6. Dane

Chapter 6

Dane

I t was early in the morning and I knew that most of the castle were still asleep. We hadn't had a late night, exactly, but if everyone felt the way I did, then their dragon was a touch restless and angsty, which made it hard to settle down. I'd only managed to drop off to sleep by fucking Seren hard and passing out afterwards.

Seren didn't seem to feel the same tension I did. Probably that was because his dragon felt safe around the Somervilles, since he'd grown up with them and knew they were family, that they would protect him. And he felt safe around us, his new family. He didn't have any reason to be anxious .

That theory was proven by the fact that he was nowhere to be seen when I woke up. He was probably off, bouncing round and getting into mischief.

I smiled to myself. Seren lit up the world and I couldn't wait to go and see him doing whatever it was he wanted to do. It might be a full-time job keeping him out of trouble but I was totally up for the role.

After my shower, as I was getting dressed, I heard a high-pitched squealing outside my window. I stopped, confused. I recognised that sound. It was Hannah, and she was shrieking with pure joy and excitement.

That, in itself, wasn't unusual. What was unusual about it was they sounded far too close.

I was currently on the third floor, which meant they should have been a good distance from my window and not… right outside it.

Hurrying over to the window, I flung back the curtains and looked out. Right there, speeding back and forth at an alarming rate, were Hannah and Ed, clinging to the back of a dragon. I recognised that silver dragon .

I opened the window and leaned out to shout, "Glimmer! They're not meant to leave the ground."

It was actually funny to watch him. He almost skidded to a stop in mid-air. He'd been streaking around so fast that he nearly threw the two children off him and they fell forward onto his neck and scrambled to sit up again where they'd been clutching hold of him. Their little legs were far too small to sit astride his back, even though he was only half my size. They were sitting on his neck, just where it joined his shoulders.

Glimmer beat his wings steadily, keeping his large body in place, and he twisted his long neck back so he could glare at the two giggling children.

I could see the accusation in that glare. No doubt they'd convinced him that they were allowed to fly around on people's backs when they absolutely were not.

Hannah leaned forward so she was cuddling his muscular neck and looked into Glimmer's eyes with her own sweet, child-like ones.

"We love you, Uncle Glimmer."

I snorted. No wonder he'd been duped. That kid knew how to get what she wanted.

I shouted out the window, "Bring them in here."

Glimmer twisted his body closer to the wall and eased himself onto the huge windowsill where he steadied himself and allowed Hannah and Ed to slide off him, straight into my arms. Ed was already talking.

"Did you see us, Uncle Dane? We were going so fast ," and he made zooming noises as he showed me how fast he'd been flying with his hand.

Hannah, though, knew they were in trouble. She looked up at me with those same puppy-dog eyes that had tricked Glimmer and said, "We were very safe on Uncle Glimmer's back. He's the Guardian ."

She said the word ‘guardian' as though it were obvious that it therefore followed everyone was safe around him. Annoyingly, she kind of had a point. They'd been perfectly safe with Glimmer. He'd never have allowed any harm to come to them.

In my deepest voice, I growled out, "You tricked him."

They both had the decency to look ashamed about that .

Ed turned to Glimmer, looking contrite, and said, "Sorry, Uncle Glimmer. You were really fun though."

Hannah added, "Don't worry, we won't tell anyone."

I wanted to snort again. What the little minx meant was that it would be great for her if Nana never found out about this.

I made my voice as stern as I could, and then said, "Please forgive them, Glimmer. You're well within your rights to eat them as a punishment."

Glimmer snapped his jaws at them and both of them ran squealing from the room, shouting, "Don't eat us! We won't do it again."

When the kids were gone and the sound of their thudding footsteps had faded – probably charging through the castle and waking everyone else up – I turned to Glimmer.

"You can come in, if you like."

He slid into the room, shifting as he did so. Glimmer was incredibly graceful like that. He dropped a bundle of clothes onto the floor and began to rummage through them, having obviously kept the bundle in his claws as he was flying .

I was dressed, except for my socks and shoes, so I busied myself putting them on while Glimmer yanked his clothes on behind me.

Before we left my room, I asked, "You okay, G?"

He shot me a surprised look. "Why wouldn't I be?"

I shrugged. I'd felt something of the prickling unease when I'd visited the Somerville castle when Alfie became elder, but I'd known a lot of the clan and I'd been with my mate, who'd been born to them, and I'd been there before to train Seren and Glimmer. In fact, I was one of the few people who felt okay about walking into other dragons territories, since I'd done it before. Glimmer had never been in someone else's territory before.

"Just wondered if you felt weird about being here."

"Your elder's magic is different from mine. Maybe because she's a curaidh . I can feel it pressing against me but it's not hurting me."

On the basis I couldn't feel magic at all, that was news to me.

"The rest of your family doing okay?"

"I guess." Glimmer was already heading to the door. I could feel him wanting to leave but I was pretty sure it wasn't to get away from me. We were very comfortable around each other.

I followed him out and down the corridors. He was confident leading me, which I wasn't at all surprised about. I'd bet Glimmer had been walking the corridors of our castle long into the night to learn his way around.

He headed straight for the dining room, which made sense, and I could hear people gathered inside, eating.

Kingsley was positioned slightly back from the rest of the group, standing to attention. He hadn't relaxed around us yet.

I had to give the man credit for even being there. No way would I walk into a ridire 's house, even if they all assured me personally that they wouldn't hurt me. My body would rebel against the mere possibility.

Glimmer walked straight over to him and Kingsley looked at him, then looked over Glimmer's shoulder at me.

"You got caught, huh?" he asked.

Glimmer pouted and cuddled into Kingsley's arms, winding his own arms around his mate's waist so he could lean against him. "Something like that."

Kingsley chuckled. "I told you they weren't allowed to fly."

"They said they were."

Kingsley met my eyes again and there was something in them, the merest flicker of a challenge. I smiled, trying not to let my dragon rise inside me at the sight of a ridire studying me. I tried to focus instead on the fact that my best friend was currently hugging that ridire , that he was inside our territory and wasn't a threat to us.

"They tricked him good and proper."

I had to clear my throat, since it had got a bit clogged up at the prickling sensation of being so near to a dragon-hunter. My dragon was a little more present inside me than usual, waiting for a challenge, waiting to surge out of me and protect my family.

Kingsley nodded and turned his eyes away from me, back to Glimmer. I relaxed just a fraction.

He'd only been waiting to see if I was angry about the children riding his mate like a fairground ride. He was ready to protect his mate, that was all.

I could understand that .

In fact, I was looking round for my own mate. I could smell him so I knew he'd been here not long ago. Following his scent, I found him in the kitchen with Alfie. He was showing him how to boil eggs.

Seren spared enough concentration to kiss me good morning but then he turned back to his cousin. I stood back and watched, fascinated by the way Seren moved and the way Alfie seemed to genuinely be learning from scratch.

When they were done, Seren said, "Now you carry those out to the table so everyone knows you cooked them."

Alfie picked up the tray and began to carry it out but he stopped when he got near me. He shuffled from foot to foot.

"Um, hi," he said.

"Good morning."

"Yes, um, good morning. I was wondering whether, um, never mind."

I gave the kid a smile. He might be a golden dragon and a clan elder, but he was still so young. It seemed hard on him to have so much responsibility so early on.

I thought I'd try to help him out, asking for whatever it was he wanted .

"Is there anything you want to do today? Seren and I can arrange it for you."

"Well, I did wonder…"

"Yes?"

"Do you think Anthony still wants to see Blaze in his fire form? Because, um, he can do that. Blaze won't mind. And I won't mind, either."

My heart almost melted with how sweet the kid was. Before I could answer, Seren bounded over and said, "Anthony is going to love that! He's been asking us questions since we visited and got to meet Blaze, but we can't answer them all. He has so. Many. Questions."

I snorted. Anthony could ask questions I'd never even thought of as though they were the most basic things, and he asked far more about dragon physiology and psychology and history than any of us could answer. He was going to be on cloud nine, talking to an actual fire spirit.

"Yeah, how about you meet outside in half an hour? That way Blaze can shift without worrying about setting anything alight?"

Alfie nodded, looking relieved, and left. Seren sidled up to me and slid his hand up my chest. " Now, what were you saying about me rimming you?"

"I didn't say—"

"Yes, you did," he said, cutting me off. I hadn't actually said anything about it, but I knew better than to argue with my mate. Especially when he had such brilliant ideas.

I grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the kitchen. We were going to find Anthony and then lock ourselves in our room for half an hour.