Page 67 of Sanctuary with a Dragon
She looked up at the massive sleeping dragon. “Yeah, that’s the weird part. He had a golden thread. He shouldn’t have had one if he isn’t a shifter.”
Elandor cleared his throat—a very human habit that always amused me. “It’s possible, mated as you are to a dragon shifter, that dragons have now been added to your golden threads. They are, essentially, part of you.”
“We just weren’t expecting actual dragons,” I said dryly, and Everly laughed, the sound a little shaky.
Elandor snorted, steam puffing into the already warm cavern. Without him inside me, I felt… cold. Dim. Even as a ghost, I missed him.
He glanced at me, clearly having caught my thought, then turned his attention back to Everly. “All right. Let’s bring Shay to us.”
Everly held up a finger. “What if he’s… in the middle of something?”
“He has no life,” I said. “I assure you he’s not in the middle of anything important.”
Everly bit her lip, still uncertain, but eventually nodded.
“Close your eyes and focus on what you remember of Shay,” Elandor instructed. “His scent. How it feels to be around him. What his personality is like. His appearance. Once you’re focused, you should be able to get a sense of where he is. Shifters may be easier to find, but you should be able to locate anyone.”
“I promise to use my powers only for good,” Everly said with a cheeky smile, eyes still closed.
Elandor chuckled. “Yes, you’d be quite dangerous if you didn’t. You also would probably be dead. The other paranormals wouldn’t put up with a berserk dreamseeker.”
Everly winced. “Got it. No shenanigans.”
“Once you feel you’ve found the essence of Shay, follow it to him,” Elandor said.
She frowned in concentration, then after a few long moments her expression brightened. “I think I’ve got him.”
“Good. Hold fast to him and pull him here.”
Everly scrunched her face, concentrating, thenjerked backward as though she’d yanked a rope that suddenly had no weight in this realm. She almost went flying.
I reached for her, forgetting I couldn’t catch her like this—but Shay, appearing in the cavern at that exact second, caught her with his magic instead.
She was nearly horizontal, close to the floor, but Shay’s silvery power held her until he stepped forward and helped her stand.
Completely useless, I looked down at my faint, insubstantial hands and swallowed my frustration.
“Whew, thanks,” Everly said, brushing at her clothes. “I thought I’d be able to feel the pull in the physical world, but I guess it was all mental.” Then she really looked at Shay, realized he was in jeans, socks, and no shirt, and went beet red, staring firmly up at the ceiling. “Why are you not wearing a shirt?”
Shay didn’t answer her. His gaze was fixed on the dragon. “I won’t ask how you brought me here—after leaving me in Alaska, thank you very much—butthatis a real dragon,” he said faintly, eyes tracing the curve of the dragon’s azure and black wing.
“We’d figured that out,” I said. No point stating the obvious. “We need you to fix him.”
Shay rolled his eyes at my tone but moved closer. His magic always worked better with touch. He laid his hand along the dragon’s wingtip, then ran his fingers over the dulled scales, reading what we couldn’t see.
“Is he going to be okay?” Everly asked, anxietycreeping back into her voice. “My magic brought us here to help him. That has to mean there’s enough of him left to help… right?”
I ached to take her hand, to steady her, but I couldn’t. Elandor could, though. He moved closer, nudged her gently with his nose, and thrummed low in his chest, filling the cavern with the calming sound.
Everly sagged against him, soaking in the comfort—and for the first time in my life, I was jealous of my other half.
It was ridiculous. Like being jealous of your own shadow. But he was solid, and I wasn’t, and I wanted to hold my mate.
Elandor shot me a quieting look, and I looked away, back to Shay. He was running his fingers along the dragon’s snout now, following invisible pathways of magic.
“Everly,” he said without looking up, “explain your magic to me. Why were you drawn here?”
Everly shook her head. “That’s the thing—I don’t know. I’m a… dream-type magic user, but only for shifters. Since he’s not a shifter, he shouldn’t have had a golden thread. Elandor thinks it’s because Alaric is a dragon shifter, so dragons are now included in whatever my magic can reach.”
