I settled myself on Glynus’ back, shaking my head. “It’s going to be really hard getting into First’s castle, Aunt. And once we’re inside the fun will really begin. It’s too dangerous, and you’re still weak.” I glanced meaningfully at her tilting left wing.
Myra glared at me, straightening her narrow shoulders. A bright light flared around her and, when it was gone, she stood tall and proud before me, her robes sparking in the light and her wings looking strong and whole again. “I’m perfectly fine, Astra. And I’m going with you. You can either give me a ride now, or I’ll find my own way to First’s castle.”
We glared at each other for a couple of beats in time and then I looked away, grinding my teeth angrily. “I don’t have time for this shit, Aunt!”
Myra shimmered away and reappeared on top of one of the dragons. “Then stop wasting time.” With a roar, the glossy black dragon lifted its wings and hopped toward the enormous door on the far end of the nest.
“Glynus! Make sure he protects her!”
I’m on it, mother Tweener.
Sighing, I hoped her warrior knew enough to cover Myra with his protective power during the flight.
The air behind me shimmered and suddenly Dialle was settled at my back. When I turned my head he shrugged. “Your aunt took my ride.”
I grinned, giving him an impulsive kiss.
Big mistake. Lust flared between us at the touch and I had to force myself to pull away. As Dialle ran a heated finger across my jawline, making me shiver and my body clench with desire, I sent a mental command to Glynus to get underway.
Dialle grabbed me around the waist as my dragon lifted her wings and hopped toward the opening door ahead. “Stay close to me, my love. Things are about to get really ugly.”
I snorted. “My
life
is ugly. What we’re about to do is hideous and terrifying.”
I felt Glynus’ power fold over us well before we hit the opening and sailed out over Hell.
* * * * *
My lungs felt as if they would melt.
My nostrils wanted to fuse.
I was slick with sweat from head to toe, making it hard to stay upright on Glynus’ wide back. After just a few moments of flying over the barren, charred wasteland of Hell, I felt claustrophobic from the heat and began tearing at my clothes, certain that I would completely combust if I didn’t get every scrap of clothing off my body.
Dialle grabbed my hands and held me while I wailed and moaned in misery. I tried to shrug him off, even his sexy presence at my back made me want to scream. He was so damn hot.
I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like if Glynus weren’t muffling much of the heat with her powers.
Or was she?
Are you sure you have me covered, Tadpole?
My dragon sighed in my mind and turned her massive head so she could glare at me from one beautiful eye.
For the hundredth time,
yes
, mother Tweener. I have you covered and triple covered. You are perfectly safe.
I settled crankily back against Dialle, too tired to hold myself away, though I hated the extra warmth he was emitting against my back.
The heat sucked every ounce of energy I had, pulling at me, dragging me down.
It was all I could do to keep my legs wrapped around Glynus and my spine somewhat straight so I didn’t crumple into a fetal position.
My head felt like a large rock.
My hair stuck to my face, my neck, anywhere it touched my skin. I began shoving at it, suddenly unable to stand the feel of it against my red, puffy skin.
Dialle swept it off my neck and I sighed as a cool breeze touched the hot, wet skin at the back of my neck. Then I realized there
was
no cool breeze in Hell and turned my head.
Dialle’s perfect lips were pursed. He’d been blowing on me to soothe the heat.
I shivered from the wave of strong emotion that swamped me. My feelings for the creature sitting so close behind me suddenly became overwhelming. They were so strong, so mixed up, that my tortured mind couldn’t grasp them.
It was emotional overload in my current condition.
I opened my mouth and spoke, the words barely managing to scrape from my dry, clenched throat. “Thank you.”
He nodded, leaning close to place a gentle kiss on my lips.
I tensed, expecting the Settling to swamp me at his touch, but nothing came.
I figured the heat of Hell had probably broiled the Settling right out of my body.
Glancing around, I took note of everyone else’s condition. Dialle’s guards, hundreds of them riding a sea of green dragons as far as the eye could see behind us, looked fine, untouched by the heat.
Dialle looked like he was on holiday.
Like me, Emo and Slayer looked a little worse for the wear but were generally unharmed.
My aunt sat tall in the saddle, so to speak, her shoulders straight and her chin high. A casual observer might think she was at her best, riding a black dragon through five-thousand-degree temps in Hell. But I saw the droop of her wings and the dinginess of her bright robes and knew.
She was holding it together by a thread.
“How much farther?” I asked Dialle.
He opened his mouth to respond but didn’t get the chance.
Glynus suddenly dipped, reeling sideways and dropping in a stomach-flipping maneuver as a plume of fire and smoke surged past us.
The flame singed Glynus’ tail and she roared, rippling her long form in violent reaction to the pain of the attack. I felt her power bubble waver, just for a beat, and found myself covered by Dialle as heat blasted through.
My hair ignited immediately and I screamed, feeling as if I’d been dumped directly into a roaring fire. The rabid flames ignited my clothing.
Dialle extinguished the flames with his hands and sat up, searching the sky for our attackers.
I grabbed dragon as Glynus rolled again, a second wall of flame rushing toward us. “Glynus!”
Hold on, mother Tweener, I’m working on it.
Dialle suddenly stood up and disappeared. I leaned down and looked below Glynus, thinking for a moment that he’d fallen off.
Dialle! Where are you?
Pull your power forward, Astra. You’ll need to protect yourself for a while.
A huge green dragon flashed by, its claws outstretched to swipe at Glynus. I shot power toward the green, catching it in its massive belly and causing it to lift away with a roar of pain. Glynus tipped to avoid two more greens, catching me handily with a wing as I started to roll off, and picked up speed.
It’s getting a little squiggy, mother Tweener.
Suddenly we were surrounded by green dragons bearing First’s soldiers.
I started firing power arrows, using Glynus’ armorlike spikes as a shield for the return fire.
Amazingly, one green in the distance held a Royal and a soldier, locked in hand to claw combat. Dialle easily dispatched the lower devil and popped away, appearing on the next green in the line of attack.
Looking around, I realized there were several empty greens flying around looking confused. Unfortunately, they were almost more dangerous than the dragons with riders.
Glynus, we need to drive off the riderless dragons.
I’m on it.
Glynus lowered her head and dived toward a green beneath us, which was heading directly toward the black carrying Emo. I realized with horror that the enormous reptile was planning to ram the black from the side, most likely debilitating it and killing my partner in the process.
I quickly shuffled my mental drawers to warn Emo.
Rogue green at nine o’clock, partner.
Emo turned and I watched horror fill his expression as he realized they wouldn’t have time to turn away.
Ram her, Glynus! Fast!
Glynus flapped her wings two times very hard and we surged forward.
Hold on,
she warned me.
I realized the concussion upon impact of two dragons, weighing thousands of pounds each, would be catastrophic. I’d never be able to hold my seat when it happened. Thinking fast, I pulled my power forward, visualized the black carrying my partner and said a prayer as I space shifted toward him.
I landed behind Emo just as the black swerved and dropped to avoid being bludgeoned by the body of the wounded green as it flew by.
You okay, Tadpole?
That was fun, mother Tweener!
I snorted.
I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself. Keep it up. See if you can run the rest of the dragons off the same way. Emo and I will work on taking out more of the riders.
Got it!
Emo turned to me, grinning. “Hey, boss.” His black eyes sparkled with some unknown emotion. Beneath my hands his skin was superheated, just like mine, and felt wonderfully smooth and firm. My nostrils flared as his scent surrounded me, making my pussy clench with sudden interest.
I recognized the smell of lust. Unfortunately I’d been smelling it on myself for weeks. I frowned, despising myself for the stupidity of getting turned on in the midst of a deadly battle.
Looking around, I clenched my thighs against a tsunami of pulsing sensation and studiously avoided looking into his sexy black eyes. “Hey, bud. How’s it goin?”
Emo shrugged and I gasped as his movement caused my nipples to rub against his broad back. He grabbed my forearm as the black rolled beneath us again and shot power at a charging green.
The dragon veered off quickly, a gaping hole in its long neck.
When the black flattened out again, Emo didn’t release my arm. Instead he started rubbing the hypersensitive skin with his hand.
“Emo, don’t…”
He tipped sideways, tightening his muscular thighs to guide the black away from the battle. The wall of greens closed us off and Emo encouraged the black to carry us swiftly away.
Anger suffused me at his action, which I perceived as running away. “Hey! Turn this beast around and take me back to the battle, Emo! That’s an order!”
He half turned on the dragon and grabbed my arm, yanking me off the dragon and sliding me over his thigh, until I was sitting across his lap.
His hungry gaze slid over my face, while his hand skimmed my jawline. He ran a calloused thumb over my bottom lip and lowered his own, wonderfully sculpted lips close to mine. “We have some business to discuss, Astra.”
I gulped, feeling my body respond to his like flame to paper, igniting almost immediately. I sucked in a breath and realized, too late, that I’d just saturated my lungs with Emo’s delectable scent. A warm, sensual musk that filled my cells and created an explosion of lust deep in my sexual core.
Decades of friendship and closeness had imprinted Emo’s biology on me, creating a natural familiarity between our bodies and minds that didn’t need to be engaged by conscious thought.
The recent changes brought on by the lifting of his curse, so that his true, delectable form was visible to me, and now the supercharging of his essence through his own Settling, didn’t change the basic makeup of our relationship. We’d always been emotionally close. Our enhanced sexuality was only giving that closeness a different flavor.
As Emo’s luscious lips lowered toward mine, I couldn’t help thinking I wanted it to be the flavor of the month.
I jerked my head back at the last second, before he could claim my lips and make my mind go all mushy. “No! This isn’t right, Emo. You need to turn us around and take me back to the battle. Myra and Dialle need me.”
He stared at me for a long moment. His tongue came out and slid across his lips, drawing my hungry gaze. I closed my eyes on a sigh. “Please, Emo. This isn’t the time.”
“I’ve loved you my whole life, Astra.”
My eyes flew open and I blinked, my lips parting in surprise. He placed a heated fingertip on my lips, cutting off my instant denial.
“By the time I got you to look at me like a man you might be interested in, you’d already found the devil.”
I frowned, of course he meant Dialle.
“I kept hoping you’d come to your senses and dump him. But you never did.” His eyes glittered with emotion and I squirmed, not knowing what to say to him. His pain was a palpable thing between us. Before I could dredge up a suitable response, he went on.
“With the Settling I’ve gotten a little desperate.” He looked away, his face clearly showing his guilt. “A
lot
desperate, actually.”
I’d known Emo for a really long time, though I hadn’t connected him to the cute little boy I used to play with at the Phelps’ fortress, high on the bluffs of the Angel River, until recently, when he’d resumed his real form.
I knew his moods, his expressions, even his speech patterns. I’d learned over the years to read him like an easy reader book.
Although our relationship had gotten a little more difficult since he’d resumed his real form, I still felt as if I knew him well enough to know when he’d done something he wasn’t proud of. Something really bad. Like now.
“Oh Emo, what have you done?”
He sighed, avoiding my gaze for a long moment. Finally he turned to me and grabbed my wrists. “I made a deal with King Dialle the First.”
“You did what?” I tried to jerk my arms away but he was much stronger than I was.
Emo looked at me with eyes that had gone hard. “He promised to kill his son, releasing you from your bond to him, so that I could have you.”
I gasped, my head shaking in disbelief. “Tell me you’re lying.”
“I’m not.” His mouth thinned in an angry line. “He’s bad for you, Astra. He’s pulling you toward your devil.”
I managed to jerk my hands free and smack him hard on the chest with both of them. My anger-fueled strike knocked him backward, surprising him with my strength. “And you? You think you represent the good in us? You strive to help Dialle the First defy the laws of his incarceration in Hell? You plot the murder of his son? You covet me…when you know I’ve given my heart to Dialle?”
The anger slid from his expression and tears shimmered in his black eyes. “I’m sorry, Astra.”
That was when I recognized a glimmer of the Emo I knew and loved. The Tweener who had enough of his soul still left to be shamed when he’d done wrong. I took a deep breath, trying to regain my calm.