Page 55 of The Heart of the Dragon

"We could fly?" For a few heartbeats I said nothing as my heart raced out of control. Did he mean?—

“No, thank you,” Kitra groaned. “I’m good with the car.”

Magnus snorted. “Still afraid of heights?”

“I just like keeping my feet safely on the ground where they belong.”

Magnus shook his head. “What about you, princess? Are you brave enough to fly with me.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Isaac interjected. “Your dragon is a hot-headed stubborn ass with a mind of his own. One snap of control and who knows when we might see the two of you again.”

Magnus growled at his brother. “My dragon’s attitude is nothing compared to what I’ll do to you if you don’t shut the hell up and stop nagging at me like a crone witch.”

“Gods, are these two ever going to stop?” I couldn’t fathom why two siblings were always at each other’s throats happily threatening to hurt each other.

“It might be hard to believe, but this is actually an improvement from when they first met. Back then it was violence all of the time."

"That sounds exhausting."

"I agree, and I think it's high time we call a truce. We have a lot going on and even more to deal with on a very short timeline. No one has time to referee the two of you." Kitra looked miserable at having to confront the two men, but good on her for taking them both on.

"I only just got here and I agree. And as much as I want to take you up on your offer to fly, I respect Kitra's fear of heights and think we should drive."

Kitra squealed and grabbed me up into a hug. "Thank you. And I promise I'm going to do everything I can to make what you're going through a little less painful. We can brainstorm what has to happen and I can start working on a spell. There's got to be a way to release that magic without creating total chaos."

As we piled into the car I was suddenly filled with questions and I had a feeling this was going to be a wild few hours. "So I'm curious. If the Dark Fae King is really dead, and the fae realm is on a sort of different plane behind a locked portal, how would anyone there know what was happening here? Is that really possible?"

"The magic lines cross over, which not only allows fae to sense things, it allows dragons and other fae to live here for potentially hundreds of years."

I jerked my head around to look at Magnus and Isaac in the backseat. "Hundreds of years! Seriously? Holy mother of— How old are you?"

"That's a little difficult to explain." Isaac offered.

"We've got time. I want to hear everything."

Magnus bit his lip, but I caught the quirk of a smile as he attempted to hide it. It was almost enough to make me want to forget everything and simply focus on how beautiful he looked like that. I could still picture him in his dragon form, and now I wished I'd had time to explore more of that. How would his scales feel to the touch? And what would it be like to ride on his back as he flew through the sky? The thoughts going through my head were intense, causing the ache in my core to intensify and by the time I realized that, everyone in the car had gone still and quiet.

"Shit. Someone else is going to have to take over the driving." Isaac grumbled.

"Rose, pull over," Magnus commanded.

"What? Why?"

"Because the temperature in this car has gone up twenty degrees."

"What the hell does that mean?" I asked as I pulled to the side of the road. I didn't see the problem, but I'd rather figure it out without having to keep my eyes on the road.

"Your mating heat. It's cresting again."

I shook my head. "No. You really need to stop saying that. It's just not possible and even though it's the last thing I want to talk about, I think we need to address this now."

"That's an understatement," Isaac said under his breath.

Magnus turned to his brother and Kitra as soon as the car rolled to a stop. "Get out now!"

Chapter

Twenty-One

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