A Shadow in the Ember (Flesh and Fire 1)

The draken stared at me.

I stared at her.

She made a bleating sound as she swished her tail over my leg.

“You can pet her. She’s not a serpent,” Ash said softly, and when I looked over at him, two of his fingers shielded a corner of his mouth. Clearly, he hadn’t forgotten my reaction to those snakes. “She likes the underside of her jaw rubbed.”

Hoping she didn’t view my finger as something as tasty as the bacon, I curled the side of my finger under her jaw. Her scales were bumpy where I imagined the frills would eventually grow around her neck. She immediately tucked her wings back and closed her eyes.

I grinned, a bit awed by the creature. “I still can’t believe I’ve seen draken—that I’m touching one,” I admitted, my grin spreading as she tilted her head. “I read about them in the books chronicling the history of the realms and had seen drawings of them. They were always written as dragons and not draken, but I don’t think many believed the dragons truly existed. I don’t even know if I did, to be honest.”

“It’s probably best that way,” Ash commented. “I do not think either would live very long in the mortal realm, neither draken nor mortal.”

I nodded as Jadis’s neck vibrated against my finger. Mortals tended to destroy things they’d never seen before or were afraid of. “I have a question that feels sort of inappropriate to ask in front of her.”

Ash laughed quietly. “I cannot wait to hear this.”

I wished he wouldn’t laugh. I liked the sound far too much. “Do they eat…?” I pointed at myself with my free hand.

He was smiling again, and that was another thing I wished he wouldn’t do. “They’re hunters by nature, so they eat almost anything—including mortals and gods.”

“Great,” I murmured.

“You shouldn’t worry about that. You’d have to really make a draken mad for it to want to eat you. We’re not nearly as tasty as we probably think we are. Too many bones and not enough meat, apparently.”

“That’s good, then.” I smiled as Jadis pressed her little head against my finger. “How do they act as your guards?”

Ash was quiet for several moments. “They know when a Primal they have become close to has been wounded. They can feel it. They will defend those Primals in certain situations.”

“Like what kinds of situations?”

He finished off his whiskey. “Any that doesn’t involve other Primals. They are forbidden to attack another Primal.”

“Did…did Nektas know what I did before, in the mortal realm, when you walked up on me without announcing your presence?”

“You mean, when you stabbed me in the chest?” He grinned.

“I don’t know why you’re smiling.”

His eyes had changed. They weren’t doing that swirling thing again, but they’d lightened to a shade of pewter. “Your unwillingness to say what you did gives me a little hope that I won’t have to fear another attack.”

“I wouldn’t get too comfortable with that belief,” I muttered. All at once, I wished I actually thought before I spoke—for many reasons.

He laughed, though, and his response equally amused me. I also felt something a lot like shame. “To answer your question, yes. Nektas knew something had happened,” he told me, and my heart skipped against my ribs. “He sensed that I wasn’t seriously injured, though.”

“I stabbed you—” Jadis nudged my hand because it had stopped moving. I returned to rubbing her.

“It was barely a flesh wound.”

“Barely a flesh wound?” I sputtered, offended.

“If you had managed to seriously injure me, Nektas would’ve come for me.”

“Even into the mortal realm?”

“Even there.”

Thank the gods I hadn’t seriously injured the Primal. If so, I’d be nothing but a pile of ashes. “How would he have felt it?”

“He’s bonded to me.” Ash paused. “All who reside here are bonded to me. Just as the draken in the other Courts are bonded to those Primals.”

I swallowed thickly at the further confirmation that I would not survive this. “I really need to get a better grip on my anger.”

Ash laughed. “I don’t know about that. Your anger is…”

“If you say amusing, I’m already going to fail at getting a handle on my anger.”

His answering smile evoked a whole other emotion, one I really hoped he couldn’t sense at the moment. “I was going to say interesting.”

“I’m not sure that’s any better.” I continued scratching Jadis under the jaw, pushing the bubbling unease aside. “I didn’t know about the bonding part.”

“Of course, not. Mortals have no need of that knowledge.” A couple of moments passed. “Not as scary as her father, is she?”

“No.” She was still happily vibrating. “She’s adorable.”

“I’ll remember you said that when she’s Nektas’s size.”

His teasing words sent my heart racing. She was several years away from Nektas’s size. And if I succeeded in my plans, neither of us would be here to see that.