Marked by the Dragon King (7 page)

Chapter Ten

Flames swirl around my body, dancing beautifully on my clothes and hair, warming my skin delightfully. The fire coalesce into a circle, spiraling away from my body and pressing against the wall as a curious breeze fills the room. There’s a familiar white haze on the other side of the fiery ring that calls to me, urging me to step forward. I stick one leg over the threshold, trying to feel the stone floor through the fog, but there’s nothing to stand on. I’ve fallen into the chamber before and I’m not exactly looking forward to repeating the experience, but I’d rather break every bone in my body than spend another moment away from him.

With a deep breath and closed eyes, I take a leap of faith, bracing myself for the drop. A chill creeps through the soles of my boots but I don’t start falling, so I look down to see the mist lapping around my ankles like water as I tentatively step forward.

My lips curl into a wide smile as I marvel at the sensation of walking on air. More than that, I can sense that he’s close, every inch of my skin growing warmer as my heart starts racing. I see a dark form concealed by the haze ahead of me. It’s gigantic, but my fear is a whisper compared to my excitement as I start running toward him.

“Asher!” I cry out. The only answer is a quick snort that fades into rhythmic breathing.

The mist thins as I get closer, my steps growing slower at the sight of the immense dragon before me. He’s easily the size of a bus, perhaps even larger. I’ve never seen anything so magnificent before. His scales, black with blood red edges, reflect the diffuse light shining through the haze. My eyes follow the sharp ridges down his back, ending in a long imposing tail. He’s enormous.

Asher would look peaceful if it weren’t for the chains crisscrossing over his wings, keeping them folded against his body. My anger flares, literally it would seem, because I look down at the heat on my hands and see flames swirling around my fingertips. Hesitant, I move within arm’s reach of his snout and skim my fingers across the ridge above his eye.

“Ash?” I say loudly. The dragon stirs, heat spurting from his nostrils. “Asher, wake up. It’s me.” I do my best to shake him, but I may as well be pushing against a mountain. I sink to my knees next to his face and run my hands along the chain across his forehead. One link is a different kind of metal than the others and it gets hotter beneath the pads of my fingertips until it glows red.

My heart skips a beat as the behemoth’s eyelid slowly pulls back, revealing a large, coal black eye. The pupil in the center narrows into a slit, focusing on me. It fills with flames as he raises his horned head, effortlessly snapping the glowing link of the chain and sending it flying away from his body.

I rise to my feet, barely dodging another chain that whips through the air as Ash stretches out his wings, exposing the mark that we share seared into his scales. Now I know without a shadow of a doubt that it’s him, and the comforting certainty washes over me at the perfect moment, because he roars so loudly I have to cover my ears and can’t help but cower.

The dragon’s body ignites in a tornado of fire and I cry out, recoiling from the flames. The air heats up until it’s difficult to breathe and the mist above us dissipates, revealing a ceiling of stars.

The fire gets smaller and the human Asher strides toward me as it subsides. My heart pounds as the corner of his mouth lifts into a familiar cocky grin, our eyes locking. Somehow he’s even hotter in real life and my body heat rises. His shoulders are a little broader than I recall, the muscles on his stomach more chiseled and defined. But his eyes, those are exactly the same, filled with flames as he reaches out for me.

I try to say his name but he cuts me off with a kiss, thrusting his tongue hungrily between my lips as his hand wraps into my hair. My knees go weak and I falter, sinking into his arms. My fingers dig into the solid flesh of his back and I start kissing him in return, harder than I ever have. It’s so much more intense than in the dream world.

Ash snarls, biting my bottom lip as he grips my ass harshly, pulling my body tighter against the excitement pressed into my hip. I know I should probably attempt to initiate an important conversation, but I want him so much, more than I ever have before. He wouldn’t let me get a word in anyway, he never does when he gets like this.

The sound of tearing fabric is music to my ears even though this shirt is real, one of my favorites. I groan as his lips break away from mine and start traveling down my neck, leaving a scorching trail behind them. My eyes flutter open as he gropes me and I gasp, only partially from the shock of feeling his hot mouth close around my nipple.

Stars. Everywhere stars. The mist around us has all but disappeared and what remains looks more like steam than the cloud it must have been. We’re in the sky. I manage to crane my neck to look downward right as the last patch of fog at our feet evaporates.

“Ash!” I scream, clutching him. He senses my fear immediately and stops mauling me, bringing his face to mine for a single instant until the hazy floor fades and we start falling, the air whipping around us.

“I’ll catch you,” he yells, squeezing my hands reassuringly before he pushes me away from the flames that engulf his body.

I’m plunging toward the earth alone, my fingers frantically grasping at nothing as I screech into the night. Where is he? My wordless question is answered a heartbeat later when I look up and see the black dragon’s claws stretching out as he roars.

The talons wrap around my waist gently, stopping my descent in an instant. Ash holds me against the mark on his scaled chest as his wings cut loudly through the air until we’re hovering and looking down at city lights.

“Were we in a cloud?” he asks. His voice is so powerful it shakes my entire body.

“I think so,” I reply. How am I going to explain all of this to him?

“Lindy… The lights… Is that a battle? What are those paths?”

My stomach sinks as his questions confirm my suspicions that he has no idea he’s been imprisoned for a very, very long time. “It’s not a war, Ash. It’s a city. The paths are roads.”

“A city?” he exclaims. “But how… There’s so much light.”

“Ash, I can explain, well, sort of. Can you fly down over there?” I suggest, pointing toward my apartment building. “That’s where I live.”

“But I live… I don’t recognize any of this, Melinda. Where are we?”

There is no way I’m telling him that the entire world has changed because he’s been trapped for thousands of years until our feet are safely on the ground. “Ash…”

His head whips to the side a moment before I hear the sound of an approaching jet engine. “What is that?” he asks, tilting his body upward so that I can see it.

“It’s a plane. And, no it’s not some kind of combat magic or anything like that. Planes can only fly in straight lines, so you’ll have to move out of its way, it can’t get around you.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Great. “It’s a machine that can’t hurt us,” I assure him, feeling his chest puff up beside me as I watch his eyes narrow skeptically. “It’s full of helpless humans that will die if the pilot sees you and crashes trying to change course while he’s trying to land.”

“What?” he exclaims.

“Asher, please. I’m not used to being this high up. Please just take us down.”

“I won’t drop you,” he replies, flying lower as the plane zooms by overhead. He turns around and watches it land. “This isn’t right, none of it makes any sense.”

“I know. It will be fine,” I say, unsure whether or not I’m lying. “I want to go home, please just take us down over there.”

“But I need to go home, too. I need to see my father, he’s…” Asher’s wings stop flapping for a moment, sending us into a terrifying freefall until he recovers. “That’s right. He already died. How could I have forgotten that?”

“It’s not your fault.”

“He’s gone. And that makes me…” His dragon eyes blink wildly before they start scanning the terrain below us. “There was a Coronation, but... I’m surely late by now. Where is the Great Gate?”

The Great Gate? Holy shit, that burned to the ground a thousand years ago, even before magicfolk went Underground. “It’s guarded so humans can’t find it,” I lie. “I go to the city through catacombs now, it’s easier.” Shit! The city was above ground back then.

“The catacombs,” he grumbles, a shudder rolling through his massive body. “We were in the caves for years, then suddenly we were in the sky. But how?”

“Asher. Please, just take us down. There’s something in my house. A book. There’s a picture of you inside of it, I think it’s yours. Hopefully it will explain everything, well some of it.”

He nods down at me before folding his wings tightly against his side and nose-diving toward the earth. My hair whips around me and I shriek as we plummet. I’m desperate to hold onto something, but he’s just too huge, it’s like trying to grab a flat wall.

Ash can tell how scared I am, tightening his hold on me and slowing his descent. We’re horizontal to the ground now, too low to go unnoticed, especially with his wings outstretched like this. I’m so awestruck that I can’t find the words to hurry him along, my heart pounding wildly as I stare down at the city from above.

“There are so many more buildings,” he says.

“Mine’s over there.”

We land on the roof and I’m relieved that I don’t hear the sound of sirens approaching. Asher stays in dragon form after he puts me down, curiously peering out into the night. The building next to mine is taller, so we’re level with my neighbors’ windows. I doubt anyone will believe them if they call 911 to report a dragon sighting, but I’d rather not take the chance.

“Ash, you should shift into human form,” I suggest gently.

“I can protect you better like this.”

“Yeah, but you won’t be able to fit through that,” I explain, pointing to the roof access door.

A low growl rumbles through his chest. “Must we go inside? I can’t remember the last time I looked up and saw stars. Or felt a warm breeze. And I hate tiny places that are too small for my true form.”

His true form. For whatever reason, those words make my pulse spike from a sudden wave of insecurity. It’s soon eclipsed by compassion. If I’d spent a thousand years trapped in an Illusion, I’d probably crave some fresh air too, but it can’t be helped.

“Asher, I’ll go inside and bring the book up here, but-”

“You aren’t going anywhere without me.”

“Then come with me. Either way, you need to shift. I don’t want you to scare the humans.”

“I won’t hurt them. I’ve always adored humans.”

My lips curl into a smile, unsure why I find that so comforting. “Well, they are very easily scared.”

“That is true,” he huffs.

Without warning, a giant tornado of flames swirls around his body. There is no way someone isn’t seeing this, it’s so incredibly bright. When the fire subsides, Ash is standing there in all his naked glory.

I gulp down a deep breath. Wow. He’s a lot bigger than I remember, not just his… Well, that always was huge, not that I have much to compare it to, but if they get much bigger then I don’t understand how most human women survive the mating process, let alone enjoy it. It’s the size of the rest of his body that shocks me. Asher’s always been muscular, but this is insane. His bicep is just about as big around as my thigh, and I’m not all that skinny.

He’s looking down at his own body, nearly as surprised as I am. That’s when I remember he was just a teenage boy the last time he was truly in human form. A lithe and lanky kid, just like me. It’s almost like we grew up together.

A startled giggle interrupts my thoughts. I look up over Ash’s shoulder as his head whips around to see a little old lady standing in her window. Her eyes are almost as big as his are and she’s probably just as embarrassed too. Here she is thinking that the roof is on fire and finds a gorgeous naked guy instead.

He quickly covers his groin and moves behind me. “I guess we should go inside.” It’s dark so it’s hard to tell, but he might be blushing.

“I told you,” I laugh as he steps with me, trying to keep my clothed body between his nudity and the little old lady that won’t stop staring. Who can blame her? I don’t have the heart to tell him that I’m not the only one that lives in this building. Hopefully we won’t run into anyone.