She scowled at the makeshift spit. Two flattish rocks cupped a neat flame, and the rock hare that had caused so much commotion was suspended on a green branch, swaying slightly. Fat dripped onto white-hot embers with a sharp sizzle. Even the mouthwatering aroma did little to quell her arousal.
“I’m sorry,” Koal murmured.
“What?” Ash looked up. “Oh, you mean…” She glanced at Race, still speaking to Attor. “It’s nothing like that, really.”
Ugh. With their heightened dragon hearing, they must already know what happened between her and Race.
Koal frowned. “Dragons can be volatile when someone they want isn’t?—”
“He’s rather protective of his charge,” she cut Koal off. “That’s what I am. See, he must return me to Michael without a scratch. I’m to become one of the newbies at the castle he oversees—a rather hush-hush thing.”
Yeah, she made it sound like a whorehouse and didn’t care.
Koal shot a quick look at Race, who remained like a poker, then nodded. “My apology was for you being unable to get back to Earth.”
“It’s all right.” Ash slipped off the log and sank to the ground, her anger fading. Being mad at someone who didn’t respond wasall so useless. “I suppose we’ll have to figure out those guards’ schedules before we try crossing the portal again.”
“Aye, that would help.” He pushed more peat into the fire.
Ash picked up a dry leaf from the underbrush and crumpled it, letting the confetti scatter to the ground. “So… Have you been with the Resistance long?”
Koal shrugged. “Since the fall of Lemuria. I was much younger then, a lad.”
“Your family?”
His expression turned grim, and he shook his head.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He nodded, but the pain lingered in his eyes. Then he looked up, his smile back. “I’m glad you’ll be here a little longer?—”
A low growl echoed, and Race slowly turned. In his current mood, she didn’t want Koal to get hurt. She said quickly, “The heat at the portal almost melted my skin. The air there just doesn’t feel right.”
“Malcarion,” he spat. “The bastard tried to destroy the portal soft spot with curse-runes millennia ago. The magic backfired, scorching the entire saddle into a kiln and leaving a jagged opening that can no longer close. We are dragons. We don’t have the kind of ability needed to create gateways into other realms?—”
“Then how did you?” Race bit out, barely sparing her a glance.
Koal shrugged. “Since the portal was already opened, we waited for the change of guards, except we camped out there, unseen, until it happened. It’s how we learned they work on rotation.”
“And your return?” Race demanded.
Koal glanced at Attor, then shrugged. “An old Fire-Scribe burned the portal runes into our flesh. Blood is the cost—everytime it’s used. If Malcarion discovers the order still exists, he’ll take their heads.”
Race’s features remained stony, and Ash shifted on her seat, growing uneasy. With no idea what to do, she changed the conversation. “It’s still incredibly strange for my Earth-trained mind to comprehend a six-legged creature. Animals on Earth are all four-legged.”
Koal gave her a sideways look and smiled. “We have both here?—”
“Yo, Koal?” Skaldr called, and Ash looked up.
She’d forgotten about that shifter, slouching on the mossy log, his back against a tree. She thought he was sleeping off his injuries.
“At least your efforts won’t go to waste, eh?” he drawled. “Your apology for the female is perfectly burned and just in time, too?”
Ash frowned. “What?”
Skaldr lifted a shoulder in a careless shrug. “Koal was a little deflated when you left earlier, female?—”
“Shut up, Skaldr, before I draw and quarter you,” Koal grunted, shooting the shifter a quelling look.
