Page 3 of Storm In The Sky

“Why should he want to do that?”

“Maybe because he hates me. It’s clear he’d rather be Samuel’s shield than mine, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he asked me to break the bond.”

“I would be. You need to give him time, and while I understand it feels impossible, I believe it’s the only way to solvethis problem. I don’t know if Winter wants to be Samuel’s shield, but I’m sure Samuel doesn’t want him like that.”

Keylon had to admit that when he’d watched the two, he’d never seen Samuel look at Winter as anything but a friend. Of course, that didn’t mean they couldn’t be mage and shield. Usually, the mages and their shields were linked by a bond that activated when they were in love and together physically, but that didn’t mean every mage and shield couple took that step. Winter would be able to protect Samuel even if they never slept together, but Keylon suspected that Winter wanted Samuel as more than just a friend.

He closed his eyes. The thought made him angry. Winter was supposed to behis.Alvinhadbeen his, and they’d been happy. Why couldn’t Keylon have that back? Why did he have to watch Alvin be with someone else?

But Winter wasn’t Alvin. It was hard to wrap his mind around that, no matter how many times Keylon told himself he had to. He needed to face reality.

He was never getting Alvin back. Alvin had become Winter, and there were no traces of him left. That meant that Keylon had to forget about Alvin.

He didn’t know how to do that. Every time he saw Winter, he thought of Alvin. Every time Winter snubbed him, he remembered how he and Alvin had been together. They’d been in love, and Keylon would never forget the night before the final fight with Carlyle. Alvin had promised that whatever happened, they’d always be together and that he would always protect him.

It had been a lie.

A hand on his shoulder startled Keylon. He opened his eyes to see that Dallin was looking at him, a sad expression on his face. There was pity there, but Keylon didn’t care. Of course the other mages pitied him. They could see that Winter wanted Samuel and not Keylon. They probably thought that Keylon would haveto give up Winter. He might be able to wait until after Carlyle was taken care of, but eventually, he’d have to let him go.

He wasn’t sure he could.

Chapter Two

Keylon was sick of waiting. He and the others were waiting to find out what had happened to Sol. They were waiting for Carlyle to do something. Keylon was waiting for Winter to try to talk to him and tell him he wanted to break their bond.

Waiting made him want to scream.

Maybe it was time to stop waiting and do something. He couldn’t find Sol, and he had no idea what Carlyle was up to, but he knew where to find Winter. Winter wouldn’t be happy to see him, and he’d probably try to avoid talking to him, but Keylon was done. He wanted to know what would happen, and he wanted to know it now. He was done torturing himself, wondering what Winter was thinking and what he wanted. If they were going to break their bond, he wanted to do it as soon as possible. It was probably a bad idea to do it before they fought Carlyle, but Keylon wasn’t going to torture himself.

He hadn’t been able to focus on his work, anyway, so he pushed away the book he’d been trying to read and got up from his desk. He didn’t give himself time to rethink what he was about to do. He left his office, telling himself to be strong as he went to look for Winter.

The castle was large. Usually the mages could be found in their offices, but things had changed since the dragons had started to move in. Now, Keylon had no idea where to find anyone. Normally he would call Winter, but he didn’t have his phone number, and he doubted Winter would give it to him if he asked. That meant he had to walk around the castle, hoping Winter wasn’t hiding in his bedroom or in Samuel’s.

He told himself not to think about that. He was pretty sure that Winter and Samuel weren’t together, but he suspected it wasn’t because Winter didn’t want it. Keylon understood it wasn’t fair to resent Winter or Samuel for this, but he couldn’thelp it. No matter how many times he told himself that Winter wasn’t Alvin, he looked like him. In a way, hewashim. Keylon would recognize him in the dark just by touching him because he knew Alvin’s body so well. That hadn’t changed. Only the inside of Alvin had, including his feelings for Keylon.

And his feelings for Samuel.

Since many of the dragons seemed to spend a lot of time in the kitchen with Jillian, Keylon decided to head that way, but he was relieved when he turned a corner and found Winter staring down at his phone. Winter didn’t hear Keylon right away, and while Keylon was tempted to pause and look at him, he shook off that feeling and made a beeline for him. “I need to talk to you,” he announced.

Winter screeched, clearly startled by Keylon’s appearance.

Keylon shouldn’t find it funny or adorable. Winter had never been as large as some of the other dragons, but he was still a big man, and that screech had been out of place.

Winter put his phone into his pocket and scowled. “What?”

“I said that I need to talk to you.”

“I heard you the first time. What do you want?”

It hurt to hear Winter talk to him like that, but Keylon reminded himself once again that this wasn’t Alvin. Alvin would never have been rude to him. He would never have dismissed him.

But this wasn’t Alvin.

“We need to talk about our bond.”

Winter shook his head. “We don’t need to do anything. I don’t have time for this.”

Keylon snorted. “You don’t have time to talk about our bond?”

---