That must be Alexander, she thought grimly as she watched the formerly playful dragon wing past the ropes tying ship to balloon before hovering above nothingness with Thea wriggling within his grasp. If that wet spot on her pet’s shoulder was blood then Amber would personally find a way to gut the dragon with his own claws....
Then, without warning, Alexander dropped her. Amber’s stomach felt like it was falling right along with her steadfast companion, and she would have leapt over the railing in unthinking reaction had Zane’s iron arm not tightened around her chest, refusing to let go.
“No!” Amber screamed, her voice matching Thea’s terrified squeal note for note.
“I think we can make a deal. Don’t you?” Nicholas said as he stood by the railing. This second twin had returned to human form while his brother toyed with a defenseless goat, and now he advanced upon them both with hands outstretched. “By my calculations, you have six seconds to decide which is worth more—your goat or your secrets. Well, make that three seconds now.”
“Don’t do this, brother...” Zane warned.
But Amber was already pushing past her protector and running toward the railing...and toward the man who mistrusted earth witches on sight. Beneath them both, the Green surged skyward, sensing the approach of dragon and goat. The plants were ready to consume, to turn what was already a fall-to-the-death into something altogether worse.
In the distance, Thea had dwindled into a dot of writhing caprine terror, feet pumping vainly against thin air as she struggled to carry herself back aloft. Amber had a bare second left to remind the Green that she was the Watcher and to beg for leniency.
Unfortunately, time was irrelevant because she was too far away to tap into the forest’s network and ask vines to cradle her mini-Nubian’s descent this time around. Thea was as good as dead.
“I’ll do anything you want. I told you that already!”
Then, out of Nicholas’s jacket pocket came a silver circlet. The same silver circlet that had cut off Zane’s fire and turned her apprentice’s usual cheery demeanor into a pained grimace.
The device’s jaws clicked open as Nicholas’s eyebrows rose. Shifter and collar were both waiting to give Amber a taste of her own medicine...assuming she was willing to relinquish her free will for the sake of a goat, that was.
Her opponent’s tight smile promised no mercy. Instead, his flames reached toward her, not warm and cherishing like her own dragon’s magic but instead threatening to burn and to destroy. Amber could almost smell charred flesh from that long ago mountaintop, could almost feel her skin melting away like her parents’ had done, leaving clean white bones in the fire’s wake.
“It’s now or never,” the dragon shifter murmured.
There wasn’t really any choice, was there? Reaching up, Amber grabbed the collar out of her companion’s hand. She gritted her teeth against the drain as power poured out of her fingertips and into the magic-squelching circlet. Then, pushing unruly curls out of the way with one hand, she curved cold metal around her neck with the other before pressing latch closed without pausing to think or to breathe.
The circlet burned. Its smooth, rounded surface resembled nothing so much as a cold metal pump handle so deeply imbued with winter chill that a damp hand would stick tight and tear away skin when the pumper tried to let go. The collar sent spasms of pain coursing through her chest, up her neck, rattling through her clenched jaw. Only with an effort did Amber finally manage to gasp in a breath of air and get her lungs pumping once again.
So it was several long seconds before she finally mustered enough mobility to lean down over the railing. Her overt purpose was to search for a dearly beloved goat, but Amber was also pretty certain she was going to puke.
Sabrina would probably rather I didn’t vomit all over her nice, clean ship, she thought inanely as she choked down the bitter taste of bile.
But even queasiness was quickly forgotten as Amber took in the view below. The valley was pastoral in its beauty. Gently swaying greenery, crisp and vibrant from the previous night’s rain. A tiny creek off to the southeast. Steep hillsides on the north and west.
No goat though.
Thea was already gone.
***
Zane’s bones ached with remembered pain as the collar clicked shut around Amber’s slender throat. He wanted to dive onto his brother, to pummel Nicholas into a bloody pulp. And at the same time, he itched to spark a flame in his fingertips and remove that dastardly contraption from around his lover’s neck forever.
But, instead, he stood his ground, halfway between a sibling he no longer trusted and two humans who didn’t deserve whatever punishment Nicholas appeared poised to dish out. “Get below,” he ordered Amber’s friends, hoping Charlie would understand the precariousness of the situation and—for once—willingly follow a dragon’s lead.
No such luck. “Get your paws off my fiancé,” Charlie demanded instead, sidestepping his protector and advancing upon the shifter whose broad hands had clenched rock-hard onto Amber’s bird-like shoulders.
“Get out of my face,” Nicholas countered, pressing down until Amber was even more thoroughly bent over the railing, ready to follow her goat into the afterlife. Charlie, Jasmine, and Zane immediately froze, unwilling to so much as move a muscle when the existence of the woman they all loved lay in the balance.
For her part, Amber didn’t struggle or attempt to pull free of her captor’s grasp. Instead, tears streaked down reddened cheeks while her lips moved in the shape of words Zane wouldn’t have expected to hear from someone stuck in such a dicey position. “Thank the Green,” she mouthed into the rising wind.
Before Zane could figure out what his apple-scented witch had reacted to, Alexander was swooping up from below. And his troublesome brother wasn’t alone either. With flames carefully shielded, the red dragon darted between ropes and railing, cupping a four-legged passenger within his needle-sharp talons until he was safely above solid ground.
Thea landed on the metal decking with a clatter of hooved feet, and every bystander heaved a solid sigh of relief as she ran to her mistress and pressed up against Amber’s trembling legs. “Sweet goat,” the witch murmured, shrugging off Nicholas’s loosening grasp as she knelt down to take the pet into her arms.
In response, Zane’s shoulders dropped back to their usual resting place. His faith in his brothers wasn’t exactly restored—who in their right mind would terrorize a pet goat to make his point? But at least Thea was alive and Amber still had her feet firmly planted on the metal decking. Everything else could be dealt with at a later date.
“I told you I’d help in any way I could. And I will,” Amber said before Zane could decide which brother to pound on first. She pulled herself erect and vainly brushed at the wet spot the railing had left across her belly, only the glint in her eye marking the rage she carefully shielded from view. “There was no need for theatrics and animal cruelty.”
Zane’s apple-scented witch sounded so self-assured, as if the collar wasn’t tugging at her very essence and quenching her inner fire...or whatever passed for inner fire in the body of an earth witch. But he knew his mate was struggling. Knew that every moment inhibited by the collar was a moment when pain had to be forced back into a corner to prevent its darkness from overwhelming each passing thought.
He took a step forward...then paused when Nicholas met his gaze with flaring nostrils. “So, game plan,” his brother said, speaking to all and sundry as if he expected his words to be obeyed without question. Given that the overbearing shifter had them all over a barrel due to his proximity to the collared witch, Zane supposed his pesky sibling was right.
“Pretty obvious,” Alexander answered his twin’s implied request. “One of us needs to hunt the seeds and save Sarah. I’m assuming you still have the data from those printouts on your tablet?” At Nicholas’s nod, the usually playful twin continued seriously. “And one of us needs to check on the Aerie. This might be a feint to keep us occupied while Ba
ine burns home base to the ground.”
Zane shivered. He hadn’t even considered that scenario. Hadn’t considered that his own twin might threaten not only their foster mother but also hundreds of people who depended upon dragons for their mere survival. What stupid asshole had let such an unknown quantity onto the ship in the first place?
Oh, right. That stupid asshole had been him.
“And someone needs to take Charlie, Jasmine, and Thea back to where you found them,” Amber interjected, chin raised imperiously and eyes glinting with intention. Far from being cowed, she seemed ready and willing to take on whatever her captor threw her way.
Which raised yet another very important question: how could a stupid asshole like him possibly deserve such a glorious mate?
Chapter 25
Despite danger both inside and outside their ranks, Zane’s flame surged a little higher at the sight of his witch’s spunk. She was unfazed by her lack of bargaining chips. Unfazed by that magic-sapping collar and by Nicholas’s recent use of force. Instead, Amber voiced her demands emphatically...but also so carefully that she hadn’t given away the existence of additional magic users hidden in tunnels deep within the heart of the Green.
Across the open decking that lay between them, two sets of eyes met and locked. Zane hoped he was the only one who noticed the way his witch’s throat bobbed as she attempted to swallow...and failed. And perhaps no one else saw the glimmer of silver rimming her lower eyelid as one last tear threatened to fall.
Not that those minor signs of weakness made him think any less of her. In fact, they merely made his witch’s bravery that much more profound.
“I’ll take Amber into the Green,” he said quickly, instinctively drawing attention away from his mate and also seizing the commanding role his brothers usually afforded him. “Baine will know we’re coming if we go by air, but the forest will let an earth witch pass on foot. Nicholas can head back to the Aerie to sound the alarm and Alexander can guard the Intrepid while the captain drops off our other passengers wherever they want to go.”
He thought he heard a scoffing “passenger” from the lone non-magic user in their midst. But it was Nicholas who spoke loudly enough to be heard. “Good plan, wrong arrangement,” his brother said simply. “I’ll take Amber into the Green. You’re too close to the issue to think straight, brother. We can’t risk any mistakes when Sarah’s life is on the line.”
Zane opened his mouth to argue. To tell his orneriest sibling that falling in love—and yes, the sticky feeling in his chest did appear to be love—wasn’t a weakness. Instead, the emotion made him smarter and stronger, more able to take on the world.
But Amber prevented the brothers from diving into an argument Zane wouldn’t have won. Reaching out, she brushed one fingertip so lightly across his stubbled cheek that he shouldn’t have been able to feel the caress. So why did his heart rate speed up into a raging inferno that nearly made him forget the high stakes currently at play?
“I need you to take my friends home,” his apple-scented earth witch whispered. “You’re the only one I trust to make sure they get there safely. Will you go?”
Zane wanted to refuse. Wanted to tear out his hair and howl his frustrations at the wind. Because, goat-dropping aside, Nicholas could be counted upon to find their mother...but not to protect Amber with his dying breath.
And yet...Zane had promised. Well, not promised to deliver pesky fiancés and droopy-eared goats into the wilderness. But he had promised to take Amber back to her hidden village anytime she asked. She was calling in his favor, and he couldn’t say no.
So even though he hated the idea of leaving his lover to Nicholas’s dubious mercies, he nodded his head slowly. He’d made the vow and he wouldn’t break it.
“If that’s what you want. Of course I’ll go.”
***
The assembled crowd dispersed so quickly Amber almost thought the preceding drama had existed only in her imagination. First, Charlie gathered sister and goat before heading below to soothe Jasmine back into her usual good humor. Next, Alexander shifted in a burst of flames that licked hungrily at nearby ropes before the red dragon headed south, away from the direction in which they assumed Baine had recently flown.
Finally, only three participants remained standing on the open deck. Amber, her dragon...and the shifter who had mistrusted her from the very start.
“We leave in an hour,” Nicholas warned, ignoring the previous byplay and glaring in Amber’s general direction without ever quite meeting her gaze. “Get packed and get back here. I’m not searching the ship for you.”
Amber had been terrified of the dour shifter previously, but now she barely refrained from rolling her eyes. What exactly did he expect her to do in the face of imminent departure—change her mind? Or perhaps realize she possessed a deep-seated desire to spend all day primping? An earth witch knew better than to think trendy clothes and fancy makeup had a place in the Green.
“I have nothing to pack...” she started, only to find herself being swung through the air yet again until she was encircled by a different shifter’s sturdy arms.
“I’ll return her in sixty minutes,” Zane promised, his breath tempting unruly curls to dance atop Amber’s head. And, with the evidence of her dragon’s continued good graces surrounding her, the earth witch felt like dancing right along with them.
Her cheeks flushed with heat, her eyes widened with pleasure, and her lungs filled so deeply she thought she might just float away. And then...she did.
Fiery wings flickered out from Zane’s broad shoulder blades while strong hands clutched her close to an entirely human chest. The appendages were less physical wings and more manifestations of pure power, electricity sizzling outward as her shifter drew them both through the air as gently as if he and she were twin pieces of milkweed fluff floating upon the breeze. Within seconds, they hovered a yard beyond the railing, hundreds of feet above the Green.
Her fingers clutched his neck a little more tightly than was truly comfortable for either of them, and her dragon chuckled. “Are you scared?”
“No,” she lied. Because she was scared. But not about her location, suspended midair in the arms of a half-man, half-dragon. Instead, she was terrified by the idea of leaving this strange being behind when she’d only just found him, when she hadn’t yet enjoyed the time to explore their tenuous connection. She was scared to death that the fifty-seven minutes and thirty seconds remaining were the only time she’d ever spend in the company of her dragon.
Thankfully, Zane took her words at face value. Together, they picked up speed and zipped around the fabric-covered side of the hydrogen balloon before the shifter gently set his passenger down atop a padded platform at the summit of the dome. There was no railing here. Just sky, sky, sky in nearly every direction, then the billowing bulk of the dirigible below and the distant forest far beneath both of their feet.
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Amber had no apprentice to take care of. No goat dogging her heels, no audience of any sort. Just herself, her dragon, and her breaking heart.
“Please...” she began, only to stutter to a halt. What exactly did she mean to say? Please come back to me. Or maybe: Please be careful.
Instead of finishing the unfinishable, her arms rose back up to loop around the neck they’d left behind only seconds earlier. Zane’s flame licked against her, close enough to caress but not to burn.
Like passing your fingertip through the top of a candle flame, Amber thought inanely. Harmless if you don’t think too much about it....
So she didn’t think. Just leaned in until her lips found Zane’s and she lost all track of words.
Fire flared around, between, and above them. The imprisoning collar fell away from Amber’s throat at first contact. But the loss of magic-sapping restraint wasn’t the primary reason for the heat filling her from the inside out.
Instead, her dragon’s lips searched, scorched, and devoured with an intensity that n
early knocked Amber to her knees. And yet, it was her fingers, not his, that drifted outside the safe zones Zane had stuck to the night before. Amber’s fingers that were mischievous little rascals, unwilling to listen to reason while possessing a distinct mind of their own.
Her fingers weren’t scared of the fact she’d never before made love. Had never before even thought the word love in reference to a man rather than about a child or a goat or the forest itself.
Instead, Amber’s fingertips ignored her inexperience. Ignored the firm deadline and the uncertain future that might or might not include this particular shifter ever again pressed hotly against her sensitive skin.
Finger and thumb flicked against the snap of her companion’s trousers. Sly palm pressed against shifter belly, slunk south to brush against a hard, throbbing rod that startled a gasp out of her busy mouth.
“If you’re not ready, we don’t have to go that far,” her partner murmured before pausing to suck at the sensitive skin along the side of her exposed neck. It was all Amber could do to keep hands where they were rather than thrusting fingers through hair in an attempt to pull Zane closer. As it was, her eyes closed and a moan loud enough to wake the dead rose out of her newly stimulated throat.
On any other day, she might have assessed her dragon’s suggestion rationally. When faced with similarly important decisions, she’d been known to present a list full of bullet points, all pros and cons carefully laid out and accounted for.
At the moment, though, all Amber could manage was: “I want this.”
“Then we’ll do it right,” her dragon growled, disentangling her hand from his confining boxer shorts and placing it against his chest instead. His heart was beating nearly as quickly as her own, their pulses drifting into the same rhythm as super-heated palms ran up and down chilled arms.
Gradually, goosebumps from her own boldness faded. Only then did wings sprout once more as her dragon lifted her from the ground. Fiery pinions beat air ever so subtly, then the duo settled back onto the platform recumbent, she reclining beneath his muscular thighs.
Verdant Magic: A Standalone Dragon Shifter Adventure (Dragon Mage Chronicles Book 1) Page 16
