Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
It goes against everything that Jack ever taught me, but I find I no longer care. Zohr is all that matters in the end. The rest is just…stuff. Well, it’s survival supplies, but I can always find more. There will never be another Zohr.
Let’s leave right now, I tell him, and then ruin that by pressing my mouth to his and kissing him fervently.
He returns the kiss, his tongue slicking over mine, his mind touching mine with reassurance. I am here, my mate. All is well.
But there’s a hint of worry in his thoughts.
Knowing that he worries just increases my nervousness. I don’t know what we can do to stop Azar, short of killing him. I don’t know if we’ll be able to get close enough to kill him as things are. Not with Zohr vulnerable to his mind control. Not without the ability to fly. We need help.
I think of Sasha and her dragon, Dakh. I haven’t seen her—or her friend that rides a dragon—since that night that Sasha got free and Boyd died. Maybe it’s time I seek her out, though. Maybe they know how to stop Azar and his mind control.
Maybe we can’t do this alone, after all.
ZOHR
I feel the gentle press of my mate’s knees on my shoulders, her hands on my neck, and try not to be aroused by the feel of her skin against my scales. Now is not the time.
Emma yawns atop my back, and I can feel her thoughts going fuzzy with exhaustion. Dawn nears, and we have been walking for hours—or rather, I have been walking for hours through the streets of the city, heading toward the tallest buildings, the ones that stick up like spikes toward the sky. They are also close to the human hive, which I do not care for, but this is where her friends will be, my mate tells me.
So that is where we must go.
Do you want to rest? I ask my Emma when she leans forward and presses her cheek against my neck. I try to slow my movements so as not to jostle her. I can tell you are weary.
“I’m good,” she says around another yawn. “I don’t want us to stop.”
I can keep going while you sleep.
“No, I want to stay awake. I’ll keep you company.” Her thoughts grow falsely cheery and she pats my neck. “Should I tell you about the first time Jack tried to give me and Boyd math lessons?” I can sense the unease in her thoughts, despite her exhaustion. She worries if she goes to sleep, she will lose me again. That I will fall under Azar’s spell once more.
I understand her fear. I worry over this, as well. But I cannot let my mate put herself in danger over me. We must find the others, and soon. No stories are necessary, I tell her, sensing she is too tired to tell her tale anyhow. Just touch your mind to mine.
She does, sending sleepy affection to me. I caress her with my thoughts and then lift my nose, looking for scents in the air. As we get closer to the human hive, the smells grow more and more difficult to distinguish. I do not think I have come in this direction in the past. Even now, it makes my scales itch and makes me want to turn around and leave. I do not understand how other drakoni can live in such close proximity to so very many smelly humans. Perhaps the scent grows more tolerable over time.
My nose twitches at the thought.
A new scent catches on the breeze. I breathe it in at the same time that I get a mental territory warning. A mated male lives near here. We must be close, then. Only a mate can make a drakoni’s thoughts sane in this world, and so it must be the ones we seek. I smell someone on the air, I tell my Emma. He is sending out warnings. Should I greet him?
“I’m nervous about that,” she tells me, sitting up straight. All traces of sleepiness are gone and her body quivers with alertness. “We don’t know that it’s not another trick from Azar. Don’t touch your mind to anyone but me unless we know it’s okay.” Her hand pats my neck. “I’ve got a better idea.”
You do?
“Yup. Fireworks.”
32
ZOHR
A short time later, my mate stands at my side, stifling a yawn behind her hand as we watch explosions of pink, white, and blue decorate the early-morning skies. The noise they make is deafening, seemingly rattling the very air around us. She was wise to suggest this; no dragon anywhere close to here will be able to ignore such sounds.
“This should be enough to wake up the neighborhood,” she tells me. “Fingers crossed we only get the visitors we want and not the ones we don’t.”