She knew that. She didn’t have to ask.
“I’m serious.” She buried her face in the pillow. “I’m not a doll. I won’t break.”
“But—”
She sat up in one swift, stiff motion. Her seers raked through the back of the RV, grating and dissonant, not rhythmic and musical like they should be.
Ladon squinted. No Fates’ seers had ever felt so harsh against his mind. They’d turned rasping and violent so fast the surprise of the change hit him harder than the new rawness spreading through his mind. Something boiled away at her abilities.
The part of Rysa she called her nasty jigged along their connection as if it danced on hot coals. He felt it, almost saw it as a real, visceral extension of the woman he loved.
The energy he and the beast shared collapsed into a tight stream. Every other time they’d contracted their energy around her, calm settled her mind and pleasure eased her body. Her nasty drank deep and order would right her world.
But now, her breath hitched. A glaze clouded the moonlight of her irises and she blinked in a steady but unnatural cadence. “Put on your shirt.”
He nodded as he reached for a t-shirt. Her face flattened like it did when she blacked out. But that shouldn’t happen anymore. She had her true Fate’s talisman—a talon Dragon had lost in Salt Lake City. She’d scooped it out of a puddle and Ladon bound it in duct tape and twine for her, to blunt its edge and hide its dragon-vanishing properties. She now wore it around her neck as a curve of adhesive tied with a square knot at her nape.
Her hand raised, rigid as if she lacked control, and her finger pointed toward the front of the RV. “Something’s wrong,” she whispered. “The road is stiff.”
Stiff? Her seers pounded on the edge of his consciousness. What was happening to her?
Dragon’s hand cupped her back. Her fever rises.
Divots poked again. Trenches deepened. Dread dropped from the sky and slammed into Ladon’s body so hard his back felt as if it would snap.
She stared through the curtain at the road ahead, her eyes narrow. “Put on your boots. Now.”
“Love, what are you seeing?” An instant of fight flickered along their connection. All edges delineated. All sound heightened. Her seers backwashed into his mind.
“Past, present, future—I can’t see anything. The world is sharp and cutting. Hard and splitting.”
Ladon pulled the t-shirt over his wounded shoulder. The Burner bite he’d suffered in Salt Lake City throbbed but he ignored it.
“Ladon…” Her eyes rolled back into her head. Her spine arched and her mouth opened wide, her breath rattling into her chest.
She dropped against Dragon’s chest.
“Rysa!” All the muscles along Ladon’s spine knotted. She didn’t respond.
Dragon scooped her up and placed one hand on her back. He flexed his digits, fully retracting his talons, and reached for Ladon. The beast didn’t need to touch his chest. Ladon already felt the torrents flooding off her body. They broke free like vapor boiling off too-hot skin.
She burned.
And Ladon didn’t know what to do.
The story continues in Flux of Skin….
Kris Austen Radcliffe’s Page at Amazon.com
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About the Author
As a child, Kris took down a pack of hungry wolves with only a hardcover copy of The Dragonriders of Pern and a sharpened toothbrush. That fateful day set her on a path traversing many storytelling worlds—dabbles in film and comic books, time as a talent agent and a textbook photo coordinator, and a foray into nonfiction. After co-authoring Mind Shapes: Understanding the Differences in Thinking and Communication, Kris returned to academia. But she craved narrative and a richly-textured world of Fates, Shifters, and Dragons—and unexpected, true love.
Kris lives in Minnesota with her husband, two daughters, Handsome Cat, and an entire menagerie of suburban wildlife bent on destroying her house. That battered-but-true copy of “Dragonriders”? She found it yesterday. It’s time to pay a visit to the woodpeckers.
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Most of the fun happens on the Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/TeamKAR/
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E-mail: [email protected]
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Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6447357.Kris_Austen_Radcliffe
She has a Twitter account, but it’s the least reliable way to contact her: @KrisRadcliffe
Table of Contents
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Available Now
Coming Winter 2013: Flux of Skin
About the Author
Connect with the Author
Games of Fate (Fate ~ Fire ~ Shifter ~ Dragon #1) Page 34
