Page 70 of House of Ashes

I ducked away, unsure of what Rhylan had been thinking, afraid to ponder the answer.

Rhyland climbed under the harness and shifted, and as I began the process of buckling it into place, Myst let out a bell-like sound.

The crystals in the eyrie flared and went out. “There,” she said smugly. “No one will enter while I am away. Then we’ll come back with a nice, powerful dragon and you’ll fill it with precious little chublings to carry on my name. Caru has always had a strong bloodline, you know, six thousand years old, and his descendants are as prolific as rabbits…”

I mounted Rhylan, even as his back shook with chuckles. “Maybe in your wildest dreams,” I muttered.

My Ascendant strolled to the edge of the eyrie with cat-like grace, cocking her head as she looked back over her shoulder. “What was that?” she asked.

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

I hooked my straps on and leaned forward, placing my palm on Rhylan in a moment of silence and peace.

He did not move until I patted him, then he soared out from the spire’s peak, followed by the ghostly form of Myst. I blinked my third eyelids down, leaning over the saddle and watching the glitter of Aurae’s Tears as they were lit by dawn’s rays.

I said my goodbyes inside my head, already feeling the wrench of leaving home so soon…but the crown of jasmine filled the air around me with its lush, ripe scent. Kirana might be able to bottle it for me.

With the scent of home in my nose, and my Ascendant flying at Rhylan’s side, a pearly phantom against his vast obsidian wings, the journey back to Jhazra seemed to take a fraction of the time it had taken to get there.

This time, all I had to do was look over at Myst as she cut through the sky and a smile would touch my face. Varyamar was no longer a distant dream, but a tangible project I was ready to begin working on.

After the First Claim, I would send out the call to my people. It gave me something to hold onto, a goal I could accomplish, rather than a plan that could fall apart at any moment.

I was so lost in thoughts of how to renew my House’s glory that several times during the flight, I didn’t realize that I had reached out and started stroking Rhylan’s back. Each time I would pull my hand back, resolved to keep it firmly tucked against the saddle, but there was something in the heat of dragon scales that was so comforting, a grounding touch.

We made it back just before dusk. The sun was a low, bloody orb in the sky as Rhylan circled the jagged peak of Jhazra and dropped into the dragon door.

I was stiff and sore in body but energized in spirit as I dismounted, delighted to see Myst come sweeping through the open windows after him. She perched on Viros’s desk, ruffling the pages of his enormous ledger without a care as she peered around, then began flipping through the logbook itself with an inquisitive eye.

Rhylan shifted, straightening up and stretching his arms out wide, rolling his neck. Without thinking, still bursting with gratitude and happiness, I flung myself at him, wrapping my arms around his chest and rising onto my tip-toes to press a kiss to his cheek.

Rhylan turned his head at the last second. My lips touched a smooth, slightly-stubbled cheek, then a soft mouth molded against mine.

He tasted like cinnamon, and smelled like dragonfire and smoke and cool air. His arms settled around me, holding me tightly against him as he kissed me back, the tip of his tongue flicking against my lower lip in encouragement to open for him.

My heart thrummed like a plucked string in my chest, stomach filling with butterflies. The muscles under my hands were hard as stone, tension vibrating through him, his hands trembling in my hair…

I kissed him harder, nipping his lower lip and drawing a growl out of him, and he slid a hand around my waist, grabbing me so tightly I felt the fullness of the hard shaft pushing against my stomach.

Heat shot through me like summer lightning, flooding every nerve ending with desire.

Rhylan snarled roughly, his tongue tangling around mine, head tilting to claim all of me—

“Is this the time or the place?” a fluting voice asked pointedly, only inches away from my ear.

With a sudden jolt, a feeling of being dropped back into my body from a thousand miles away, I realized where I was, what I was doing, who I was kissing.

I pulled back, staring at Rhylan with wide eyes, wondering how…how such a simple thing had changed so quickly.

“Sera,” he said roughly, but I pushed away from him, feeling my leathers rip where his claws had punctured into them.

“I have to go,” I said, my voice faint as I backed away.

We were partners in crime. Co-conspirators. Kissing without necessity was not part of the plan.

I almost ran into the eyrie door. The last thing I saw before I made it through was Rhylan rounding on a smug-looking Myst, his lips drawn back in a feral snarl over sharp teeth, black scales creeping over his entire body.

Nonetheless, I fled.