Page 5 of Cast By Flames (Dragon's Breath)
“You should worry about your mate, not me.”
“I could tell Rayna what you said. Just because I like you too much to kill you doesn’t mean she won’t feel differently.”
Boden grunted. “Keep her away from me. She’s a pretty little thing, but the look in her eyes says she’ll have her vengeance if you cross her. Add in her sorceress powers, and she’s lethal. That slayer scares thezishkatout of me.”
Zishkatwas a word I learned early, meaning dragon shit.
“You should be scared of all slayers,” I said, giving him my fiercest look.
He clapped me on my back, causing me to stumble a step. “You get less scary every day.”
“Oh, really?” I pulled a small blade, knicked his neck before he could blink, and then returned my weapon to its sheath. “How about now?”
Boden rubbed the wound, his palm revealing a tiny smear of blood even as the cut healed. “Okay, you’re still scary, but I’m glad you’re on our side.”
I grinned.
We walked in companionable silence along the main thoroughfare to the castle. Some shifters gave me smiles when I passed, others a curt nod, and only a few still had wariness in their gazes. When I had the time and energy, I tried to get out and talk with them to put them at ease despite the fact it made me uncomfortable. Aidan encouraged it. Boden often accompanied me during those excursions so the shifters I approached wouldn’t get too nervous. It was slowly making a difference, but I had my work cut out to win over everyone.
We climbed the wide stone steps of the castle, and I got my usual shiver of unease. No matter how many times I reached this point, the memories and guilt came flooding back into my mind. Would I ever stop thinking of the day I attacked shifters—while under the control of a sorcerer—and was forced to leave Aidan for five years? Probably not anytime soon.
The great hall was bustling with activity as everyone sat for the midday meal. It was amusing that shifters called it that when it was six in the evening, and humans would consider it dinnertime. Dragons ran on a different schedule, though. The Taugud didn’t rise until almost noon, so that was when they ate their breakfast, and their final meal was at midnight. I’d slowly gotten used to the strange timing of their lives since moving into the fortress seven weeks before. Orion preferred the different schedule to the early mornings we’d awoken to while living in North Carolina. That likely came from his dragon side.
When we reached the stairs, I paused and turned to Boden. “I can make it on my own from here. Go be with your family and eat.”
“Very well.” He gave me a short bow. “If you insist.”
He really was a good guy, and I could see why Aidan chose him to escort me. “I do.”
After he turned back toward the great hall, I hurried up a couple of flights of stairs until reaching the top level where the pendragon’s quarters were located. Aidan stood outside the door with his arms crossed, looking stern. Two guards stood near him, casting their gazes elsewhere.
“You’re late,” he said in a displeased tone.
I smiled brightly. “Then tell the Shadowan to stop hiding from me like little cowards.”
One of the guards snickered. Try as they might, they couldn’t remain stoic in my presence as they got to know me.
Aidan cleared his throat. “I’ll put that on my long list of things to do.”
“Oh, good.” I stepped in front of him and gave him a brief kiss on his lips. “It pays to be mated to a pendragon.”
He scrutinized me, checking for wounds like always after I hunted. “You appear to be unhurt, but you should wash the dragon blood from you before we eat.”
“Do I have to do it with a bath?” I asked, then leaned closer. “Or could you light me up with your fire?”
As I’d learned years ago, a shifter’s flames could clean me even better than water and soap. Whenever I felt extra tired and lazy, I’d make Aidan do it to save time and energy.
“Everyone is already waiting inside—and hungry. If I shift to clean you, I won’t be able to change again for a while, which is hardly convenient inside the castle,” he said, giving me a reproachful look.
“Right, okay.” I sighed, though I should have known better. He wouldn’t even be able to get through a doorway in his beast form. “The good old-fashioned way it is. You should have told them to go ahead and eat without me.”
“Absolutely not. If I did that, you’d be late every time.”
I snorted. “Sometimes I hate that you know me so well.”
We walked inside his chambers. Not long after I’d moved in with Aidan, we’d done a little rearranging. The sitting area was now on the opposite end of the room from the bed, and we’d put a large dining set next to the balcony. The fire-proof oak table and chairs could seat up to a dozen people. This allowed us to have a family dinner once a week where everyone dropped their busy schedules to eat and socialize together. It was cozyand intimate. With war looming, we needed that now more than ever.
I spotted my mother, Orion, and Paul on one side. Phoebe, Ozara, and their two-year-old daughter Leilany sat across from them, everyone with empty plates. On the sideboard, huge platters and bowls of food waited with a young human woman—Kayla—standing ready to serve.
