back home, round up your cousins and ask them what the hell they think they’re up to.”
“First you tell me not to fly at all, now you’re telling me to extend my trip?”
“It’s barely any further. A pit-stop. And if you find out what you needthere, then you can come straight back!”
He doubted that very much. “I’ll do as you suggest,” he said anyway. It would only be a brief detour—and he could handle the additional strain, no matter what his mother thought.
All shifters took the trouble to keep their true natures hidden from the human world. For some, like raccoon shifter Avi, or most of Maya’s neighbors, the risk was minimal: if humans saw an animal wandering somewhere unexpected, they would suspect it had escaped from a zoo or was someone’s lost pet, if they even noticed it was out of place at all.
Dragons, of course, had no natural habitat. They could not let themselves be seen at all. And this was the duskfire’s one savinggrace: Blackburn dragons could wreathe themselves in their own power and fly unnoticed, a shadow like a passing cloud moving through the air at the speed of grief.
The same way their fire burned away all healing to reveal the wounds beneath, this method of safe travel was powered by the memories of loss and pain that clung to the landscapes they flew over.
He didn’t know why his mother was making such a fuss. He’d flown this way all his life. He was used to it.
“Be careful,” she said, patting his cheek.
He stared at her, bemused. “Of course.”
“No need to tell me to do the same, of course. I’m going to have a wonderful time with your Maya, and the little boy, and all thedelightfullocals.”
