Page 3 of Walking in Darkness

The eyes were the same as before, but their hair was actual hair now. It was a deep auburn like Hudson’s and fell clear to the ground. No more fire wings either, or legs that bent the wrong way, and no more muzzle.

There were still scales in place of their eyebrows and patches of those same red scales wherever skin showed on their body—a body that was now clothed in an expensive-looking suit.

But their features were still very androgynous, and since Kit still couldn’t tell their sex, he was sticking with the pronoun of “they.” The last thing he wanted was to offend a freaking deity.

Mother of all, how did these things happen to him?

“There. Is that better?”

How in the world did he answer that? Yes, Gaura was less overwhelming in this form, but Kit was still out of his body in another realm with a damn deity whose voice made his eyelid twitch. No, this was not freaking better, but he absolutely would not admit that either.

“Yes, your….” Shit. How did he address them? He didn’t know if they were a king or a queen or what. “Your Majesty?”

“Gaura is fine, dear.”

That didn’t seem respectful enough, but he wasn’t arguing.

Gaura held out their hand. “Come on. Up you go. We have places to be.”

The only place Kit wanted to go was back to his bed, but he took the offered hand—that was blessedly absent of claws—and let Gaura pull him to his feet.

Gaura waved their hand, and a circle of fire exploded up from the ground, encircling them. Kit barely had time to scream before everything went black.

“HOLY MOTHER.Holy mother of fucking all,” Kit yelled, bent over at the waist with his hands on his knees. Or tried to, but it was kinda hard since he was currently also gasping for air.

When the fire had engulfed them, he was sure he was done for. He was human, not a dragon. Fire wasn’t kind to human skin. His last thought before everything had gone dark was that burning alive didn’t seem a very enjoyable way to go.

Or maybe he’d passed out briefly.

He had no idea. All he knew was that instead of burning, the ring of fire disappeared back into the ground, and he was blessedly unburned. And pissed.

Woo wee, was he pissed. That had been terrifying, and he was shaking like a leaf.Don’t cuss out the fire dragon deity. Don’t cuss out the fire dragon deity.He straightened and ran a trembling hand through his hair. He and Gaura were now standing in a wooded area beside a fast-flowing stream while he not so quietly freaked out.

Gaura patted Kit on the back. “I’m really making a mess of this, aren’t I? I didn’t mean to terrify you, dear. That’s just how I travel. I apologize, though. But in my defense, I’m unused to dealing with humans.”

Yeah, well, Kit wasn’t used to dealing with dragon deities, yet here they were. And only one of them was traumatized, and it wasn’t Gaura. “I’m okay. I think. Maybe. Jesus.”

No doubt about it. He was going to be in therapy for the rest of his damn life.

Kit looked around. The area was beautiful and obviously undisturbed by civilization. He took a deep breath, and the air that filled his lungs was clean and crisp, plus free of smog. The water nearby was crystal clear. But Kit had never seen trees like this.

Their limbs grew out instead of up. Plus, they were massive. The ground was also kind of sandy and rocky. Kit couldn’t explain why, but the place had a primitive feel to it.

“May I ask where we are? And why we’re here?”

“Chania. Well, we’re close to what will be present-day Chania.”

That really didn’t answer Kit’s question because the name didn’t sound familiar, although he could’ve sworn he’d heard that place mentioned recently. But he didn’t remember why.

“Greece, dear,” Gaura said. “We’re in Greece.”

Greece. They were in fucking Greece. “Oh my God.”

Now he knew why that name sounded familiar, but it really meant nothing to him as far as location went. “Chania. That’s where Kage was born, right?”

“Yes, indeed. This is where it all started.”

Gaura was right. Thiswaswhere it had all started hundreds of years ago. Kage’s father had taken a mistress, and impregnated her with twins, hoping to have more daemon sons, then abandoned her and his children when neither presented as daemons.

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