Page 9 of Connor and the Dragons

“I know you will.” She touched my sleeve, and I stepped closer, wishing a hug were enough to help my friend.

CHAPTER 5: KESSRIN

I carried the tray up myself.

I had informed the kitchen staff it was a security matter. It was not a security matter, not really, but I had a mission, and soup seemed the best way to execute it. The two men needed to form an attachment, and I could surely come up with a way to facilitate that attachment. After all, the dragon Oallian was so sexually uninhibited that even a mild suggestion would probably set him off.

Sure, I was no matchmaker, but what did that matter? It couldn’t be that difficult.

Frost had spread across the tureen by the time I reached the door. As the guards opened it for me, Oallian sprang up, his robe falling open and revealing his rather sizable endowment. I glanced towards Connor to see if he had noticed, but the human was standing by a window, frowning.

“Is that soup? Oh! I’ve been craving soup!” Oallian was bouncing and everything else was bouncing with him. “How shall I address you? Lord Frost?” He snickered. “Frostvael Shimmerlight. Ice dragons always were the silliest with names.”

“Close the tie on your robe, jackass,” Connor said. “It’s making him uncomfortable.”

Oallian looked down at his robe, then laughed as he tied the belt in a knot that didn’t even look a tiny bit secure. “Not used to clothing, sorry! Has the soup gone cold during the walk up?”

“This is a chilled soup,” I lied.

It was a butternut bisque. It had left the kitchen steaming. Connor took a chilled bowl, eyebrows up, a little twitch at the corner of his lips.

“Does everyone here have magic?”

“You seem rather less shocked than your predecessors about this fact, Mr. Liang.”

He shrugged. “Bartender. I’ve seen things.”

I did not know what to make of the strange humans who kept stepping through from a different world, and Connor was more confusing than most. The confusion was not attraction. Obviously. I mentioned the possibility only to dismiss it, since I was an ancient and powerful dragon, and he was but a man. Oallian took a big bite of his soup.

“I love it,” Oallian said. “But I will heat mine. Is that allowed?”

“You may do what you prefer,” I said, eyes darting to Connor, who chuckled, and ate the soup cold.

Oallian cupped the bowl in both hands, and the bisque went from chilled to steaming in a matter of seconds. He bent his face into the steam and breathed it in with his eyes shut, then swallowed the soup in three gulps. “Is there bread?”

I blew out a breath. I had meant to bring bread. How had I forgotten the bread. “Not at present.”

“More soup, then?” He held out his bowl looking hopeful, and I ladled more from the tureen.

“This is the best soup I have ever eaten,” he said, on the third bowl.

His joy was enormous, and a shade too loud, the way fire dragons are. He laughed at his own remarks, sometimes half a beat before he’d even finished talking. He did not seem concerned about his captivity, but then, his dragon form could not be contained by a cell of stone and metal.

He held out his bowl, fluttering his eyelashes, and I dumped the last of the soup into it. Connor was still slowly eating his first portion, more focused on watching me. Which reminded me, I was on a mission. I was supposed to be matchmaking.

“Oallian.” I set the ladle down. “Perhaps you might tell Mr. Liang about yourself and your interests.”

“Oh! Well, I’m not sure I know what my interests are.” Oallian tilted his head. “Vyranthos enjoys crunching on sheep and chickens. Myself, I’m quite fond of flying. It is wonderful. This tower is wonderful too. Did you see the cots? I don’t believe I’ve ever slept in a cot, but I poked mine earlier and it was squishy. Is that for warmth? If you get cold, we can cuddle. I run warm, everyone says so.”

“When did Sky leave for Liminia?” Connor asked, ignoring Oallian’s rambling.

“Recently,” I said. “Over a week ago. Oallian met him, you know. Several times.”

“Technically, I kidnapped him,” Oallian told me. “But Sky is clever and figured out he could unlock me. I wasn’t planning to eat him or anything, human meat is pretty gamey. I was after the reward.”

Connor opened his mouth, then closed it again, then turned to me and said, “Reward?”

“They were searching for Sky. There was a poster and everything,” Oallian said.