Page 53 of When the Baker Met the Dragon

“Ever?”

“Well, there was a ghost of one in the ruins by my town.”

I can’t stop smiling. It’s a marvel. Everywhere I look, there is someone like me. To say I have one thousand questions bumping around in my head is a massive understatement.

Joaquin leads me to a blue-painted building. He swings the door open—a doorway that is exactly wide enough to pass through comfortably without having to tightly tuck my wings.

“We have a new visitor, Afonso,” Joaquin says to another dragon shifter at a counter.

“Nice to meet you,” I say, extending an arm in greeting.

But instead of grasping my forearm as we do in Leafshire Cove, he and Joaquin eye me curiously.

Another shifter, a female with bright red hair, comes out of a back room. “He’s doing the greeting of the southern regions, fellas.” She reaches over the counter and grasps my forearm. I do the same to hers and then release my hold.

“I’m Beatriz, House of Sun. Welcome to Ravina Roxa.”

“I’m Cyrus. I don’t have a house?”

All three shifters trade a stressed look. Joaquin is the first to recover.

“It’s all right. Let’s get you a pass, and then we can go from there.”

“Maybe his mother moved away while she was pregnant,” Beatriz says quietly, her gaze on me.

“What does that mean? I’m sorry. But I’m just blown away right now. I need so many answers.” I laugh and run a hand over the back of my neck.

“We keep track of all dragon shifters, but when a pregnant female leaves and it isn’t obvious she’s carrying a youngling, sometimes we miss recording that individual.”

“We can get into that later,” Joaquin says.

They help me fill out a form, and then Joaquin and I head back out into the sun and the cacophony of a city filled with fire-breathers.

I feel like I’m dreaming, but my heart isn’t whole. It’s like this can’t be real without Kaya to see it with me. I rub at my chest.

“I know that rub. Where is your mate?” Joaquin is leading me down a side street.

A cart painted in shades of pink and red stands beside a fountain. The merchant is waving around knots of what might be bread. The scent of cinnamon wafts through the air.

I pause, my mate mark practically sizzling.

“Cyrus?” Joaquin eyes me. “Is it still bothering you? When did you claim your mate?”

“I haven’t. It just showed up on my way here.”

“But…”

“I guess we dragon shifters can handle distance a little better than other creatures right after the mark shows up? My friend, Romulus, is a gargoyle, and he couldn’t be far away from his mate at all on that day or even a few days after. I am hurting, but it isn’t debilitating yet.” I still ache for Kaya like someone has dug my heart out of my chest. I don’t need a mate mark to help me understand how I feel about her.

“No. Wait,” Joaquin says. “You don’t know anything about our kind and marks?”

“I guess not?”

Joaquin’s face pales. “You have one turn of the sun to claim your mate or you die.”

A chill sweeps down my body and my wings tremble.

“Mate marks are different for us dragons,” he continues. “I can’t believe no one told you. Where is she? Or he? Or they?”