Page 22

22

M ore fucking. More rest.

I tried to pin down Jae on the distinction between mating and binding with me, but either my demon couldn’t explain the differences, didn’t understand that himself, or I couldn’t process his explanations. “Mating is personal, sealed by blood,” he said, holding me close when we finally made it to a bed and after another go—that time, with my mouth on his dick. “Binding is a partnership, a negotiated contract. Sealed by words.”

What mattered to me was that he could still leave me. Right now, it was my demon and me against the world, the two of us solidly locked together to stand against our foes. The trafficking ring that had murdered my dad. The Chicago Maces and the faltering contingent of earthbound demons determined to force Jae’s return to the daemonica realm or kill him. With the binding magic strengthening between us day by day, I’d never felt so connected to anyone. Ever.

But part of me shied away, didn’t trust that sense of belonging. Didn’t trust him. Yeah, I had abandonment issues. What else was new? But my neuroses weren’t driving this bus.

What if we survived this? If we activated Teddy’s array? Discovered who had snuffed out my dad’s life and likely trafficked his heart and brain on the black market to fuel shadow work and dark magic? What if we drove my father’s vile relatives back to Chicago and the other demons who had made earth their home gave up?

Would the ties binding us remain as inviolate then?

My heart didn’t want to let my demon go, and the certainty that Jae felt the same didn’t comfort me much. Life fucked up everything. Look at what happened to my parents, stupid with love. Violence and magic had no less destroyed each of them, torn them apart. Robbed Teddy of his life and drove Ma into alcoholism.

That could be us, too. History wasn’t a line. It was a spiral.

Until we completed the binding, I could lose him.

Still, I could not deny myself or him when Jae reached for me. Suffering and pain ruled this world. Persecution. Treachery. Why shouldn’t we grab onto whatever scraps of pleasure and happiness we could find? I might pay a steep price later, but I’d paid the bill of sale love exacted in grief before. Was still paying it, the aching maw the loss of my dad—and Rosie, too—no less a cavernous hole inside me now as when I’d been a boy. I’d tried and failed to bury the memories. Forget what I’d had and was now gone. Alongside the terrible, though, these past several days had reminded me of sparks of joy to light my darkness. Teddy’s fondness for heavy metal. Rosie’s bake sales for the T-ball league my dad and Clark Hocking had coached. Childhood pranks and learning to groove with my power among the abundant plants in Teddy’s greenhouse and Ma’s kitchen garden.

My boyhood hadn’t been all bad or good.

What Jae and I built together wouldn’t be wholly bad or good, either.

So when the opportunity to lap at his beaded nipple and taste his skin on my tongue came, I seized it and after the sex was over, when my demon pulled me to him, I cherished the affectionate stroke of his hands on my flanks. I steeped in the cocoon of intimacy we created and turned from my stubborn insecurities and doubts. I tried.

I didn’t know why Jae refused to finishing our binding magic. The power linking us together was simple. Basic. I gave him my oath, and in return, my demon offered his promise to me. That was the sum total of what the spell required, the exchange of vows and hearts open to the power that binding together granted each of us. Even incomplete, we’d already benefited from twining our magics. Though I’d rejected the power bubbling inside me for a decade, my demon steadied me. I’d been able to focus my gifts many times because of his influence in my head. We’d circumvented the blood magic sealing Teddy’s grimoire. Fought Menolac and Clara Trask while running the gauntlet to the community center before forging our alliance with them. I’d melted the ice encasing Jae when the Chicago Maces had attacked us.

The ties to me had boosted Jae’s powers, too. His magic had depleted by the time he’d portaled from the daemonica realm in the desperate effort to salvage his life. He’d siphoned my power from me, you bet, hunted fresh protein to speed his recovery, and bathed in rejuvenating fire as often as he could. That’d helped. Jae’s well of power seemed endless, though, the intensity and depth of his magic breathtaking. Recharging the magic that had been stripped from him should’ve required a lot more time and, without the connection we were building between us, my demon would still struggle to perform the most rudimentary of spells.

With me at his side, he’d also spent massive amounts of power. How frequently had he portaled us already? Lots and portaling demanded terrific magic, even if we stayed well within the boundaries of my world. So, too, had the glamor he’d cast over me to hide my features while I’d retrieved the Bronco at the falls. Such magic required a staggering drain in power to achieve or we would’ve tried glamoring me when I’d needed to go to the community center for testing. Jae hadn’t recovered enough from portaling to my world to manage a glamor then.

He’d no less invested an astounding measure of his power to keep us both alive. Far more than he would’ve been capable of summoning to him without the growing bond between us.

That was the gift of binding. Unfinished or not, our connection strengthened minute by minute, and the solidifying of the link empowered us.

“What we will be together is a miracle,” my demon said with a kiss on the crown of my head. “We meet the dragon tomorrow. For now, sleep.”

My fingers curled into him, the heat of his body against mine a comfort to me. “You should rest, too.”

“I’ll rebuild the fire once you are fully asleep.” My demon sighed. “Restoring my magic in the flames will have to be enough.”

“But you—”

“We cannot stand against a dragon, including a weaker male dragon guarding his dragonets alone. This dragon will kill us or seek to parlay. Recovering my physical stamina to fight him will not matter. Stupid, breakable human.” He chuckled. “Sleep.”

Strangely, I slipped into slumber within stingy moments, the burdensome tax of energy from our frenetic fucking after two days of biking the trail defeating the insomnia-inducing worries plaguing me.

Maybe, just maybe, I trusted my demon more than my constantly spinning fears suggested.

The next morning, Jae awakened me with a blow job followed by his cock in my ass, then a breakfast of berries and fresh catfish seared to crisp perfection in the firepit. His eyes as he watched me eat glittered fiery crimson, so his power had restored from the fierce drain his glamor magic had cost him yesterday. Despite the ache in my ass from taking his dick inside me, I’d recovered from the hard ride up the Passage.

“Clara Trask’s friends rented the cabin for a week,” I said, staring at the ground. “We could continue to rest. Strike out in the Bronco to search for Obie tomorrow.”

Jae walked to me, his warm hands settling on my shoulders to give me a fond squeeze. “The dragon will approach us more readily if we have not wholly recharged from our escape.”

I lifted my chin, still unsettled that I had to look down to meet my short demon’s gaze. “You really think the dragon will intercept us today?”

“He would be a fool to resist treating with us while we remain unbound and weakened.” Jae’s mouth curled at one corner to form a self-deprecating grin. “The dragon did not survive long enough to mate and produce younglings by acting without caution or wisdom.”

I bit my lip. “We could leave.”

He arched an eyebrow at me.

“Just go.” I waved my hands. “The West Coast. We’d have to avoid the Pacific Northwest. A well-established hunter team defends the nexus there, but southern California is open territory. Or we could immigrate to Europe. For that matter, any guild on the African continent would be ecstatic to have us.” I shifted on my feet, ragged anxiety chewing me up inside. “We don’t have to fight them. We don’t need to go home.”

“You would be happy nowhere else.” My demon snorted and clapped the tips of my shoulder with gentle affection. “I’ll grab the backpack. Let us greet our dragon.”

My skin prickling with my alarm, I helped Jae gather up our meager supplies to stuff them into the pack he’d carried from Cumberland and we climbed into the Bronco. We paused only to allow Jae to move a clawed fingertip to a sigil on his thigh, which flashed a brief red when he focused his magic to activate the underlying spell contained within it. He smiled at me. “To erase our presence from this space,” he said on a husky growl. “Our enemies will not follow us.”

With that, I pulled the SUV out of the resort.

I turned the vehicle left at the junction, toward I-76 West.

If Jae was correct that Obie would find us today, we’d never reach Pittsburgh. In my heart, I sensed that, too. The dragon would meet us somewhere along the road, by this afternoon at the latest. With the death of his mate intensifying his protective instincts over their children, Obie wouldn’t want us anywhere near his nest. He’d intercept us sooner rather than later, and as much as my fear and insecurities jittered my nerves, I believed the dragon would negotiate with us rather than snuffing out our lives to remove the danger of another hunter team in his territory. His alliance with Menolac and Clara had worked to their mutual benefit, after all. With the mage and her demon vouchsafing us? Obie must grasp two friendly demons protecting his nest instead of one was a more effective alternative to slaughter.

Besides, the dragon had lost his mate.

My demon was right. Obie wouldn’t forgive that. Any dragon would crave justice for his dead lover. Jae and I were best situated to deliver that—at negligible risk to the dragon and his dragonets.

Jae dozed in the passenger seat next to me as I drove west on the interstate, preferring the quiet over streaming music from the burner phone to fill the silence. If Jae had been willing, I would’ve run rather than risk him to the dangers ahead, and I didn’t only mean Obie. I believed the dragon would barter with us. Teddy’s array demanded a dragon scale, which I expected Obie would give us. According to the scribbled notes in my dad’s grimoire, he’d met with the mated dragons before his death and Ri’s disappearance. The two had been fond of Teddy. Hadn’t eaten him, anyway, which was a positive sign. Dad had been snooping into a trafficking ring. Ricia must have been investigating the thugs butchering magical beings to sell their parts and organs, too. Distracted by new hatchlings and grief over a lost child or not, no dragon would countenance such an intrusion into his or her territory without stamping that danger out.

I didn’t know what magic Teddy’s array brought forth, and I doubted Obie did, either. But if it helped solve the puzzle of what had happened to my father and the dragon’s mate, Obie would offer us one of his magically charged scales.

But the array hadn’t saved Teddy. Or Ri.

Our enemies could end me and my demon, too.

That was why I’d broached the subject of running away. The murderous traffickers wouldn’t shadow us to Europe or Africa. We’d be free of their peril, no longer hunted at every turn. Hell, leaving the country would remove us from the psychopathic Maces in Chicago, too. The demons searching for Jae would also give up. No point seeking his death if he was gone and well outside their respective territories.

I would’ve missed my home, though. Unlike the young druid girl hatching plots and schemes to get a car to head out of town, I’d never entertained the thought. Before now. I loved my mountains in western Maryland, the people. Yes, including the mundanes who persecuted magicals. Change glimmered on the horizon. I just knew it, felt it with the same certainty as I sensed the success of our quest to meet Obie within my grasp. Teddy’s murder had heralded dark times for magicals in our city, foreboding years of danger and desperation, but that tide was turning.

I wasn’t precog. Despite the extravagant power fate and my genetics had blessed me with, I lacked the skill to glimpse a solitary glimmer about what lay ahead for us, what could be.

I no less knew, to the marrow of my bones, that change loomed. Drew nearer with every beat of my heart.

The demon snoring beside me signaled a fresh start.

Embracing the power I’d rejected shouted it.

Our dark times were ending. Mine. Jae’s. But also the cloud of doom and precarious risk that had clung to Cumberland like mountain mist these many years. Dispelling the curse would cost us, though. Perhaps dearly. I’d already paid that bill in blood, losing my father. I couldn’t bear to lose my demon as well, so, yes, I’d offered to flee with Jae. To safety. To survival. Had he been willing, I would have surrendered the only home I’d known and done so gladly, just to keep my demon alive.

Instead, I nosed the Bronco down the cracked pavement of a lonely highway, waiting for a dragon to cement our path returning us to the viper’s nest waiting us in Cumberland.

I stopped for coffee at a gas station and used the restroom after an hour on the road, where the intestate veered north, toward Pittsburgh. Bought a T-shirt, too, pulling it over my head when I returned to Jae in the SUV. My demon had nixed showering that morning. After another robust round of fucking and sucking at dawn, we both had reeked of semen and sex, but my demon would only agree to a quick, rudimentary wash with cloths wetted at the sink. “A dragon’s sense of smell is not as sharp as mine. Safer not to bathe, so he will know we’ve mated,” my demon had said. “He will approach us more quickly.”

Which was probably true, but…Ew. Gross.

Jae arched a quizzical eyebrow at my fresh shirt, but otherwise ignored my show of protest, my objections. I wasn’t ashamed of what we’d done together. Perhaps I should be—shattering the deep-seated cultural taboo against bedding a demon rattled inside me along with my plentiful other neuroses. We hadn’t simply fucked. Oh, no. Of course not. If my demon could be believed, sampling each other’s blood had started some mystical journey of mating between our species.

While I wouldn’t deny my feelings for him or his transparent affection toward me since, I had sensed no significant boost to the power that flowed between us, either. My Jae had issued no grand proclamations declaring his love for me, nor I him.

Maybe I loved him? A little?

I didn’t want him hurt or dead, but seemed to me, love should be more than that.

Still, an obvious sign of mating would assuage Obie and speed him intercepting us. I was on board for that. I could be as impulsive as fuck sometimes. I owned that. Jae had denied my offer to flee, though. Fine. Whatever. Might as well get this dangerous and potentially ugly nonsense over with then. The faster, the better.

We headed down the highway, my thigh jittering as I pressed on the gas pedal to shoot us forward to meet whatever destiny awaited us. Goosebumps pebbled my skin despite the temperature climbing from the morning’s mild chill. Another muggy day. Would the heat wave never break?

“That park ahead. Stop there,” my demon said from the passenger seat, his muscles tightening.

I gulped.

Game on.

I steered the car into the right lane and, upon reaching the exit to the rest stop, I slowed. Instead of parking close to the building housing bathrooms and the predictable lobby lined with tourist brochures and advertisements, I nosed the car into a parking spot farthest away, at the edge of the rest area. “This is it?” I asked Jae as I yanked the keys from the ignition, though I felt it, too. A whispery shudder of trepidation and dread tickled my senses, prickled my nape. Urged me to run. “He’s here.”

Nodding, my demon reached for the door handle.

I joined him on the asphalt, just beginning to heat from the relentless sun. Rather than heading toward the restrooms, we crunched the pebbles and grit of the cement under our feet to venture toward a scanty and thinning patch of grass a battered sign had set aside as a dog walk. A lone tree shaded a park bench we skirted. Shoulder to shoulder, we strode to a narrow path cut through tall grasses along the northern lip of the grass. “Behind me,” Jae said once we reached the trail.

The opening in field grass that grew in thick tufts higher than my waist only allowed us to go single-file and my demon was the stronger fighter, so I let him pass, fast on his heels as we trod into the weeds. Few had explored this way, the grasses, wildflowers, and brambles hugging us close and we ventured short yards before the trail dumped us into thick forest surrounding the rest area. I sighed my relief at the cooler, dimmer interior of the woods. Lots of seeds underfoot, abundant plant life I could manipulate if this meeting went sideways.

Dragons were strong, even male dragons, the weaker sex. If Obie attacked, we’d still die, but at least my life would end as I marshaled my power to fight.

Jae halted.

Finely attuned to him, I froze as well. I darted my stare around us, sweeping the trees and thickets for any hint of the dragon’s presence, but saw nothing. Scented nothing except our mingling sweat.

A First Blood demon…mating the druid youngling. How delicious.

I shivered, the tiny hairs on my forearms standing on end as I hoped Obie meant that metaphorically. “You knew my father.” I gulped, heart rabbiting in my chest. “You know what he was trying to do when he was killed.”

Muscles taut, Jae reached behind him for my hand, threading our fingers in his vise-like grip.

“Murderous humans followed him here, to my Ricia.”

Dozens of birds in the canopy of the woods took flight, scattering at the vibrating snarl of the dragon’s voice. I whipped my head to my left, my frantic stare searching the thick leaves and brush for any sign of Obie, but as close as the dragon must be, I noticed nothing. “They slaughtered my dad, too. Cut him into pieces and tossed whatever parts of him they couldn’t sell on the black market into the Potomac.”

The dragon’s snarl echoed, the vicious sound bouncing from tree to tree, from one hillside of the valley to the other. I shook, my balls shriveling to raisins, but despite my demon’s iron grasp on my hand threatening to crush my bones to powder, I couldn’t stop. Not now. “We’re going to finish Teddy’s array. We will kill them.”

“Are you?” The unseen dragon chuckled. “You’ve more power than your sire, then?”

Jae’s predatory growl married with the amused snickers in the surrounding air. “He has me.” My demon’s spine shot straight. “And the aid of your allies, Menolac and Clara Trask. The support of the Towpath Guild and the Keeper of the Forest alongside the waking nexus, a family that includes an oracle.”

“I’ve sensed the child. If he survives, his power will be fearsome. But not yet.” The dragon snorted. “Very like you, demon. You’ve mated the druid, but you’ve not finished binding him. You are also not-yet. Why?”

“Because demons lie.” Jae squeezed my hand in his. “He will not trust in my promise until I have proven my troth to him.”

“And how will a creature of lies convince the orphaned human?”

“By doing for him what no one else has.” My demon lifted his chin. “I will stay.”

Anxiety ripened and writhed in my belly, but far to my right…Had those leaves stirred? My pulse roaring in my ears, I turned to address that spot in the brambles. “Activating my father’s array has already begun. With your help, we can avenge your mate’s murder.”

There! The twiggy branches of a strapping oak dipped, a dark shadow moving just beyond in the brush. “The array was not of your sire’s making, druid. He stole it from another, who stole it from another still.” The scent of sulfur filled my nose. “And you wish only to save yourselves.”

“Our lives deliver revenge for your lost mate and end the peril to you as well as your dragonets, a danger too close to your nest,” my demon said with a decisive nod. “This is a fair trade.”

I froze, prey paralyzed at the chase of a predator, when Obie emerged from the thicket—not from our right. To our left. Branches and thick leaves parted to reveal the dragon in his humanoid form standing as tall as me, maybe an inch or two taller. He wasn’t as thick with muscle as I was, thinner than my demon for sure, but his power shivered across my skin.

My demon locked in place, too, didn’t breathe at the intrusion of the dragon’s threat so near, within arm’s reach of us.

The dragon didn’t pounce, though his body coiled as though prepared to strike. He hadn’t come braced for battle. No armor guarded him in his weaker human form. His hair, white as snow and tipped in the neon blue of his lineage by several vibrant inches, hung past his shoulders in a loose curtain. His eyes shone like emeralds, matched by the bright green of fingernails he hadn’t shifted into claws to fight, thank God.

A water dragon?

What the fuck was a water dragon doing in bumfuck Pennsylvania?

Where our hands clasped, my demon retracted his own claws when Obie didn’t strike us down. He nested where the three rivers meet, my love.

“Ri chose Pittsburgh to brood.” The dragon’s mouth curved to a lop-sided grin. “ I wanted to fight to establish our territory on a sandy beach.”

With my fear subsiding, I blinked at Obie.

If the mated dragons had selected this less than prime location to hatch their dragonets, both must have been lesser dragons and studying him up and down, I realized that made the most sense. Obie had elected to appear to us in his much less lethal and intimidating human form, and even that was ordinary. He wore faded denim cutoffs, hiking boots without socks, and a plain black tank top that showcased a disturbing dearth of muscle.

He was skinny.

In this form, damn near harmless.

Skip could take him in a fistfight.

Obie snickered, green eyes twinkling his mirth. “Appearances can deceive, youngling druid.”

My demon glowered. “He is no boy.”

The dragon waved a negligent hand. “To me, you are all babies as hapless as the newest hatchling.” He squared his shoulders and met my demon’s glare, though. “But you are right. The bargain you offer is fair.” When he smiled this time, he revealed the spikes of sharp white fangs. “I want vengeance.”

Jae tipped his head in respectful acknowledgment. “And you shall have it.”

We sat at a cement picnic table in the rest area to negotiate. “No one will bother us,” Obie said, a trill of his magic creeping over me in a soft but jangling buzz. He smiled. “Raising three dragonets in the heart of a human metropolis, I am exceptional at casting concealing glamors. No need to tax your demon’s power.” He nodded at Jae. “Your skills aren’t as sharp. No offense.”

“None taken. I thank you.”

I gawped at my deferential demon. What the hell?

His magic is his overture. Accept it with grace. Only that whispering presence of Jae in my head snapped my gaping jaws shut.

Obie’s mouth curved. We are to be allies, no?

I accepted the dragon’s intrusion into my mind with less alacrity. “Get out of my head.”

Jae gestured toward me. “Human.”

“Very. His sire was the same.” Obie shrugged. “He was more comfortable with Ri, of course, but never liked her communicating mind to mind, though speaking as such is most efficient.”

Jae shrugged. “His kind enjoys such intimacy only with their bondeds or mates who are beings.”

“Which is strictly forbidden.” The dragon arched one slim eyebrow at my demon.

Jae lifted his splayed palms. “Humans,” he said again in explanation.

“I’m sitting right here,” I said, fresh irritation overriding my fear and trepidation at treating with a being as formidably powerful as a dragon.

“Ah, that’s better.” Obie relaxed. “His irritation muddies his fear.”

“His anxiety can be…distracting.” My demon offered me a thin smile.

I hated them both “Pardon me if fleeing from my murderous kinfolk, whoever killed my dad, and all the demons who’d like nothing better than end you,” I said, glaring at Jae, “not to mention negotiating with a motherfucking dragon has me a little on edge.”

“He’s as vexing as his sire, too.” Obie wrinkled his nose. “But we no less called Teddy Mace a friend.”

“I appreciate your forbearance,” my demon said, shooting me a quelling glance.

I was not quelled. “You said Teddy didn’t create the array. So you are aware of it.”

“Your sire was not so prickly. Very well then. Business.” He sighed. “The druid brought his sketch of the array to Ri, having discovered that magic within the boundaries of your mountain nexus. While the power it hoped to call forth obviously had failed, he believed—correctly—that the traffickers sought to abuse the array for their own gain. Because of the dragon scale element, Teddy Mace suspected the magic must originate from our kind. Ri did not recognize it, however, and so the two showed the array to me in hopes I might know it.”

“Did you?” my demon asked on a lazy drawl.

“Teddy stole the array from evildoers, who stole it before him.” Obie sniffed his disdain. “The layers of the array are a mix of magics. The one who originated such magic was powerful, perhaps more than many worlds have seen in generations, but I identified human sorcery in some layers.” He pinned Jae with a steely glare. “And demon magic in others.”

The pit of my stomach dropped. My ears rang. “What?”

“A First Blood demon crafted the array, he with the help of his human bonded,” Obie said, his tone terse as he jabbed a finger at me. “You didn’t tell him.”

“I believed, as he studied the magic, my tribe’s footprint would become apparent to him.” Jae snorted. “He isn’t smart.”

I kicked at his foot under the picnic table. “How was I supposed to guess that?”

Jae pressed his lips into a harsh line. “Your nexus is of the First Blood tribe.”

“Children,” Obie said on a placating purr. “Your petty squabbles are not my concern.”

“Then why did you bring it up?” Annoyed, I beetled my brows. “You instigated this.”

“Only to prod at the pair of you because you will defeat our foes only by uniting.” Obie shrugged. “Keeping secrets from one another will not do.”

“I’ve withheld nothing from Jae,” I said, my tone scathing. “I can evict him from my head as successfully as I could expel you—not at all. He knows what I know.”

“No, you guard him from your heart, more’s the pity.” Obie blew out a prolonged breath, his stare fixing on Jae. “Your pride may cost you much, demon.”

“If I win, no price is too dear.”

Obie squared his shoulders, spine shooting straight. “Ah, but your stubbornness risks what I desire as well.”

Jae shook his head. “Succeed or fail, you will have your revenge. The enemy we share who killed your mate must and will die.”

The dragon tipped his head back and roared with laughter. “And you believe you will be the one to destroy them.”

My demon glowered. “Issa.”

“Wrong.” Still chortling, Obie wiped wet mirth from his emerald eyes. He angled his jaw at me. “It’ll be him.”

Shock arrowed through me, pinning me in place. “Me?” I said with a stunned gasp. Who was I to take out the head of a trafficking ring that had been operating in western Maryland for over ten years? Until a few days ago, I’d been nothing special, just another mundane college student. One who guarded secrets, but after denying my power since I was a boy, I struggled to control my power, could focus only because the link to my demon steadied me. I was out of practice. Unreliable. “How could it be me?”

Obie grimaced. “You—and only you—can destroy our enemy. Your sire foresaw this.”

“Then you will give us a scale.” Jae’s smile showed white teeth. “To power the array.”

The dragon relaxed, his muscles going slack. Unblinking, he stared at my demon.

Who glared back at him.

“I believe I will.” Obie lifted a finger to tap his chin as he studied the pair of us on the other side of the picnic table. He ignored the revving engines of others in the rest area, the tired parents, and whining children. The stink of car exhaust. “The two of you fascinate me.”

“Thanks.” I choked down a bubble of laughter. Hey, at least Obie didn’t want to eat us. Our fortunes had improved! “But the scale isn’t all we’re here for.”

Obie smirked. “Yes, you hoped to evade the many humans and fellow demons industriously seeking your deaths.”

I frowned. “Okay. That, too, but—”

“You have information about the traffickers, truths gleaned from your mate before our mutual foe killed her,” Jae said on a low growl. “Whatever she told you, he needs to know.”

“Teddy Mace recorded no hint or clue in his book?” At the shake of my head, the dragon’s mouth thinned. “I’m not surprised. Ri was cagy, too. New hatchlings must be fed often. Since the burden of caring for ours rested on me, those days blurred in exhaustion for me and with Ri hunting to provide fresh meat for our young, she tired as well.” He stared into the distance, his eyes dimming. “Ambushing a dragon queen as fearsome as my mate would not have succeeded had Ri not been so worn from providing for our hatchlings, nor so broken by grief over the dragonet we lost.”

“But you heard something.” I leaned forward. “Anything would help.”

The dragon nodded. “Not from my mate. Ri would’ve died before involving me in the dangers both she and your sire were embroiled in. She was the best of mates, fiercely protective of what was hers.” His gaze met mine, disconcertingly direct. “I overhead your sire speak to her.”

“Near your nest?” My eyes widened. “No way you could have wandered far from dragonets days after emerging from their eggs.”

“Ri trusted Teddy Mace without reservation, as did I. The druid truly was exceptional for a human. His sight told him our remaining young survived every outcome. We believed him.” The dragon blinked wise, too-old eyes at me. “Neither of us hesitated to boast of and show off our treasured hatchlings to him.”

“Three eggs withstanding the rigors of brooding is impressive,” my demon said in agreement. “Fewer still survive the hunger pains of the first days, when ravenous mouths require constant filling. That you and your mate kept three alive inspires awe.”

“With three bellies to fill, you understand Ri could not stray far from our nest, either. Only to hunt and then, briefly. Tending our young taxed us both to our limits.” He quirked up a corner of his mouth. “Teddy Mace brought us a trio of deer as his baby shower gift to us. That’s what he called his tribute—a baby shower. Humans are endearingly foolish, but we no less accepted the meat. And gladly.”

“He knew where your nest was located,” I said, my respect for my dad renewing.

“I could not leave our eggs unguarded and Ri desired I meet her intriguing druid, sought my confirmation of his worth.” Obie nodded. “Menolac and Clara are allies, but Teddy Mace? We counted him a friend.”

“He didn’t betray your confidence in him,” Jae said, voice low. “Your mate would’ve suffered any torture and never revealed where you or your hatchlings were, but a human?” He whistled through his teeth. “Your trust in that human was well-founded.”

“The druid shined with power, as much a treasure to us as our children, and he did not disappoint.” The dragon’s shoulders slumped. “I did not kill you for seeking me out because I owed Teddy Mace my life and the lives of my children.” He glanced at me. “Your power glitters as brightly as your sire’s, though. I may not have eaten you, regardless.”

My stomach flipped, but determined, I lifted my chin. “Before the murders, Teddy came to your nest. Spoke to Ricia when he presented the deer he hunted for your babies. You overheard them.”

Obie cocked his head at a curious angle. “Your sire urged my mate to abandon their quest now that our dragonets had hatched. He said our kind was too scarce to risk our nest to human treachery.”

“He was right,” my demon murmured, clacking his claws on the cement picnic table.

“Ri believed safeguarding our hatchlings required eliminating the threat of humans hunting magical beings for profit. She couldn’t bear the notion of such evil discovering us and swore to our druid friend that the two of them were too close to give up the chase.” He glanced at me, pain and regret glimmering in his emerald eyes. “Our enemy found her instead.”

“Your mate and his father,” Jae said in reminder, tapping the table.

Swallowing down my grief, I shifted forward in my seat. “If they were close enough to be ambushed, they must have suspected who the head of the trafficking ring was.”

“They did not share what they learned with me.” He flashed a grin brimming with menace that jellied my knees. “I was no fighter then, my focus on nurturing our dragonets, but I overhead Ri and Teddy Mace discussing this enemy.”

My heartbeat trebled, and I shivered under the heat and the weight of my demon’s hand resting on my thigh, urging me to caution. “And?”

“Your sire spoke of duality, of shared light and darkness, of good and evil, both distinct and conjoined.” The dragon blew out another breath, this one tinged with smoke and a hint of sulfur. “He told Ri the light was a beloved friend, that with unmatched certainty he knew the light did not recognize the darkness, though they breathed the same air and occupied the same space before their births.”

I froze.

My heart stopped.

The head of the trafficking ring was a twin…and the other twin was Teddy’s beloved friend?

Clark Hocking. Had to be.

My old T-ball coach had vanished the night my father had been murdered, though unlike my dad, no trace of Clark had ever been found. None of us had ever believed Clark had been the true target of the murders. As happy-go-lucky, generous, and compassionate as Clark Hocking had been, he’d been collateral damage. The entire magical community had accepted that as gospel. Because Clark had been a middling mage, at best. Not as weak in power as Finnegan, but not much better, either. A magical with so little power wouldn’t tempt a trafficking ring. A dearth of magic Clark, as a fraternal twin, had shared with his sister.

Bea Hocking.

The magical John Griffith had selected to join him as a second-in-command of the Towpath Guild after his best friends, Teddy Mace and her brother Clark, had died. When shared grief had driven Griffith and the surviving Hocking twin together, their friendship had solidified under a haze of pain and loss. The guild boss had admired Bea’s strength and perseverance after Clark’s death had shattered her world. I knew he had because I’d admired her stoicism in the face of such horrific hurt, too. I’d lost my father. But she’d lost her twin, the partner who had been at her side since the two had knitted in their mother’s womb. Bea and Clark hadn’t been identical twins, but what could be more intimate than the magic of sharing life before either of them drew their first breath?

What could be more wicked than violating the deepest sibling bond by snuffing out your twin’s life?

Bea hadn’t just killed my dad, destroyed my family and childhood. Her vile crimes hadn’t only left Obie’s dragonets without a mother and robbed him of his mate, either. She’d slaughtered her own brother, her other half. The evil bitch had followed up that blasphemy by carving out Teddy’s heart. Then she’d auctioned Ricia’s eyes, the firestone in her second stomach, her sinew, and skin to the highest bidder alongside my father’s brain.

Nausea churned my stomach, clawed up my throat. My head spun.

Bea Hocking must die. And according to Teddy’s foresight, I’d be the one to kill her.

“We need your scale,” Jae said, pushing to his feet.

Shaken, but no less resolved, I stood on wobbly legs beside him. “Time to go home.”