“I still think there’s another way to do this.”
“We have no time. None. This has to be gone. Pine Valley still feels the stone here, even if it isn’t pulsing and destroying us.”
“But you? I mean, it’s the Arctic Ocean. Are you sure? This isn’t safe…”
“Niko.” Amy didn’t take her eyes off Max.
Niko cleared his throat. “We’re going north from Severnaya Zemlya and across the Barents Abyssal Plain, over the Gakkel Ridge, across the Amundsen Basin and crest over the Lomonosov Ridge. Once we’re in the Siberian Abyssal Plane, I’m going to keep going straight until we come to the first sheer ledge of the Mendeleev Ridge and we’re going to plant the box in the silt at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean at about thirteen thousand feet.” He yawned. “Can we go? This is not a short or easy trip.”
“Why isn’t Aaron taking you right to the pole?”
“Because I can’t hold my breath under polar icecaps, you idiot,” Aaron answered. “And in order for me to transport them, I have to be with them. Going under at the edges makes more sense.”
Max sighed again. “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. Max, let’s get this done. I can be home for dinner.” She turned to Aaron and Niko and stepped to Aaron’s left. She grabbed an elbow. “Let’s go.”
Aaron used a lancet he’d bought at the pharmacy to prick out a single drop of blood. Rubbing the fingers together, he mumbled the words Carl had given him and—
They were suddenly in the Arctic.
The northern point of Severnaya Zemlya was beyond cold. The ice, this time of year, was closing in on the island. There were times of the year that a person could almost walk from the island to mainland Russian, but would most likely die from exposure.
As soon as the wind hit his naked torso, Niko shifted. The massive blue water dragon swung his head around, looking for anything at all around them.
“Are you going to be okay waiting for us?” Amy asked.
Aaron unstrapped the backpack he was wearing and started to put together the little tent he had. “I’ll be good for about five hours, out of the cold. Any more than that and I’m going to have to go back and wait a few hours before coming back.”
Niko rumbled, but leaned down and put his foreclaw out for Amy to climb onto his back. She wasn’t sure about the nuances of Niko’s rumble, but she knew what he was trying to say.
“We should be back in less than three hours. I only have four in the tanks.” Amy legged up over her best friend’s mate. “Stay safe. We’re just a few hours from this all being over.”
Aaron touched her ankle. “Show me. You know he’ll never forgive me if I don’t check one last time.”
Niko chuffed a laugh under her, but Amy smiled. She carefully reached for the power she was lent through her mate and created the tight bubble of air around her. It followed her curves and bends, and kept the right air pressure against her skin. It would still be achingly cold, but that was a small price to pay, she figured.
Aaron patted the cushion and smiled. “He’ll relax after a few centuries.”
Amy threw her head back and laughed, patting Niko’s long neck as the signal to go. He bobbed his head once and they were off the ground.
Circling twice, he found a nice size hole in the sea ice. He flew down close and then circled again. Amy glanced down and saw that it was cold and dark. She knew it would be, but even with a trial run with Niko in Darkwater, it was unnerving.
Pulling her glove forward, she activated the GPS on her smartwatch and dropped a marker where they were currently circling. With a quiet ping, she knew it was active and pulled the glove back up. She adjusted the carrier on her front where the box nested, ready for deposit in the depths of the Arctic.
“Let’s go, Niko. Max promised me a steak dinner.” She pulled the rebreather up and settled her mouth on it.
He huffed, and on his next pass over the gap in the ice, he dove into the deadly cold of the ocean.
It wasn’t excessively dark, not right away. The ice here was mostly seasonal and never built too deep. Late October was cold, but the sun still peeked up for a few good hours each day.
The water they were in was lit from above, for the time being. Filtering through the ice, it gave the water a haunting blue glow and every now and again, Amy could hear a whale song in the distance. Belugas and narwhals were the only species that came this far toward the pole.
There wasn’t much down here. And it got even more empty when the ridge they had entered over fell away in the first of the three abyssal plains they had to skim over.
Niko hadn’t lied a bit when he said he owned the water. He cut the sea like a blade, water flowing all around him. So perfectly was he suited to the water, Amy couldn’t feel a single eddy as they roared along. She had hunched down to cut her own drag and let him fly through the water as fast as he could.
It steadily grew darker as they approached the actual ice fields, though it wouldn’t ever be completely black until the descended into the abyssal plane. Niko was holding just a couple of dozen yards below the floes above, making the most use of the light.
It was good and bad that it was so quiet and empty. She didn’t really have a chance to be distracted by sea life, but at the same time, she wasn’t really distracted by anything and started to wish she had brought her headphones just for some noise.
Headphones. While she was submerged in the Arctic Ocean, with a magical air bubble around her, and a box that held an evil magic calcite stone.
Her life had gone in a direction she never expected.
It felt like Niko picked up speed through the water, but less than an hour later, a rise of rocks appeared out of the depths and they passed over it quickly.
The Lomonosov Ridge, which meant they were passing the North Pole. It also meant that they were almost rid of the box.
And just half an hour later, the ocean floor grew out of the dark again. This was the Mendeleev Ridge, and Niko slowed a little bit, circling the cliff face. He tipped from side to side, his signal to get ready. Amy slapped his flank. It was better to be done.
Descending against the face of the ridge, she felt the pressure increasing rapidly against her bubble of air, and she pulled the rebreather out of her mouth for just a moment. She released two blasts of air and placed it back in her mouth. The new air helped, but they were going down nearly to the abyssal plain, thirteen thousand feet.
Amy closed her eyes and used as much of her borrowed magic as she dared while the box was cradled against her. The granite, the lead, and the salt all seemed to contain the disruptions, but the bottom of the Arctic Ocean wasn’t the place to test that.
After her ears popped twice, and they were in pitch-black, Niko kept going down and down, but she felt him slowing. Reaching to the strap of the air tanks, she found the carbineer clip that held the small lantern, and braced herself for the weird.
When the dragon below her slowed to a stop, Amy flicked on the light.
Nothing weird. Just small plankton and bio dirt drifting through the dark.
Niko swiveled his head and looked at her. She nodded once and he maneuvered closer to the cliff. His tail came around and at the junction of the cliff and the plain, he dug a hole in the silt.
The hole began to fill quickly. Amy tapped his side and Niko obliged by digging again, and this time holding it back with his tail. She unstrapped the box, and Niko tipped as close as he could.
Carefully, Amy slipped down his foreleg, holding on so she didn’t actually slip into the water. She lodged the box between her feet and holding it there, lowered it down into the hole that was still quickly refilling. At her longest extent with her legs, she dropped it the last half foot into the silt hole.
Niko helped her back up and released the silt. He carefully covered the box with a little more of the surrounding ocean bottom and backed up.
Amy was happy with it.
She patted his neck one more time. He tipped his head, she shut off
her lantern, and they shot off back the way they had come, across the abyssal plain toward Severnaya Zemlya, rising slowly as they went.
Balagancizk’s Rock would never be seen again.
“Fly with me,” Max whispered in her ear.
Amy flickered her eyes open. “It’s two in the morning and it’s negative three out there.”
“Fly with me,” he whispered again.
“Max…”
“You are the only person who will ever be able to say that they touched the bottom of the ocean and the top of sky.” He trailed a few kisses down her neck and slipped a hand around her to help her sit.
“Okay.” The smirk snuck onto her lips. “But if you keep kissing me like that, we aren’t going to make it out of the bedroom door.”
Laughing, he tossed the bedsheets back and offered her a hand off the bed.
“Let me change.”
“No.” Max shook his head.
Looking down at her flannel night shirt, she raised an eyebrow. “Really? It’s cold.”
He whispered in her ear again, “Use magic.”
“Max…”
“We have a lifetime, mój cenny. You share my magic. You used it so well to save Pine Valley. Don’t stop now.”
Taking her hand in his, he pulled her to the doors to the balcony, and shut them behind himself. He smiled and tore his pants away with a flourish.
Amy grinned devilishly at her naked mate and watched his perfect ass as he climbed to the railing. She could have stared all night but a flash later, and the giant pale purple dragon hovered there at the railing. His wingbeats stirred the snow that had fallen during the day, the moon turning everything a ghostly white.
With a claw extended, Max waited. Amy climbed his leg, then straddled his neck as she called the magic to her to create a bubble of warm air.
I was terrified for you, Amy, Max said as she settled in.
I was terrified too, Max. But it had to happen. It had to be done, and we were running out of time. She patted his flank as he rose into the air and pumped his wings to take them away from the tiny city in Northern Minnesota.
Amy held on, but she trusted him implicitly. Even if he chose to dive and spin, threatening to unseat her, she knew he would never let her fall.
He would only ever fall with her.
The air was chill up above the clouds, but as they flew, it grew warmer bit by bit. The silence between them was nothing but companionable, and with their link, they could break it any time.
Just as Niko was master of the water, Max was the master of the air, and before more than half an hour went by, they were descending toward the rocky outcrop in the middle of the Grand Canyon where they had mated.
It seemed so much longer than just four weeks since they had been there. Since she nearly ran from the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Three since Keni disappeared. Twenty days since Lola had nearly…no, had died. Just sixteen days since she’d braved the ocean on the back of a dragon shifter to bury the box that would never be found again.
And three days since they’d found out that Betsy was being released for good behavior at eighteen months.
It’s still cold, Max, she teased as she slid off his back and down the rock.
Woman. You were under the fucking ice cap for three hours and twenty-five minutes, he stated. And you call this cold?
“I had a coat there.”
He shifted back to his human form and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. “Pretend I’m a coat.”
“I didn’t know coats could get erections.”
Max laughed and leaned down to capture her mouth with his. “I don’t think you’re actually complaining.”
“Only if you don’t hurry up and fuck me, dragon.”
Chuckling, Max picked her up and walked her back a few feet, kneeling to place her down—on an air mattress. She gasped into his neck and laughed.
“You planned this, you cheeky asshole.”
“You think I want to lay you down on this hard rock?”
“Rock, or cock?”
“Mój cenny, you can lie down on that any time you like.” He grinned and slid his arms up her sides. He moved the flannel night shirt up, over her hips, her breasts, arms, and held her there for just a moment, unable to see.
“Max,” she breathed.
His hot tongue found her nipple, shocking her. She couldn’t see and the whole thing was exquisite torture. He suckled a bit more, then kissed and licked his way across her skin to the second and bit there gently.
Max, get this damn night shirt off me!
His breathy chuckle skimmed over the taught peak and she squirmed under him. But a moment later, he raised the whole thing up and over her head and placed it to the side.
“Amy. Are you not wearing panties?” A teasing, scolding tone laced his voice.
“Nope.” She smiled. “Talk about riding bareback.”
The idea that her bare pussy had sat on his back as they flew sent a growl up his throat and his lips crashed onto hers again. This time, though, his assault was accompanied by his fingers gently probing between her legs, finding her lips, her opening, her clit.
He was most interested in the last, and Amy just let him play while she enjoyed the sensations. She didn’t try to stifle her moans and gasps of pleasure. He took her nipple in his mouth and teased her softly.
You like this.
You’re pretty damn good at it. Fingers aren’t too sha- “Aahhhh!” -bby either.
His chuckle rolled through her like a distant thunder, and he moved so that he lay between her legs, hands and mouth still busy.
“Max, please…” Amy breathed.
He finally released her beaded peak and fisted his erection. She bent her legs to frame herself and Max exhaled, hard.
“Fuck, that’s a pretty picture,” he managed.
“Get inside me, Max. Please.”
His cock fitted against her entrance and he slowly pushed inside. Amy watched his face as he watched her body welcome him, the lust and delight blindingly clear there. A moment later she inhaled sharply as he reached her bottom.
“I will never, ever get used to that,” he said, leaning down over her. His body covered her, and he moved his hips in a slow, easy rhythm.
“I hope not,” Amy answered, resting her hands on the taut globes of his ass, her fingers dusting over his skin.
“Do you regret mating me?” Max’s question was barely a whisper.
“No. I was scared, but not of you, Max. Never of you.” She loved when he took her like this—there was no rush, no obligations. Just the feeling of the two of them, joined. And with his dragon blood and her share of his magic, the cool air didn’t matter.
After a few more lazy strokes, Max walked his hands back and caught her knees with his arms, pulling her up and open and watched as he moved in and out of her.
“Touch yourself, baby. Let me see your fingers on your clit.”
Amy didn’t hesitate. Her fingers found their mark and she dusted over herself, gasping a bit. She reached farther down to wrap her fingers around Max as he moved steadily, though she knew he was moving a bit faster. She didn’t blame him—she enjoyed it.
Gathering her own wetness on her fingers, she moved back up and ghosted over her clit again and again, following his rhythmic lead.
“Coming, mój cenny?” he managed to ask.
Deliberate and taunting, Amy brought her other hand up to her mouth and sucked two fingers in, licking them and wrapping her lips around them. Damned if she knew why that got Max going, but it did and she used it.
“Damn it, Amy,” he hissed.
She pulled her wet fingers out and circled her nipple with them. “Go on, Max, fuck me.”
He let out a small roar and his hips started to piston his cock in and out of her. Emptying and filling her over and over, he hiked her legs on to his shoulders and he took over at her clit. Amy moved her now free hand to her breast and pinched herself.
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“You are perfection.” He gasped.
The climax that had been slow to build rushed in, overwhelming her. Her legs were shaking as they rested on him. The fire of the orgasm hit a second later and exploded through her whole body, arching off the mattress, thrusting her breasts up, and a scream of satisfaction tore from her throat.
“Max!”
The heat of his orgasm coated her walls as he called her name. He thrust hard, one, two—five times and finally took a breath, gentling them both down from the heights.
Panting, she dropped her legs to either side and welcomed him down to the air mattress with her. He partially covered her body and closed his eyes for a moment, it seemed so he could catch his breath. Amy ran her hand over his skin in a tired-but-good-tired way.
Opening his eyes, she stared right into him, right into his soul, and saw small flecks of golden magic sparked there.
“Marry me?”
It took a second for her to process what he’d asked, but he took it as a hesitation and sat up.
“Amy, I’ll wait forever to walk down the aisle with you, but wear my ring until you’re ready.” He had a box in his hand, and he lifted the lid. The diamond was in no way understated. It was held in place by claws of an elegant platinum dragon, with two blue topaz eyes glittering in the light of the moon above them.
“Did Niko make that?”
Max nodded. “I worked with him on it for the past three days.” He looked at the stone and let out a long breath. “You don’t have to say yes right now. But wear this. Give me a little hope that we can make a life—”
Amy pressed her lips over his to keep him from saying anything else.
“Yes, Max. I will marry you.”
Max mimicked cleaning his ear out as the two women shrieked and ran for each other at the bottom of the stairs. Niko stood grinning in the door of the plane, shaking his head and mimicking the same motion.
“It’s over?” Amy asked.
“It’s over,” Betsy confirmed.
“I didn’t want to believe it until you were here,” Amy said.
Skydance Page 27
