Page 10 of Fated for his Flame

“Chloe, are you okay? Are you all right?”

I blinked rapidly, a wave of cold washing over me as the contact was broken, puckering any skin that wasn’t already that way. Two giant hands gripped my shoulders, giving me a little shake, the ease of moving me re-emphasizing the strength difference between us. Not to mention the size as his fingers and thumb wrapped me in their grip, swallowing most of my shoulder. I had to crane my head back almost as far as it would go to look into his face from that close. He was big.

“Hi,” I said, some semblance of control returning to my body, even as scenarios of being grabbed in other ways by those powerful hands ran amok through my head, wreaking all sorts of havoc on my normally controlled processing center.

“You okay? What the hell happened there?”

“I don’t know,” I said, shaking myself once more, taking a deep breath to reassert myself. “We clasped hands, and that’s the last thing I remember.”

He quickly pulled his hands off my shoulders. I caught him looking at his right hand and then at me briefly. Had he felt some of that, too?

“Could you repeat your name?” I asked him. “I missed it.”

“Silas,” he said, declining to re-extend his hand toward me.

I wondered again if I was the only one who’d felt that. He looked somewhat ruffled as well.

“Good to meet you, Silas,” I said, determined to never let such a lapse happen again and to regain control of the conversation as well. I needed to find out all I could about the dragons. Not fall apart because one of them touched me.

“You, too.” He nodded sharply, his eyes still searching my face to see if I was okay or not.

His concern was cute.

“As I was saying,” I said, staring up the tunnel once more, “we’re both here. This is the way it’s going to be. It’s easier to accept it and move on than continue to freak out, right?”

“Right,” he agreed with a healthy dose of skepticism in his voice.

I cursed myself mentally. Things had been going well. Now, he was wondering what the hell was wrong with me.

That makes two of us.

We walked in silence to the mouth of the tunnel entrance. At some point, the light from outside became enough, and Silas killed the floating fireball. We stepped out onto a ledge overlooking a vast expanse that flowed away from us for miles before ending in the vast blue that could only be the ocean. It was dozens or perhaps hundreds of miles away. The only reason it could be seen was because of how high up we were on the side of a mountain.

I started cataloging the view, including the large town in the distance. The more information I could give when I reported in—assuming the equipment hidden in my clothing could transmit—the better. There was no guarantee it would work, though. The dragons had never demonstrated any level of technology, but if they could hide an entire island—and it sure seemed like we were on one—then they had to have something, right?

I wandered around the ledge, looking at everything I could see from our vantage point on the mountain. I noted there were no other mountains visible either. Just that one.

“What’s that?” I asked, a huge stone building coming into view. It was located in the direction we’d emerged from underground.

“That is the palace,” Silas rumbled.

“Do I get a tour?” I asked. The palace sounded important. It was a place I definitely needed to visit and learn about. If we couldn’t nuke them, perhaps a big bunker buster into the palace would help rid us of some problems or stall their attacks for a while. Something, anything, to help.

“Uh, I suppose,” Silas said. He gestured for me to follow him along a small path that led in the general direction of the palace. It didn’t look well used.

“Where are the roads?” I asked as we walked. “It looks like nobody ever comes this way.”

Silas chuckled. I watched his face as he stared knowingly at me. In the light, I could see his eyes were a light blue, almost gray like storm clouds. His hair was a mix of salt and pepper, hanging down to his shoulders in free-flowing waves.

“What?” I asked. “Did I say—”

Overhead, a large dragon with blue scales like pristine Caribbean waters soared past, coming in for a gentle landing on the flat roof of the palace. I watched in slight awe at the grace of its actions. That was a side of dragons I wasn’t used to. Before, it was all war footage. Fire and flame, death and destruction. It was different.

It also answered my question.

“Right. I suppose you don’t really need roads when you can fly, do you?”

“No,” he agreed with a chuckle as the path curved up the mountain, depositing us at the base of the palace.

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