by Zoe Chant
“You probably don’t even see the same wings,” Robin said knowingly.
“What do you see?” Heather asked Daniella.
“Dragonfly wings, but bigger, always slightly buzzing.”
“No!” Heather said in astonishment. “I see butterfly wings, but like no butterfly I’ve ever seen, sort of shimmery and not really...”
“Not really there,” Daniella concluded.
“It’s not much different than the way you perceive magic,” Robin said. “It’s not music, and it’s not strands of light, but that’s how your mind can make sense of it.”
“How do you see it?” Heather asked. “Magic, I mean. Though your wings, too, for that matter...”
Robin sat at the edge of the dresser, dangling their legs. “I don’t see it at all. My brain is a lot different than yours and my senses aren’t so limited. It’s like trying to explain sound to someone who has been deaf since birth.”
“Do you have a key? Apparently, the bleak did...sort of.” Daniella was bravely petting the slobber-covered Vesta while Heather stroked Fabio’s silky ears.
The canines eyed each other jealously.
“I could never do that,” Robin said fiercely, stilling their legs. “Force power through someone for my own purposes? Even if they were willing, it would be too much for a human to bear. Marcus is lucky that you were there—that Rez was there, particularly, or his mind would have burned to nothing. It’s distasteful at best and cruel at the worst. If I were to go that route, I’d be no better, and there would be no point to our fight.”
The keys were quiet, grim-faced, and Heather slowly nodded. Fabio noisily licked her hand.
“But could you have a real key?” Heather asked. “Is it possible?”
“I don’t believe that our kind has a true mirror in this world,” Robin said solemnly. “You are like your knights, part magic, even if you never knew it and the magic here is different than our magic. But you don’t have all-magic beings here any more. Perhaps you once did, but if they still exist, they are so well hidden we can not even call to each other any more.”
They had talked about this before, with Trey, the keys, and the hapless store owner who had been swept up in the merry chaos. If they didn’t have answers, they had hunches, and their hunch was that they were keyless. They were going to have to navigate this world’s power themself and accept their crippled state.
The fable was a little better at it now, though every drop of energy had to be carefully accounted for. Gone were the days of parade-sized portals and casual scries. They knew their limitations now.
“Dinner!” came Gwen’s cry from below.
The dogs knew the word well, and Vesta launched herself from Daniella’s lap to dance around the floor with Fabio as the two keys rose to their feet.
Robin flew before them; one of the high points of this world was the quality of the food. Ansel had proved to be an excellent cook, and there was an enticing smell of dark gravy and meat rising from the kitchen.
“I’ve asked my boss and coworkers...er, ex-coworkers...to keep an eye out for the other glass ornaments,” Heather said, as they walked down the stairs. “I don’t want to claim that there’s an actual ornament underground, but if anyone is likely to find Henrik or Tadra, it’s them.”
“Good,” Gwen said with vigor as they walked in to where she was setting the table. “Because I am really not good at waiting, and Prince Charming is taking his sweet time in making his call.”
The dogs took their places at their mistress’ feet, and Ansel brought in a big plate of pot roast and a ladle of gravy. Gwen followed with a loaf of warm bread and a plate with butter.
“Oh,” Heather said in delight. “I’m starting to warm up to this ‘let’s move to Michigan and save the world’ plan. You know right how to make a girl feel at home.”
“Do they also know about pizza?” Rez asked hopefully, to the laughter of the others.
Robin took a seat at the doll’s table that had been set up for them on the main table and let Ansel serve them a portion of beef and a torn-off piece of homemade bread on small china plates.
Over dinner, the party talked about food, and pets, and plans for the rest of the summer. The open windows let the cooling twilight air in, and Robin felt a rush of contentment. They had two of their knights again. Two of their knights, and three keys. And Ansel, who had opened his home after his shop had been trashed.
If the open places in their hearts still cried for their missing shieldmates, there was a sense of family here that was unlike anything Robin had ever known.
It was, for the moment, a home, full of hope.
Our story will continue in Gryphon of Glass - coming later in 2020! Join my mailing list to find out about new releases and read on for more information about books I’ve written that you may have missed, as well as a special sneak preview…
A Thank You from Zoe
Thank you for reading my book! I hope you enjoyed following Rez and Heather through their adventures.
This cover was done by Ellen Million. Visit her site for coloring pages of my characters and signed bookplates! The ornament on the cover was commissioned specifically for this book from A Touch of Glass. Their webpage is: glass4gifts.com
I always love to know what you thought – you can leave a review at Amazon or Goodreads or Bookbub, or email me at [email protected].
If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please click here to be added to my mailing list. You can also visit my webpage, where I have a complete book list by series, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter. You are also invited to join my VIP Readers Group on Facebook, where I show off new covers first, and you can get sneak previews and ask questions.
Readers like you are why I write, and I am so grateful for all of your support.
~Zoe
The Dragon Prince of Alaska
Writing as Elva Birch
An unplanned promotion to princess!
Carina was just trying to advance to manager at her accounting firm. Instead, she uncovered the dirty secrets of a giant bank, got framed for murder, and fled the country. Now she’s hiding out in a van with a stray dog in the kingdom of Alaska…
...And a gorgeous park ranger is telling her that she’s his destiny (and also, camping illegally on royal land).
Before she knows it, she’s whisked off to a palace on the arm of a dragon shifter (!) prince and fitted for a crown...because she’s been chosen by an ancient magic spell to be the mate of the next king of Alaska.
As the youngest (and arguably most unsuitable) prince, Toren never thought that he would be tapped to rule, but he knows that Carina is worth the weight of his new duties. Now he’s just got to figure out how to be a king, and even more importantly, how to protect his queen-to-be from old enemies...and new foes who will stop at nothing to see Alaska fall.
From the creator of the addictive and off-beat Shifting Sands Resort series comes a fresh new world of secret shifters and hidden magic. Set in an alternate world Alaska, where being a princess is more hiking boots and field hockey than it is tiaras and balls, THE DRAGON PRINCE OF ALASKA is a steamy, standalone, fast-paced paranormal romance adventure.
Shifting Sands Resort
✔ Hot, strong, protective shifter heroes... who aren't jerks.
✔ Capable, complicated shifter heroines... who aren't doormats.
✔ Fresh new plots, not recycled stories, with unique magic and fantasy worldbuilding
✔ ALL THE FEELS.
✔ Diverse leads: queer, disabled, multicultural, not all the same shape, the same color, or the same animal.
✔ A gorgeous tropical setting that you'll desperately wish you could visit.
✔ A complete 10 book series with a thrilling conclusion.
Shifting Sands Resort is the series you didn't know you were waiting for. Hot, hilarious, and heartwarming, each book is an electrifying standalone with a satisfying happy ever after... but they all tie together into
an epic magical mystery that will leave you flying through the books.
Start the series with TROPICAL TIGER SPY, in which Tony Lukin uncovers the first of many mysteries and finds the love of his life.
Green Valley Shifters
The books of Green Valley Shifters are set in a small town with single dads, spinsters, and shifters. Each one is a sizzling standalone with heart-warming, found-family humor, hunky shifters, and sweet second chances.
In DANCING BEARFOOT, bear shifter, billionaire, and single dad Lee is only looking for a quiet place to raise his daughter Clara when he moves to the sleepy town of Green Valley. He never believed in soulmates, but when he meets Clara’s new teacher, he knows at once that he’s met the woman who can make his new house a home.
In THE TIGER NEXT DOOR, it’s bad enough that Shaun doesn’t know the first thing about being a father—now suddenly he’s the father of an unpredictable shifter child. Abandoned by his mother, all that Trevor has ever asked for is love and stability, and tiger shifter Shaun is determined to give that to him at any cost. Even if it means denying that the hot next door neighbor is his destined mate.
In DANDELION SEASON, Tawny Summers has her retirement all planned out: catch up on her books, work on her garden, and teach piano lessons to children in the tiny town of Green Valley. Her plan doesn’t include a gorgeous city billionaire with piercing silver eyes who is determined to upend her quiet life and frighten her cats.
In BEARLY TOGETHER, lion shifter and lawyer Shelley Powell has to face her fear of children and all her many insecurities, including clinical anxiety, to be with her mate, bear shifter Dean James. All of sudden, instead of negotiating contracts, she’s figuring her way around an active seven-year-old, a dog, and an ex-wife who is everything she isn’t.
Coming in 2020: BROKEN LYNX. She’s a firefighter. He’s… a waitress? Devon, programmer and lynx shifter, takes whatever odd jobs he can around raising his little sister after their parents die. Into his over-complicated life comes Jamie, a firefighter from Alaska, who manages to set his entire life on fire…
Follow me on Amazon or visit my webpage for a complete list of my books!
Sneak Preview of The Dragon Prince of Alaska…
Carina Andresen surged to her feet, sweeping her camp chair out from under her as a make-shift weapon.
Wolf! her brain hammered at her. Wolf! She was going to become an Alaska tourist statistic and get eaten by a wolf on her second week in the kingdom.
Logic slowly caught up with her panic.
The animal across the campfire from her was smaller and doggier than a wolf, and it was only a moment before Carina could get her breath and heartbeat back under control and recognize that it was well-groomed, shyly eyeing her sizzling hot dog, and wagging its tail.
Alaska probably had stray dogs, too; she wasn’t that far from civilization.
“Hi there, sweetie,” Carina said, her voice still unnaturally high as she put her chair back on its legs. “Does that smell good? Want a bit of hot dog?” Carina turned the hot dog in the flame and waggled it suggestively.
The non-edible dog sped up his tail and when Carina broke off a piece of the meat and dropped it beside her, he crept around the fire and slurped it eagerly up off the ground.
The second bite he took gently from her fingers, and by the second hot dog she dared to pet him.
Within about thirty minutes and five hot dogs, he was leaning on her and letting her scratch his ears and neck as he wagged his tail and groaned in delight.
“Oh, you’re just a dear,” Carina said. “I bet someone’s missing you.” He was a husky mix, Carina guessed; he was tall and strong, with a long, thick coat of dark gray fur and white feet. His ears were upright, and his tail was long and feathered. He didn’t have a collar, but he was clearly friendly. “You want some water?”
The dog licked his lips as if he had understood, and Carina carefully stood so she didn’t frighten him.
But he seemed to be past any shyness now, and he followed Carina to her van trustingly, tail waving happily. He drank the offered water from a frying pan, and then tried to give Carina a kiss dripping with slobber.
“You probably already have a name,” Carina said, laughingly trying to escape the wet tongue. “But I’m going to call you Shadow for now.” She had a grubby towel hanging from her clothesline and used it to dry off his face. They played a gentle game of tug-of-war, testing each other’s strength and manners.
Shadow seemed to approve of his new name and gave her a canine grin once she’d won the towel back from him.
“Alright, Shadow, let’s go collect some more firewood.”
The area was rich with downed wood to harvest, and with the assistance of a folding hand saw, Carina was able to find several heaping armloads of solid, dry wood, enough to keep a cheerful fire going for a few days if she was frugal. It was comforting to have Shadow around for the task; she wasn’t quite as nervous about the noises she heard, and he was a happy distraction from her own brain.
He frolicked with her, and found a stick three times his own length to drag around possessively.
“So helpful!” Carina laughed at him, as he knocked over an empty pot and swiped her across the knees so that she nearly fell.
When she sat down beside the crackling fire in her low camp chair, Shadow abandoned his prize stick and crowded close to lay his head on her knee. Carina petted him absently.
“Someone’s looking for you, you big softy,” she said regretfully. She would have to try to reunite the dog with his owner but, for now, it was nice having a companion around the camp.
Of all the things she expected when she went running for the wilderness, she had never guessed that the silence would be the worst. She had been camping plenty, but it was always with someone. Since their parents had died, that someone was usually her sister, June, but sometimes it was a friend or a roommate. She was used to having someone to point out birds and animals to, someone to share chores with, stretch out tarps with. When it was just her, the spaces seemed vaster, the wind bit harder, and even the birds were less cheerful.
“You probably don’t care about the birds that would make my life list,” she told Shadow mournfully.
Shadow wagged his tail in a rustle of leaves.
She didn’t have her life list anymore to add to anyway. Everything had been left behind: her phone, her computer, her identity. Her entire life was on hold. She had the van to live in, some supplies and a small nest egg to start from, so she ought to be able to stay out of sight long enough to regroup and…she didn’t know what to do from here. Find a journalist willing to take her story and clear her name?
To fill the quiet, and to help ignore the ache in her chest, she read aloud from the brochure on Alaska that she had been given at the border station. She’d found it that evening while she was emptying the glovebox to take stock of supplies, and Shadow seemed as good a listener as any.
“Like many modern monarchies, Alaska has an elected council of officials who do most of the day to day rulings of this vast, rich land. The royal family is steeped in tradition and mystery, and holds many veto powers, as well as acting as ambassadors to other countries. Known as the Dragon King, the Alaskan sovereign is a reserved figure who rarely appears in public. Margaret, the Queen of Alaska, died twelve years ago, leaving behind six sons.” There was a photo, with boys ranging from about seven to maybe twenty-five. Two of the middle children were identical. One of the twins was wearing a hockey jersey and grinning, the other wore glasses and looked annoyed. The oldest—or at least the tallest—was frowning seriously at the others. The only blonde of the bunch was one of the middle boys, who was looking intently at the camera. The youngest looked painfully bored. They all had tongue-twisting names of more syllables than Carina wanted to try pronouncing.
Carina thought it was an interesting photo. The tension between the oldest two was palpable, and the they were all dressed surprisingly casually. She didn’t follow royal gossip much
beyond scanning headlines at grocery store checkouts, but Alaska never seemed to make waves; they were rarely involved in dramas and scandals.
Shadow raised his head and cocked his head at some imagined noise in the forest.
“That’s a lot of siblings,” Carina observed, ruffling his ears. She felt so much safer having him beside her. “Just one sister was more than enough for me.” She didn’t want to admit how much she missed that sister right now.
Shadow returned his head to her knee. “Alaska is a member of the Small Kingdoms Alliance, an exclusive collective of independent monarchies scattered throughout the world. Although Alaska has large amounts of land, they qualify for membership because of their small population.”
Carina turned the brochure over. “There are hot springs about fifty miles north of Fairbanks! I hope to make it there.” Before she ran out of cash. It looked expensive. Maybe she could get work there...she’d heard that it wasn’t hard to find under-the-table jobs in this country.
Shadow suddenly leapt to his feet, barking at something crashing through the woods behind them and Carina nearly tipped over backwards in her camp chair trying to stand up.
She expected to find a moose, or possibly a bear, and she was already picking up the chair to use as a flimsy defense against a charging wild animal.
But it was only a man stepping out of the woods, in an official dark blue uniform emblazoned with the eight gold stars of Alaska.
For a moment, terror every bit as keen as the panic that had gripped her at the first sight of Shadow washed over her. They’d found her.
