Page 79 of Mad Dragon of Chaos

“Okay, so we’re both in no-hope relationships. Glad to hear I’m not the only one who’s lost his mind.” One hand braced against the pipe, Adrian edged close to the entrance, checking to see if anyone was lurking about. Things had grown quiet in the past few minutes. Their best bet was to follow the pipe for a while and see if they could exit through another spot like this one.

“What do you mean, ‘no-hope relationship’?” Shey demanded.

Adrian’s head whipped around and he stared at his companion. He could just barely make out Shey’s features in the dim light that leaked in from above. The prince appeared genuinely confused.

“I mean that unless you’ve got some special deal with Kaes, we’re humans falling for guys who are decidedly not human. How’s that going to work when you’re sixty and Ty still appears to be the same twentysomething miscreant that he does now?”

“I don’t care.”

Adrian stared at the man, his mouth open, but there were no words. He believed him. Shey didn’t sound as if he cared one bit that Tyche would outlive him by thousands of years. That Shey would age and die while Tyche didn’t.

“He’s a god. I’m human. I’ll cherish whatever time I can have with him. Every time I close my eyes, I worry he won’t be there when I open them again. But when he is with me, all I feel is joy.”

“Huh.” It was the only sound he could make.

“What?”

Adrian shrugged and gazed toward the grate. “I’m greedy. It’s not enough to have Haru for my lifetime. I want him for his lifetime, too. I want him until the end of time.”

Shey grunted. “Yeah, I want that too, but for now, I’ll be happy if Tyche doesn’t get killed following his current plan.”

There was something ominous in Shey’s tone that had Adrian stepping back. He’d moved deep enough into the darkness that he could no longer see Shey’s face, but he could sense the weight of his worry.

“What plan?”

“He pointed out that neither you nor I can get close enough to Feng to get the job done. He has to go. Alone.”

Fuck. They needed to get out of there now and rejoin the rest of the group. This sounded like a horrible plan.

TWENTY-NINE

OMARI HARU

This was frustrating.

Haru was not in the mood to be sneaky. Oh, he was very good at being sneaky when he wanted to be. No one could out-sneak him. Except for maybe his mate, but that was part of the reason he adored Adrian, why they were fated to be together.

But now was not the time to be sneaky.

As they ran through Bellcairn, darting through alleys and hiding in doorways from the people in the dark vans, Haru could only think that it was the perfect time to shift into his dragon form and burn them all. There needed to be chaos and destruction to show them the error of their ways. The evil people in power had bullied the innocent citizens of this country for far too long. It was time for retribution.

However, he’d promised Adrian he would behave.

No destruction.

No fiery retribution as if he had been sent by the great Goddess of Fire, Caris.

Really, what was the point of being a dragon if he couldn’t roar and scare people just a little?

They paused at the end of a quiet street. Jules peered around the corner of a building while he and Tyche hid themselves behind a bush. Sweat covered Tyche’s red face as he sucked in great gulps of air.

“Should you be so winded?” Haru asked. He thought gods should be impervious to things like getting tired from running.

Tyche glared at Haru as if he wanted to incinerate Haru on the spot. “Shut up. And don’t tell Shey. He’ll get this crazy idea that I should get up at the crack ass of dawn to go running with him. I’m not a running type of g—” Tyche caught himself at the last second and smirked. “I’m not the running type.”

Haru grinned. “You’re more than the lounging, sipping coffee, and reading a book type.”

A wicked look crossed his companion’s face. “I probably should have been born a dragon. I bet they’re champion-level loungers.”