Mentored in Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

I held out my hand, my guts turning cold. Then hot. Then exploding with excitement. “They can talk? I mean, communicate?”

Yes, he thought. Like we can.

“Right, right.” I blew out a breath. Tried to play it cool. Failed. “Will I get to see one? Can I talk to one? Do they like being petted? The only ones I’ve seen were trying to kill me.”

He laughed. “I should’ve known you’d be excited for a dragon. Yes, you will get to see one. And hopefully bond with one. They can only communicate with those they are bonded to. And each other, of course.”

“How do they bond? Blood, or…”

He nodded at my hand. “We’ll talk about all that when we go to see them. But first we must get you more up to speed with your magic. They are treacherous beasts. If they sense weakness, they’ll kill you rather than bond you. Let’s see what you learned from yesterday.”

I called up the flower I’d perfected yesterday, and this time around it was so much easier, probably because I wasn’t half as tired. The shadows fell just right, even as I walked, and the petals moved softly in the very slight breeze.

“Oh.” I pointed at the sky with the other hand. “You added a breeze to the air.”

“Yes. I did that early this morning. I noticed the change and thought I’d add a flourish. I didn’t want to make it any stronger because we have leaves in some of the gardens, but no rakes.”

Not mad, then.

“Makes sense.”

“Yes, I thought so.” He stopped and turned, bending to my palm. His eyes roamed before he called up his own flower. A small crease wormed between his brows. Straightening up, he held his next to mine and silently judged the differences.

“Hers is better,” Cahal said, unasked. “More lifelike. You are out of touch with the human lands.”

Lucifer’s eyes lifted to mine in what I could only describe as a long-suffering, deadpan look. I giggled like a simpleton.

“Yes, Cahal, I see that. Thank you for ruining this fine moment.” Lucifer’s flower disappeared and he dropped his hand, his gaze softening. “Yours is better. After one day of intense practicing, you have outstripped the teacher.”

“It’s a flower. It’s small in the grand scheme of things.” I let it disappear as we started to walk again, feeling an outsized sense of accomplishment. It was…a good feeling, like I’d checked that box and could confidently move on.

“Cahal, would you mind filling her in?” Lucifer gestured to the right, where a cobblestone path diverged from the one we were on.

“I told her last night.”

Lucifer turned to glance behind him. “You haven’t gotten any more likable, druid, has anyone told you that?”

“Yes. Your daughter. The two of you are very similar, unfortunately. You both have a terrible sense of humor.”

Lucifer sighed and then glanced upward. “Yes, that was a good change. I do like expressing actions through air. And breathing it. Sometimes it’s just a tedious action, but it can give you something extra to do with your energy.”

He stopped at a wooden archway made of actual wood, with ivy vines crawling along the top. The light caught the wavy leaves, and I touched them with my fingers, not sensing any magic. “These are real.”

“Yes. I had soil from the Brink brought in.” He stuck out his hand in invitation, and I ducked my head a little to enter, the ivy crowding the top and obscuring much of the view. Once inside, I lost my breath for a moment, because I instantly knew where he’d taken me.

I blinked, trying to keep the sting out of my eyes. Trying to keep the wetness merely coating the surface.

“Druid. Go with her,” I heard. “I will follow at a distance.”

The dainty wooden arch continued along the path for about ten feet. Rosebushes crawled up the outside, dotted with bright red roses peering in through the green-painted fencing along the sides. At the top, the green of the bush tapered off enough to let in the crystalline blue sky, an illusion on top of an illusion, since the sky was indigo outside the tunnel of roses.

“It’s exactly like my mother’s garden,” I said, out of breath, a tear breaking free. I swiped it away with a knuckle. “She had a setup exactly like this leading into…” I let another breath loose when I reached the end, tears crowding my eyes now. Pressure lining my chest. A gazebo waited in the middle of a haphazard array of flowers, all different colors and varieties. More roses, daisies, bluebells, orchids. There was no rhyme or reason. No design. They just splashed the area in vibrant color and fragrance—

“No.” I shook my head, following the little cobblestone pathway that led to the gazebo, the port in the sea of flowers. “That smell isn’t right.”