Page 61 of Destiny of the Dragons

She let the magic out, let it pound through her in time with each heartbeat.

“Mia?” Cassius poked his head out of the backdoor. The old vampire had a faint smile on his face. Mia glanced up at him, knowing she would be in trouble for wasting magic on a kitten. She didn’t care.

Cassius closed the door behind him and then crouched in front of her. “That’s it, Mia. Follow your instincts.”

Cassius’s face blocked the backdoor, and she stopped worry about the repercussions.

Mia exhaled as magic wrapped around the kitten. Bones mended under her fingers, wounded healing. Her hands shook from the effort, a wave of lightheadness hitting her, but she forced herself to keep going.

It was nothing like when she practiced her spells under Mother’s watchful eye. Nothing like having her knuckles hit over and again if she didn’t get the exact words right. The primal urge to help reached out and before Mia knew it, the kitten meowed again.

No longer a broken sound, the kitten curled against her hands.

Cassius smiled, a ray of sunshine in the gloomy alleyway. “You did it. You have real talent.”

“I did it.” Mia beamed the rare pleasure of pleasing an adult in her life filling her. The kitten meowed again.

“Mama won’t let me keep it,” she said. Sorrow panged inside her. The kitten meowed again, and it felt like a piece of her heart outside of her body.

“She doesn’t like you having pets.” Cassius frowned. “But I think…if I talk to her. Show her you can do some stronger spells…we could persuade her.”

Hope filled her. Maybe if she practiced hard enough, did enough spells, she could keep the kitten. “Really?”

Cassius winked at her. “Let me handle your mother. Just make sure you practice hard and she won’t have anything to say.”

Cassius had handled her mother, and her kitten had grown into a cat. Mother never liked that she had a pet, and when old age took her cat when she was fifteen she wasn’t allowed to replace it.

But she’d kept her word, and practiced her blood magic. She’d wondered if she would be the witch she was today if she hadn’t revealed her magic at such an early age.

It was useless to think that way. Other moments showed her magic was the strongest than in generations.

Life was what it was, and there was no use in wishing for things to be different.

Tikka chirped and flew over to her kitty tower. Tikka dug her talons into the carpet, ripping some of the fabric.

Mia checked the time, her palms sweating. She needed to tell them off, extract their promise and then kick them out.

The door rang at five o clock sharp.

Jace stood on the other side, and all the air left her lungs.

He hadn’t changed much, but his eyes looked haunted. Smoke was almost a statue behind him, both dragons looking like they were about to attend a funeral.

Well. She was hardly excited to see them.

Which wasn’t completely true. The bond inside her flared, and she pushed it down. She stepped to the side and stalked to the center of her living room.

“We can make this short,” she said, her voice clipped. It was hard to breathe with both of them in the same room. Something empty inside her felt whole for the first time in months.

Smoke leaned against the wall. His face was hard granite, and his long black hair was pulled into a ponytail. He wore the same leather bomber jacket and faded jeans that had made him seem so sexy and dangerous.

Jace sat down on the couch, his legs at an angle. His brown hair was still tousled in a sexy bedhead style. He wore a black shirt this time and slacks.

Mia swallowed hard. She’d had a whole speech prepared but she’d forgotten it after seeing them. Months ago they’d touched her, kissed her. She still had her curios in the sunroom, and last time they’d talked about her acquisitions for hours before Jace had kissed her senseless.

Smoke touched her, running his hands over her body…

Mia shut her thoughts down. Her libido didn’t understand why she wasn’t currently ripping their clothes off. Jace was sexy sprawled on the couch and if she sat on him, he could be inside her in two seconds.

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