Page 45 of Wings of Frost and Fury
“So you’re the two dragon princes,” she says.
“And you are Thelise.”
“Despised daughter of a genocidal sorcerer. That’s me. What can I do for you? This big brute said something about transformation?” She flutters a hand toward me.
“As you know, your father destroyed all the female dragons,” Kyreagan begins.
“And you’re holding me responsible. I always knew that bastard’s bullshit would come back to bite me in the ass.”
“We are holding you responsible,” Kyreagan admits. “But rather than ending your life, I require a spell from you. Perform it well, and you shall be set free.”
“God, you really don’t know much about me, do you?” She takes another swallow of wine. “Right, so what’s the spell?”
“I need you to turn all the human women we have captured into female dragons. In this way, we achieve two goals—revenge upon the kingdom of Elekstan, and the survival of our race.”
“No shit,” breathes Thelise. “That’s a big spell. A big fucking spell indeed.” She turns to me, her brown eyes alight with reproach. “You didn’t tell me what a big fucking spell it was going to be, sweetheart. Naughty dragon. You shall be punished later.”
I shudder at the lustful promise in her gaze and growl softly in response.Punished? Yes. I would love to be fucking punished.
She smiles at me, a vicious glee shining in her eyes.
“Can you perform the spell we need?” Kyreagan says with barely concealed impatience.
“The spell you need,” Thelise murmurs. “That’s very interesting. Yes, my Princes, I think I can provide the magic you need.”
“You think you can? That’s not good enough.”
“Fine. I swear it. On my father’s bones.”
She only knows the importance of such an oath because I told her about it. And now she’s using it to convince Kyreagan that she can be trusted. Any other dragon might find that unsettling, but though I search my heart for distrust, I find none. She intends to help us, not harm us. She is a descendant of the Supreme Sorcerer, but she is nothing like him. The woman whose soft, sweet skin I caressed with my tongue is kind and good, no matter how careless she may pretend to be. My clan is safe in her hands.
“I’ll just need a little time, and a lot more wine, and my bag,” Thelise says. “You remember which bag it is, pet?”
I rumble in response and shift aside one or two of the bags, revealing the leather one with the symbols on it.
“Give me eight or nine hours, and it shall be done,” Thelise continues. “There are precise calculations to be made, chants to be written, ingredients to be blended. Oh, and princelings—make sure all your people sleep on the ground tonight. Dragons and humans.”
“Why?” asks Varex.
“Don’t question the sorceress, darling, and don’t worry your horrible spiked heads about anything. It’s in my best interest to do what you want, isn’t it, since I obviously crave my freedom and want to return to my little shack in that salt-crusted town by the sea? So rest assured it will all be done exactly as you need it to be. By this time tomorrow, you and your human captives will have far more in common.”
Her words spark a suspicion in my mind. It’s similar to what she said to me, right before she turned me human.
She cannot possibly plan to do that with every dragon. She wouldn’t. She knows this is about saving our species. Much as I want to experience sex with her again, in human form, I have reservations about that sort of change being permanent. I can’t imagine never getting to fly again, never being able to soar over the mountains, never being able to crush prey in my claws and rip through flesh with my teeth. We would all be stranded here, prey to the fenwolves and to the vagaries of nature. We would die. Thelise is too smart to believe that a spell like that would be the best solution.
When Varex and Kyreagan leave my cave with Fortunix, I prowl to the brink of the ledge just beyond the entrance and watch them depart. I have no idea what Fortunix will tell the Princes about our time with Thelise. What can he say? He spent most of those hours in darkness, unable to hear or see anything outside the space in which Thelise trapped him. He cannot know that Thelise transformed me, or what we did together. If he suspected, he would have mentioned it sooner.
“You’re fretting, pet,” says Thelise.
“I’m not sure they believe you. I don’t know what Fortunix will tell them.”
“He’ll tell them I’m powerful and that they can’t trust me,” she says brightly. “But it doesn’t matter, darling. When someone doesn’t have any other choice, trust doesn’t really play a part in the equation. I’m their only hope, so they’re going to let me play with terrible magic on the off chance that your species will survive as a result.”
“Can you do it?” I ask. “Can you turn the women we captured into dragons?”
“Are you going to take a lovely dragon female as your mate if I do?” She’s smiling, but there’s a keen edge to that smile, a sharpness that cuts straight to my heart.
I advance toward her, my footfalls heavy on the stone. “Never.”
