CHAPTER 2
“Ready for today?” Aiden asked, skimming his hand over my shoulder to wake me up.
I only groaned and buried my face in the pillow.
Aiden chuckled. “You handled yourself beautifully yesterday.”
I flopped onto my side to glare at him. “Right, because your family posturing was such a warm welcome.”
“Technically—”
I raised my hand to cut him off. “It’s too early for puns.”
“But you know I was thinking it.” Aiden grinned at me cheekily.
“I am not looking forward to today,” I said with a sigh.
“It won’t be so bad.” Aiden’s hand quested beneath the sheets, pushing on my hip to roll me onto my back. He pressed hot, open-mouthed kisses against my neck, working his way down my body slowly. “Not only did you hold your own with my family, but you won Charlotte over, your grandfather made it home safely, and now you’re going to have an earth-shattering orgasm.”
“Am I really?” I teased. “That remains to be seen.”
Aiden shot me a toe-curling grin and hiked my thighs over his shoulders. “When have I ever disappointed you?” Keeping eye contact, he lowered his head and sucked my clit into his mouth, his tongue flicking furiously over the little bundle of nerves.
My hands flew to his hair, holding him against me as I started to rock my hips involuntarily against his mouth.
His horns grew on either side of his forehead, giving me a better grip as I rode his face to completion.
“Feel better?” he asked, his chin slick with proof of my arousal.
“The earth is still in one piece,” I teased.
“We’ll have to do something about that then.”
A smooth roll onto his back, and suddenly, I was kneeling above his head. “Fuck yourself on my tongue, baby,” he said. “Take your pleasure. Give me everything.”
I wasn’t a fire shifter, but the heat within me burned hotter at his words. “Fuck, Aiden,” I gasped, lowering my hips down until he could suck on me. I gripped his horns again, working myself over him.
A glimpse over my shoulder showed me that he wasn’t unaffected; his hips rutting up into the air helplessly, his swollen cocks leaking pearls of precum at the tips. The sight sent me over the edge, clenching down on his tongue. He spurted seconds later, coming untouched all over his belly.
“That’s the best breakfast,” Aiden said, panting heavily.
“You’re hilarious.” I cleaned us both off with a quick spell and got ready to start the day.
Aiden caught my hand before I could leave the bed. “Hey,” he said, concern in his eyes. “It’s us against the world, yeah?”
I smiled at him. “I will stand at your side until the end of my days.”
He kissed my palm and released it. “That’s all I need to know.”
We didn’t see his family on the way down to the kitchen, nor while we ate. It was earlier than I preferred to wake, so I wasn’t particularly surprised. We had a busy day ahead of us.
“How are we getting there?” I asked as we left the chateau. It was a beautiful, clear day, with the sun just rising over the horizon. Birds flew overhead, chirping greetings as they hunted for their breakfast.
Aiden put his hand in the small of my back, guiding me to the right of the building, opposite from the side we had circled the night before. “We’ll take a dragon.”
I blinked at him. “I’m sorry, I think I hallucinated. Can you repeat that?”
He laughed. “We’ll take one of the family dragons.”
“How did I not know your family had dragons?”
“I’m sure I mentioned it.”
“In between the suspected murder of your grandmother and the manducare taming,” I chirped sarcastically.
“Probably around the time you learned about Dragon Polo,” Aiden teased. “You had a lot on your mind.”
I sighed. “When Hazel was missing.”
Aiden sobered quickly and rubbed my back a little. “Like I said, a lot on your mind.”
“Why can’t we do mirror travel?”
“To a prison?” Aiden said skeptically. “There’s quite a perimeter around the building to prevent that sort of thing. We’d have to hike for miles. You’ll see.”
“Have you been there before?”
“Once. It was a field trip.”
“Depressing.”
Aiden huffed a laugh. “Quite. It was actually an educational trip. We were learning about justice systems. My class sat in on a hearing, just like the one we’ll be at today.” We reached a large building similar to a barn, and Aiden opened a side door for me to enter.
The inside was brightly lit by a skylight, illuminating the oversized stalls. I had been inside horse stables, and this was similarly laid out, except instead of wood, everything was made of stone to prevent fires.
Aiden greeted the stable hands warmly before leading me to a stall halfway down the row. “They got Tsunami ready for us. I assumed you’d rather ride with me than on your own dragon, but they can prepare one if you’d prefer...”
I shook my head vehemently at his suggestion. “I would much rather ride with you, please.”
Aiden nodded and knocked politely on the gate enclosing the stall. A huff from the other side acknowledged him, and he drew the heavy bolt to the side.
I nervously hid behind him as he magically opened the gate. “Did your family name all your dragons after natural disasters?”
“No.” Aiden stepped into the stall, removing my protection, so I followed him in. An immense dragon nose butted him in the chest. “I named this one after my first ride on him. He’s got a powerful wingbeat, and I thought it felt like riding a tsunami. Hello, boy. I’d like you to meet my mate.” He scratched the huge beast under the chin with one hand, reaching behind himself for mine with the other. He placed my hand next to his under the snout. “She’s very special to me.”
Tsunami blinked his eyes slowly and huffed a small amount of smoke into Aiden’s shirt, making him chuckle.
“You’ll like her. She’s a little nervous. She’s never ridden on a dragon before. You’re going to make sure her first time is wonderful, right?”
Tsunami shook his head like a horse, and the similarity eased my tension a little.
“You’re a beautiful dragon,” I whispered.
Tsunami lifted his head, turning to grace me with the full effect of one eye.
I held very still, until finally the dragon blinked again.
“He likes you,” Aiden said. “That’s good. He won’t let just anyone ride him. Come on, boy. Out. Follow me.”
He took hold of the collar around the dragon’s neck and gently led him out into the main part of the stable. “Open the skylight, please,” he asked the stable hand, before stepping on the dragon’s foreleg. A little hop and his long leg swung over Tsunami’s back, settling him neatly in the saddle. He held out his hand to me, beckoning me to join him.
“You made that look entirely too easy,” I grumbled.
A snort from the stable hand made me whip around to look at him, but he was focusing on the mechanism to open the skylight. I must have been mistaken.
“Come on, I’ll help you,” Aiden encouraged me.
I put my right foot on the dragon’s leg and stretched up, reaching for Aiden’s hand. It was a long way up. The second he gripped me, Tsunami lifted his leg and I wobbled, a scream caught in my throat.
Aiden tugged, and I scrambled up, suddenly finding myself in the wide double saddle, tucked up against his back. I wrapped my arms tight around his waist and buried my face in his shoulders, sucking in deep breaths of his scent to calm my jumping nerves.
“You good?” he asked, patting my hands.
“I’m up.”
He chuckled. “It’s okay. I won’t let you fall.”
“I didn’t think I needed to worry about that.”
“You’re good to go,” the stable hand said. “Safe travels.”
“Thanks, man.” Aiden shifted a little in his seat, grabbing the reins. “Up, Tsunami. Up.” He clicked a little, like he was talking to a horse.
But horses didn’t crouch down and launch themselves straight up in the air, wings tight against their bodies and brushing against my shoulders.
I screwed my eyes tightly shut so I wouldn’t have to see the world rushing past me, my fists clenched hard in Aiden’s riding leathers. I could hear him whooping excitedly at the launch, but all I could think about was if my stomach had been left behind or if my breakfast was going to make a reappearance.
Tsunami’s wings snapped out to the sides, our upward momentum halting abruptly, which was almost worse.
After a few moments, though, the flight evened out into a smooth glide.
My lungs burned and I realized I’d been holding my breath.
“Open your eyes!” Aiden shouted.
“How did you know I had them shut?”
I could feel his chuckles through the shaking of his body.
Taking reassurance from his confidence, I convinced my body to relax enough to open my eyes.
The view was breathtaking, the rising sun sending light shooting across an uninhabited landscape below us. I wasn’t brave enough to look straight down, instead keeping my gaze on the horizon. The trees looked like tiny toys, the fields like patchwork. It was beautiful, but I still didn’t like it.
Aiden patted my hands again. “You’re doing great.”
I appreciated his encouragement, but I hoped we wouldn’t have to be up here for long.
About half an hour later, a jet black stone building broke the calm view of the landscape. I knew without Aiden telling me that it was the magical jail.
We swooped in low, Tsunami landing smoothly in front of a building just outside the high wall.
“You have to get down first,” Aiden said.
“I don’t think I can,” I whimpered.
“You didn’t want to get up here, and now you don’t want to leave?” he teased.
“I think my legs have lost function.”
He chuckled lightly. “All right, hold onto the saddle.” He twisted around, somehow not getting his legs tangled in the reins, and landed on Tsunami’s lifted leg. “Come here, I’ve got you,” he said, holding both arms up to me.
Shakily, I pivoted so that both my legs were on the same side of the saddle, right between Aiden’s arms. He nodded at me, and I slid down until I was caught between his body and Tsunami’s warm side.
“Good?” he asked, petting my hair, which I had tied up in a crown of braids in preparation for the flight.
I nodded.
He clicked softly at the dragon, who lowered his leg for us to step off onto solid ground.
I nearly collapsed, but Aiden’s firm grip helped me keep my feet underneath me.
After a beat, I nodded at him and he let me go.
“Thanks, buddy,” Aiden said, scratching the dragon’s neck. “You go with the handlers now, all right? We’ll be back as soon as this is over.”
A guard greeted us at the door after Tsunami had been led away.
“We’re here to attend the hearing,” Aiden said.
The guard nodded, recorded our magical signatures, and unlocked the door for us. “Straight ahead, turn left, turn right, take the left fork, and it’s the fifth door on the right. You can’t miss it.”
He closed the door behind us before I could ask him to repeat the directions.
“Did you catch all that?” I asked anxiously.
Aiden chuckled. “Not even close. I’m sure there’ll be signs.”
Fortunately, we found our way to the hearing room, only backtracking once. There were many inmates lined up along the wall waiting for their turn, and I scanned them anxiously for the giant’s familiar face.
“We got here just in time!” I hissed to Aiden as we took seats in the back of the visitor’s area. “Gràineileachd is next!”
He nodded his understanding and we watched the judge proclaim that the current defendant had not yet completed his service.
“Next up, the giant Gràineileachd,” said a bored guard.
The giant, now the size of a human, stepped forward. I noticed that he wasn’t cuffed, like some of the others against the wall.
“Gràineileachd was accused of attempting to rid the Earth of all living sapiens, including witches, shifters, etc. He was woken by a student at Blackthorn Academy, and during his time awake, he traveled the world in human form to observe. When he was confronted, again by students and teachers of Blackthorn Academy, he made threats, but did not press his attack. He was drained of his magic in situ by a family of manducare, and brought in by the aforementioned sapiens. During his time here, he has been tested for any residual magic, results negative. He has not caused any disturbances.” The guard turned to the judge after proclaiming all that for the court.
The judge frowned down at the papers in front of her. “It says here that he destroyed multiple communities in South America.”
“That was over two thousand years ago, before he was put into a magical deep sleep in central Australia,” the guard replied.
“Two thousand years?” The judge raised her eyebrows. “And he now has no magic?”
“None.”
“In that case, I declare that Gràineileachd has served his sentence in sleep incarceration, and is released into the care of Blackthorn Academy on probation.” She nodded at the front row, where I only now noticed the presence of our Headmistress, Ophelia Blackthorn. The judge stamped a paper and handed it over the edge of her desk. “Next!”
The line shuffled forward as Gràineileachd greeted the headmistress, and they left via a door on the far right.
“Well, that was quick,” I whispered to Aiden, who nodded. “Can we just leave?”
“We were only here in order to give evidence, if it was needed. Our job here is done.” Aiden got to his feet and led me to the door we had entered. We passed the tail end of the line of inmates, the last fellow in heavy-looking cuffs.
He noticed my curious gaze and winked at me before changing his facial features to match the guard at his side.
My eyes widened.
A shapeshifter!
Obviously bored by my reaction, the shapeshifter leaned over to his guard, still wearing his face, and complained, “This is taking forever! Déan deifir! ”
The guard rolled his eyes and replied gruffly, “You’ll get processed at the right time. You can’t hurry up the line. Maybe if you hadn’t taken your time waking up, you would be outta here by now. And take my face off.”
The shapeshifter giggled and shifted back into what I assumed was his natural state, considering the guard didn’t say anything further.
I was curious about his cuffs; I had assumed they blocked the use of magic, but the shapeshifter had had no problem changing his identity.
Aiden and I made our way back outside. My mounting of Tsunami went better than it had in the Evans’ stables, but I still didn’t enjoy riding dragonback.