Page 52 of Phoenix Burn

The first thing I saw were the moons. They were faint, just disappearing in the daylight. And my heart accelerated because they were almost full.

I’d lost track of that. They were runnin’ ahead of the human-realm one. Would they affect the Dires at the academy? For us, the full moon was about running and howling.

And mating.

My gaze fell on Ryan—I could ask him. Sabres responded to the moon too, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. My beast had been so restless lately that clarity had become a dream.

Oh, crikey. Dreams...

I pushed back on the surge of pure lust, and watched as the Sabre’s gaze scanned the sky. I opened my mouth to ask, but then Anna spun around to face the other way, before marching past the spires to stare.

I followed her and spotted dots against the sky. “Strewth, Angel. You pegged it.” I whipped off my tee shirt and began to wave it.

I was aware, suddenly, of silence beside me, and glanced down to catch Anna staring at my chest. I continued to wave, but was now equally distracted.

Her eyes rose to mine, and for a moment, nothing else existed.

Neither of us noticed Ryan coming up behind us, or the approaching Dragons.

“Perfect, dude,” Ryan said.

I ripped my gaze away from Anna and saw that the three Dragons were already close. Tyrez dwarfed both the little black Dragona and the graceful golden one.

I thought it best that I slip my tee shirt back on as we retreated close to the spires to clear enough room for them to land. But I was distracted enough that I put the blasted thing on inside out and had to yank it off and start over. I was hyperaware of Anna’s eyes on me as I did so.

Meanwhile, Dani landed neatly. Ash was a bit more of a scramble—he bumped his noggin on a spire—but Tyrez was a thing of accomplished control and beauty. The huge Dragon hovered over the roof, before dropping down as light as a feather.

In moments, all three were in bloke form. Well, two were. Dani was most definitely a sheila.

Her eyes focused right away on the sword. “Wow, that looks old.”

Ryan didn’t waste any time gabbing. He unsheathed it and handed it hilt first to Tyrez. “Can you read the inscriptions? I think they are Draconian.”

The big shifter’s brows rose as he took the weapon. “Not many can read it anymore, but my mother pushed it down my throat growing up.” He ran his strong fingers along the inscriptions. “It’s Draconian, all right. And an ancient version of it. Strange, because most Dragons prefer their own tailspikes over swords.”

“These swords have inscriptions for each owner,” Ryan supplied. “They are usually passed from master to student.”

Tyrez’s metallic eyes flashed, but I didn’t think it was due to what Ryan had said. Ash’s eyes were doin’ it too, and so were Dani’s.

They weretalking. I glanced at Anna. Sometimes I was so in sync with her, I swore I sensed what was going on in her noggin.

Didn’t take telepathy to determine her thoughts at the moment. Her gaze was riveted on Tyrez.

Finally, the big Dragon said, “The oldest are hard to see—they’ve been worn away. I’d say there are eleven names on this sword. The last one is quite recent, within the last ten years, I would guess. And the inscription translates toThe Dragon of Indigo Night.”

Anna’s face fell, and my own heart sank, too. “Not Talakai?”

Tyrez’s mouth twisted. “Draconian does not translate to a direct name. But Talakai in my people’s modern tongue meansIndigo Night. This is as close to that as Draconian would get.”

Well, that was better than a kick to the ballocks. Although only just barely.

The big shifter handed the sword back to Ryan, and the Sabre met my gaze. “If this sword were mine, I would never have voluntarily left it behind.”

I didn’t know whether to be happy to have my suspicions confirmed—or be alarmed. But just because Ryan wouldn’t have left it, it didn’t mean Talakai valued it the same way.

Ash’s eyes were now completely chaotic, and I glanced from him to Dani and Tyrez. Something had the golden-scaled bloke highly agitated.

“How many underworld females are there?” Anna asked Tyrez.

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