Page 19 of True Sacrifice
“We’ll need to go back to our quarters and put the egg in an incubator. In about three months we should have a dragonling.” Jasper turned and walked towards the doorway we entered from, leaving his shirt on the ground. I hurried over and grabbed it, wrapping the egg tightly in it before tying the arms and making the whole thing into a satchel.Why couldn’t magical Hell at least be able to solve the pocket problem on women’s clothing?
Running to catch up, I asked, “is that all the training I’m getting today?”
We exited the training grounds and walked back through the silent forest. It seemed to take far less time to reach the door to the palace than it had gone this morning. “Why did that…” I trailed off, looking back where we came from.
“Hell’s doors are not fixed in place. I couldn’t give you a map through the between if I wanted to. The paths are always moving, same as the doorways. It will always take you where you need to be when you need to be there. It is important to get the egg safely into the incubator, so the time to get to where we need was shorter.”
“Hell certainly has a lot of tricks that seem pretty convenient.” I mean seriously, food, clothes, rooms, travel, everything you could need, Hell took care of.
“We need peace in our realm. We are immortal beings. When we die, our souls do not get reborn, and demons reproduce very slowly. Having all basic needs met lowers tensions. Now we have found other problems as a result, but we work through them without too much death.” Jasper opened the door and waited for me to go through before he joined me in the palace.
The path back was looking a little more familiar, and I hoped some part of my brain was learning the halls around here. I felt a tingle as I crossed through the threshold to our wing, the magic checking to make sure I was allowed entrance. We headed straight for the war room, and I shouldn’t have been surprised to find an incubator already set up and waiting. All that was needed was for me not to drop the fucking egg as I tried to undo the knots in the shirt I made earlier. I really didn’t want it to fall out, and now I was struggling to free it.
“Use the fire,” Jasper coaxed, and I looked up to him like he was insane.
“I do not prefer an omelet over a dragon,” I muttered, dropping to the floor so I could more carefully attend to the knots.
“Princess. It’s a dragon. They like fire.” Oh, I could hear the smirk in his tone. Fuck, he was right.
I held my hands out in front of me, aiming them down to the floor where the twisted and knotted shirt laid in a protected circle of my legs.
“So how do I do this?” I wiggled my butt around trying to muster up courage, or conviction, or some other inspirational word that would help me not fuck this up. I held my hands open, the palms facing the egg.
“Try to feel the fire inside you.”
I closed my eyes and searched, finding a source of heat at my very core.
“Now, direct that fire up through your body and out. Just a little at first, like a single flame.”
Fire burst through my hands in a flash, instantaneously burning away the shirt and several spots of my leggings. My skin was burn free though, so that was an improvement.
“Yeah, done with fire training for the day,” Jasper murmured. He gave me a curt smile. “Put the egg into the chamber and the machine will do the rest. I will program your phone number into the computer so you can install the app to monitor it and receive alerts if the egg needs any attention.”
“That’s amazing,” I said, putting the egg into the little glass box. The machine slid a glass plate over the top, then whirled the egg away to the middle of the space where I could watch it from behind a viewing window. Bright lights kicked on and I could feel the air heating inside the chamber. Guess dragons really don’t mind the heat.
“Soooooo….,” I began taking a seat, burned pants and all, at what I now considered my chair at the table. My ass cheeks have graced it and dubbed it mine. “When am I supposed to train next?”
“Justice is coming here to get you after lunch, which is,” he tapped on his phone to check the time, “in about three hours.”
“Oh, ok, cool.” I thrummed my fingernails across the wooden table. They were a perfect length for that tap-tap-tap noise. Jasper took his seat at the table, which was directly to my right. “So, what do you want to do to pass the time?”
CHAPTER9
JUSTICE
Iwalked into the war room to collect my fox. After so many years, very few things surprised me anymore, but walking into Jasper on a mat with colored dots while Morrigan twisted around him never would have crossed my mind.
“Well, don’t you two look cozy?” I felt waves of amusement coming off them both. Things were going much better between the two of them than they were yesterday. Things were progressing quickly now that we were spending time with her. I might have been balls deep in her by now if Jax hadn’t suggested leaving her isolated for so fucking long.
My appearance startled them both. I laughed as they fell into a heap of body parts on the floor. Morrigan mostly landed on top of Jasper, which likely saved her a broken bone if things had been the other way around. My fox stood up and smiled at me bashfully. Embarrassment.
“Are you ready for training, little fox?” I put all my charm into it. Didn’t want her feeling embarrassed by enjoying time with us individually. I just felt the heat of competition to keep me on my game.
Morrigan got up, and I noticed her pants. Or lack of them. There were holes burned straight through them in various patches, exposing her creamy skin.
“Have fun with fire today?” I asked. Looking at Jasper, I realized he didn’t have a shirt on. Must have had a great time with fire. They played that game with that much skin free for sliding and slipping. I wanted a turn.
I can still see the ghost. It’s coming right for me.
