26. Jaiyana

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

JAIYANA

T yson was fucking infuriating, and I hated how much his incredibly wrong interpretations of my squeaks made me laugh. The minute his feet hit the ground, I wiggled out of his arms, intent on giving him a black eye, but he was already up in the air.

Not quite a cliff, the steep side of a mountain sprawled before me, and jumping to try and nail him would either kill me or end up with his arms wrapped around me, saving my ass again.

Jump!

God damn it, no, brain. He's mean.

You like mean. He's just trying to rile you up, and you're letting him.

Damn it.

"I think a blood-red hoodie would look best with your skin tone," he purred. "I'll be back to pick you up."

With that, he shot into the air. I shook my fist at him with a dopey smile I couldn't get rid of plastered to my face.

"Nice of you to join us," a woman's deep voice drifted from behind me.

I turned, schooling my expression, to see five women dressed in simple red wrap dresses standing at the bottom of a small crater. The dark rock under their scaled feet crisscrossed with light quartz to create the interlocking runes for fertility and fire.

One woman beckoned to me, and I balled my fists before trotting the few yards down to the group. Instead of antagonizing me, Tyson could have clued me in on what I'd be doing here.

You played along, squeaking every time he asked.

I fucking did.

I slid to a halt in front of the little group, their hair, and occasional scale in various shades of red and pink. Like most dragon shifters, three of the five were ageless – their beauty youthful but mature. The remaining two appeared young, maybe in their early twenties, not that I was great at guessing ages.

A familiar figure off to the left caught my attention. Still shrouded from head to toe in white, the dragon shifter, who I'd dubbed Grey Eyes and had been with me when I first woke up on this island, sat with her back straight, trying to look at me without looking at me. I stared flatly at her, and she blinked her big, smokey eyes before shifting her gaze to the ground.

"She's visiting from another temple," One of the more mature priestesses said, stepping forward and demanding my attention. A tight bun of orange-red hair circled the top of her head, and a gold tiara hung between her sculpted eyebrows.

Her full lips pursed as her eyes skimmed over me. "You must be Betty."

I nodded.

"And you're human."

I nodded again.

"And you can't speak."

I nodded a third time, pointing at her and pretending to shoot a gun.

"Right." She rubbed her temples. "Well, do you have experience in dance?"

I shook my head.

"Acting?"

I shook my head again.

"Any theater at all?"

I shook my head a third time but refrained from making the shooting motion.

"Right." She rubbed her temples so hard it dented them.

If she hadn't been acting so dramatic, and I wasn't trying to identify my abductor, I might have attempted to reassure the woman. Saying I'd participated in a few rituals in my thousand years alive would be an understatement. In the twelfth century, I'd gotten a big enough ego to dedicate a temple to myself. It hadn't worked out well, not at all. I'd made a terrible goddess, and large groups of young women were overly emotional, to put it mildly.

However, Drama Llama did not inspire my sympathy. So, instead, I twirled my hair around one of my fingers, pouted my lips, and blinked in confusion.

She sighed as if the weight of the world suddenly fell on her shoulders. "The fire ritual is thankfully a straightforward ritual; however, it's still a magical casting requiring coordination and specific motions." She leaned toward me. "We are the Sisters of Fire. We dedicate our lives to the fire dragon's rituals, practicing day in and day out in the crater of our most sacred sleeping volcano."

I nodded, attempting to look suitably impressed.

"Well." Drama Llama narrowed her eyes. "I guess we can start from the beginning."

I bowed my head and motioned for her to lead on.

"Runes are not magic in themselves." She gestured to the rocks below us. "Wait," she glanced back at me. "You do know what magic is, right?"

I nodded.

"Right, okay." She gestured to the women around her. In unison, they waltzed through the patterns on the ground. "These two runes are for fire and fertility, the two most powerful runes in the world."

I bit my lower lip to keep from laughing. Powerful, sure, but not the most powerful. Not even close.

"We interconnect them here," as she said the word ‘here,' her four companions came to a stop at the points. Their synchronization impressed me. Drama Llama must have seen something on my face because she loosened slightly up. "Runes are not magical; they are conduits for the Ley Lines. They channel the power which we move." She sighed. "We've picked the easiest job for you. Although you will need to step with us for the first part and hold your hands correctly to channel the magic, your part ends there. You will stand still and wait for the prince to touch you and reignite his fire."

I put my hands in front of my chest to make it look like something was exploding.

She scowled. "Not like that."

I sighed. This was going to be a long afternoon.

"She's a natural. You're fortunate," the Drama Llama said when Tyson landed a few hours later. "It will be shaky, but your ceremony can go as planned."

Shaky? You're doing the second two steps of the ritual backward! It's a wonder you can pull any power from the Ley Lines at all.

The woman pulled Tyson to the side, voicing her many concerns, I was sure. I rolled my eyes and focused on not moving so the two youngest sisters could finish taking my measurements.

From her spot, still seated off to one side, Gray Eyes stared at me with a dopey grin on her face. The moment she saw me looking, she dropped her gaze and scowled at the ground.

I grabbed the priestess writing figures down and pointed her at the mystery visitor.

"Sister Abby," she explained. "Putting out a dragon's inner magic has only happened twice in our history. She'll be observing for a few days. Don't worry. She won't be around for the actual ritual."

I eyed the girls' writing tools before reaching forward and commandeering them for myself: ‘From a different fire temple?'

The girl snatched her pencil and paper back while the other pushed my arms up. I held them in place and looked expectantly at the pencil wielder.

"No, there's only one temple for each element. Sister Abby's air. I think an earth dragon was supposed to be here too, but he didn't show."

I eyed the girl's pencil again, and she physically pulled away from me, bringing it into her chest. I huffed and turned my attention back to Tyson, who was laughing at something Drama Llama said to him, which made her face turn red.

He fucking dropped you.

Then caught me and admitted he was wrong.

The moment the girls finished taking measurements, I bound up the crater to Tyson's side.

"Excited to see me?" He asked, pulling a red sweatshirt over my head which smelled like him.

I rolled my eyes. Excited to get out of here.

"I will see you tomorrow, Betty," the head priestess said a little too loudly, as if not being able to talk also made me deaf.

Tyson kicked out my ankles, catching my back and cradling me against his chest again. "She goes by Jay."

The series of angry squeaks on the tip of my tongue from his manhandling died.

She goes by Jay.

My eyes probably looked like saucers, and I dropped a hand to cover my mouth before my smile exposed my molars. Tyson didn't look down to see my reaction; he leaped off the mountainside, and my stomach lurched. We hung in the air awkwardly as he struggled with the weight of two.

"You're the heaviest human I've ever carried," he said, adding fake strain to his voice.

My grin turned into a smirk. I whacked him on the arm, my ‘fuck you' coming out as a "Squeak squeak."

"Oh, I know I'm right this time," Tyson said. "You're ‘thank you' was clear as day."

His eyes glowed, and I sank into the warmth of his chest, listening to his heart thump. I wasn't pretending to be Betty anymore, and Tyson still teased me. His banter felt like home.

With a start, I jerked away.

No, no, no, no. This is a curse.

You don't know that.

Even if it's not, what if all of this is just a continuation of The Hunt? He and Rehan are still competing.

I bit my lower lip.

He doesn't like me. He likes winning.

Stop, Jay, don't do this.

"Wiggles, relax, baby," Tyson said.

I shook my head. No matter how much Tyson tried, I didn't want to play his games this time. I wanted to destroy this curse and free these two dragons before I broke my own heart.

"The TV and PlayStation were for you," Tyson said after silence stretched between us. "I'll make sure the priestesses treat you right. I don't like it when you're unhappy."

I reached up and squeezed his shoulder. None of this was his fault. To get my magic back, I needed to make our complicated relationship worse by kissing him and probably giving him a BJ. Maybe even more.

Peachy.

Too bad this wasn't a video game, and I could start over pretending to be a sex worker. Then, I could've kept emotions out of it.

Could you, though?

I spotted Rehan on the beach, pacing with his phone out.

"I'm not fecking late," Tyson growled.

He set me down on the beach, wrapping an arm around my waist to pull me in close.

Rehan came right up to the border and growled a warning."You have fifty-seven seconds."

Tyson scowled. "She's in a mood. It's not fair."

I narrowed my eyes and elbowed him. He must have expected it. My fleshy human elbow ran into hard scales, and I squeaked out an ouch and pursed my lips.

"I've talked to Tukaqu," Tyson continued, ignoring me. "And tomorrow, she'll have two hours to eat and decompress with me after her training. The Sisters of Fire were impressed. She'll be ready with no delays, and we'll see who she chooses once I'm whole."

See, I was right.

Stop jumping to conclusions.

Rehan tore his gaze away from his phone and spat on the sandy shore. "Your time's up."

Tyson released me, and Rehan pulled me into his side.

"Squeak squeak, Wiggles." Tyson winked at me. "Till tomorrow."

He gave me a lingering look before stepping back and shifting into his dragon form. The heat from it kissed my chilled skin. Despite Rehan's prodding, I couldn't pull my eyes away from Tyson's massive red dragon as he soared into the sky.

Fucking ass.

Yeah, hot fucking ass who makes you laugh when he's not insulting you.

Rehan snarled, eyeing my new sweatshirt. He extended his claws, and I held perfectly still as he shredded the garment to bits. Without a word, he shifted into his massive dark blue dragon and cradled me in his talons. We were back at his hut in no time.

He sniffed me in his dragon form and huffed unhappily. Curling every claw but one, he pointed toward his room. I didn't see much of his transformation in the dark, but his dragon finger morphed into a human one. "Shower, now."

I raised an eyebrow but didn't complain. A few minutes later, we found ourselves standing on either side of the opened bathroom door. I found myself hoping for some company.

"I want to join you, even if all I can do is touch," Rehan said as if reading my mind.

We agreed to be friends with benefits. This didn't need to be complicated. I stepped forward and traced his shoulders with my fingers.

The giant of a shifter didn't need more encouragement. We stripped, and he pulled me into the running water. Hot water fanned the heat already building between us. He ran his hands from the outside of my thighs and up my body to brush the sides of my breasts. I covered us in his soap, exploring his defined muscles just as he did my less-defined ones.

Warmth tingled between my legs, and his cock hardened. I pulled in a breath of thick, humid air and started to wrap my hand around Rehan, but he grasped my wrist and pressed my hand into my throbbing sex.

"I can't touch you." He braced my lower back, making my hand press against my swollen clit. "But you can while I touch you everywhere else."

I grinned, putting a dab of soap on his nose.

He chuckled and pressed my hand further down. Sliding his palm from my back, he cupped my breast and rubbed my nipple with his thumb.

Orgasms had never been a plentiful thing in my life. I love them, yes. I didn't know if it was my magic or what, but even on my own, if I didn't stay in the moment, my brain wouldn't focus, and I'd lose my rhythm.

The trick was always the perfect warm-up. I needed to feel everything from my head to my toes, so if my brain did decide to go on a tangent, I would already be so far down the rabbit hole my body didn't need it.

I rubbed circles right above my clit, using my other hand to guide Rehan off my breasts. It was too early for them to come in. He followed my lead, rubbing my hips and tracing my stomach before palming my ass.

With a moan, I kicked into second gear and directed his hands back to my breasts. My fingers slid down either side of my clit. Rehan pressed his rock-hard erection into my hip and groaned, leaning down to kiss my neck. As his lips made contact, he jerked back and cursed, his dick deflating.

I grimaced and removed my hand from my clit.

"No, don't stop." He cupped one of my breasts. "I need a minute. Touch yourself for me?"

I bit my bottom lip, so not that kind of girl, but did my best to put on a little show for him.

He waved at me. "No, stop."

I froze, blinking. I mean, I knew I moved like a drunk giraffe, but I was trying.

"I mean, touch yourself for you," he slid to the floor, water dripping off of me and onto his hair. "Not a show for me. I want to know what turns you on."

I gave him a skeptical look, but my heart flopped. This dragon existed to break my heart, and I'd let him.

Closing my eyes, I slid further under the water. Rivulets ran between my breasts, and I played with them so they dripped across my sensitive stomach. Heat bloomed in my abdomen, and I circled my clit, waiting to find second gear again so I could slide into third. I added more pressure and more surface area to my motions.

Rehan ran his hands up the back of my legs, cupping my ass again, and I opened my eyes. The water dragon knelt, and a little water umbrella gave him a clear view of my fingers playing disk jockey on my clit.

No, focus. No jokes.

I put my free hand on his head and closed my eyes again, desperate to stay in the moment. I imagined his long dragon tongue replacing my fingers. Fourth gear hit me faster than I expected, and I trembled, pleading with my brain to stay in the moment as my climax built.

Rehan gripped my ass, and the long tongue I'd just imagined wrapped around my clit. Something warm and hard, tingling with magic, plunged into my opening. Water swirled inside me, hitting my G-spot like a surging river. Every muscle in my body tightened. A moan ripped out of me, and I pressed myself to Rehan's face.

I didn't have to plead with my brain. Pleasure became my world as he pushed me into fifth gear, and we raced for the finish line. My climax burst with a wave of euphoria which left me trembling and driving away from Rehan to steady myself against the wall. Waves of pleasure shook my body, making me light-headed in the steam.

Rehan pulled back, his muscles twitching unhappily as smoke literally curled out of his pores.

"Worth it," he gasped. He jerked to the side and cupped his junk.

I shook my head before turning the water cold and pointing the nozzle at him. He yelped, jumping up with a scowl.

‘Don't do that again!' I tried to yell, but only squeaks came out.

Unlike Tyson, he didn't try to guess what I was saying. He stepped into the water and turned it back to warm. Guilt twisted my gut. I shouldn't be thinking of the asshole fire dragon at all. Rehan shocked himself to get me off.

Rehan drew me back into the warm water and soaped us down again.

"We'll fix this," he promised.

I shouldn't have, but I leaned back into his embrace, loving his arms around me. I could keep things separate. I had to.