Page 19

“A dragon achieves its destiny by creating it.”

—Unknown

They found the egg easily enough at Santorini.

Given that Andros and Divina outright owned all of the Greek Islands in one form or another, no assassins had been waiting. Security was absolute.

They were met by Andros’ “troops,” who were all descendants of the couple and their respective mates. There wasn’t a single centaur amongst them, unfortunately. Andros was one of the few remaining in the world.

But all of the males possessed the height and strength that Lizzy associated with anything equine, with broad shoulders, long legs, and high, rounded, muscular posterior. The obvious bulge in front, despite the loose trousers they wore, indicated that they were also “hung like stallions.” Lizzy now understood the expression through first-hand observation.

She couldn’t help but appreciate this a little longer than was strictly polite, to Ben’s amusement and growly disapproval. But she communicated with a quick, shared glance that these gorgeous males had nothing on Ben. He was, and always would be, her dream man. The epitome of everything she desired.

The women looked like fabled Amazon warriors, also tall with almost haughty bearing, graceful and long-limbed. A couple of them boasted Divina’s multi-colored hair, though more subdued in natural shades. She almost expected them to toss their glorious mane like high-strung fillies. Their looks and innate confidence were quite intimidating if Lizzy used them as a comparison.

Ben’s arm around her waist and the extra squeeze he gave her when these thoughts ran through her head told her that he liked her best just the way she was.

It didn’t take long to locate the egg, buried deep within the caldera beneath layers of lava rocks. There was already a natural tunnel and cavern that housed the egg. It was submerged in a small pool in the middle of the cave along with all kinds of similarly sized rocks and geodes, almost as if it was hiding in plain sight.

Andros and Divina knew exactly which of the “rocks” was the egg immediately, though it looked like all the others. Lizzy did her thing, “activating” it with her touch. As her hands roved over the bumpy surface, the unassuming gray exterior transformed into a gorgeous rainbow-colored egg that was a perfect match for Divina’s hair.

Shortly thereafter, Lizzy was sadly wistful as they parted ways with the pair. She wished she could stay longer and get to know Divina properly. But they agreed to keep in touch, and she had an open invitation to come back whenever she wanted.

Would it be with Ben? She couldn’t imagine returning to this magical place without him and prayed that she’d never have to.

After some rather dramatic goodbyes (Divina was in tears and hugged her for a solid two minutes), Lizzy and Ben took off again to their next destination—Villarrica, Chile.

But instead of traveling by dragon air or commercial, Ben’s friends, Brigid and Sai, picked them up when they emerged from the cavern.

Lizzy learned that Brigid was a faerie queen and Sai was the first-ever sea dragon. Together, they were able to open portals across space and time and travel wherever they chose to go. It was quite handy given the remote location for this egg. If Ben and Lizzy were left to their own devices, it would have taken an entire day of flying to get there.

In bits and pieces, Lizzy’s memories of past incarnations were starting to come together. When she met Sai, he seemed very familiar, even though human Lizzy had never come across the man.

Anyone who had would have remembered him. All of the dragon Beasts and their Mates were unforgettable. But Sai, with his moonbeam hair, ethereal paleness and other-worldly presence, was especially striking.

Because of Brigid and Sai’s ability to pop in and out of any place, any time, the activation and recovery of their egg was exceptionally easy. Even if there had been foes awaiting them at Villarrica Lake, they wouldn’t have been able to pin the pair down as soon as they got their hands on the egg.

Thankfully, they ran into no trouble, and with a water dragon in Sai as well as Ben’s command of all of the elements, they held all the cards. Afterwards, the couple simply “dopped them off” at the next location before disappearing through a portal into another realm.

Now, here they were, at the base of Mount Pelée, Martinique, in the Caribbean Islands. All in a day’s work, which rather blew Lizzy’s mind.

Knowing that she used to be a god with unfathomable powers in a past life, and reconciling that to who she was now, was not something Lizzy had time to really process. Memories still seemed like fiction. Simply some fantastical story she dreamed up.

At her core, in her heart, she was still just Lizzy.

Elizabeth Rose Winters. Nerdy archeologist and cat lover. Daughter to David and Serena Winters.

Yet, clearly, she still retained some sort of… magic . There was no other word for it.

Each egg required her touch to awaken before they were Claimed by their respective dragon pairs. As unbelievable as it seemed, she was living this fact. She saw the effects of her touch with her own eyes. There was no denying the power she still wielded, that she never knew she possessed.

And if one were to examine these facts and connect the dots, there was also no denying that Ben was right—the assassins they’d run into throughout the course of this adventure might have been after the dragon eggs, but equally likely, they were targeting Lizzy herself.

To what end, they didn’t know. Couldn’t guess.

Even if there were more eggs than Ryu’s intelligence suggested, it took more than Lizzy’s touch to hatch them. It seemed that they must be Claimed by a dragon and his or her Mate. As far as they knew, there were no other pairs apart from Ben’s dragons.

Was there?

“You’re tired, love,” Ben murmured, hugging her from behind and placing a kiss on top of her head when they were safely ensconced in a private villa near Mount Pelée right on the beach.

“You need rest.”

She did.

Though she hadn’t had to physically exert herself beyond riding a dragon, hiking into and out of a cavern, and walking through portals, she felt exhausted nonetheless. An oppressive headache throbbed against her temples with all the remembering and thinking. Right now, she just wanted to be a blank slate.

She wanted to lose herself in Ben.

“Want you,” she murmured, turning in his arms, nuzzling into her favorite place right between his pecs and holding him tight around the waist.

He tipped her chin up with a gentle finger to raise her face so that he could see her eyes.

Whatever he found in her gaze seemed to decide him, for he took her mouth in a slow, languorous kiss, wet and voluptuous with his silky tongue. Not demanding. Not devouring. Simply giving. Melting her with pleasure.

She kissed him back with more ardor, trying to turn up the heat a few notches. But he kept it on a warm broil, until her whole body was humming, and she was trembling desperately for more.

He undressed both of them unhurriedly. She tried to enflame him with bold touches, clutching his ass, squeezing his sex. He gave her the lead only up to a certain point, but there was no doubt who controlled the pace of their coupling.

Even so, when he tried to make love to her with his mouth, his fingers, she thrashed with impatience and made no bones about her demands.

“I want your cock,” she said boldly, surprising herself.

But then she simply went with it. Apparently, nerdy archeologist Lizzy was also a voracious, imperious nympho in bed.

“In me. Right now,” she demanded, lying back on the bed, splaying her legs open and pulling his glorious weight on top of her.

“Ben…I need it,” she hissed urgently, digging her fingers into the muscled rounds of his ass (every bit as stallion-esque as Andros and his men, she was gratified to note).

She turned her face into his neck to take his skin between her teeth.

“I need—”

He gave it to her. Everything she needed.

With one powerful thrust, he pushed all of his thickness and every inch of his hard length into her tight, welcoming body.

She caught her breath and bit down on him, nearly breaking skin. It was an excruciatingly snug fit despite how slick with desire she was. It burned something fierce when he merged them together in that one long, inexorable stroke.

But God! He felt so good!

He lit her up everywhere inside. She relished the burn, for it ignited the flames of ecstasy instantly. She was already coming, seizing tightly around him, shuddering and gasping and squeezing and convulsing.

He knew just what to do to keep her suspended at the zenith. He rocked into her in forceful jolts, grinding into the core of her pleasure endlessly.

Distantly, submerged in the fog of her euphoria, Lizzy was aware that he wouldn’t come like this; the friction wasn’t enough. And he possessed too much will power besides. He was going to take her apart and melt her into a puddle of sensitized, quivering nerves, but he wasn’t going to lose control himself.

She wanted him to lose control.

Needed it.

She didn’t want to be coddled right now. She wanted to be wild. Wanted them to be downright beastly together.

As if her desires took on a life of their own, triggered some buried part of her, her body completely took over and blanked out her mind. In the middle of her continuous orgasm, her canines sharpened and elongated, sinking like a hot knife through butter into Ben’s throat.

Into his jugular vein.

Blood flooded into her mouth in sweet addictive gulps. She swallowed it down, as if she’d been doing this all her life, and drew on him strongly for more.

More!

A gravelly growl rumbled long and low from his chest as his body tightened and bucked, his sex swelling and kicking within her, gushing hot seed against her womb.

She wrapped all of her limbs even tighter around him, fingers digging like claws into his ass, mouth sealed against his throat.

He lost it then.

She could have sworn she heard the reins of his control snapping. He surged like a storm into her, pulling almost all the way out before slamming back in.

She couldn’t keep her teeth (fangs?) in his throat anymore. She had to release him and hold on for dear life.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his blood trickle from the small puncture wounds she made down his long, corded neck.

For some reason, that revved her libido even more. Gave her supreme satisfaction that she’d marked him that way.

Claimed him that way.

Now she knew why men liked to see their cum leak out of their lover. She almost wished that she possessed the equipment to do the same to Ben. But this was the next best thing.

She threw her head back and arched her spine as he rutted into her like a beast possessed. Hard, brutal, grinding thrusts. She could swear she felt him all the way in her heart, in her throat. She was filled with him. Filled with his cock, his cum, his scent, his taste.

She wanted every molecule to be owned by him.

He was quaking in her arms, coming continuously as he drove her body to do the same. She lost count of how many climaxes he wrought from her. They were never ending, one rolling into another like tidal waves that never stopped gaining force.

Then, they’d crash in breathtaking, soul-stealing highs before gathering all over again.

And again. And again. And again.

When at last he stilled above her, his sex still pulsing in her deliciously sore channel, she nuzzled his throat again before sinking into his veins once more.

This time, he groaned in surrender, shivering at the fiery burn of her bite.

What does this mean? she asked, greedily filling her body with his…nourishment.

Somehow, that word made perfect sense. His body was feeding hers. She felt herself growing stronger with every swallow. Felt her mind sharpen with crystal clarity.

He was silent for a time. Then—

You are a Pure One, it seems. Your immortality has been Awakened.

She hummed with satisfaction as she sipped at his vein.

A part of her recognized that she had come full circle in terms of incarnations. She was the Goddess who created Pure Ones in Byakko’s image. They were made to suffer the way he suffered if they gave themselves in love to the wrong person.

And now, she was one of them?

Are you sure I’m Pure, not Dark? I feel extremely alive right now. Not entirely sure it’s your…your Nourishment or the darkness of night. Or both. I suppose we will see come morning?

I…feel the resonance of your soul , Ben said haltingly. I have a Pure soul. But I’m not sure if it’s because you’re my Mate or because we are both Pure. Only Queen Sophia can see souls.

She pulled out of his neck with a languorous sigh, drowsy with utter satiation, yet still greedy for more.

She was irrevocably, helplessly addicted to Ben.

“Whatever I am, I suppose I’m no longer just human,” she said with some sadness and regret.

He cupped her face and stroked his thumb tenderly across her cheek.

“Do you want to be human?”

She nodded.

“I’ve always wanted to be human. In a way, I’ve always envied them when my past incarnations watched them from afar. Such rudimentary beings, I remember thinking. Like children. Emotional, greedy, selfish. But also pure, innocent, joyful, and capable of both extremes of good and bad. The relatively short lifespan made them—made us —grow faster, gain wisdom too, in ways gods couldn’t.”

She smiled at him wanly.

“I like Lizzy best of all my incarnations. I don’t want to lose her.”

“You never will,” he promised.

“This is who you are now. The past is only the past. Memories to cherish—”

“Regrets to learn from,” she inserted, eyes pooling with tears at all the anguish and torment she’d caused.

Especially where Ben was concerned.

He gazed into her eyes deeply and kissed the tears away that leaked onto her cheeks.

“I have no regrets, Lizzy,” he said in his deep, husky voice, uncompromising in his certainty.

“Every step we’ve taken has led to this present. I can’t regret that. No matter how much pain there had been in the past, if it was necessary to arrive at this point, I would have done it all over again given the choice.”

“But—”

“No buts,” he said firmly.

“You are mine, and I am yours.”

In her mind, she immediately thought, But!

Out loud, she said, “How can you be so sure I’m the right one for you? There must be thousands, millions , of people who would have treated you better, hurt you a hell of a lot less!”

He smiled with his eyes, as if he knew a secret she didn’t.

“Would they have loved me the most? The fiercest and the best?”

“Hell no!” she practically shouted before he was even done speaking.

He smirked.

“Then there you have it. The greater the risk, the greater the reward.”

Effortlessly, he flipped her onto her stomach and caged her with his body, reentering her from behind, wringing a broken moan from deep inside of her.

He felt even bigger in this position, and she was undeniably sore from his hard loving. Yet, the moment he was seated to the hilt again, his groin snug against her ass, she was convulsing around him in rhythmic clenches, her body flooding with desire anew.

“I’ve earned my reward, have I not?” he growled beside her ear, nipping the sensitive lobe.

“Yes,” she breathed, arching her spine and raising her ass to get even closer, her juices and his cum soothing the burn of his possession, slicking the way.

He undulated his hips in slow, silky strokes, lighting her up again, stoking her fire.

She was so wet, every push and pull made a squelching noise that spiked her arousal even more. Soon, he was pounding into her hard and fast, braced on his arms over her, the distended veins in his biceps throbbing with every thrust.

She wanted to bite him again. As if he knew, he lowered fully onto her back and wrapped one arm around her throat, so that his forearm was within striking distance.

Immediately, she struck.

And the moment she did, his hips stuttered and jerked as he flooded her channel with his seed. A hoarse groan clawed out of his chest. She could feel it vibrating into her own body from his. Feel his sex throb and pulsate inside her, giving up his life force in gushing spurts.

I love you , he husked in her mind.

Always and only you.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

This time, when Lizzy slept, she dreamed.

Unbeknownst to her unconscious self, the Dream ring Ben wore glowed brightly in the darkness of their room. As brilliant as a distant star.

It was different from every other dream she’d had to date. It wasn’t the misty imaginings of her girlhood, or the romantic, sometimes lusty conjuring of her womanhood. Nor was it the recent movie-like reels of long-forgotten memories.

This dream brimmed with a different sort of significance.

A certain…portent.

Of things to come. Things that could be.

A potential future brewing on the horizon.

Lizzy walked with a strange kind of purpose toward a destination she didn’t yet know.

She looked around her as she made her way over intricate bridges, up and down polished stone steps, and through a gorgeous orchard bursting with all kinds of gigantic, exotic fruit. Peaches, oranges, and pears. Apples, grapes and lychee, so heavy and ripe they looked as big as plums.

Where was she? What was this exquisite, fantastical place?

You know where, a voice murmured on the wind.

After all, you created it.

At last, her feet stopped. She found herself standing on the edge of a mirror-like pond.

It was perfectly round and still like glass, not a quiver of disturbance on its serene surface, glistening beneath a bright, cheerful sun.

She looked up into the sky, shielding her eyes from the glare.

But she saw no sun, only fluffy white clouds that rolled slowly across the sky like grazing sheep. In the distance, there was a brilliant waterfall, cascading like a scene in a silk embroidery, not quite real. It made no sound, and the fall made no splash.

Huh.

Mountains rose into the clouds, which knitted into a sea of white fleece. Jagged purple, green and smoky peaks floated above like islands, dotted with a few temples and pagodas here and there. Like a traditional Chinese watercolor by a master artist with whimsical flare.

Behind her, on the other side of the orchard, ascended what must be at least a hundred steps up a very large hill or small mountain, to the towering gates of a breathtaking palace. She could see its heavy golden doors from here.

Yet, there was not another soul around.

There were no sounds at all. Even her own footsteps across lush, thick grass didn’t make the sounds that grass should make.

Lizzy had the awareness that she was dreaming. Was this a dream within a dream?

This is the Celestial Realm , that same voice told her.

In a sense, it is a dream within a dream. For, it is all in your mind.

Yet, you have the power to create, as no god before or after you could do. Even your own Creators.

Thus, your dream can become someone else’s reality. Something others can touch and feel. It has been a sanctuary and a prison both.

And always at your own behest.

It occurred to Lizzy, then, that the voice was also her own. No matter what it sounded like. Whether “male” or “female,” deep or light, the thoughts were hers alone.

The voice hummed in agreement, seemingly with approval that Lizzy had deduced this much.

She knelt now at the edge of the pond and hesitantly leaned closer over it, looking in.

Her reflection looked back at her, as perfectly rendered as a real mirror, though there was a depth to the mirror that suggested water instead of glass.

Unfathomably deep.

Just as the landscape around her was infinitely broad. There was no end in sight. Yet, at the same time, it felt restrictive. There were rules here that must be followed.

She felt somehow smaller here.

Lesser .

She saw herself as she was in real life in the Mirror Pond. A woman of average height, average build, casually dressed. Somehow at odds with the richness of her surroundings, yet also seamlessly fitting in.

Because it was a dream and she was well aware of this fact, she wasn’t taken aback when her reflection took on its own life and smiled at her.

“Hello, Lizzy,” it greeted.

“Hello,” she returned curiously.

“I am Elizabeth Winters, and I am a part of you.”

She nodded. She liked Elizabeth Winters rather a lot. Was quite comfortable in her own skin.

The reflection began to fade along the edges and shimmered slightly, transforming into another image. One that took her a few moments to recognize.

“And I am Seven. The Pure Goddess.”

For a goddess, Lizzy was rather unimpressed with the sight of Seven. She was a tiny thing. Objectively lovely, it was true, but nothing to write home about.

“Oh, but this is merely a skin,” the image said, elongating and filling out with long, graceful limbs and enviable curves.

In a deeper, more sultry voice, she said, “This is the form that Byakko knew.”

Well.

Lizzy must admit that this form was clearly goddess-like. Quite intimidating and awe-inspiring in her beauty and strength, power all but radiating from every pore.

“And the Dark Goddess?” she asked.

“The Twin?”

The image merely wavered to show what was essentially the inversion of itself, like the negative of a photograph. Whereas the Pure Goddess looked like she had coal-black hair and pale skin, the Dark Goddess had white-blond hair and ebony skin. But their features were exactly the same in shape and form.

The Dark Goddess was the shadow of her real self that took on its own life, taking half of Lizzy’s spark with her.

She remembered now. It seemed so obvious now.

The image shimmered once more to show Lilith, Lizzy recognized. The form that Mated with a leopard Beast, Ben’s most recent incarnation, though it was still thousands of years ago.

Lilith was a beautiful, if somewhat frightening woman. It was in her demeanor. Her “resting bitch face” in modern terms.

Lizzy recalled that she never smiled much. But when she did, it was as blazingly bright as a solar eclipse. And only her Mate could tease it out of her.

Lizzy gasped as Lilith morphed into a truly ugly creature—the Hydra.

Good God! Was that also a part of her?

“Yessss,” the monster hissed, unfurling its forked tongues, glaring at her with slitted reptilian eyes.

“My ugliness and hate are also part of you.”

Lizzy shuddered.

She really didn’t want to face that part of herself, even as the truth of the Hydra’s words resonated. However unwillingly.

She didn’t want to examine too closely all the horrible things she’d done in those past incarnations. She felt she would spend the rest of eternity atoning for them.

“You tried.”

The image once again (mercifully) transformed. This time into a plain, ordinary woman, then quickly shifting into an equally plain young man, before shifting yet again into a plump old lady.

“You relinquished all of your powers in the end, didn’t you?” the woman said.

Ruth, Lizzy recalled faintly. Ruth was her name.

“You chose a human life. Can’t get less powerful than humans. No magic to speak of.”

“Well…” Lizzy thought of her ability to activate the eggs.

The old woman’s eyes sparked with a brief flare.

“Ever the planner, you took some extra precautions, didn’t you? Like the Dream and Song rings that you coalesced from magic and gifted to Ben. And you may have chosen a mortal life, but you were blessed with a Pure soul. Just in case you couldn’t find him in this incarnation, eh? You wanted to ensure you’d be reborn until you finally did find him.”

Goodness, put like that, Lizzy was rather impressed with her own forethought.

“If I planned all this…” she mused, “and if Ben’s right…”

“Of course, he’s right,” Ruth admonished. “He’s your Mate, isn’t he? Only someone equally brilliant and infinitely patient can hold their own with you.”

Ben was definitely both of those things, Lizzy reflected.

“If Ben’s right, I also planned the dragon quests.”

Ruth nodded.

“You had to diffuse your power somehow, to make yourself less dangerous to the Universe at large. You could not give it to other gods who fought you for it. They were already plenty dangerous on their own. So, you diffused it into the Immortals you created—Pure Ones, Dark Ones, Beasts, Elementals.”

“But I didn’t create humans.”

“No, that was the work of other gods.”

“And I created the most powerful of them all—dragons.”

“Yes and no,” Ruth said. “You are indeed the dreamer of dragons. But they are not necessarily the most powerful. They are simply the amalgamation of all Kinds. And therefore, the most magical.”

“I must have created the eggs too,” Lizzy murmured, frowning in thought.

“But why? Why are we now gathering them?”

“Everything in the Universe requires Balance,” Ruth reminded her.

“You learned that the hard way. There can be no extremes. For every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction.”

“Like the Mates balancing the Immortals,” Lizzy surmised.

Ruth hummed in encouragement.

“And the eggs…”

She stared at the reflection of Ruth in the Mirror Pond, alight with her epiphany.

“If the eggs are ready to be awakened, there must be forces at play that require their strength and magic to provide a counterbalance.”

Ruth crinkled her eyes.

“You have always planted seeds. Plans within plans. Backups for contingencies. You have been more than these forms…”

As she spoke, the image shifted again and again to reveal red and gray-haired witches, white-bearded old men, ethereal fairies and all sorts of other forms.

“I have been the chess master,” Lizzy said, rather awed at herself.

“And now you are one of the pieces too,” the reflection settled once more on Seven.

“Because I want to live in this world, not simply watch over it,” Lizzy stated with conviction.

“I want to give all my love, all my life, to Ben.”

“Indeed. But that comes at a cost,” Seven reminded her.

“The loss of my powers.”

“Power, perhaps,” Seven said.

“But magic is never gone. It can only be dispersed. There are others who now seek it. Humans and Immortals alike. Magic in the wrong hands can lead to imbalance of power…”

“That is why we are gathering the eggs,” Lizzy realized.

“The world needs more dragons to protect it. But from whom?”

The reflection was already fading as she posed the question to herself.

Soon, the Mirror Pond was serene and blank once more.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Lizzy shared everything she recalled of her dream with Ben as soon as she woke up the next morning.

“Well, these revelations would certainly support the theory that our unknown foes are after you, as much as the eggs,” Ben said, deep in thought, worrying the two rings on each of his middle fingers, turning them round and round.

“Tell me more about the struggles between the Dark and Pure Ones,” Lizzy urged. “I think you mentioned before that North America is in relatively good order because of the stability of King Ramses’ rule over the Dark Ones, and Queen Sophia’s truce with them. Is there not the same elsewhere in the world?”

As succinctly as possible, Ben told her what he knew of Dark and Pure politics. Of the rise of human power as well.

“To think I’m their original creators…” Lizzy murmured, looking mind-boggled.

“Does that mean I’m ultimately, even if tangentially, responsible for the chaos stemming from the unresolved enmity between the two Kinds?”

“We are living beings with souls, and therefore we all make our own choices,” Ben said.

“You are not responsible for the choices we each individually and collectively make. What you did, from the sounds of it, is diffuse the concentration of power into different magical beings. But there will always be power struggles and therefore the need for Balance. Else, the world would forever be at a standstill.”

“Look at humans and their wars,” he added. “It never stops. It can only ever be contained so that the devastation is minimized. At least what we’re dealing with seems to be Immortals warring with each other, rather than Immortals against humans.”

Lizzy shuddered, as if the ghostly hand of Fate brushed down her spine.

Ben knew what she was thinking, for he thought the same. He wouldn’t put it past humans to war with Immortals one day.

There were those who already knew about them. Some of them were friends, like the Pure Ones’ Chevaliers. Others were definitely foes, greedy to take the power of Immortals for themselves.

He and his dragons, Goya with his Beasts, had mostly stayed out of the Immortal and human political intrigue for the past few decades, keeping to themselves. Beasts, dragons included, were closer to the pure, relatively simple natures of animals, while Immortals with Pure and Dark souls had more in common with humans.

Especially Dark Ones, who sought power and dominance just because they could. And because it was in their very nature to do so.

From the fragments of Lizzy’s past incarnations that they pieced together, she was responsible, as the construct of the Jade Emperor, for controlling and sending dragons out into the human world to turn the tide in critical moments. Was that what they must do again in the future?

Except, without the gods—without Seven in particular—they governed themselves.

Later in the afternoon, they met up with Arthur and Lancelot to find and recover their egg.

This time, the treasure wasn’t buried or hidden, but on display at the Mémorial De La Catastrophe De 1902. Through some creative negotiations in the Director’s office, they managed to convince the organization to release the strangely-shaped lump of volcanic rock into their care.

The four of them then relocated to a deserted stretch of beach, and Lizzy did her thing. Arthur and Lancelot bid their farewells shortly thereafter, with Arthur in dragon form, clutching the egg in one claw, and Lancelot in human form riding on his back.

Lizzy sighed with obvious pleasure.

“I’ll never tire of seeing the transformation,” she said, watching the pair rapidly put distance between them, soaring through the skies.

“I know I knew them a little as Seven, but the memories aren’t fresh and clear. I’d like to know all of your dragons and their Mates better, Ben. I’m utterly fascinated.”

“ My dragons?” he echoed.

She beamed at him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“Clearly, they’re yours, oh mighty Dragon King,” she said. “If we are to govern ourselves, and I’m no longer the wizard behind the curtain, then we need a strong leader to guide us. I can’t think of a better candidate than you, Benjamin Larkin D’Angelo.”

He grunted at that, neither agreeing or disagreeing.

He’d always believed that there were better leaders than he. Arthur was the fabled King of Britons, for example. Goya was the Tiger King after Byakko, the reigning King of the Beasts of earth. Sorin used to be the King of aerial Beasts, and had officially taken up the helm again as the Phoenix. Tal-Telal was the General of the Pure Ones that led their Kind to victory over the Dark Ones thousands of years ago.

And many others Ben could name.

“The best leaders are usually the ones who are selected by the people they lead to be in those roles,” Lizzy said, reading his mind.

“It is clear the dragon pairs defer to you, Ben. You might as well accept it.”

Ben shook his head, staying silent on the subject.

“Where to now?” Lizzy asked, weaving an arm around his.

“How many eggs are left to find?”

Ben looked down at the glowing rings on each hand.

“One more, according to Ryu’s original intelligence. We’re headed back to North America. To Yellowstone specifically. Ere and Sorin will meet us there.”

“Your… sire… Ere?” Lizzy asked.

“I call him Uncle,” Ben said with a reflexive smile whenever he thought of the male.

“But…he’s your biological father,” Lizzy recalled. “So, I’m meeting a parent?”

Ben sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward.

“More like a child,” he grunted, then flashed a toothsome grin.

“The experience of Ere is an…acquired taste. I can’t wait for you to meet him.”