I placed my cup back on the nightstand. “Thank you, Flame, but I’m fine. The dreams never actually hurt me.”
“I can also stay for fun.” He waggled his brows.
The door slammed open for a second time, and Seth, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers with the wordsHot Stuffwritten all over them, stomped in, looking less than happy about being woken up. There were several hickeys on him I’d rather unsee.
“What the fuck is going on?”
“I had the dream again, and these two detected magic use.”
“Technically,” Blaze said, “your system did. But by the time we got here, it was gone.”
“There ain’t no way magic got through my fucking wards. It has to already be on her.” Seth came in really close and sniffed me. “I don’t smell anything.”
“Good. Now let’s never do that again.” That was a little too close for comfort.
Feeling awkward that I was still lying in bed when everyone was standing, I grabbed the robe Elana had given me and got out of bed, grateful that I’d worn more than just a T-shirt to sleep. Seth went around the same way Blaze had. He stopped in front of my purse, which was sitting on a small table, and picked it up, a low hiss coming from his throat. He upturned my purse and shook everything out onto the table.
Out came my wallet, lip balm, eyeliner, and compact. The simple cosmetics were all I’d picked up at the shops. The purse was empty, but Seth continued shaking it like it owed him lunch money. When nothing more came out, he looked inside and unzipped the internal zipper and stuck his hand in.
“The fuck is this?” He held up something bronze and shiny.
I gasped as recognition hit me. It wasn’t the only thing that hit me. Memory of the voice I’d heard in the ladies’ bathroom at the pub and finding the dragon scale came rushing back so hard it made my head hurt, and I grabbed it to try to stop the pounding.
“I remember now! I found it in the girls’ room at the pub. Shelby and Emily were there. I heard a voice they didn’t hear, and I saw it on the counter. I picked it up and put it in my purse. They asked if I was all right because I was staring off into space. And when I tried to tell them there was nothing to tell. I forgot about it.”
“Not your fault. There’s a pretty strong forget spell on the scale. It’s spent already, probably aimed only at you. But the residue is there. We figured out how the dreams have been making it through Redrock’s protection. Sneaky bastard.” Seth held the scale up to the light shining down from the ceiling. “Looks familiar, actually. I’ll confirm with Desmon in the morning. But I think we have our dragon.”
Seth tossed the scale into the air and caught it as he walked out the door.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay for the night?” Flame asked with a hopeful look that had me wondering if he was just really lonely beneath the flirty exterior.
“Thank you, Flame, but I’m sure.”
Blaze gave me a curt nod and the two floated out of my room, closing the door behind them.
Chapter 27
Meera
Iranoverandgave Tansy a hug, glad to see another friendly face, not that Seth and Mateo weren’t friendly. But it was different. Tansy and I had hung out, and she wasn’t a cocky wizard or a manticore that could rip me apart if he wanted to. Technically, Tansy was here to be Seth’s backup just in case he needed extra magic, but to me, she was moral support.
I really needed it since I was about to meet my second dragon in the span of less than two weeks. And this one didn’t havehuman friends or a sweet human mate like Carly to keep him from being a total monster and razing everything to the ground. The fact that Emmett was Desmon’s brother didn’t make me feel any better. The two apparently weren’t truly on speaking terms, though according to Carly, Desmon technically owed Emmett a favor.
Or rather, Desmon did not owe him a favor because Emmett certainly did not help him win a competition, saving him from a hundred-year forced nap right after he’d found his mate. Interfering with the games that dragons and certain powerful demons played was strictly prohibited. But Emmett hadn’t helped because of some misplaced brotherly love, but because he’d bet an impressive sum on Desmon and had greatly grown his hoard from the earnings.
“We’ll be right behind you. Eamon’s here too, remember.”
A smoky limb reached out from around Tansy’s body and waved. It was totally freaky, but with all the strange things I’d seen in recent days, I didn’t even flinch. Eamon had refused to let his pregnant mate join us unless he came along and acted as a physical shield, wrapping around her body in the form of a hard, impenetrable smoky shell.
We weren’t at Desmon’s estate because both dragons insisted on meeting on neutral grounds. That was why we were meeting at the summit of a small mountain that was far enough from Emmett’s home mountain range to satisfy Desmon. It was exactly the type of place villains would choose in a movie, and it all felt so surreal.
Three figures approached from the air. The first was the dragon, bronze with a chartreuse shimmer, just like in my dreams. He was bigger and even more magnificent in real life. His wings blocked out the sun, and if I hadn’t already seen Desmon as a dragon on the way here, I’d have freaked out.
Next to him flew a demon that reminded me very much of Eamon, but much larger. But then again, weren’t demons able to shape their own bodies? Maybe this one just liked being bigger due to the intimidation factor. The third figure was a man who simply floated next to the other two. He had an ageless look that was hard to tell if he was either young or extremely ancient. He reminded me very much of the Wizard’s Elder Council representative I’d seen on the news.
I hurried over to Omelet’s egg, which was sitting on a velvet cushion inside an unbreakable case.
They landed in front of Desmon, who stood before the rest of us. Emmett stepped forward, changing from his dragon form into a man as his wings shrank to fit his back. He wore fitted leather pants but was topless, showing some chiseled abs. He was mesmerizingly handsome, like he’d stepped out of a modeling shoot.
