21. Jaiyana

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

JAIYANA

T he sandstorm of Tyson's wings barely cleared before beads of water shimmered in the air and flew past me into Rehan's sparkly blue transformation. He barreled out of it, gently picking me up with a clawed foot. I clutched my samples to my chest and hooked the backpack with my ankle as he lifted us into the air and soared toward his hut.

Despite myself, a smile pulled at my cheeks; the wind tugged at the tight braid in my hair and cooled my skin. I'd forgotten how hot and humid the tropics were. No wonder Rehan lived shirtless in swim trunks and flip-flops.

Our half-hour walk was over in under a minute. Rehan set me down gently and rocketed back into the air, filling it with blue flames.

I sucked in a breath, held it, and released.

‘Everyone has a dragon inside of them. They just need to find it.'

I replayed my exchange with Tyson in my head. Reading through my chat with Rehan had obviously shaken the fire prince to the bone. He apologized for not standing up for me, though he called me defective right before doing it. I would have bet money he'd been trying to manipulate Rehan, and people only learned those types of behaviors if they'd been manipulated the same way.

He's young, sheltered, and full of pent-up anger. A little like early twenties Jay, don't you think? Ready to take on the world for what you believed was right?

I didn't bind myself to a person.

No, but you gave parts of yourself away, binding to magic you didn't understand because you craved it.

The little flame on my neck warmed, and I rested my hand over it.

He craves you; he's bound his future to an unknown, just like you did.

My heart lurched, and I squeezed my neck before releasing. I couldn't be his Betty. It would never be simple.

One thing at a time.

With a final look at the dark blue dragon having a temper tantrum above me, I glided into his hut. I walked past the cot Rehan slept in – he'd insisted I take his bed – and stepped into the kitchen to pop the samples into the fridge.

I still needed my magic to do the majority of my experimenting. But Rehan kept his word about everything. If I needed something, he got it for me. However, he'd not figured out how to examine my old life without tipping someone off.

Baby steps, girl. Enjoy the challenge.

I grinned before my face fell. Someone trapped me here for some reason I didn't know. I shouldn't be enjoying anything. A shiver of unease wrapped around my neck, and I brushed my skin where the ribbon of Ley Line magic vibrated.

If you really believed you were that easily replaceable, you wouldn't still be worried about the Ley Lines.

I sucked in a breath.

Touché.

One side of Rehan's kitchen held a little cauldron, some beakers, and a Bunsen burner. Magical components were much harder to come by and would need to be sourced off the island without raising suspicion.

Right, I began taking inventory of what I'd already gotten.

Too bad the dragons didn't use Magizon Prime.

I snorted and stepped to the cauldron, resting my hand on its rim.

When was the last time I gathered spell components instead of just getting them in the mail? The modern era—replacing forests with cities and wild groves with farmed fields—made it difficult, yes, but I could teleport. Why had I stopped?

Something pulled at my memory….

Soft brown eyes looked at me from across a bubbling pot….

The vision vanished before I could hold onto it. I suddenly found myself caressing a cold cauldron for no reason.

I shook my head to clear it. These odd moments were starting to feel too familiar.

Magic was a fickle mistress. Simple spells, like the heat Rehan channeled to warm his cocoa, came naturally to those born with it. There were even humans who connected with the Ley Lines and didn't know they were doing it. Either their disbelief muted their powers, or they accepted the unexplainable things happening to them.

The Ley Lines existed to keep power moving. The flow of never-ending supernatural energy washed through all life, whether they knew it or not. Magic lived; it never sat still, and it liked balance.

But bigger magic. Magic with a purpose. That was a different beast and bound to the will of the caster.

What is your cosmic balance, Jay?

Ha. I'm probably Jar Jar Binks, bumbling around with more ability than sense, pissing off most of the universe while still being just helpful enough not to write off.

Ohh! Do you think Rehan or Tyson would binge Star Wars with you?

Focus, brain! We need off the island, not to plan dates.

Right, magic, casters, blah blah blah.

I know I like to toot my horn, mainly because no one will ever do it for me, but I'm incredibly powerful. Like, blow up the entire planet powerful. It was a huge part of why I went into hiding when the non-magical part of the population invented weapons of mass destruction. I did not want any part of that escalating cycle.

And that is how the world works. If someone does something big, someone else rises to the challenge and makes something bigger. It's the nature of evolution.

Now someone had come out of the woodwork powerful enough to put me down, even though I'd not done a bloody fucking thing with my life in the last hundred years.

I didn't have a clue who that was, but I was starting to get an idea of how they'd done it.

Cutting off an all-powerful immortal's magic is impossible, but you can wrap it in layers of conditions and rules equally powerful. In short, the curse on me could only be unlocked by something as powerful as me.

You want an excuse to get closer to Rehan.

I really don't. He's not powerful enough to break the curse. Neither of these dragons' obsessions with me is natural.

You don't know that.

I do.

I bet Tyson and Rehan together would be close to powerful enough.

I stumbled.

Two mate marks. Why not three or four?

See, you should listen to me more often.

A wall of conditions lay between me and my power. Whoever did this to me didn't just understand magic. They were intimately aware of the details of dragon shifter culture. Dragons didn't share, and clearly, neither did their shifter brethren. Even taking out the intimacy, bringing together four elemental dragons who hated each other based on their scale color would be an impossible task. Someone wanted me out of the picture.

Jay, girl, they might understand you really well too. This task is extra hard, as you've got the emotional availability of a deadlog.

I do not!

The sound of Rehan's bare human feet landed in the doorway. "Are you thinking about Tyson?" He asked, his voice even.

I wrinkled my nose.

The water dragon had thrown on a pair of solid powder blue board shorts, and his long hair tumbled over his shoulders. He looked stunning, resting his muscled arms above the door frame with the afternoon light filtering past him into the main room. Only the tense set of his shoulders clued me into his agitated state of mind.

"Did Tyson bathe you?" He swallowed hard. "Did you sleep in his arms?"

I stepped to the conversation pit and sat, shoving a pillow onto my lap before resting the laptop on it. My chat didn't work. Frustrated, I looked for my phone, but I'd left it in the kitchen.

Rehan raised an eyebrow, but I couldn't communicate. I slammed down the laptop lid. On an off chance he knew sign language, I flashed some hand symbols.

"Stop." He stalked toward me before sliding into the pit. "I need to know. You're my mate, yet I slept out here last night and left you alone in my bed." He sat in front of me but didn't touch me. "My dragon doesn't want me to stop touching you, but I've held back out of respect." He swallowed again. "Did Tyson?"

Guilt burned in my gut.

The corner of his phone peeked out of a pocket in his shorts, and I pulled it out. After typing and erasing twice, he took the phone from me and read what I'd written on my third attempt. "You were drawn to him. He didn't ask, but you didn't say no. And you were pretending to be Betty."

Yea, no. It wasn't nearly that simple, but I didn't even know how to describe what Tyson and I had between us. The fire dragon was an arrogant, bossy, hot, dramatic mess. But he was also young. Maybe not physically. Definitely not physically, but mentally. My guess is someone close hurt him. He opened up, and whomever he chose to trust broke him. They shut him down so hard he didn't even see the wall of sarcasm and insults he put between himself and the world.

Remind you of someone?

"We fell asleep looking at the stars last night." Rehan pushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear, and I snapped my attention to him. "I picked you up and tucked you into my bed but slept out here. Should I have stayed?"

My heart raced.

Yes! Stayed and woke me up.

His feelings aren't real.

They might be.

Rehan cupped my cheeks. "Jay, don't zone out. Talk to me."

Heat flooded my face, making his fingers feel cool. We'd only had a few days together, and he already read me like a fucking picture book. I hated pulling my face out of his hands to type on his phone.

‘I don't know how much of what we're feeling is The Hunt or the curse on me.'

Rehan shook his head. "It's all real."

‘Have you been in a mate bond to know what it feels like?'

He frowned. "Well, no."

I gestured around us as if proving a point.

He found my hand and squeezed it. "You didn't actually answer my question. Should I have stayed?"

My heart raced. I nodded.

His face lit up, making me smile in response. I took his phone back.

As much as I appreciated his respect, I was a thousand years old, and I could wash my clothing on his abs. Even if I hadn't needed to sleep with him to get my magic back, I wouldn't judge anyone for jumping on that train. This didn't need to be complicated.

‘On the condition that we start over once we're free of this. No expectations, no commitments. Right now, we're two strangers who hooked up at a bar. That's all I want.'

As he read, his shoulders tensed, and he gritted his teeth. "Because you think Tyson's your real mate?"

I shook my hands, mouthing the word no, and took the phone back.

‘Oh, God, no. I think both of you are in the same trap. Once I'm free, you'll be free, and my useless ass will get out of your weird breeding thing. All of us can move on.'

He blanched, his face going red before he threw his phone, shattering it against the wall.

"You're not useless!" He leaned toward me. "And I won't be moving on. You're my mate."

I put my hands up and nodded, ducking my head as a sign of submission.

He clenched his fists before dropping his gaze. "Unless you don't want to be here."

I shot up to my feet. Unable to type out how badly I wanted to be here, I would have to show him and test out my new theory simultaneously.

Pushing him back onto the couch, I straddled his lap and feather kissed his jawline, exploring every bulky muscle of his bare chest with my hands. The tension drained out of him. He groaned and gripped my hips, holding me in place. "You're incredible."

I stopped kissing him and raised an eyebrow. I'd not even done anything yet.

Omg, don't overthink it! Just go, girl.

He rubbed my hips through the thin material of my throw as his large erection bulged between us, urging me to keep going. When I hesitated, he stilled. "You don't have to?—"

I dove down, pressing my lips to his and locking our insecurities in a heated kiss. Well, heat on my side. He still couldn't kiss back, which made it less sexy and more awkward, but it was the thought that counted. When he didn't pull back in pain, I rested my forehead on his. Intimacy was a simple one plus one equals two. He was sin on a plate and had a key to my magic. I looked okay enough and had a keyhole with magic trapped behind it.

I gave him a reassuring nod before peppering his jaw with kisses, dipping each one lower, down his neck and bare chest. He tasted like sea salt and man. His muscles quivered under my touch. My core tingled, and I sank further onto his lap, finding friction against his hard quad to warm my demanding clit.

His abs quaked under my touch. I traced them with my fingertips to where they disappeared in his shorts before cupping his throbbing erection through the material. He groaned and squeezed my hips in his strong grip, ready for the pain from Tyson's mate mark. But no power sizzled through him.

I met his gaze, mischief glowing behind my eyes.

Mate mark loophole. If I'm the one acting, the mate mark doesn't respond.

Oh, fuck yes.

I undid the little tie to Rehan's shorts and ran my fingers down his hard length. He spread his legs, and I slid off his lap, kneeling in front of him.

"Love." He placed his hand on my head. "I can't reciprocate. You don't have to do this."

I ignored him, kissing down the perfect V at the bottom of his abs and freed his length. A drip of cum beaded on the tip, and I gently sucked it into my mouth.

White chocolate, mango, and rum exploded on my taste buds. I blinked, completely forgetting I was supposed to be waiting to see if Tyson's magic shocked him. I tilted my head and licked his dick like a popsicle. More of that fantastic taste coated my tongue.

I tried to say ‘holy shit,' but all that came out was a squeak.

Rehan looked confused, but I didn't explain. Instead, I licked every inch of his velvety length, unable to find a spot which didn't taste like a fucking dessert. I wasn't here to lick, though. I wanted to enjoy my popsicle.

I swirled Rehan's tip in my mouth before circling my tongue around and around his thick shaft. After a thousand years, I didn't have much of a gag reflex left, and I sucked him down the back of my throat and swallowed.

He groaned. "Oh, fuck, Love." His fingers tangled in my hair as he tried to pull me up, but I wasn't moving. "Holy shit, I've never, it's…."

I pulled all of him out, brushing his tip against my lips and smiling as he gazed at me with lust-lidded eyes, his hands already urging me back down.

The moment I sucked him again, the mumbles started, and I relished it.

"Love, I'm not gonna last if you keep doing that," he said, managing to string together his first complete sentence.

I dragged my teeth gently up his sides, the pain hopefully pulling him back just enough for another round.

For a third time, I swallowed him, bobbing up and down and rubbing his base with my hand. He groaned, and his eyes rolled back up in his head. Random words and moans filled his hut while I feasted.