Chapter 20

CHAPTER20

Opal’s heart soared.

Quite literally, this time, because he was in the air with Tristan safely nestled in his talons. He resisted the temptation to do loops, because Tristan was still a little bit delicate. They would have to work up to it.

Even the dull ache in his horn couldn’t dampen Opal’s happiness.

The flight was over a little too quickly, although Opal was just as eager to show Tristan his home.

“Here we are!” Opal said as he landed in front of the cottage. He set Tristan down gently and transformed back into his human form.

When he turned to Tristan so he could grab the clothes from his pack, he saw Tristan squatting down and heaving.

“Are you all right?” Opal asked, foregoing the clothes.

“Just… give me a minute,” Tristan said, holding his hand up to ward off Opal’s support.

“My brother told me that his human has gotten used to flying. We’ll just have to do it more often,” Opal said.

Tristan looked a little green, and he side-eyed Opal, but he didn’t say anything.

Opal waited.

And waited.

The waiting got a bit boring, so Opal jogged over to his cottage door. “So this is my cottage!” He gestured at the small house nestled against the mountain. He was very proud of how it looked, with an air of neglect while clearly being well-maintained. The ivy growing up the walls—courtesy of Sapphire—helped it appear like it was one with nature.

Tristan stared at the cottage, still squatting on the ground. “A dragon can’t fit in there.”

Opal glanced over his shoulder at his home. “Well, no. That’s for when I’m in human form. There’s a tunnel that leads to my den, which has a much larger entrance too, a little higher up. You can’t reach that entrance without flying. Which is a very good way to keep people out. Although a number of humans have tried to enter my cottage uninvited.” Opal gave an exasperated sigh and extended his hand to Tristan. “Anyway. Come on, I’ll give you the tour!”

Tristan shifted uncomfortably, but he finally took Opal’s hand. “Um. Are you going to get dressed?”

Opal stared down at himself. “Oh. I can, I guess. I usually just tie some fabric around my waist when I’m at home.”

“Not skirts?” Tristan asked, a faint smile on his lips. “I like you in skirts, you know.” He still sounded a bit dazed, but he’d get over that.

Opal preened at the compliment. “Should I put one on for you, then?”

“No, it’s fine.” Tristan took a long breath. “Okay, I’m ready.”

Tristan was quiet as he followed Opal inside, but Opal knew Tristan just wasn’t much of a talker. “I moved in when I had just turned thirty,” Opal explained. “Into the den portion, I mean. The cottage wasn’t here yet. I couldn’t shift either, but Mother had just laid another egg and I couldn’t stand the thought of staying near her when the new baby arrived. Also, she was getting sick of me.” Opal tilted his head, trying to remember. “That was… Jasper, I think. Right, and Jasper was out of the nest even faster than me, because Father visited Mother unexpectedly, and when they get together it’s so loud…”

Opal trailed off when he realized Tristan wasn’t following him.

Tristan stood in the doorway and gaped.

Opal followed his gaze and cringed when he realized how it must all look. There were books everywhere. Every wall had a shelf of books, the floor was stacked with them, the tables and even chairs had books on top. The bedside table had a stack of books too. The only space not completely covered with books was the bed, and that was because Opal had slept in it recently.

Opal giggled nervously. “Um… it’s a bit of a mess, but I’ll clean up!” He picked up a stack from the couch and moved it to teeter on top of a different stack closer to the wall, embarrassed. Everybody else would have been taking better care of their treasures. “These aren’t the really valuable ones, I swear. I have those in my den, behind lock and key and glass. But when I’m in a mood to read, I like having something close at hand…”

“This is… This is a fortune in books,” Tristan said, mouth slightly agape. “I didn’t know anywhere but libraries could have so many books.”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Opal said, but he immediately followed it up with, “Are you interested? These are my treasures. I mean, before I met you. Although they’re still my treasures now, just that obviously if I had to pick a book or you, I’d pick you.”

Opal was suddenly hit by a mild panic as he surveyed the books.

“I’m not going to have to choose, am I? I… I can think of a few books I won’t mind giving away. Maybe. That is, I’ve read them all, of course, and some aren’t as good as others, but I’m sure nobody actually wants any of these—well, they do, because the books are amazing, and priceless, but I mean—”

“Opal,” Tristan broke in. “You don’t have to choose. I… I don’t even know what’s going to happen now. I don’t know where I’m going to go. I’m… I’m quitting the knights.”

Oh, oh. Thank goodness. Opal wouldn’t have known what he would have done if Tristan wanted to get rid of books. These weren’t that valuable, but what if he wanted to re-read them, or what if they did become valuable, or maybe all libraries in the world got burned down and these were the last copies…

Then he realized the rest of what Tristan had said. “What? Quit the knights? Why? You… you like the knights, right? You want to help people and stop evil swamp demons and brigands or whatnot, so that the people of the kingdom are safe, and the throne is secure and whatever else it is knights do.”

Tristan sighed. He sat down on the couch, looking up at Opal. “It’s… The quest wasn’t because I wanted to be some hero, not really. Neither was joining the knights in the first place. I just didn’t want to be a merchant, and I liked weaponry, but I’m no knight. Not really.”

Opal sat down next to him and took Tristan’s hands in his. “That’s all right. I don’t think you need to… to fight for a kingdom, to be a knight. No matter what you decide, I know you’ll always be my knight.”

Tristan ducked his head. He ran his hand over his scalp, which had a lot more hair than when they’d started this journey. Opal wondered if he could convince Tristan to keep it like this, because he was so handsome, and Opal loved the feel of it—and the idea of gripping the hair during sex…

After a few moments of silence, Tristan said, “Maybe I’ll become a mercenary. It would give me more freedom without tying my fate to that of Phassis. I don’t even know who’s ruling anymore. I did enjoy helping those people with the swamp monster…” He trailed off, his expression troubled. “The freedom to roam could be good.”

Opal smiled encouragingly at him, although his heart hammered in his chest. “Whatever you want to do, I’m here for you. I can fly us around,” and he pretended not to notice Tristan flinch, “and I’ll support you if you need my help. And when we need a break, we can come back here and relax.”

“You’d want me with you that much?” Tristan said, his gaze on one of the many stacks of books instead of on Opal.

“Yes? You’re… you’re my treasure, Tristan.” Opal scooted a little closer, pressing his naked thigh against Tristan’s clothed one. “You’re… mine.” Opal pressed a hand to his chest. “I don’t know how to describe this feeling. I need you with me. More than any of my books. You aren’t a hobby. I just know that I have to have you.” Then Opal laughed. “But I know I can’t just lock you up forever! I wouldn’t want to do that to you. That’d be like putting every book into glass cases and never getting to actually read them.”

Tristan wrapped an arm around Opal, and he breathed out slowly. “But… There are things I need to do that you may not like. Like the dragon, the one who killed Evan? I don’t… It doesn’t seem so clear anymore, what I should do about that, but I need to do something.”

Opal had been afraid of this. But it would be unfair of him to keep Tristan locked up here with him. They’d probably both end up miserable—well, Opal could keep Tristan happy with lots of sex and kisses, but Opal wanted a dashing knight, not a fucktoy. To keep Tristan happy, Opal would need to take his desires seriously. “I don’t know. Will it… help you, to confront them? Will it make you feel better?”

“I don’t know,” Tristan admitted. “I really, truly don’t.” He sighed. “I don’t even know how to find them. Evan’s wife wouldn’t even tell me exactly where the nest was. She was afraid I’d go off and do something stupid.” He grimaced. “I guess she was right.”

Opal rested his head against Tristan’s shoulder. “Well. Do you have to decide right now? We should sleep on it. You’ve had a really eventful month.”

“Me?” Tristan reached up, gingerly touching the base of Opal’s horn. “You’re the one who was…” He hesitated. “I’m sorry,” he said for what had to be the hundredth time since the whole incident Opal had already forgiven and was ready to move on from.

“I told you, I don’t care about the horn!” Opal said, although he enjoyed the attention and care Tristan gave him. “Anyway, resting! I think I have tea, somewhere. I haven’t had much of it, but tea is a very romantic drink, right? Some of it even comes in red.” He stood up and navigated his way to the little kitchen area.

“Does it… taste like red?” Tristan asked, a small smile on his lips.

“I think so? I’m not really sure what red tastes like,” Opal answered, smiling back.

With a short blast of flame, the stove heated up. Opal dug around for the kettle he’d bought on a whim, based on its cute engraving with little hearts and stars.

Tristan got up to join him in the kitchen, and he stopped in front of the small well-pump. “Wow. I didn’t know you could put these inside houses. Doesn’t it get… wet?”

“No, there’s a drain,” Opal said as he filled up the kettle. “And most of the water catches in the basin anyway. My sister Emerald installed it for me. She acted like I was being silly, wanting a human-sized kitchen, but her favorite thing in the world is engineering, and her den has even more useless devices all over the place.”

“You said you don’t see your family much,” Tristan remarked, watching Opal. “Is that… something you’d like to do?”

Opal gave Tristan an incredulous look. “What? No. Alabaster near murdered me for visiting him a few days ago, because we’d just seen each other at Jade’s wedding. Citrine couldn’t get rid of me fast enough when I was at her den. And Mother is probably laying an egg soon, and I definitely don’t want to see her in full egg mode.”

Tristan blinked at Opal, his body tensing. “Jade,” he repeated. “Your… dragon brother’s name is Jade?”

Uh oh. Opal quickly reached for the tea tin, forcing himself to keep a neutral expression. “We could visit Iolite and ask her about the sword. It’s sure to have lots of fun secrets.” He fumbled with the lid to the tin, until he finally just punctured the lid with his claw and pulled the metal back. He wasn’t sure about the correct ratios, so he dumped half the tin in. That would probably be enough flavor. “She loves magical artifacts. She also gets snobby about it, so we can’t actually tell her anything we already know about the sword because she’ll have to find some way to correct us and show us how much smarter than us she is.”

“Jade,” Tristan said again. “The Dragon of Kithage Jade?” he asked. “That Jade?”

Even with his back turned to Tristan, Opal could feel those dark eyes boring into his back.

Opal looked over his shoulder at Tristan, smiling sheepishly. “Yes? But you know, I have ten siblings, and I barely see any of them for extended periods of time! And I was just at Jade’s wedding. I’m sure he doesn’t want me near him any time soon. Honestly, if we wanted to visit a relative, we should go see Peridot.” Opal clapped his hand over his mouth. “What if her partner is that awful dragon you were hunting? I don’t think they live in Phassis, but it would be just like them. They’re awful. They dragged Peridot away from her den. And they go…” Opal shuddered dramatically before finishing, “traveling.”

“Oh, no you don’t,” Tristan said, his voice grim. “We’re talking about Jade, not Peridot. The dragon who destroyed an entire town? Who’s sitting on the throne of Kithage as King’s Consort?”

Opal winced. “You’re making it sound bad. Jade shouldn’t have destroyed a town, but he was heartbroken. It won’t happen again. I mean, if you want, we can go give him a stern talking to. I bet Larkin will even agree with you.” Opal pulled the kettle off the stove and poured the dark red liquid into cups. “Larkin is very sweet, actually. Way too much of a prude—he was so upset when Mother and Father went at it at his wedding—but other than that, a very good choice for Jade.”

“Stop changing the subject,” Tristan said.

“But you just started to love me!” Opal whined. “Please don’t hate me again just because Jade is terrible!”

“I don’t hate you,” Tristan grumbled. “But he killed so many people, Opal! Heartbroken or not, they…” He shuddered. “They burned to death, Opal.” He swallowed hard, looking pleadingly at Opal. “Like my brother did, except they didn’t do anything stupid like try to steal from a dragon. They were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Opal handed one of the tea mugs to Tristan. “I know. I swear I won’t ever do anything like that. I’ll go off and turn into a moss mountain before I destroy an entire town and all its books, okay?” Opal paused. “And all the people, I mean.”

Tristan took the tea from him with a sigh. “Opal…” He took a sip, only to spit it out almost immediately. “Opal!”

“What? What’s wrong?” Opal sipped from the cup. It tasted faintly of red, and he couldn’t figure out what had set Tristan off. “Was there a bug in yours?”

“It tastes… Damn it, you’re distracting me again.” Tristan grumbled something beneath his breath. “Look. We need to discuss this, but not… not right now, I guess. I promise not to kill your brother, even though he probably deserves it.”

“Okay. What do you want to talk about?” Opal gulped down the rest of his tea and set the cup aside. “I… I don’t really know what happens after the love confessions. I mean, sex, of course, but we did that. And we can do it again!” He bumped his cocks against Tristan. “But other than sex.”

“I like the sex,” Tristan said. “But I don’t know. I’d like… to do something you enjoy.” He glanced around, his eyes skimming over all of the books around them. “Maybe we could… read?” he said a little doubtfully.

“Yes!” Opal said, taking Tristan’s hand. He noticed Tristan dumping the rest of the tea down the drain, but he didn’t comment on it. If Tristan wanted to read, Opal would read. He didn’t care about some wasted red. “Come on. Um, get on the bed, I’ll find something for us. What do you feel like reading?”

Opal let go of Tristan and started digging through piles of books. “I have mostly romances, but if you don’t want a romance, a few eroticas are mixed in here. My brother Alabaster likes to write erotica—have you heard of the one with the three knights and the chambermaid? That was him.”

“I can’t say that I have,” Tristan said, a small smile tugging on his lips. “I don’t really read for enjoyment. But, um...” Tristan scratched his chin. “What about Guinevere and Sarazi? You said you had different versions.”

Opal’s chest grew even warmer, and his cheeks hurt from smiling so much. “Yes. I, ah… I have a version I wrote? Where she stays a dragon… but I have plenty of traditional versions too. Whichever one you want. I can grab the one I have on display in my den, that one’s worth a lot more—it’s one of the original ballads, but I’ll take it out of the case for you, or—”

“You can…” Tristan took a deep breath. “I’d be interested in the one you wrote.” He met Opal’s eyes, and he reached out to run his fingers through Opal’s hair.

“Yes!” Opal half-stumbled through his book labyrinth to the stack where his own works were and pulled the best version out from it. The binding was crude, but he hadn’t gotten around yet to taking it to a professional. He’d intended to, and then Jade got married, and everything was derailed…

He practically ran back to the bed with his book in tow, settling in next to Tristan. “Okay! Here we go.” Opal cuddled up against Tristan and held up the book. “In a land far away, beyond the mountains and across the oceans…”

Tristan wrapped an arm around Opal’s shoulder and pulled him closer. His warmth and scent surrounded Opal. For the first time, reading this tale didn’t make Opal feel the inevitable sadness.

Opal had finally found his own fairy tale ending.