The Dragons of Paragon

by Genevieve Jack

  A chill ran through her. She swallowed down an unexpected urge to tell him she’d wanted to kiss him and him alone for a long time. What good could come from admitting something like that? Besides, she was starting to think she was simply confused, caught up in the moment. “You were there. We were alone. I’ve come to trust you.”

  He jerked back. “You trust me? Do you mean you understood that I was safe to experiment on?”

  She shrugged apologetically. “You said you’d help me try anything I’d like before I return to the temple.”

  He gaped at her, gobsmacked. “I thought you meant tribiscal wine or cliff jumping. I didn’t think it would involve your tongue down my throat for sport.”

  Uh-oh. The look of disgust on his face made it clear that she’d offended him. “You’re a man of honor. I shouldn’t have kissed you the way I did without asking your permission first. I am sorry, Colin. It was wrong of me.”

  He nodded slowly. “Nice story.”

  “Hmm?” She shook her head.

  “I think you’re full of shit.”

  She gasped. “Colin, I said I was sorry. You don’t have to be rude.”

  “You are. Full. Of. Shit.” He moved nearer. Leather and cloves filled her senses. His scent. Close, warm, dragon male. She’d noticed it before on the beach, but here in the cramped quarters of the tent, it was unmistakable.

  She rubbed her nose to distract herself from the intoxicating fragrance. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Her back bumped the wall of the tent, and she realized she’d been retreating from him, but now there was no place left to go. His superior height left her tipping her head back so she could see him clearly as he moved in even closer, until only a fraction of an inch separated her from his distinctly male smile.

  “This is what I think, Leena. I think you’re attracted to me. I think you kissed me because you were drawn to me just as I am drawn to you and have been for a long time.”

  She shook her head. “No. No, Colin. I can’t. Scribes don’t—”

  He laughed. “Scribes don’t experiment with kissing?” He reached out and lifted her braid between his fingers, stroking it with his thumb in a way that made her long to be that plait of hair, long to feel that touch on her skin.

  “Scribes…” She didn’t want to hurt him, but she needed him to know the truth. “Scribes can experiment, but we don’t mate or marry. We swore an oath to our work. Our only permanent attachment can be to the goddess. Kissing you was an experiment. Just physical. But when I heard your trill, I knew it was more for you. I knew I had to stop.”

  He chucked her under the chin with his knuckle. “Here’s what I think. When you kissed me, you were experimenting with far more than a little lip-lock. You were testing what it might be like to have a different life. You’re questioning whether being a scribe is the future you want. When I asked you to be mine, you considered it and that scared you.” His last words came out as a whisper, but she had no problem hearing them. He was so close now he said it directly into her ear.

  Her body started to tremble, and her eyes burned with unshed tears. “Yes,” she blurted. “Does that make you feel better? I thought about it. I considered it. I was tempted. Is that what you want to hear?”

  “Yes!” His brows lifted with his smile. “Leena, you don’t have to go back. Quit the temple and become my mate. You can choose.”

  “Can I?” She scoffed. “Give up everything I’ve ever known for the promise of something I don’t? I should leave one lifetime commitment for another so easily?”

  He grunted and tugged at one ear. “Okay, when you put it that way, I can see why you’d have reservations.”

  “I have more than simple reservations, Colin.” Heat from his body was doing wicked things to her insides. She sidestepped and moved to the other side of the tent. “The Temple of the Sacred Pools isn’t a tavern or an inn. I can’t leave and return on a whim. If I give up my quill and my duties as a scribe, there’s no going back. If I make a mistake, it can’t be undone.”

  His brow furrowed. “There’s no rejoining after you quit?”

  She shook her head.

  “When dragons mate, they mate for life,” he rumbled. “I would never leave you.”

  “There is nothing more permanent in Rogos than the devotion of a scribe to their work for the goddess.” Leena toyed with her braid. They were talking in circles. “You were right before.”

  “About what?” Hope flared in his eyes again, and her stomach dropped to know she was about to extinguish that hope for good.

  “My actions weren’t an accident. I kissed you, and I meant to kiss you.”

  “Leena…” He reached for her, and she dodged.

  “This is a warning from the goddess. I’ve stayed too long outside the temple. I’ve allowed the wider world to influence my mind. And the temptations I’m feeling, they’re just a symptom of my distraction.”

  He raised his palms to her. “No, Leena, I don’t think that’s it.”

  “I want you to take me back to the temple now… I mean, as soon as possible,” she said firmly. The answer came to her like a light in the dark. She’d thought he was safe, but nothing could be further from the truth. Only distancing herself from him would break the attraction between them. She was too weak to withstand the temptation any other way.

  “What?” All at once, a look of panic came over him, and he shook his head. “What about… what about the scroll? We’re about to go to war, Leena. The Defenders of the Goddess don’t have a prayer against Eleanor without you.”

  She did her best to hide the swell of pride it gave her to hear that he needed her, that the resistance needed her. It was too bad the feeling simply proved her hypothesis. She was becoming proud, lustful, and disconnected from her monastic life.

  “You will have your scroll. You will escort me back to the Temple of the Sacred Pools, and I will request that my Quanling assign a replacement curator for the scroll. I will hand over my duties to him or her, and they will return with you here.” She flourished her hand to drive home how simple the plan was. “You said it could take the three sisters and their mates a few weeks to find the tanglewood tree. Even with the difference in time flow between our worlds, you and my replacement could be back here before they are.”

  Colin became flustered, a muscle in his jaw twitching. “Don’t do this, Leena,” he said softly. “Stay here. Give this time. See where it might go.”

  The sheer need in his voice almost undid her. Right now, he reminded her of a mountain cat with a thorn in his paw. He wanted her to tend the wound, but doing so was a dangerous game that brought her far too close to his razor-sharp teeth. Worse, her entire being ached for his bite. She’d wanted more than just a kiss. If she weren’t careful, she could lose herself in him. “I’m sorry, Colin. I wish to go. Today. If you will not do it, I will ask Sylas and Dianthe to escort me—”

  “No!” The thought seemed to offend him, and he jerked as if the words burned. “I promised to guard you and the scroll if you would help us, and I will see that promise through to the end.” His brows became two dark slashes over hard, ice-cold eyes. “Pack your bags. We leave in the morning.”

  Chapter Six

  Obsidian Palace

  Paragon

  Grigori sailed through the window and into Eleanor’s ritual room looking worn, his gray feathers rumpled. Eleanor allowed the peregrine to land on her arm, its claws harmlessly digging into her skin. Hera herself had gifted her the falcon, transforming one of her prized peacocks into a replacement for Aborella after the fairy perished. Although the bird looked like the other messenger birds in her employ, this one was special. This one was a spy.

  “You’ve come a long way, my friend. Your wings smell of the sea air. What do you have to show me?” She closed her eyes and allowed the peregrine’s memories to fill her brain.

  The three sisters sat on the beach, discussing where to find the golden grimoire. She watched the scene unfold, her heartbe
at advancing to a gallop. So they had to go to Earth to obtain pieces of something called the tanglewood tree. Where had she heard of that before? Oh, she was aware it was Raven’s last name, but there was something else about the tree. Any recollection of the tanglewood tree slipped through her fingers as the vision ended with the sisters and their mates sailing toward Crete from Aeaea.

  Eleanor blinked again and came back into her own head. She stroked the bird’s feathers. “Well done, Grigori. You clever, clever bird. Let’s find you a treat.”

  She rose and crossed the room to a glass tank where a narwit and her babies cowered in the corner away from her. She reached in and grabbed one of the tiny pink creatures, tossing it by the tail toward Grigori’s beak. He snatched it out of the air and swallowed it whole.

  “What to do with this information…” Eleanor sighed and reached for a second snack for the bird. “The sisters are certainly more vulnerable on Earth, but now is not the time for me to leave Paragon. Everfield has fallen, but the fairy kingdom is currently more of a burden than an advantage.” She stroked the bird’s feathers. “That annoyance, Chancellor Ciro, wants a legion of soldiers to help rebuild the Empyrean Wood. I may have promised him as much in exchange for his kingdom’s submission to Paragon, and I fear if we don’t deliver, the fairy kingdom will be hungry enough to align with the first ruler to offer them aid. Nochtbend has broken diplomatic contact, and each night, more dragons go missing under suspicious circumstances. The vampires have done everything but declare war. And Paragon’s relationship with Rogos has gone similarly cold. My spies tell me the archers of Asfolk have started training again. The kingdom that has always remained neutral suddenly seems less interested in reminding me of that fact.” She frowned at Grigori. “So, you see, I am needed here and cannot go myself to Earth, despite the temptation to kill that half-breed whelp on Raven’s hip.”

  The bird squawked his understanding.

  No, it would be counterproductive for her to leave this realm. If Grigori’s vision was accurate, five heirs and their mates remained on Aeaea, including Sylas and Colin, the known leaders of the rebellion. She must remain in control.

  But then, who could she trust to kill Raven’s daughter? She couldn’t send Ransom. She scoffed at the thought. The man wouldn’t last a day against the sisters. She drummed her fingers on the edge of the narwits’ tank, sending the creatures squealing into the corner again.

  “What shall we do, my dear beastie?”

  Grigori ruffled his feathers in response and snapped his beak. She frowned. There was only one thing to do—spy on the sisters in the earthly realm and find out more about what they sought there. Perhaps this tanglewood tree was a source of vulnerability. The plan came together in a flash.

  “I want you to go to Earth,” she said to Grigori. “Follow the sisters, but do not allow yourself to be seen. I want to know anything they do or say that might indicate a weakness. Perhaps this tanglewood tree is the answer to their undoing.”

  Grigori squawked his understanding and took to the air, shooting through the window like an arrow. Satisfied with the decision, she strode toward the door. She needed to contact the lord of the elves, Niall, again and put more pressure on Rogos to align with Paragon. Everything could be moved if one simply found the right lever. What was the elf’s currency? There had to be a way to sway him.

  She was interrupted when Ransom appeared in front of her, looking tentative. He had bad news. She could feel it. Tension coiled around him like an invisible snake, and he shifted back and forth on his feet with apprehension.

  “What is it? Why do you look like you might be ill?” She wished the man had spine enough to just spit it out. She could not take much more bad news, certainly not when it was prolonged in this dance of fear.

  He cleared his throat. “I am sorry to report that this hour, just moments ago, the Dark Mountains closed at the border to Darnuith.”

  “What do you mean, the mountains closed?” Now her voice betrayed her true feelings, her tone becoming shrill.

  He swallowed and took a step back. “It seems that the mountains have… moved and closed off the passage into Darnuith. We would now either have to traverse the mountain on horseback or fly over—”

  “I know what it means,” she snapped. “It means our only way to take Darnuith by force is now by air. A vulnerable position, to be sure, considering the constant storms in their territory. The snow will negate our invisibility. Effective air formations will be rendered impossible by the wind. They’re preparing for war. The rebellion is rising.”

  “Would you like me to send an envoy to one of the Darnuith Highborn? Perhaps they could convince Queen Penelope to reopen the lines of dialogue.”

  Eleanor scoffed. “No. The time for dialogue is done. Station troops along the Sanguine River. Close all trade routes. Nothing goes in or out of Darnuith. Order your men to seize and confiscate anything they can get their hands on. Bring it to Paragon.”

  Ransom bowed. “Very well, Empress.”

  “One more thing. Send a falcon to Rogos and warn Lord Niall that if he aids Darnuith by allowing the flow of goods through Rogos, we will consider it an act of war.”

  Ransom bowed again, then strode from the room to do her bidding.

  Eleanor turned on her heel and moved back into her ritual room, going straight for the line of large gems on her shelf. Her hands landed on a massive diamond. The light inside flickered in her grip. Marius’s heart. It held the most power, but that was why she couldn’t use it. She’d need it later for something far more important than this. Instead, she grabbed Brynhoff’s, the silver agate duller, just as her brother had been. Her nails clicked against the jewel.

  Striding to the open space at the center of her ritual room, she surveyed the patterns there and chose her magical sigil for this spell. She’d perfected the shapes, already painted on the otherwise black floor. The base of her sigil was a spiral to symbolize creation. This was a place for manifesting her will. To the north, she’d painted a triangle capped with a U shape—a chalice to hold her ever-growing celestial magic. To the east, a wave symbolized her enduring and daunting power. To the west, two circles represented Ouros’s suns—the bringers of light and life, and to the south, a serpent—the symbol of Hades and a link to the dark energy inherent in her blood magic.

  She placed Brynhoff’s heart in the center of the spiral. Pacing her row of dried plants and herbs, she selected a few branches of a cottony plant from the far reaches of Paragon and placed them on the wave. For the suns, she chose a ripe red tribiscal fruit, then smashed it under her heel. Over the chalice, a silver bowl filled with blue crystals to symbolize raindrops.

  Eleanor herself stood on the snake. “With my blood, I send rain to Darnuith,” she said, focusing her intention. She sliced a talon through her skin and watched her blood splash toward her toes. It never reached them. Wild and red, it spiraled into the center, wind whipping in a frenzy within the symbol. A thick gray cloud formed and cracked with lightning.

  “Yes,” she said. “More. More!”

  She sliced herself again, and blood rained from the cloud onto the symbol. Every cell in her body contracted with the expulsion of magic directed at Darnuith. Soon, the kingdom of witches would find their land drowned in blood rain. Every citizen of every city in the Dark Mountains would watch their crops fail before their eyes. How sad for them that food from outside the realm would now be impossible to obtain. She’d made sure of that.

  If Darnuith wouldn’t bend, she’d make sure they’d break. She bared her teeth as the cloud rained on. Mountains closed. Ha! Queen Penelope had no idea who she was dealing with.

  Chapter Seven

  Aeaea Island

  “We can’t sail to Serenity Harbor now that Everfield has fallen. The port is crawling with Obsidian guards.” Colin collected Leena’s bags and stowed them on the boat, trying his best not to make eye contact with her. Every time he looked at her, he thought about the kiss, experienced again the deep ac
he of her rejection.

  He flexed his wings and kept his mind focused on their goal. “We’ll have to dock off the coast of Rogos. If we sail all the way to the shores of Niven, I can fly you directly to the temple. There’s no port there, but all Indigo has to do is anchor offshore and I can take us the rest of the way.” It pained Colin to have to borrow Sylas’s Oread, but he didn’t have one of his own for the same reason he didn’t have a treasure room. He’d moved around too much to keep one.

  Leena stared in the direction of Everfield before glancing toward Rogos. “I think that is our best plan. We can’t return the way we came. We’ll need to take care, though. The coastal area of Niven is rocky with rough waters. We can’t get too close to shore.”

  “Then we don’t land the boat. I’ll fly you in from a distance. I have some business to attend to in Rogos anyway. Indigo can sail back tonight and meet me on the opposite coast tomorrow. I’ll get there on foot.” He needed to meet with the leader of the resistance in Rogos and bring her up to speed with recent developments. He could send a falcon, but this would be far more effective.

  She smiled her approval of that plan but crossed to the rear of the boat, putting maximum distance between them. So that’s how it would be. He growled and leaned his hands against the hull, staring at the horizon in the distance, at the dark brown line that was Ouros.

  He was still there hours later, although he’d opted for a seat on the front bench. Better here than where he could see her, where her presence would taunt him.

  After another half hour at sea, he blinked when a dark spot appeared in the sky beyond the boat, growing larger as it headed for him. Was that a falcon? He stood and held up one arm, and the peregrine landed in a flurry of flapping, digging in its talons.

  “What brings you all the way out here, little buddy?” he asked the messenger bird. A small roll of parchment was bound to its leg. Colin untied it and read the tight script inside.