Page 35 of Dragon Awakened

My eyes flare wide at the sparks that dance up my fingertips as they close around the pendant.

"You can open it," Rhiannon tells me.

Glancing up, I frown. "It won't...?"

"Open a portal?" Rhiannon shakes her head. "Not unless you ask it to."

Carefully, I nudge the latch open.

Inside is a swirling constellation of bright white stars and purple wisps of clouds set against a vast black backdrop. I feel like I could fall into the magic--like I'm peering into space itself.

"Yeah," I murmur, its warm hum vibrating through me. "I'm pretty sure it worked."

Chapter

Ten

RAFE

The problem with doing some giant group project to create a forbidden magical object is that you can't exactly take it on a test run. The old Shadow Dragon lady, Rhiannon, estimates that the necklace has enough juice for at least a handful of teleportation spells, but it would suck to waste any of them testing it out, just to get stuck on empty when we need it the most.

"What are we waiting for then?" I ask, glancing around. "Let's do this."

I've been pushing to get a move on with things since the very beginning. I don't love the idea of going to the Air Kingdom, period. I haven't been there since I was a kid, but I remember it being boring as fuck. Add in the fact that we're going there to try to find Ember's last mate, and that her most likely options are both assholes? Yeah. I'm not into it.

But it's what we have to do. Her desperation for her final mate is a tugging twist, yanking at our bond. This is our destiny, and even if it weren't. I'd give her anything, do anything for her. I'm committed.

So can't we just get on with it?

Ember wavers, though. "I think I need a minute."

"Of course," Rhiannon tells her. She and Ember keep sharing these weird looks, which I guess is reasonable, considering they just combined their magic to make a giant purple lightning storm in the sky, and then trapped it in a necklace.

God knows the one time Ember and I used the power of our bond to set ourselves on fire, it made for a hell of a connection between us. What's going on between my mate and the old lady is different, though. Wary.

I frown, but for once, I hold my tongue.

I keep it held, even when our timeline for leaving goes from "after lunch" to "after lunch and a nap" to "tomorrow". And really, if we're going to try to sneak up on a dragon prince, we'd probably be best off doing it under cover of darkness, so maybe tomorrow night.

Jianyu, Malik and I trade glances as the schedule shifts later and later, but they don't seem too concerned about it. Maybe I shouldn't be, either. When I feel out the connection between me and Ember, she mostly comes across as tired.

My bullshit detector is screaming, though.

All through lunch, and even when she's napping, Ember keeps a hand on the necklace. She wears it draped around her throat, the black metal standing out against her pale skin. I'd say I can't stop looking at it because it hangs right above the cleavage of her breasts, but it's more than that.

Finally, after we've gone back to our suite for the night--after I've kissed her senseless and eaten out her gorgeous cunt and fucked her hard while she blows Jianyu--after I've watched her ride Malik to a screaming orgasm...

She's in the bathroom, brushing her teeth, wearing nothing but one of Jianyu's undershirts and the necklace. Malik's passed out on the bed, and Jianyu's reading like the boring nerd he is.

I come up behind her and press a kiss to the side of her neck. She gives a little hum of pleasure and tips her head to the side, giving me more access. Her skin still smells like me and Jianyu and Malik, and my cock stirs as I put my hands on her hips.

But I'm not here to seduce her again. Not yet, in any case.

"So," I murmur, kissing my way to her ear. "You want to talk about why you're stalling on heading to the Air Kingdom?"

Freezing, she opens her eyes to meet my gaze in the mirror. Slowly, she disentangles herself from me to step forward and spit her toothpaste in the sink. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Our bond is flooded with tension, so yeah, I don't buy that.

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