by Jory Strong
I’ll do what it takes to save lives and keep this city from burning.
But would she?
Would she really?
Yes. I will.
“Give me the charm,” Taine growled, as if sensing her resolve to die if that was required of her.
She met his eyes. “The charm isn’t attached to you. Nothing has changed since the sorcerer’s house.”
“Everything has changed.”
Because now she knew he was a dragon?
She didn’t see it that way. Whether they were able to retrieve the egg and get it back to ground zero or she was able to get close enough to become a human portal, this wasn’t going to be a they lived happily ever after situation, not for her and Taine. Not that she’d expected a fairytale ending or allowed herself to believe she wanted one.
Fairytale endings and happy-ever-afters were for her twin and Analia. They’d been talking about their dream weddings since high school!
Hard on that thought came the memory of Shanna pretending to stick her fingers down her throat and saying that after coming into his power, her brother had used his ability to channel magic to gain adoration, to become homecoming king all through high school.
That was the only use of spells Shanna knew about. And after the meeting with Genevieve, it seemed likely that Elon had been using someone else’s stored magic.
Why anyone would want to be homecoming queen or king, that was still beyond Saffron. But why a sorcerer would want a constant source of power…
Her heart careened about in her chest, knocking wildly against her ribs.
Wild guess? Pure conjecture?
Beneath the table, Taine’s hand tightened on hers. “What?”
“Do love charms work?”
His nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed. He carried her hand to the front of his jeans. “You don’t need a love charm.”
Crew snorted and Gaige mumbled, “This is the stuff of nightmares.”
Saffron rolled her eyes. “I’m thinking about Elon. Based on what Genevieve said, it seems likely that he never actually came into power of his own. But remember what Shanna told us he did when suddenly, he had the ability to work magic?”
“He made himself homecoming king.”
Taine’s answer might as well have been a surge of electricity around the table, jolting everyone to attention in their seats. Maksim said, “Even the phoenix wouldn’t generate enough magic to make it possible to rule in this realm. Humans are too contentious. But the energy that’ll be freed when the phoenix emerges could fuel a spell powerful enough to ensnare the ruler of a realm kingdom in a love spell.”
“There’d have to be a marriage,” Gaige said. “For all his incompetence in keeping the egg’s flaring from setting fires, he’s not a killer. So whoever his target is, there won’t already be a consort in place.”
“Agreed,” Maksim said. “It’ll be marriage, and not to a hag. Kellen, go to the astrologist. When we’ve narrowed the possible kingdoms, he can tell us when and where those realms will touch this one. The rest of us will search the realm directories.”
Kristof stood. “I’ll check the tomes I have in my personal library.”
“Maybe Nelson Arrington had the same idea,” Saffron said. “Maybe Elon stole both his magic and his plan to rule another realm.”
Kristof’s brows drew together. He glanced at Taine. “You texted that name to me. Was I supposed to be investigating?”
“Crew was going to—”
“I passed the name off to Anders,” Crew said. “Kristof was already gone.”
Anders stood. “By all accounts, he was an ordinary human. There might be fresher information on what’s going on in the various realms in the evidence vaults.”
“Let’s get to work,” Maksim said, and they all left the meeting room.
* * * *
Sweat trickled down the back of Elon’s neck. The tightness in his chest made it feel as if he’d run four miles without stopping.
He resisted the urge to look over his shoulder at the egg. That would increase the tightness and further dampen his shirt. Already the wet spots beneath his arms were the equivalent of what his uniform shirt would look like after a day of patrolling the park.
He was still sickened by the damage he’d caused to a place that had always been his refuge. In the beginning he fled to the national forest to escape his father’s disappointment, but it had become his place of power—no magic required.
If he hadn’t come from sorcerer stock, being a ranger would have been enough for him. But he had come from sorcerer stock.
I’ll make it up to the forest. I’ll make it better than it was before.
The ache in his chest persisted. His cellphone rang and ache turned into further constriction.
He put the pen down, flexed his hand before answering, “What’s happened?”
His minion—and that label brought a smile—said, “Your house has been destroyed.”
Elon closed his eyes. He’d known it might happen but he’d hoped it wouldn’t. “Were any of the IRE agents killed?”
“No. Your sister had a charm. She gave it to Taine’s mate and it allowed her to enter the house. Saffron triggered your defensive spells but survived the fire without injury.”
It was a waste. A loss. A sacrifice. He’d made sure there was nothing anyone could see that would lead them here, and fire eliminated the possibility of creating a tracking spell by using hair or a personal item.
Still. The loss of his things hurt. He’d thought he’d have more time, time to hide his things in a storage unit, if he’d dared risk it. But then he’d succeeded in pulling the egg into this realm and discovered the error in the calculations.
Rubbing the place above his heart, he said, “It’s almost done.”
“They’ve guessed your objective. Maksim has a man stationed at the astrologist’s house. Right now there are six of us, seven if you include the human woman, with orders to search for information that will help determine which realm you’ve targeted.”
Elon’s pulse beat more sharply beneath his jaw. “How could they have guessed?”
“Taine’s mate suggested it based on something your sister said. Maksim has us looking for attractive, marriageable rulers.”
He was close, so very close. Fisting his free hand, Elon pounded it against his thigh.
Think!
Think! Think! Think!
Against his back he could feel energy building in the egg. It wouldn’t be long now before the phoenix emerged. If they found him before then—
He couldn’t take that risk. If they found him, they might be able to get through his defenses—especially with the charm. “Grab the dragon’s mate. That’ll provide a distraction.”
Through the phone he heard his minion’s breath catch. “How?”
“That’s for you to figure out. But do it and do it quickly. Demonstrate that you have what it takes to rule your kind.”
“And when I have her?”
Elon glanced over his shoulder at the egg. He didn’t trust his minion. Anyone who would betray an oath couldn’t be trusted, but the alliance had been necessary. It had taken years to hunt down the missing pieces of the spell necessary for gaining possession of the phoenix egg, and the last piece had been in his minion’s possession.
“Bring her here,” Elon said. He wouldn’t feel safe until he had control of the charm and the person who could wield it. “But don’t bind her with anything magical.”
* * * *
Saffron pushed away from a library table covered in leather tomes. Who knew there were so many realms, each one containing a multitude of kingdoms? Any one of which could intersect with her world at any given time.
She rolled her shoulders and stood. “Ever thought of computerizing this?”
She hated the frustration that crept into her voice at being absolutely useless, no help at all. None of what was in the journals meant anything to her. Most of it she couldn’t read.
“Can’t make it easy for this information to fall into dangerous hands,” Maksim said evenly, and she wondered if by dangerous hands, he meant human hands.
Taine closed a book and stacked it on top of eight others. In the middle of the table was a list of thirty-seven possibilities, already too many, more than the astrologist could find coordinates and interception times for before the phoenix would rise from its egg.
Her heart wobbled. They had two hours. Three at the most.
She placed a hand on Taine’s shoulder. He covered it with his, radiating strength and heat and confidence in the face of odds that felt insurmountable.
He was so much more than a gorgeous specimen of masculinity. He was also so much more than human.
Wobble turned into piercing ache. Even if by some miracle they stopped Elon, or whatever protections Elon had in place were strong enough to keep San Diego from going up in flames, she and Taine didn’t have a long-term future together.
She had to face the fact that she wasn’t only going to get old, she was going to look old. First it’d be old enough to be the same age as his mother, if his mother was human. Then it’d be old enough to be the same age as his grandmother.
How could that work?
It couldn’t.
But they had now. And longer if the sorcerer didn’t burn San Diego to the ground. Even if eventually…
She didn’t want to contemplate eventually.
Eventually reminded her about why she had a rule against falling in love in the first place.
Eventually ultimately equaled pain.
Or death. If her brother hadn’t fallen in love with Shelby, if they hadn’t been fighting—doing another round of breaking-up—he’d still be alive.
She pulled her hand from beneath Taine’s. “I need some fresh air.”
“I’ll go with—“
“No.” As much as she wanted private time together, wanted to know what it meant that he was dragon and she was human, finding and stopping Elon was more important. “I need to clear my head.”
“Okay.” He caught her hand and pulled her down for a kiss she couldn’t let end.
Her lips clung. And then his lips clung.
“The beginning of the end,” Crew muttered a couple of chairs away, and she couldn’t care that she and Taine were being watched.
“I hear you, friend,” Gaige said. “Remember our pact.”
Crew snorted. “As if I’m not going to be reminded daily of the danger and the need to remain vigilant when it comes to the opposite sex.”
Saffron stared into Taine’s eyes though she had the fleeting thought that one of these days karma was going to come around and Crew and Gaige were going to get what they deserved. “I’ll be back.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
She headed for the door. Gaige told Maksim, “We should stop long enough to give the astrologist our best guess so far.”
“Agreed,” Maksim said and Saffron hesitated, then left the library and the house.
Outside, she breathed in the scent of flowers as her gaze traveled along the expensive sports cars lining the curvy driveway.
Porsche. Lamborghini. Jaguar. Maserati—this one red instead of yellow like the one that’d led to her meeting Taine. And those were the cars she recognized.
If Sabra were here, she’d be trying to cage a ride in each and every one of them. She’d want to go somewhere and see for herself what the cars could do in zero to sixty.
Saffron pulled her phone from her pocket, rolled it in her hand. The urge to call her twin was intense but as soon as Sabra heard her voice, she’d ask what’s wrong.
She texted instead. Thinking about you. Love you.
Her phone pinged with an immediate response, meaning Sabra was on break. Love you back.
Saffron blinked rapidly, refusing to give in to tears.
Their mother and stepfather would be out on the boat. This was the day they usually sailed.
If she called, just because she needed to hear her mother’s voice before the phoenix egg hatched, just because she wanted to say I love you, that’d set her mother to worrying. And her mother wouldn’t let go of that worry.
She brushed her thumb across the face of the phone. Couldn’t not make contact but she needed to say something safe.
Finally she texted. Working and thinking about the beach. Bet the sailing is great today.
Her mother responded immediately. It is. Wish you were here :)
It brought a smile, accompanied by a burn in her throat. It intensified the need to hear a familiar voice, to be grounded in her own reality. Not this one, with a house full of supernatural beings.
Pacing alongside the sports cars, she called Analia.
“Wondered when I’d hear from you,” Lia said. “Remember that fire at the fair?”
Saffron bit her lip, remembering Taine’s breathing fire in the shower, and Gaige’s cryptic comment at the fair.
Spontaneous combustion, he’d claimed. Everything is under control, for now.
“I remember,” she said, wondering if the fire had been Taine’s doing.
“It led to a frenzy of buying and a couple of fistfights. Actual fistfights, like Walmart at Christmas time. Rumor was that obviously the guy whose charms got burned was selling something powerful and someone or something wanted to stop him.”
“I doubt he was. The IRE agents would have hauled him out of there and confiscated the charms.”
A long silence was followed by, “Excuse me? Am I talking to Saffron Greene, someone who has never gone so far as to actually say I believe in magic?”
“Maybe I’m evolving. So okay, I believe in magic.”
The statement was met with another long silence. Then, Lia in suspicion mode. “Okay. What gives?”
Deflecting, Saffron said, “Tell me you didn’t go back and drop a grand on that charm to attract a supernatural mate.”
“Nice try. I went back but someone had already snagged it. And now I repeat, what gives?”
Saffron stopped next to the red Maserati and risked setting off a car alarm by stroking the smooth curve of the hood. “I hooked up with Taine.”
The words somehow tumbled out, and once they were said, she couldn’t convince herself that she really, really, really hadn’t meant to bring Taine up.
“Mr. Got Fire?”
“Yes.”
“Now let me guess, the woman who can run straight into a fire, had hot, sweaty, you-light-up-my-world sex but is now running scared. Why does that sound familiar?”
Saffron’s hand tightened on the phone. “That’s not me.”
“Okay. So you’re evolving? First I believe in magic? Now, I believe I’m in love and we’re going to walk into the sunset together?”
“Maybe the first part of that. Not the second part.”
Lia huffed out an oh-too-familiar impatient sigh. “That’s because you want the no pain guarantee when it comes to love. It doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to risk the lows if you want the highs. Otherwise it’s all flat-lining.”
Saffron’s heart spasmed. “That’s what Dashon used to say. I’d rather be riding a roller-coaster than flat-lining. And look at where that got him. If he and Shelby hadn’t been fighting—”
“You don’t know he was thinking about her that day. And it’s not like they screamed or threw punches and dishes when they fought.”
No, Shelby was all about tears and if you really loved me, you’d…
“We’ve had this conversation before.” There was exasperation in Lia’s tone. “Not that I was crazy about Shelby. You know that. There were at least a half-dozen other girls I’d rather have seen him with, including me. Mostly me. But she was his choice. And just because he died doesn’t mean it was a mistake to truly, deeply love someone. If anything it points out how important it is to have the courage to do it when you’ve got the chance to. I bet if we held a séance, not that either of us is up for that, Dashon would agree. And damn—I need to hang up. But just go
for it. Run toward Taine, not away. I’d give anything to have someone who looked at me the way he was looking at you in my life. Now seriously, I’ve got to hang up before I’m in trouble.”
Saffron pocketed her phone and went inside.
Not ready to return to the library, she went to Taine’s cubicle.
Everywhere she looked, there were dragons. She shook her head. She must have been in denial before, to see this and not suspect, especially after concluding that portals existed.
She ran her finger down the stack of gold coins. Lifted the snow globe.
Her nipples tightened and her folds grew slick at seeing the dragon doing the virgin. Hell yeah it was kinky, but having been with a dragon…
With Taine, because it wasn’t just about the sex. It was hot, sweaty, light-up-her-world sex. But if it was just sex, her rules would have stuck.
Would the highs with Taine be worth the lows?
Yeah. For the first time in her adult life, she thought they would be.
She shook the globe then set it down on his desk. Turned to see Anders entering the room.
Could the guy’s lips get any thinner? Could his expression turn any more condemning?
His gaze latched onto the globe and she had her answer. The look in his eyes went well beyond disapproval. Taine hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said the gnome was all about chastity belts and titanium cock cages.
Saffron headed for the door. Anders flung a red-and-blue marble at her.
Instinctively she thrust her hand out.
The marble hit her palm and exploded over her, shimmering and becoming a net of woven magic that was heavy enough to drop her to the floor.
She fought to free herself and the net tightened, immobilizing her limbs. She attempted to shout but the magic at her neck became a noose that silenced her with the threat of strangulation.
Her pulse bounded. Her breath, when the noose around her neck finally loosened, was harsh and ragged.
“You should have kept your legs closed,” Anders said. “The only thing that’s saving you from the punishment you deserve is that you don’t belong to one of the fey.”
He picked up the globe and slammed it down. The glass and the figurines inside shattered.
