by Ann Gimpel
“Maybe. The Sidhe are quite insular. It would surprise me if they did anything beyond discussing the serpents. If they told anyone about them, it would be a bonus. Ready to leave?”
“I am, but why are you so certain the Sidhe aren’t behind the magic that diverted us here? Seems quite convenient and coincidental to me.”
She smiled. “When you put it that way, I’m not certain at all. Want to try again with the teleport spell?”
Johan hesitated. When he finally nodded, she was pleased. Magic was like anything else. Sometimes things didn’t work out, but failure didn’t excuse you from getting back on the horse and trying again. She resisted an urge to walk through the steps of the spell with him.
If he needed something, he’d ask. Having his last attempt roll off the rails would add a layer of caution.
“This will go fast, right?” Magic bubbled around Johan as he laid the foundations for his spell a piece at a time.
“Yes. Very fast. The place between worlds is the limiting factor in teleporting.”
“I would like to know why, but not just now.”
His spell closed around them, snapping them into its trajectory. Before she had an opportunity to quietly double-check his destination vector, they emerged on the far side of the lake nearest her home. She cushioned their descent with a shot of magic. In the distance, dinosaurs grazed. They were quite spread out, and she assumed they were making the best of this world beneath Earth. It would work for the herbivores, but the others would find it lacking.
Johan shook his head. “My spells either work too well or not at all. I must plan for both ends of the continuum.”
Their feet touched down, and she draped an arm around his shoulders. “Nicely done. It gets easier.”
Konstantin ran toward them with Erin right behind him. “Where were you?”
“We ended up in Scotland and ran into some Sidhe. At least they know about the serpents now. And the war,” Katya said. Maybe Kon would leave things there and not mine for details. Until she figured out exactly what had diverted them, she didn’t want to waste energy on guesswork.
“Sidhe? As in faery folk?” Erin asked. “Don’t they live underneath Scotland in like hills and barrows or something?”
“The faery part is correct.” Konstantin turned toward her. “They live in a separate world, rather like a borderworld except it shares many elements with Earth, so travel back and forth is straightforward.”
“I am sorry we were detained. What did we miss?” Johan tipped his head in Kon’s direction.
“Very little,” Erin said. “Shifters only just now stopped arriving. Good thing this place”—she spread her arms to the sides—“used to house a whole lot of dragons. Kon has been assigning shifters to the different levels here.”
“I wish them to rest and refresh themselves,” Konstantin clarified.
“Have you been to the surface?” Katya asked, sensing her twin knew more than he was letting on.
“I have. It’s not pretty, but neither is it much worse than when we left. The ocean is frozen. The land is covered in ice. We will face the serpents, but not before everyone’s magic is in tiptop condition. Also not before I establish a link to the land. What did the Sidhe have to say?”
“They wished us to remain,” Johan said.
Konstantin snorted ash and smoke. “I just bet they did. Inquisitive bunch of bastards. And born troublemakers.” He cast a speculative glance Katya’s way.
She held up a hand. “All right. Our transport spell was rerouted. Both our dragons went missing for a brief time. As soon as Johan told me his beast was gone, I knew mischief was afoot and sent us straight to the Highlands. My plan was to refresh our magic and leave.”
“Let me guess,” Konstantin said. “The dragons returned, and while you were drawing power from the Dreaming, the Sidhe conveniently showed up.”
“Ja, but how could you know?” Johan said. “You were not there.”
“Never underestimate their power,” Konstantin said. “They make it look as if they’re playing at magic, but they are strong and ancient. Particularly their royalty. I suspect they’ve had problems and set scouts to keep a close eye on the primary traveling channels. They found you and Katya and jumped on a chance to tap into your minds.”
“They didn’t need to,” Katya said, annoyed she hadn’t put two and two together. “I told them about the serpents.”
“We did not tell them about me,” Johan said.
“You didn’t need to,” Konstantin said. “While they played at chatting with you, they were siphoning information out of your heads.”
“That’s just rude,” Erin said.
“Meh. It’s more annoying than rude. Sidhe have their own customs, most of which I’ve forgotten,” Katya muttered. She gave her twin a quick hug. “The faeries did threaten to visit. It seems unlikely, but I thought you should know in case I’m wrong, and Oberon and Titania decide to drop in. If it’s all the same to you, Brother, Johan and I will retire within.”
“I need more library time,” Johan said.
“Funny, but that’s where I’ve been.” Erin rolled her blue eyes. “Human habits are hard to shake.”
“I envy your study time. You have probably moved many steps beyond me.” Johan laughed. “I may never catch up.”
Katya laced her fingers with his. “Books and scrolls weren’t exactly what I had in mind, but we’ll manage.”
“You have a few hours,” Kon told her.
Johan squeezed her hand. “I can absorb a lot in that time.”
“See you in the library.” Erin waved as they walked toward the stone entry doors.
Katya leaned into Johan. He felt solid and right next to her. Her dragon puffed steam, the equivalent of a cat purring. A shot of magic pulled one of the doors open. They walked through and down one flight to the level holding sleeping chambers. He stopped and turned to face her at the top of the next flight of stairs. A smile illuminated his face. “Are you going to tell me what you had in mind?”
She grinned back. “No, but I’ll show you.” She led the way to the last sleeping area at the end of the hall and ducked inside. Once he’d joined her, she sealed the entryway with magic.
“Locking us in, eh?” He winked broadly.
“Can’t risk you getting away,” she countered. “Those books and scrolls might win.”
“Not a chance.” He wrapped his arms around her from behind and filled his hands with her breasts. She arched against him, loving the feel of his body next to hers. The stretch of skin over bone and muscle. The rise of his cock where it pressed into her ass. He nuzzled beneath her hair and kissed the side of her neck, mixing nips with his kisses.
Her nipples stiffened into peaks where he rubbed them between his fingers and thumbs. She wanted to savor the moment, remember every single thing about how his body felt jammed against hers. The mingled scents of their arousal—sunbaked clay and wildflowers and herbs—eddied about them.
He was murmuring endearments in Dutch in between kisses. She reached behind her and curved her fingers around his cock, remembering the taste of him, the nectar of his semen jetting into her mouth. He bit her shoulder; his penis twitched in her hand.
She let go of him and twisted in his arms until she faced him. Heat spilled through her, turning her brain to a delightful lusty haze, but she had to know if he was ready to formalize their mating bond. The dark secret place between her legs cried out to be filled. For long moments, she drank him in. Strands of shiny black hair fell to his shoulders. The severe planes of his face, the ones that made him so beautiful it nearly stopped her heart, had softened with wanting her.
“Are we?” she began and then tried again. “Will we be mates?”
“Is that what you want?” His gaze—dark eyes rimmed with gold—seared her, made her shiver all the way to her toes.
“Yes. More than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
A smile formed in his eyes before it spread to his lips. “Then w
e shall be mates.”
She should have been satisfied with his assertion, but she felt compelled to add. “Are you certain? No divorce.”
“So you have told me, Liebchen. Ja, I am very certain.”
Katya threw her arms around him and plastered her lips over his, thrusting her tongue inside his mouth. He sparred with it and gripped her ass while dipping his forearms beneath her thighs and lifting her. It surprised her, but she’d always been a quick study.
Katya threaded her legs around his waist. The motion spread her labia, and his cockhead seated itself at the entrance to her vault. “No going back now,” he said and sank into her body.
Her muscles clung to him, dancing around his cock, as he stretched her with his girth. Once he was fully encased in the heat of her, he stopped moving beyond tiny little contractions that sent shudders of delight through her.
She rocked against him and tore her mouth from his. “Move, damn you!”
He repositioned her body so her nub rested directly on his pubic bone and pushed forward. She writhed against him as waves of delight shot outward from her sensitive center.
Slowly, ever so slowly, he lifted her until just the tip of him brushed her labia before lowering her back onto his hot hardness. The slow part didn’t last long. He was as aroused as she. Every stroke ignited a different special spot within her until her entire body vibrated with lust and love and need for the man in her arms.
He lifted her all the way off his cock, carried her to a soft pallet, and set her down, kneeling between her legs. His member jutted outward from his body, glistening with their combined secretions. She wanted to lick him clean, but the mating ritual wasn’t yet complete.
With a very male groan, peppered with a possessiveness that sang to her heart, he sank back to the hilt. She propped her legs on his shoulders and opened herself as fully as she could.
As he thrust into her, his nipples puckered into copper buds of desire. “Put your arms above your head,” he said, his voice harsh with passion.
He clasped a hand around both her wrists and held her while he drove himself into her, rocking at the bottom of each stroke to tease her nub. The sexual haze thickened until the only thing in her world was the orgasm swirling deep in her belly.
It crashed over her, followed by another, and still one more. Somewhere between her second and third orgasms, she felt him release. Rhythmic contractions followed by blistering heat as semen painted the inside of her body.
Her dragon bugled, singing her joy that the deed was finally done. Her bondmate was no longer alone, and so neither was she.
Johan’s dragon bugled back. The bedchamber filled with steam.
Panting, breath raspy, Johan lowered himself until he lay full-length on top of her. He’d let go of her wrists, so she wrapped her arms around him. Once their breathing quieted, he rolled them onto their sides.
“I love you,” he said.
“I love you too.” She brushed hair back from his face. “Such a beautiful man.”
“You are the beautiful one.” He laughed softly. “I love your dragon too. She sang to us, and mine returned her song.”
“She’s delighted. She never believed I’d settle on a mate.”
He made a snorting noise. “My dragon does not know me well enough to have come to any such conclusions.”
“But if he did?”
“He would have feared the same. I was a confirmed bachelor. Until I met you.”
They held one another for long moments.
“I wish we could remain here forever, Liebchen, but I truly do need to add to my knowledge base.” Johan nuzzled her neck.
“I understand.” Katya untangled herself from his embrace and set herself to rights as best as she could without a dip in the lake. Taking time to formalize their mating bond was critical; bathing could wait.
He got to his feet and offered her a hand up. She clasped it, and together they walked from the room.
Happy, satiated, mated, Katya tucked her head into Johan’s shoulder as they strode downstairs to the library. War still loomed ahead of them. Nothing about that had changed, but everything in her world had shifted on its axis. Johan was hers. Forever. She was mated, and her dragon couldn’t stop producing steam and squealing, a very undragonlike thing to do. She made a strong bid for the mating flight to happen right now, but Katya explained they should have other dragons and a ceremony.
Her beast understood. Now that the bond was unbreakable, the dragon could be patient. To a point.
Katya cut through the library’s illusory wall with a focused shot of power.
“There you are!” Erin looked up from a pile of dusty scrolls.
Kon sat next to her, clearly hunting for something in a large tome with a cracked brown leather binding. His nostrils flared, and he shot to his feet grinning like a madman.
“Congratulations!” he trumpeted. Fire shot from his mouth, followed by billows of steam.
“Ooohhh!” Erin scrambled upright, beaming. “You did it. You’re mated. My dragon just told me. Best of luck to you both.” She rushed forward and hugged Katya and then Johan.
Konstantin pumped Johan’s hand then changed his mind and wrapped his arms around him. “Welcome to the family. Treat her like a queen.”
“No worries on that front,” Johan said and laughed. “If I do not, you would have my hide.”
“There is that.” Kon let go of Johan and hugged Katya. When he stepped back, he said, “We will have a celebration, once this mess with the serpents is concluded.”
Katya smiled at her twin. “We should make it a double mating flight.”
“Perhaps we will.” He knelt next to Erin. “What about it, darling?”
“I’m almost there.” She smiled fondly at Konstantin and held her thumb and forefinger a centimeter or so apart. “Almost.”
“No more sex play until you say yes.”
Laughter bubbled from Erin. “You’ve got my number, sweetie, but right now I have to study. You’d feel really bad if I got snagged by a serpent because I didn’t quite get to a critical element in my magical training.”
“She makes it hard to argue with her,” Konstantin said and took up his vigil with the imposing book.
“And she also brings up a most excellent point.” Johan sat on the floor near enough to Erin to drag a couple of scrolls off the stack of her discards.
Katya settled next to him. “Practice is the heart and soul of magic,” she lectured. They’d had their intimate time. Now was when she’d make double damn certain her mate knew enough to protect himself.
They’d be in the thick of a battle in a few hours’ time. And it would only be the first. Because the serpents were so much like dragons, this war could drag on for weeks. Or months.
It probably wouldn’t last years. By then, Earth would be such a shambles from magical fallout, dragons and their shifter allies would have no choice but to locate elsewhere.
She redirected her attention to the scroll in Johan’s lap. He was mumbling about titrating air into fire to focus destructive magic. “Don’t just read about it,” she said. “Get up and feel how it actually works.”
“But I could hurt something in here,” he protested.
“Bring the book. We’ll move one more level down. Some of the dragons who are no longer here built a workspace specifically to hone fighting skills.”
“I need practice too,” Erin spoke up.
“We’ll all go,” Konstantin said and clapped Katya across the shoulders. “I’d forgotten about the workshop. Thanks for the timely reminder.”
“Anytime, Brother. Anytime.” She got to her feet and joined Johan, her heart, her life, her future.
“Which way?” he asked.
“Let’s see if you can find it on your own,” she countered.
He gifted her with a smile that made her heart sing. “First I visualize the level below us, right?”
She smiled back. “Trust yourself. Trust your magic. Trust your dragon. Be
tween those three, it’s hard to go too far astray.”
“What if I wish to add my mate to the mix?”
“Makes it that much stronger.” Katya’s smile broadened, and her dragon puffed enough steam that at first she didn’t recognize the dusty, unused practice studio.
She clapped her hands smartly and paired off with Konstantin. “Johan and Erin, levy offensive power. We’ll parry it. Once you have the offense side underway, we’ll trade.”
Konstantin laughed. “I should make you my master-at-arms, Sister. Who’d ever have guessed you had such a flare for tossing orders about?”
She bowed low. “I shall serve wherever you have need of me, Brother, but mates must remain together.”
Her twin regarded her, trying to look serious but humor danced in his eyes. “Method to your madness, eh?”
“Always. Now let’s get this sparring session underway.”
She blew a kiss to Johan before squaring off against him. It would be good practice—and a confidence builder—for him and Erin to figure out as much as they could within the relative safety of the grotto.
What came next in the world a few kilometers above would challenge them all. She dodged a volley of magic and sent a quick prayer to Y Ddraigh Goch to see them through the days ahead.
* * *
You’ve reached the end of the second book in the Ice Dragon Trilogy. While it’s fresh in your mind, please leave a review for Cursed Ice. It doesn’t have to be fancy, a couple of sentences about why you enjoyed it would be so appreciated.
The next book, Primal Ice, is everyone’s story. All the characters you’ve come to know and care about. It begins at 110 percent where this story left off and doesn’t let up until… well until the end. No spoilers, but be ready for nonstop action as the war with the sea-serpents and dragon traitors moves into its endgame.
Read on for a sample of Primal Ice.
About the Author
Ann Gimpel is a USA Today bestselling author. A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her short fiction has appeared in many webzines and anthologies. Her longer books run the gamut from urban fantasy to paranormal romance. Once upon a time, she nurtured clients. Now she nurtures dark, gritty fantasy stories that push hard against reality. When she’s not writing, she’s in the backcountry getting down and dirty with her camera. She’s published over 70 books to date, with several more planned for 2019 and beyond. A husband, grown children, grandchildren, and wolf hybrids round out her family.
