Fire The Blood: Dragon Mage Series Book III (5 page)

"Nothing happened
last night," Braedon grumbled as he lost a little of his anger.

At his words, Riva turned
censorious eyes on her brother.  "Are you actually going to try and deny
her your championship when she needs your help?"

Braedon ground his teeth
and glared at his now-silent mate.  "You could assure her nothing
happened."

"What I remember of
last night is waking from a vision to find a naked fire mage in my bed.  Not
that I am complaining," she hurried on when his eyes narrowed.  "I
appreciated waking up that way much better than the cold I usually face after a
vision."

"Why were you naked
again?"  Riva asked as soon as Asha stopped talking.  "And in her
room to begin with?"

"If you must know, I
heard her scream and grabbed my sword rather than my pants."

"I bet you
did," Riva mumbled under her breath, which made Braedon grit his teeth and
growl.

"You heard me
scream?"  Asha asked, her eyes going wide.

"Yes." He said
with bite.  "You screamed, and I reacted."

Asha's face turned
white.  "I don't scream," she said, then she swallowed.  "I
learned long ago it would bring more punishment.  Now I can't scream, even when
I try."
 Except in my mind, where no one else can hear it
, she
thought.

Braedon felt the heat of
his anger turn to a new direction.

"I am fairly close
to Lady Asha's room, and I heard nothing."  Riva said.  Her eyes were soft
with pity for Asha, but her words were meant only for Braedon.

"When no dragons
showed, I surmised that what I heard was not out loud," he said, running
his hands back through his hair in his agitation.  This day had been an
exceedingly long one, and they had yet to break their fast.

Riva looked between the
two of them, then she concentrated on Asha and that expression of panic on her
face.  She looked between them and seemed to go deeper into herself at the same
time.  "You are connected."  She ran her hand between them as if
caressing an invisible string. "Did you know he was your mate when you
announced it in there?"

Braedon froze at her
words. He looked between the two women, and noted the emotion on Asha's face. 
"What are you babbling about?"

Riva switched her gaze to
him and then had the gall to shake her head as if he were the one who was not
making sense.  "You heard her scream in her dreams, but no one else did;
you cannot deny that you have been drawn to her from the first."  She
looked at the scar on his lip.  "You gave her your blood."

"She was
dying." 

"From what Melisande
said, you gave her your blood, and then the two of you nearly destroyed the
room with your flames, flames that did not burn either of you."  She shook
herself out of what Braedon recognized from many years as her healer’s sight.

"We are both fire
mage; my blood recognized her, and our powers merged."

Asha pulled in a breath;
her eyes had become fully panicked.  "I cannot be mated," she
muttered, looking around for some escape.

Braedon gazed at her,
concerned she would again flame with her out-of-control emotions.  He took her
hand and pulled the dancing flames on her fingers into himself.  They came to
his call as easily as if he summoned his own power.

Observing them, Riva
spoke with a firm finality he could not shake.  "Asha may have meant to
claim you as mate only to combat dragon law but I see what has been forged
here; she was speaking truth."

Asha fought off the panic
that was trying to carve out her insides.  Running now would never work, not
when Braedon would be sure to stop her.  She slowed her breathing and attempted
to look a little less like she was about to run screaming from the room.  It
was not easy, especially with both the knowing eyes of Lady Riva and her
brother’s determined ones focused on her.  She was not going to call him “her
mate”: not now, not ever.  Not after she had so blithely claimed him for her
own in front of the dragons, and not when she could feel the truth of it with
each word from his sister’s all-too-knowing lips.

"I think this day
has been quite exciting enough," she said as mildly as she could.  If
anyone could put on a convincing act, it was she.  Asha had been emotionless
around her father for years.  "If you would not mind giving me my room
back, I think I need a little time to ponder all that has happened."

Braedon narrowed his eyes
on her.  "Time to ponder?  Really?"

Riva elbowed him in his
side.  "You could escort me to my room, as a gentleman would," she
said, and Asha could have kissed her.  "Many things have occurred that any
woman would need to consider."

"Like the fact that
she announced to the world that I was her mate, thereby making it so by dragon
law?"  Braedon’s voice had turned dry, and it made Asha wince visibly.

"Come,
brother," Riva said, practically dragging him along.  "I can feel her
need to be away from everyone, and you can get your answers later just as well
as now."

Asha tried to stem her
panic at the healer’s words.  She did not like anyone knowing what she was
feeling, but there was no help for it.  She would just have to suppress
everything
until she was far away and hope that Lady Riva did not figure it out in time to
stop her. 

Lady Melisande had indeed
been correct; she was going to run.  There had been enough stalling and
obsessive planning.  She'd had dragon vision last night and seen herself at
Seatown.  The creeping darkness that had followed could be ignored for now. 
She would deal with what came.  That her vision showed her arriving in the
company of a certain huntsman/fire mage, making the leaving easier somehow, she
would also think about later.

For now, she would
concentrate on her goal, which was to get far away from Dracon and the powers
that be before they realized she was no dragon shifter and as such could not
claim a mage mate.  With her seer powers, she would be a worthy conquest for
any power hungry dragon, and she refused to end up like her mother; she would die
before she allowed herself to be trapped again.

Unfortunately there was
really only one way for her to get far enough away from Forsaken to have a
chance at outdistancing the dragons.  She was going to need help.

***

Braedon had a bad feeling
in his gut that was not going to go away until he laid eyes on Lady Asha.  He
had left with his sister against his better judgment. Upon dressing and trying
to return to his
mate
, a word that still did not trip off his tongue
with any familiarity, he had been set upon by dragons.  Lux, the big blue
haired bastard, had the gall to wink at him with those insane sapphire eyes of
his before lifting him by one arm.  Aarion, with his liquid gold hair and the
House of Earth shimmer, took the other, and Braedon imagined that he looked like
a plain burlap mud sack carried between two exotic birds.  Each lifted him
without apparent effort and carried him past Lady Asha's door and back to the
war room, where they set him wordlessly in front of Eben Kinkaid, Prince Ladon,
and General Solan Fire-Eater.

Braedon sighed long and
loud then nonchalantly sauntered through the powerful dragon males and found
his customary seat.  "Let's get this over with."

He noticed Furee behind
the others, his eyes the heart of a flame and almost the exact same shade as
his hair.  It gave Braedon pause, not because he was afraid of the dragon but
because the sight of him always brought back memories of fire and pain. 

The rescue of his sister
had been a close call, close enough that she was already on fire when they
swooped her out of the bonfire and away from the jeering humans who watched
like jackals from a safe distance.  They were the same humans she had spent
years healing and had refused to leave when he asked her to join him in the
forest.

Furee was the reminder of
his biggest failure.  If Lady Melisande and the dragons had not intervened, his
sister would have been burned to death.  He would have been too late to save
her, and he would never forgive himself for what could have happened.

Lux's booming laugh
brought him back to the present.  "Get it over with?" he asked on a
chuckle.  "Nonsense, boy!  Dragons mate for life.  We are just here to see
that you understand exactly what it means to be a dragon’s mate."  His
voice dropped threateningly.  "And what happens when you don't treat your
mate the way she deserves."

"Dragons are going
to teach me how to treat a mate?"  He snorted.  "You forget I saw
where Asha grew up and nearly died and where her mother was killed by the
tender mercies of her dragon mate.  I think I'll keep my own council where
mates are concerned."

"As long as they
rate better care than sisters do," Aarion said flatly, and Braedon felt
the harsh blow of those words.

He turned slowly to face
the dragon male, aware that the temperature in the room had risen significantly
in just a few seconds. He could feel the anger beginning to boil under his
skin. "Be careful, golden rod; my sister is not a subject I take
lightly."

"Only her
safety?"  Aarion shot back, his own eyes flashing dragon gold.

"Aarion," Solan
said warningly.

Aarion gave his commander
a hard look.  "He does not deserve one of our few females:  not when so
many good dragons fall to loneliness and despair without a mate."

"Because I am
mage?" Braedon asked with a growl, standing to his full height and
bringing all eyes back to him.

"Because we have
seen how you protect those in your care."  Aarion shot back.  "If
Lady Melisande had not been there, your sister would have fallen to ashes and
flame."  Aarion clenched his fists, his eyes fixated only on Braedon. 
"She should not have chosen you."

Braedon narrowed his eyes
at the other man, hearing more than the silence around them.  The other dragons
were quiet, letting them have this argument and indicating without words that
they were in agreement with the sentiment.  He ground his teeth.  "What
bothers you more? That she chose me, or that she did not choose any of
you?"

Aarion growled, "A
dragon knows his mate."  Aarion gritted out.  "I know she is not
mine, nor any dragon that she has met, but she has been in seclusion.  There
are many who could be her mate that she has yet to meet.  You take that chance
from them if you continue with this mating."

"There are two
things you said that I will address," Braedon said.  He had regained
control of his rage with the knowledge that Aarion was not doing this for
himself.  "One is that she chose me.  Have you stopped to consider that
she would not have done so lightly?  Perhaps the fact that she was in seclusion
and
why
she was there is more reason than any for her to choose a mage
mate over whatever the dragons can offer her."

"Her father was a
monster.  He does not represent dragon kind."

"He does to
her." Braedon said it simply, but the impact could be felt throughout the
room.

"You know this?" 
Prince Ladon asked, and something passed between him and Kinkaid.

"I know she has
walked her mother’s death more than once in her dreams.  I know she does not
claim a dragon house and particularly will not claim her father’s, who tortured
her and killed her mother, I know that she has not embraced her dragon shape
since she was freed from her prison."

"And she fears
us," Solan added to the weighted atmosphere.  "She is more
comfortable with the mages that reside here than the dragons."

Braedon hesitated,
wondering how much he could trust the ladies’ secrets to these dragons.

Eben tilted his head to
study him. "There is more you are not telling us."

Braedon made his
decision, looking around the room at the dragons present, dragons he had fought
beside.  His eyes found Furee, dragons he trusted with the welfare of his
sister.  "At times, Lady Asha has mage green eyes."  He touched a
finger to the scar on his lip.  "When I gave her my blood, our fires
merged.  We connected like two parts of one whole.  She is more than just
dragoness: more even than dragon seer." He took a deep breath and looked
into five pairs of dragon eyes.  "There is fire mage in her, at least as
powerful as myself."

Furee spoke quietly. 
"It was Lady Asha who attempted to burn Lord Rendal, wasn't it?"

Braedon looked at him
questioningly.  Furee continued.  "I have heard the story and have spent
more time with you than most.  It did not seem your style to lose control in
such a way."  He shrugged, "Besides, I have felt your fire when you
truly rage.  If you wanted to burn Rendal, you would have.  There are few
dragons who could withstand the heat you produce when you are serious about
it."

"It was Lady
Asha."

"And you would have
taken the punishment for her action to keep her secrets?"  Aarion asked,
his anger finally seemed to be gone.

Braedon shrugged. 
"To keep her secrets from your corrupt council?  Yes, I would have taken
the punishment."

"Corrupt?"  Lux
boomed, as was his way.  "They might be pompous, but corrupted is a little
strong."  He looked at Prince Ladon, who raised a golden brow at him.  Lux
cleared his throat and quickly turned back to Braedon.

Braedon gave him a look
that could have singed steel.  "Your Council, with the exception of Prince
Ladon, would do just about anything to have Lady Asha under their control. 
From what I have heard, Rendal is one in a long line of greedy despots you call
Council Lord.  The rest of them flounder around and listen to accusations about
Kinkaid instead of cleaning their own house, and I find that humorous, since
from what I have seen he is powerful enough to obliterate them all if he truly
wanted to rule.  And they know it.  Not to mention in the meantime your Council
Lord Rendal was seconds away from claiming my sister as his mate under dragon
law.  I would have to say pompous does not cover that."  He bowed his
head.  "My apologies, Lord Ladon.  I know you are doing what you can, but
I have seen corruption at work in the humans for too long not to recognize its
stench."

Furee had stilled utterly,
and Braedon, feeling a surge of power, looked his way to find his eyes no
longer burned the heart of flame but instead had turned to blistering ash. 
"Rendal tried to claim Riva?"

Braedon opened his mouth,
but nothing came out.  He could see that Furee was on the edge of reason, and
Braedon was afraid anything he said would push him over.  He had felt the heat
Furee produced when he was mad.  Even the fire mage would have had a hard time
standing up to that flame.  Mention the healer that did not yet know she was
his mate being claimed by another, Furee could burn a hole in the world.

It was Kinkaid who spoke
in his dark voice.  "He thought briefly of it, but I reminded him he would
not live to finish the words if he made the attempt."

"Rendal!" he spat
the name as a growl, his eyes going to the double doors and open sky beyond. 
No one in that room had any doubt what he was planning or whom he was going to
kill.

"Stand down,
Furee," Solan said firmly.

Furee stopped after one
step and blinked at him through his rage.  "General?"

"If you kill a
member of the council for what he thought about doing, you will never have the
chance to claim your mate," Aarion reminded him quietly, barring his path
to the door.

Furee growled, baring his
sharp white teeth.  "She is mine."

 Braedon did not even
think about arguing with him, even if he was talking about his sister; That was
a fight for another day.  For now, Furee had agreed to give her some time, and
Braedon would deal with the rest as it came.  "Riva is safe in her room
and unclaimed.  You don't have anyone to kill."

"If he had claimed
her…"  He looked both tortured and filled with rage; both looks were hard
to take, especially when Furee normally looked like a touch would leave burn
scars.

"He did not,"
Eben declared firmly.  "And he will not."

Finally Furee turned away
from the distant sky, his hands clenched with veins of fire dancing in his hair
and down his arms.  "I must see her."

"No!"  Four
different voices joined Braedon’s stopping Furee in his tracks.  Braedon let
out a breath and met those burning ash eyes.  "You are angry, and to
others, that looks and feels like they are standing too close to an open
flame.  Not only could you burn her without meaning to, but for a woman
recently saved from a bonfire, you would appear as her worst nightmare if you
went to her now."