Magic, yes, obviously, but I hadn’t known a mage could affect the very warmth in the air. I had only thought of magic being used for destructive ends before. Never to help save anyone.
Never in my wildest dreams to help save a dragon child.
But here we were, with Blake Cavendish helping to save the life of the last blue dragon egg in the entire world.
I wrapped myself around him and the fireplace, and we slept, buffeted by warm air in the middle of a raging blizzard.
10
BLAKE
I’d never tried to hold magic steady before. Sure, I waved my power around in a sparring match—I’d even enjoyed that fights were a little unfair. They ought to be, if I really was a Cavendish.
But to hold heat and energy in the air, not let it seep from the open cave mouth, keep it concentrated around the egg—I’d never done anything like that before.
Never. That kind of control had been beyond me.
Frankly, it was the sort of power Athelstan had brandished to raise the Spires. I might not have a clear idea of just how strong my brother was, but I doubted he could dothat.
In fact, I’d doubted our father could’ve done it either.
Perhaps it was because our need wasn’t so great as it’d been when we’d first rebelled against dragons, but we were getting weaker.
Until . . . now. Something had changed.
Maybe my need was greater here and now. I couldn’t say what was different, only that the power beat steadily in my chest. Holding the air around us felt as simple as standing. It felt like I could go on forever.
I drifted in and out of awareness, slumped in the warmth of Andreas’s side. It felt right—righter than his bed had, without him in it. The steady rise and fall of his breath behind me helped me rest more soundly than I had?—
Well, I might’ve said in days or weeks, but it was even longer.
Maybe I’d never felt so relaxed before.
I came back to myself, because it was hands touching me instead of the firmness of an enormous dragon. Andreas was sitting behind me, his legs folded to the side so I was cradled in the curve of his body.
His warm, muscled, completely naked body.
Dazed and happy, I smiled up at him. “Feeling all right?”
He hummed, brushing a hand from my shoulder to my wrist and back up.
“Will it hold?” Andreas glanced into the fire, where the egg was cradled in a swirling blanket of air, fire dancing along its shell.
I nodded. It wouldn’t even take effort, I thought. My whole body felt nice, like I’d just eaten a lovely hunk of beef. When I let that feeling take me, the warmth spread out and out and out, until I thought we could walk barefoot around every inch of the cave without fear of losing toes to the cold.
“Good,” Andreas murmured. Next thing I knew, his lips were against my shoulder. He dragged his mouth across my skin and I—was that a kiss? Was he kissing me?
“I want to take you to bed.” It wasn’t the way his mouth stayed pressed to my skin that brought me up short, only that I was confused.
I must’ve stayed quiet for too long, because he lifted his head and cocked a brow at me. “Do you want that?”
“Yes.” I nodded swiftly. “Definitely yes.”
He smiled. How was he even more gorgeous when he smiled than when he scowled at me?
He hefted me up in his arms, and the only thing I minded about that was that I couldn’t stare at him.
Once he had me on the bed, he crawled up after and stripped me slowly, piece by piece of clothing I’d mostly borrowed from the dragons. It was rougher than I was used to, but practical and warm. Most importantly, it hadn’t had any singe spots from Andreas’s ire.
