Page 14 of Fated for his Flame

I’m safe. You’re safe. Get it together. You’re tougher than this.

Apparently, I wasn’t. Glancing over, I saw human-Silas staring at me with unrestrained humor. His eyes laughed and danced, bringing a softer, more inviting look to his normally stern features. I decided I liked it better that way.

“Not done much flying?” he asked.

“Usually, I’m in a giant metal tube, going a lot faster,” I said, snarling mentally at my muscles, forcing them to respond and let me stand. “You know, the normal way to travel.”

“Right. The hunk of debris that only stays up because it goes fast. Where one little thing going wrong will send it plummeting to the ground to explode in a fireball. Absolutely very normal, yes.”

I sniffed, lifting my chin into the air. “I’m glad you understand civilized modes of travel. After all, they serve you food midflight. I wasn’t offered a snack, let alone a meal.”

The dragon-man shook his head at me. “You should have pressed the bell for service. There was a very tasty meal of duck available for you.”

I recalled the flight of birds we’d passed mid-air. “I prefer my food fully cooked, thank you.”

Silas lifted a hand, and then he breathed fire across his palm, the flames spinning around into a ball that hung there.

“Made to order,” he said simply before the ball dissipated.

I shook my head, letting a part of my smile show through but not all. If I did, he’d notice I was smiling more to myself than to him. The banter was good. We were making progress. The sooner I could get him to trust me, the sooner I could get to work finding information to report home with.

We stood like that, looking at one another for a handful of seconds or more. Silas shifted slightly. Before I could voice anything, the sound of someone approaching reached my ears. Turning my head, I saw a younger version of Silas coming toward us.

His hair was longer and without the streaks of gray, and he had a very close-cropped goatee, but other than that, he was a near mirror image.

“Younger brother, I assume?” I asked.

“Caleb, yes,” Silas confirmed with a nod that sent wayward strands flying.

He moved past me to embrace the other man. Caleb returned the hug, but his eyes were busy evaluating me. After several seconds, they flared wide.

“Are you crazy?” he hissed loud enough I could hear. Whether that was caused by his shock or design, I wasn’t sure.

After parting with Silas, he sidestepped him and approached me, looking me up and down as he moved in a circle.

“I’m not some museum piece,” I snapped, turning to keep pace with him. “So, stop staring.”

Caleb glanced over at Silas, who only shrugged wryly.

“Oh, this is going to be bad,” Caleb said, shaking his head slowly as he stopped circling me and went to stand next to Silas. “Really, really bad. I can’t believe you brought a human here.”

Silas grunted. “Me, too,” he admitted. “But she’s here now.”

“How are you going to break it?”

I noted how Silas’ shoulders slumped at the question he didn’t have an answer for. Whatever they were getting at, he wasn’t prepared for.

“I don’t know,” Silas said at last, sounding almost … defeated.

I didn’t like that. “Anyone care to let me know what’s going on?” I asked, deciding to speak up. If I was the center of a problem, I should probably know about it.

Caleb chuckled darkly. “I think I’m going to let my brother explain that one to you.”

He did come forward, though, to introduce himself. I shook his hand, bracing myself for the same sort of adverse reaction, hoping I could control myself because I knew it was coming.

As it turned out, it was pointless. Our hands met, we shook and exchanged names, and that was it. As normal as normal could be when talking to two men who could shift into dragon forms. No buzzing, no unresponsive muscles, no irrational arousal. None of it.

I blinked, taking a surreptitious glance at my hand, then at Silas. Was something different about him? Was he some sort of different dragon? I didn’t know, but I had to find out. Somehow.

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