Chapter One

Winter was trapped in a castle.

He supposed that sounded almost like a fairytale. He’d be the princess, since he couldn’t leave, but at the same time, he was a dragon, so it was a weird fairytale.

But that wasn’t his problem. No, his problem was that he was trapped in a castle .

Samuel rolled his eyes. “You’re being dramatic.”

Winter turned to glare at him. How could he be lounging on the couch, acting as if nothing was wrong? It was probably because if he wanted, he could leave. Winter, on the other hand, wasn’t going anywhere. “I’m not being dramatic. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to do this.”

Samuel leaned forward. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and his feet were bare. Winter looked at him with fondness, but at the same time, he wanted to strangle him. He wasn’t taking this seriously enough. Didn’t he understand that this would change everything? Did he want everything to change? Because that was what it sounded like, and Winter didn’t like it.

Samuel grabbed the remote control and paused the TV series he was watching.

Winter was relieved—he didn’t mind the series, but right now he could only deal with his own disastrous life. The characters in the series would have to wait.

The problem was that now that Samuel wasn’t focused on the TV, he turned his attention to Winter. He narrowed his eyes and looked at him as if he were thinking about throwing him out the window, which was a distinct possibility.

Winter took a step away from the window, just in case.

“If you don’t want to be here, then leave,” Samuel said.

“I can’t.”

“You can,” Samuel snapped. “You’re just too chicken shit to do anything about it.” He pushed his blond hair away from his face.

Winter swallowed. He wasn’t supposed to be in love with Samuel. Samuel was his best friend, almost like a brother.

Thinking of that reminded Winter of Keylon. He scowled.

Samuel looked taken aback. “What? What did I do now?”

“You didn’t do anything. You heard the mages. They need me to stay and fight this Carlyle guy.”

“They can’t force you to do it if you don’t want to. They can’t force you to do anything, so if you want to go home, go home. Of course, you’d leave the mages with one less dragon, and you’d probably break Keylon’s heart, but I’m sure they can recover. Besides, I’m staying. I want to help them fight Carlyle because they’ll need all the help they can get.”

Winter crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

“Then I guess we’re both staying.”

Winter resisted the urge to stomp his foot. He wasn’t a child. In fact, he was a dragon shifter who was decades older than he looked. He couldn’t afford to act like a child, especially when he was in enemy territory.

Samuel sighed. “Look, I understand where you’re coming from. You have no memories of these guys, and you can’t remember a thing about Keylon, so it has to be weird to know that you’re his shield. No one’s forcing you to stay. You can go, and I’m sure both Keylon and Jarvis will let you leave. You know what will happen if you do, though.”

“I won’t have to worry about being anyone’s shield?”

“Carlyle will come after you.”

“Why would he do that? Why would he care?” Winter was desperate to convince himself that he could leave this mess without any consequences, but it wasn’t working. He hated it when Samuel was the voice of reason. He hated it when he couldn’t ignore that what Samuel was saying was true.

“You were one of the people who trapped him. I’d be pissed at you, too, if I were him.”

“Then maybe he shouldn’t have become a bloodthirsty bastard,” Winter grumbled.

He turned to the window again. At least the view was beautiful. Both his and Samuel’s bedrooms looked onto a lake and a forest. It was early September, and the weather was still gorgeous enough to make Winter want to throw himself into the water. Maybe he’d do that later.

“You know that kind of person,” Samuel said gently. “They think they’re always right and that the world should bow to them. We have a few of those in the clan.”

“It would have been easier if it had been one of them.”

“Well, instead, it’s one of the most powerful mages I can remember being told about. My parents used him as a cautionary tale when I was a kid. You know, I still can’t believe you’re one of the people who defeated him. You’re famous.”

Winter didn’t want Samuel to see him as famous. He wanted him to see him as his friend and possibly more.

This situation was a fucking mess, and Winter wanted out. It wasn’t that easy. It wasn’t just Carlyle, but also the fact that Winter might be fully bonded to Keylon. He couldn’t remember a thing, and he hadn’t dared ask, but the thought made him want to scream.

How could he be fully bonded to someone he didn’t remember? As far as he was concerned, he’d never met Keylon before arriving at the castle. He had no memories of him or of anyone else who lived at the castle.

But he had plenty of memories of Samuel. Samuel and his family had welcomed Winter when he’d been utterly alone, and they’d become his people over the years. Samuel was Winter’s best friend, which was why Winter wasn’t leaving without him. He already knew he wouldn’t be able to convince Samuel, though. Samuel had a stubborn streak a mile wide, and he only did what he wanted, which was never what Winter wanted.

“I’m not saying you have to like the situation,” Samuel said as he got up from the couch.

Winter didn’t look at him, not even when he felt Samuel’s hand on his back. He leaned into the touch, telling his heart to slow down. Samuel was only a friend, maybe a brother. That was it.

“I hate this,” Winter whispered. “I never wanted to be a shield. I especially didn’t want to be a shield to someone I don’t know.”

That wasn’t quite true. Winter did want to be a shield, but only to Samuel. He’d never dared bring it up, but he’d told himself that once Samuel was ready for a shield, he’d tell him.

Now, he couldn’t. What if he was fully bonded to Keylon? They’d have to break the bond first, and Winter wasn’t sure Keylon would want to do that. He couldn’t force the mage to do anything, no matter how desperately he wanted not to be bonded to him.

It was a moot point, anyway. Samuel hadn’t said anything about wanting a shield, and the last time Winter had mentioned it, he’d thrown a shoe at his head. Samuel was convinced he was strong enough to defend himself, and maybe he was, but if Jarvis and the other mages here hadn’t been, surely Samuel needed to be defended.

“If these guys don’t defeat Carlyle, the man will become a problem for all the clans, including ours,” Samuel said gently. “I know you don’t want that to happen.”

Winter’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t.” Winter might not remember anything about his previous life, but he did remember this one. He had Samuel and the clan. Samuel’s family was like his own family, and he didn’t want anything to happen to them. That meant he’d have to fight, and the only way to do that was to stay here with the mages. Carlyle would come for them eventually. He already had, and he’d captured one of the dragons.

There was no way out for Winter.

* * * *

Keylon wanted to cry, but he needed to be strong. His situation was dire, but not as dire as Dallin’s. At least Keylon knew that his dragon was all right. Winter was in the castle, moping around in one of the bedrooms, probably ranting to his friend about how evil Keylon was or something like that.

But Dallin’s dragon wasn’t here. Carlyle had taken Sol, and they still couldn’t locate either of them. Thinking about what Carlyle could be doing to Sol made Keylon want to throw up, but he plastered a serene expression on his face and focused on Dallin.

“I’m sure Ansley will find him eventually,” he said to his friend.

Dallin was reading something, but he looked up and set down his book. He was curled up in one of the armchairs in the library, looking smaller than Keylon could ever remember seeing him.

“I know. I have faith in Ansley and in all of us.” Dallin’s voice was soft.

Keylon hated that he was hurting. More than friends, they were like brothers. They’d lived together for decades, trying to find their dragons and supporting each other. Now, only Dallin’s dragon was missing.

That didn’t mean everything was going great for the mages who had found their dragons. Jarvis, Ansley, and Penley were walking on clouds because they’d reunited with their shields and were happy as clams, but the same couldn’t be said for Keylon and Tyne. Tyne had been avoiding his dragon like the plague and got angry every time he saw his face, while Keylon was moping around just as much as Winter.

What the fuck did Winter expect him to do? They were mage and shield. They were fully bonded—not that Winter had asked about that—and they were supposed to work together. They were supposed to be in love and be together, but instead, Winter spent all of his time with his little friend.

“And things will get better between you and Winter,” Dallin continued. “You’ll see.”

Keylon’s eyes burned, but he told himself he didn’t want to cry. Dallin had other things to focus on. It wasn’t his job to take care of Keylon.

It was no one’s job, not even Winter’s, apparently.

“I don’t know,” Keylon said. “He sounds pretty convinced that he wants nothing to do with me.”

“You have to put yourself in his shoes. He doesn’t remember anything, including you. It has to be incredibly hard to deal with something like that, especially when he was told he’d have to stay to fight Carlyle. I wouldn’t want to fight Carlyle either if I were in Winter’s place. Hell, I don’t want to fight him, but I know I’ll have to. I’m resigned, but he probably feels he has a way out since he hasn’t been involved until now.”

Keylon sighed. “I do understand, and I do realize he doesn’t remember anything. It doesn’t make it any easier to accept or deal with.” He bit his lower lip. “What if he decides he wants to break our bond?”

“Why should he want to do that?”

“Maybe because he hates me. It’s clear he’d rather be Samuel’s shield than mine, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he asked me to break the bond.”

“I would be. You need to give him time, and while I understand it feels impossible, I believe it’s the only way to solve this problem. I don’t know if Winter wants to be Samuel’s shield, but I’m sure Samuel doesn’t want him like that.”

Keylon had to admit that when he’d watched the two, he’d never seen Samuel look at Winter as anything but a friend. Of course, that didn’t mean they couldn’t be mage and shield. Usually, the mages and their shields were linked by a bond that activated when they were in love and together physically, but that didn’t mean every mage and shield couple took that step. Winter would be able to protect Samuel even if they never slept together, but Keylon suspected that Winter wanted Samuel as more than just a friend.

He closed his eyes. The thought made him angry. Winter was supposed to be his. Alvin had been his, and they’d been happy. Why couldn’t Keylon have that back? Why did he have to watch Alvin be with someone else?

But Winter wasn’t Alvin. It was hard to wrap his mind around that, no matter how many times Keylon told himself he had to. He needed to face reality.

He was never getting Alvin back. Alvin had become Winter, and there were no traces of him left. That meant that Keylon had to forget about Alvin.

He didn’t know how to do that. Every time he saw Winter, he thought of Alvin. Every time Winter snubbed him, he remembered how he and Alvin had been together. They’d been in love, and Keylon would never forget the night before the final fight with Carlyle. Alvin had promised that whatever happened, they’d always be together and that he would always protect him.

It had been a lie.

A hand on his shoulder startled Keylon. He opened his eyes to see that Dallin was looking at him, a sad expression on his face. There was pity there, but Keylon didn’t care. Of course the other mages pitied him. They could see that Winter wanted Samuel and not Keylon. They probably thought that Keylon would have to give up Winter. He might be able to wait until after Carlyle was taken care of, but eventually, he’d have to let him go.

He wasn’t sure he could.