He released me, and my body screamed at the loss of his touch, his warmth. He planted a slow, soft kiss on my hand before walking down the hall. There was one thing I knew for certain, Titus was indeed the best at both.
My heart was still pounding from dancing with Titus as I made my way to the dragon’s keep to meet Aurelius. I cursed the stairs for the third time that day. My skin still prickled from the places Titus had touched me. God, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on him tonight—but
I needed to focus. Because like Titus said, the better I was on dragon-back, the better chance I’d have at surviving this dangerous world.
The last time I had been near this creepy cave, it was night, and I had been escaping. Seeing it in the day did not make it less unsettling, but I was more comfortable being around dragons now, so I wasn’t completely terrified like before. I proceeded into the cave, reminding myself that it was just the dragon’s keep and not the Enchanted Mines, and that a giant Lithovore was not going to burst from the rock.
“Hello?” I called nervously. “In here,” a voice called back.
I rounded the corner to a dimly lit alcove where Aurelius was saddling Zephyros. He stood, reminding me of his towering height. He stepped in close—a little too close—and his eyes flicked to my lips, then back to my eyes. Most Fire Fae had similar amber eyes, but something about his burned with the same intensity as Titus’s.
“I assumed you wanted to practice with Zephyros,” he said lightly.
There was a beat.
His jaw tightened slightly.
“Or would you prefer Draxxinar?” he said as he tipped his head.
Zephyros shifted behind him with a low chitter. Draxxinar’s name seemed to hang in the air between us like something sharp.
I swallowed.
Suddenly, I got the feeling we weren’t talking about dragons anymore. But I pretended to be clueless and simply replied, “Zephyros is fine,” with a smile.
Relief flickered across his face before he masked it. He grinned with one corner of his mouth. Zephyros bumped his shoulder as if satisfied.
“All right then. Get on,” he commanded.
I did as the Dragon Master said, and we took off into the sky. I practiced the manual commands for a while before managing a clumsy landing on a rocky plateau near Dragon’s Maw. Several dragons scattered at the abruptness of the landing. We dismounted, and my boots hit the unforgiving stone.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“A nesting ground outside Dragon’s Maw,” he replied pointedly.
I looked around at the variety of dragons—red, orange, brown, yellow—and then, tucked into the gaps in the rock… dragon eggs!
Gesturing to Zephyros, I asked, “Why aren’t there any more like her?”
“The Kingdom of Flame has five distinct species of dragon, and they all breathe fire, making them fire dragons. Browns are the most common—a standard issue for new riders—then small reds, then yellows, then oranges like Veyraxxies and Pirantix.”
“Who’s Pirantix?” I interrupted.
“You’ve met him. He’s the grumpy large orange—Rexius’s dragon,” he said. “Then there are the rarest—giant reds like Draxxinar.”
“So, which is Zephyros? None of these are blue-green like her.”
“None. She is an oddity—a hybrid that shouldn’t exist. She’s a crossbreed between a yellow and a water dragon, but she wields fire. Dragons only breed within their species, but one day I found her near the border, and instead of killing me, she bonded to me,” he explained. “I’ve always been an oddity myself,” he added, gesturing to his sleek silver hair. “As Master of Dragons I could have chosen a large orange, but I chose her because of our bond.”
“Because you value the bond over power?” I asked.
He stroked her scales and she gave a reptilian purr. “Yes. Above all, the bond is most important. Come here, I’ll show you. Place your palm on her scales.”
I did as he said.
Immediately, the familiar tingling began, the same electric hum I felt with every dragon. A subtle vibration beneath my skin. A warmth that traveled from palm to wrist.
But then—
