Page 19 of Dragon's Code

“Snub me all you want, Darius. I will get to the bottom of your secrets. My king commands it.”

Darius keeps his back to her as he faces the bar and pretends to be watching the soccer tournament on the television.

Jasmine turns her attention to me, which immediately makes my spine go ramrod straight.

“What are you doing here, Kashton?”

“What business is it of yours, Jasmine?”

She smiles, batting her eyes, and licking her lips. She pushes her cleavage together in an attempt to catch my attention. I yawn and take a swig of the old fashioned that Jonathan has procured for me.

“We used to be friends,” she pouts, leaning into me, her hand landing on my chest.

I switch my drink hand and then pick her hand up off my chest and discard it away from me. “We can be friends, but you’re about as subtle as a hole in the head. I’m not looking to fuck around.”

She rolls her eyes. “You never were fun. Are you just not into girls?”

I scoff, “No. I’m into women.”

Jasmine sighs and then moseys up to the bar. “May I get a glass of white wine, please? Whatever you have, that's sweet and expensive.”

“Put it in a glass to go. She won’t be staying.” My tone leaves no room for Jasmine or the bartender to argue. Jerrick’s subtle, terse nod, confirms my choice, and the bartender pulls a metal wine tumbler out from under the bar, pouring a glass before handing both the tumbler and the bottle over to Jasmine.

Jasmine may not understand that she’s not wanted here, but every other male in the space seems to understand the risk. We’re breaking dragon law, meeting like this, going against the Elders. Not to mention, there’s a fucking human upstairs who knows nothing about us.

I need to tell Athena. I want to tell Athena. She’s my best friend. Now that the world has been exposed to the supernatural, there’s no reason to hide any longer. Not from her. Not from my best friend.

The familiar absence of my heartstone gives me a weird ache.

Jerrick leans in toward me and under his breath, he mutters, “Penelope is up in room 1212. She needs to see you now.”

I frown and glance askance at him. “Why?”

He narrows his eyes at me. “Just go before Princess Pain-in-the-Ass catches wind that they’re here.” The title is apt, even if she’s not actually King Marcus’s daughter. It’s been widely speculated that if Jasmine finds her dragon mate, Marcus intends to let her rule.

Not that any of us want that to happen.

Reluctantly, I make my way out of the bar and head up the elevator. I had no idea that Penelope was even going to be here. I have no idea what she wants to talk to me about.

Just as I’m about to knock on the door, a voice calls from the other side of the door, “Come in, Kash.”

I chuckle and head in through the door that she left ajar. I enter a room that’s similar to mine. On the bed, there are gemstones, herbs, and all over the room, candles light the space with the blinds closed.

“What’s going on?”

Penelope points at the laptop on the round table in the corner. I sit down and then I see Syrena’s face on the screen. Penelope is the Amazonite witch and Syrena is the Tourmaline witch. They’ve been working double duty trying to help with stopping Grey and trying to save Tabitha, the Opal witch who’s been under Grey’s influence.

“What’s up, Sy?”

“Oh thank goodness. Penelope’s been keeping me in the loop on what’s going on.”

“Must be pretty boring so far,” I say. “Not a lot has happened.”

Syrena’s brow furrows and she frowns. “What are you talking about? There’s a lot going on.” She rolls her eyes at me, like I’m some youngling that needs to learn a thing or two. “Penelope and I have made some discoveries.”

“Oh yeah? Whatcha got?”

“Grey and the former Tourmaline king, with the help of a couple of clan witches, created a spell to stop females from being born. I have no idea if the king your father killed or the witches participated willingly, but the spell worked. It took a long time for it to poison the couples having babies, with a few families scattered across all of dragon kind holding out, like your parents with Krystana. Only, those were dragon and dragon babies. With some of the dragons finding human mates, it seems those matches are not affected by the ancient spell. It was supposed to be permanent. It was illegal even back then for dragons to mate with humans.”

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