Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“Remember me. I need you. I won’t last much longer. Please, remember me.”
“I will, I swear. I’ll remember.” Luka reached out to grip the man’s wrist, but he was gone.
He blinked, but there was only blackness. His heart hammered in his chest and he gasped, sitting upright in bed. The blankets were tangled around his legs and a cold sweat clung to his skin. It didn’t matter.
He remembered.
“I got it! I remember where he wants us to go! We need to leave now!” His dragon urged him up, up, up. The emotion was so strong he couldn’t begin to either ignore or temper it. Luka tried to launch himself from the bed, but his feet were still trapped in the blankets. Just as he was about to face-plant on the hard tile floor, Vasily’s strong hand grabbed his arm and hauled him back. His shoulders slammed into his mate’s wide, warm chest.
“Whoa! Wait a minute. It’s one in the morning,” Vasily said, his voice deep and sleep rough.
“I don’t care. I remember. He showed me the spot.” Luka twisted in Vasily’s arms so he could see the faint outline of his face in the darkness. “We’re right. It’s Lake Maracaibo. The lightning lake. He’s toward the south, in the deepest part.”
“Are you absolutely sure?” Vasily released Luka’s arms and wrapped him up, pulling him in tight as he lay down so Luka’s head was resting on his chest. His lover’s heart pounded under his ear. Fast. Too fast for someone who was calm and trying to sleep.
Why was he so excited? Was it because Luka had finally remembered something he had dreamed? Or was it because they finally had a solid lead on a location?
“Try to get a few more hours of sleep. Even if we could leave now, it would still be dark when we arrived. It’ll be easier to find him in the light,” Vasily said.
Luka huffed, but there was no closing his eyes. He was too awake now, his brain spinning in a million different directions while his stomach twisted into knots.
“Vasily…he feels familiar,” Luka whispered into the darkness.
“I know,” his lover answered almost at once. “I thought…I thought it might be because he’s visited my dreams so many times, but…I don’t know.”
Vasily’s arms tightened around him and Luka burrowed in, the familiar fear rearing its head, saying he could lose this someday.
“He could be our mate,” Vasily murmured after several seconds of silence.
That was the dream, right? That there was one mage for both of them. That they’d find the perfect mage who fit them like a missing puzzle piece. A mage whose twists and strange edges slid into theirs as if they’d been made for them.
But in all their long history, there had never been a mage mated to two dragons.
It was always one mage per dragon. And if one died, there were no second chances. No new piece to fit into that hole.
Luka had always been torn between the hope of the two of them having one mage or the two of them never finding a mage mate. After the Dragon War, the odds of two dragons never finding their mate had been astronomically high. It had been easy to hope for a single mate for the two of them because it seemed like a farfetched dream. Lovely and unobtainable.
And then Cameron Burkhard had appeared. Suddenly mages were back and, with them, the kernel of fear that the world was right, they were wrong, and they’d be torn apart. And when Sam had appeared, a countdown timer had started in the back of Luka’s head, constantly ticking away the time he and Vasily had together. The worry Luka felt plagued him so much he often found himself wishing their mate would never appear. It was somehow easier to hope for no mage mate than a shared one.
Not that he could ever tell Vasily his thoughts; it would destroy his other half.
And now there was this Sousa mage. The idea that he was a potential mate left a lump lodged in his throat, making it hard to swallow.
What if this mage fit only one of them?
And if Luka was the one left behind, how was he going to survive?
Vasily always enjoyed flying with his clan. The freedom of the air, the sense of camaraderie with the other dragons—it all made him intrinsically happy. So was he smiling as they flew north? Absolutely, but this time, the pure joy of flight was tempered by other emotions: Hope. Concern. Doubt. He wanted to be right about everything.
After waking up at one o’clock in the morning, there was no way for him to even consider waiting another day. They had all hastily packed and launched into the air just as daybreak touched the sky.
Forests, rivers, lakes, cities—all of it passed below them in a blur. The days when they had to be careful where they flew were long past, and honestly, Vasily was glad. The freedom to take to the air whenever he wanted was a heady thing. It felt like it took no time at all, instead of hours, to reach their destination.