Damn the gown and the talisman and the Winter Tithe. I was going to spend this night with my Lifebind spread across the bed. Then the windowsill. We’d test the durability of the new wingback chair. Maybe even the hearthrug.
Except that the hearthrug was occupied.
This time, I was the one who moaned. It took every bit of control I’d fought to instill in myself over the past thirty years to draw back.
“Your familiar,” I whispered, even though we’d been speaking at a normal volume before and the dragon had not budged. She was very good at ignoring us when it suited her.
In that moment, she was curled in front of the fire, the sharp spikes along her back lifting with every steady inhale.
Koryn glanced over her shoulder. “She is sleeping.” But then she cringed, her entire face scrunching up. “Not anymore.”
Sure enough, the dragon stretched out her neck and shook out her wings the best she could without fully extending them.
I sighed. Nothing more was going to happen here and now.
But Koryn’s face held more than disappointment. Her eyes had that faraway look that told me she was speaking with her familiar. And the way they widened and then contracted until there was a divot between her brows told me they were arguing.
“What is it?”
Koryn made a low sound in the back of her throat akin to her familiar’s growl.
“She wants to come with us,” she said. Koryn held up her hand before I could respond. “She’s not. She will stay here, far away from Maura and the king.”
The not-so-little dragon hissed. She took up the entire hearthrug where she’d been curled up for her nap, and her citrine eyes were now wide open and glaring at the pair of us. It had not taken me long to figure out that it was best to stay out of Koryn and Isanara’s interactions—and especially their arguments.
Koryn turned out of my arms to return her familiar’s glare. The silhouette of her hands on her wide hips had me pressing my own eyes closed. I had to get control of myself and my cock.
“Dragons know their own minds.” Syleris’ silken voice came from the corner behind the chair. He stepped out of a pocket of shadow, or materialized from it, however his power worked. He was not exactly forthcoming about the details.
My already tortured cock twitched at the sight of him.
Koryn divided her attention between dragon and god. “I know my familiar,” she said, and then to Isanara, “And she will be staying here.”
Syleris dismissed the pair and slid his eyes to me, instead.
He lifted one dark brow, silken hair falling across it at a rakish angle.
“The color suits you, halfling,” he purred.
I was not about to tell him the same, even though it was true. He wore the same tight black leather trousers and gleaming over-the-knee boots as always. But instead of the simple black vest buttoned all the way to his throat, he wore one of gold and silver brocade on a field of black. It certainly was not buttoned up to his throat. If it had buttons at all, they stopped at his sternum, revealing a triangle of muscular golden chest to our view.
Koryn seemed to finish her argument with Isanara, turning her hands-on-hips attention to Syleris and pinning him with the same glare. He was, as usual, unbothered.
“Are you planning on whispering your commentary into my head all night?” she asked.
“I am planning on joining you.”
Syleris flicked his fingers, and a mask materialized over half of his face. Koryn and I’s covered just our eyes. But Syleris had chosen a different style for himself. The mask cut across his face in a diagonal, from his temple down to the opposite edge of his jawline, leaving one mesmerizing blue-black eye and his lascivious mouth fully exposed. The mask itself bore no ornamentation at all. It was matte white, the contrast stark and perfectly suited to his elegant features.
“Are you going to try and command me to remain here, as well?” Syleris asked Koryn. His blue-black eyes dared her to try.
Isanara hissed at him. She didn’t want his company, clearly.
I could not compel a god. I was not sure I wanted to. “You are hardly inconspicuous.” Even in the mask.
“I have ways of diverting attention.”
Koryn huffed out a breath. “You are going to spend the whole night amplifying the worst impulses of everyone in attendance.”
