He could feel them now. Somewhere down below, in a vast system of tunnels and caves, there lived a group of fire dragons.
And there was more—someone or something very powerful was in residence. He could feel it, like a red-hot flame that throbbed in the earth deep below, pulsing in time with the flame in his own heart.
Steele.
He gritted his teeth as he carefully moved onward. It could be his enemy: the powerful fire dragon who'd attacked the council of elements, who'd wanted to claim the seat of fire as his own, destroy the council, and then wreak havoc upon humanity in revenge for the way they had once hunted dragons.
But that was many centuries ago, and for all that Braeden had grown up like Steele, hearing tales about the evil knights who had mercilessly slaughtered them, he'd since spent time among humans.
He'd been a prisoner of the council of elements—at least at first. And then he'd begun to make friends and learn about humans and their strange ways.
Humans were not at all like what he'd expected.
Instead of spending their days thinking about cruel ways to kill dragons, they'd invented ice cream, night clubs, and TV.
And Braeden would be damned if he allowed Steele to murder all humans before he found out how Game of Thrones was going to end.
For a moment, he grinned as he imagined Steele's reaction to the dragons in that show. Dragons that couldn’t shift. Dragons serving humans.
Then he froze, his dragon sensing a sudden disturbance.
To the left, there was a crack in the rock large enough that a human could hide in the shadows within.
Hastily, he squeezed himself into the natural alcove, then drew up his powers. He cloaked himself with a wall of invisible fire—just enough that no fire dragon would feel anything out of the ordinary when walking past him.
He didn't know if it would hold up to direct scrutiny—but hopefully, two couriers sent out to the surface wouldn't have time to search a crack in the rock that looked perfectly ordinary.
A moment later, he could hear the rush of wings.
He pressed himself further back against the stone, allowing the fire inside him to fill his thoughts.
He was nothing. He was rock. He was fire. A thread of heat within the stone, nothing more.
Then there was the sound of claws on stone. They walked right towards him.
And then they stopped.
Braeden didn't dare to breathe.
A moment later, he heard the sound of boots on stone rather than claws.
They'd shifted into human form.
Why...?
Then Braeden heard the sound of a third dragon approaching from the same direction he'd come from.
That explains it.
He tried to calm his racing heart. They still didn't know he was here. They'd shifted because there was no way three grown dragons could squeeze past each other in this tunnel.
Three humans, on the other hand, had no such trouble.
That was one of the reasons the entrances to all of their lairs featured such narrow tunnels.
In the case of an attack, it made it very easy to defend them. Only a single dragon at a time could advance towards them.
Braeden listened attentively as the three shifters greeted each other.