Chapter Seven - Chloe

What people didn’t tell you was that being a student in a magical school was hard. Sure, they dealt with a wide variety of magic, and gained some of the convenience that came from the magic as well, but you needed to learn so much as well as practice your own individual magic abilities. Since there were, essentially, thousands of different types of magic, academies like Dreadmor offered a normal curriculum for anyone here, even if their magic was weak to the point of non-existence.

Chloe assumed you needed an abundance of magic to attend Dreadmor, but it seemed that having family connections also mattered, as some people attended the academy who had never displayed a single ounce of talent. They just happened to hail a rich family that usually had magic in their bloodlines but, for some reason, just skipped over them.

Chloe got paired up with these types of people more than she would have liked since her magic was considered unreliable at best. (None of them knew about the true power of the pendant the dryad had given her, of course.)

It felt strange to keep such a secret, even from her friends. She badly wanted to tell someone, but the thought of losing the pendant if the word was passed along to the teachers made her hesitate. With the close of a new day, she scurried once more to her room and sought to get her on-demand visions and dream diary at her side to scribble down anything worth noting.

Nothing again, although the one about the bananas was quite interesting.

Her phone buzzed, and she scrambled for it, already feeling the ache of exhausted magic from stretching it through the pendant. There was a message from Tiran.

Hiya! So, we haven’t seen each other for a bit. Do you want to meet up?

By “a bit,” he meant “since this morning.” A warm flush crept over her skin, reading his words. The fact that he wanted to spend time with her really gave her this lovely feeling, as if her back was against a radiator, warming her through as the weather outside turned cold.

Sure! I haven’t got any homework for today. Do you have anything in mind?

I do have something in mind. How are you about taking a short flight away from the academy?

A flight? She stared at the words for a moment, her heartbeat picking up its pace as she considered them. He wanted to take her somewhere. She’d be… clinging onto a scaly dragon’s back.

Is it safe? I won’t end up plummeting to my death or something because you want to do a loop in the air.

I promise not to do any loops. :)

I’d appreciate that. Can you imagine the mess they’d have to clean up?

Yeah, uh… so, ten minutes outside?

Ten minutes outside it was. After a quick spritz of perfume, some frantic dashing around, and locating a warm hoody just in case it got super chilly up in the air, she walked to the gardens just outside the main entrance. He was already waiting and happily waved at her. She waved back just as happily, noting how his face lit up.

“We’re off on an adventure, are we? I’m always happy if you want to tell me where we’re going.”

“I promise it’s nowhere scary,” he said, grinning.

Those deep green eyes of his seemed to sparkle in the light. “But I hope you don’t mind if I keep it a surprise for now.”

Intrigued, she approached him, and they walked together to a large space within the gardens. He wore a smile as he began to transform into his beautiful draconic form, a creamy silver that gave him an almost angelic appearance. She gaped at the form for a moment, realizing she’d never actually seen a dragon that looked like this. Dragons could come in all colors, but some were less common than others. Those green eyes now appeared luminous. A long, silvery, pointed snout tapered into wide frills with tiny webbing between the spikes. The neck was thick and horse-like, and the wings, currently folded, unfurled into a magnificent spread, like white sail cloths.

She was somewhat relieved to see very little spikes on the main body itself, which might have made for some awkward seating arrangements. He bowed toward her and knelt on his front limbs, offering a perch for her to climb onto his body. Nervous but excited, she climbed up, hoping she wasn’t hurting him, though he showed no signs of discomfort. He was slightly larger than a draft horse. Not quite house-sized as she’d been imagining, but comfortable enough to sit on and definitely comfortable enough to make it onto the balcony, as Chloe had seen so many of the students and teachers do throughout the day and night.

“Wow, you’re so beautiful,” she said, finding a comfortable nook that was just behind his shoulder blades and wings. The shoulder blades themselves had these little grooves on the sides, which she now used to hold on to. Again, he didn’t react to her touch. Perhaps in dragon form, they were far less sensitive to physical manipulation. He did, however, react to the beauty comment, and his wings sort of ruffled and puffed out.

“You think so? I’ve always thought that for a dragon, my type of coloring is very plain. You have all sorts of wonderful shades of red, green, blue, and more. Black is also imposing and ominous. My color, however? Not typically the kind of color you’d associate with a dragon.”

“It makes you seem angelic,” she said, running a hand along the smooth, almost silk-like texture of the wings. Bats were leathery, birds were feathery – but this – this was something else.

He craned his neck to see what she was doing and then shifted his wing closer for easier access. “It’s intriguing to see you admire my form in this way. I’m not used to it. I forget, when surrounded by other dragons, how strange this must be to someone who doesn’t shapeshift, who doesn’t have the kind of upbringing a dragon shifter has.”

“It seems a little alien at times,” Chloe confessed, still caressing the wing. “You have your own micro societies, separate from the normal world. Just as I suppose, Dreadmor has its wildland area, separate from the real world, yet living alongside it, you have status and different ideals than humans. But I don’t really know how you view yourself. Do you think yourself separate from humans and fae entirely? Do you guys think kindly of us? Or?”

“That’s a lot of questions, and not all of them so simple to answer,” he said, spreading his snout into a toothy grin. “Let’s just say we are as diverse as humans are, from clan to clan, country to country. Some ideals that I value, a dragon from another place would find abhorrent. Some of us see ourselves as more human but with the ancestry of dragons. Others see us as more draconic, with the ancestry of humans. As for me… I am the former. Human is our normal form. The dragon is an elevated form, powerful, wild, and fun. But not really that convenient for modern life. So we build specific accommodations for our dragon forms back in our clan homes and stick to human form elsewhere.”

“Makes sense.” She took in the words, nodding. Smiling a little at his enthusiasm and his willingness to share. “So… where are we going?”

He flexed his wing away and warned her to hold on tight. Then, with a small jog forward, he launched himself gracefully into the air, taking a few bobbing swoops until he made it all the way. His thick neck helped shield some of the wind tearing past, though she still felt the hissing cold of it as they ventured higher. Her heart thumped like crazy, partly from adrenaline, partly from fear, and with more of a jolting thrill than she expected. The swoop of his wings caused a tickling sensation in her stomach that strengthened with every fast plummet down. Her hands gripped the scales tightly, and she found it easier to lower herself closer to his body since it felt more secure.

He didn’t bother talking much while they were in the air, simply because the wind tore away the words, and her own was hard to hear with the rushing wind and blistering pace. The school faded away from them, though it towered, proud and noble in the landscape, taller than the woodlands, the villages, the swamp, and long stretches of trees that shimmered with a faint mist, endemic to the wild magic that saturated the fae-dominated nature below.

A sense of awe crept over Chloe. How… magnificent this whole place was. Dreadmor Academy stood strong and with Gothic beauty over everything. It embraced the magic all around it. How wild and wonderful everything was! She hugged Tiran tighter. He was wild and wonderful, too, in his own way. Something of this dragon form provoked awe in her, but honestly, she liked the human version of him a lot, too. He was quieter than some of the men she knew. That quietness held a confidence of its own, and there was something attractive in that.

Incredibly attractive if she was being honest with herself.

He liked spending time with her. He insisted on spending time with her. Those were things friends did, right? With lovers, there was more flirting, more… intimacy, right?

She thought of the moments holding and caressing his hands. The long, lingering gazes. The desire to help him, to delve into her magic to see if it might come up with a solution for his predicament. The desire to listen and hug away his problems, even if hugs didn’t quite have that power in themselves.

Still, it could all be in her head. Wishful thinking and misreading the whole situation. Or, perhaps, she was finally picking up on the unseen tension between them, tension that didn’t go unnoticed by Holly, though thankfully, Holly wasn’t the sort to tease others.

Now, she clung to his back as he soared through the skies, flying toward an unknown destination, which possibly seemed to be that mountain looming closer. A single one with a tall, blunt peak drenched in snow that dripped down to about halfway before clearing up into browns, greens, and grays.

He lowered himself toward the mountain, and the mountain loomed larger. A few specks circled the sky like eagles, but close up, Chloe realized they were dragons, swooping through the air without a care in the world.

They descended until Tiran’s wings flagged over the treetops, and his limbs reached out for a landing near a deep, circular lake that looked too perfect to have been formed naturally. Tiran landed gently among coniferous trees and scraggly bushes, shale and gravel and stone peppering the area. Chloe clung tight and examined the circular lake, noting the perfect ring of shale around it. Tiran went into a crouch, allowing Chloe the opportunity to slide off, though she stumbled on a piece of shale while doing so.

Tiran morphed back into his human form and smiled. Both happy and sad at the same time, which confused Chloe. His amber eyes seemed luminous in the light, and he gestured toward the lake and beyond, where a cabin lay overlooking it.

“This is the family cabin,” Tiran said. “Me, Dad, Mom… we’d come out here in the summer and autumn. It was the one thing we had, always, even when sometimes there was drama from the other dragons. It’s my favorite place.”

“Oh.” Chloe’s heart twisted, and a strange lump developed in her throat. “You took me somewhere important…”

“I wanted to show you my favorite place. There are a lot of beautiful things here. But let me know when you want to leave. I’ll carry you back to Dreadmor.”

She nodded, walking ahead and taking in everything. The wonderful lake and a small boat bobbing by some mooring below the cabin. She wanted to look into the cabin but worried that might be disrespectful. However, Tiran seemed delighted in her interest and showed her the cabin with a solemn, smiling air.

Inside, it had a cozy touch – clearly, some effort had gone into the decoration. A white bearskin rug covered the floor, and there were three armchairs and one large sofa in the spacious living room. The kitchenette itself had all manner of utensils hung up, a coffee machine, kettle, cooking pans, oil, microwave – everything possible to make a good meal. Tiran rummaged through the cupboards and pulled out some ingredients – checked the refrigerator and the frozen products within it. He pulled out what looked like frosted beef chunks.

“This will still be good. The last trip we had was just over two months ago. Before…”

He grimaced. She went up to him, resting a hand on his shoulder.

“I didn’t know that last cabin trip would, well, be the last.” He put the meat out to thaw in the slow cooker that was nestled under one of the upper wall cupboards. “I… I think I want to make their favorite dish. You don’t have to stay around for it; I’ll fly you back well before. But… I’ll make it.”

“I wouldn’t mind trying,” she said, hugging him. He accepted it, his hands digging into her arm, leaning onto her for a moment. “If you want, I can help you with some of the prep.”

“Sure.” Quietly, aside from murmured directions, they prepped for what he said was hearty dragon stew. It”s not made with actual dragons. He browned the thawed meat chunks while she finished cutting the leek, potatoes, and carrots. He also cooked bacon bits, tossing them in the slow cooker with the cubes, potatoes, carrots, some dark beer, chicken stock, and a generous smattering of herbs. The leek was cooked in the remaining fat, coated with a little flour, and along with a squirt of tomato paste, everything was tossed in, and they left the stew to cook.

It felt good to help out with something like that. She felt as if he was honoring her with this memory, and she wanted to do right by it. Reminders of his parents were everywhere. A pipe by one of the chairs that belonged to his father. He had a stack of Sudoku puzzles in the bathroom from his mother.

Slippers, bathrobes, coats, boots, fishing tackle, and a cooler box, a lot of things, and she saw Tiran getting emotional at times, sometimes stopping so that his gaze might linger on something.

“Let’s go out. The stew takes like six hours or something anyway, right? Let’s go around the lake for a bit.”

He agreed, and they left the cabin and they walked around the lake together, arm in arm.

“We’d go fishing here sometimes. All this area is private property. It’s not really known to the other family members.”

“Not even your uncles?”

“No. This was something Dad kept secret. He didn’t want it contaminated by the others, as he put it. He wanted this little corner of the world only for us.”

“It’s lovely,” Chloe said. “What a dream to be able to see a place like this so often. To be able to come here on random trips and fish and walk and just live in nature. How wonderful. Thank you so much for taking me here –”

Whatever else she’d been planning to say, it got interrupted by Tiran’s mouth closing on hers. She inhaled sharply, not expecting the contact, and he withdrew instantly as if bitten by a snake. His eyes were wide, suddenly terrified, looking into hers.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “You just looked so happy and beautiful in that moment, and I –” He flushed. “I’m sorry. Forget that happened.”

“Tiran,” she said softly, and he continued to babble something. “Tiran...”

“It’s not that I’d ever want to put you in an uncomfortable situation and –”

“Tiran.” The tone caused him to stop mid-babble, and again, he stared at her, wide-eyed and anxious. She took a deep breath, accepting the fluttering sensation within, and leaned over to kiss him. It was slower than his kiss. Her lips hovered close before bridging the distance with a soft, toothless bite of his upper lip. Now, it was his turn to inhale sharply, and she moved backward.

“I didn’t dislike it. I was just… not really expecting it,” she explained.

“Uh… yeah,” he said weakly. “I wasn’t expecting… that, either.” Something in his expression made her lean forward again, now brushing a part of his lip with her fingers.

“It’s okay. Really.”

“I wasn’t sure if you liked me in that way –”

“If I wasn’t sure before, now I know,” she said, and that got him to fall silent again, this time with a growing smile. The glimmers of doubt vanished, and he leaned forward to kiss her, this time both of them meeting it with enthusiasm, exploring the texture and taste of each other’s mouth by the side of the lake. Soft at first but more demanding by the second, and they both pushed and pulled against one another, reveling in the close contact of their limbs, entangled together, swaying as if taken by a light breeze.

Chloe’s feelings were all over the place, from shock and happiness that things had developed this way to a burning sensation within – something that wanted to reach out and merge with him entirely. That wanted to explore things further, to feel his skin on hers, to give into the churning heat that energized the lust now rising.

They stopped the kisses, her forehead resting against his neck, palms pressed into his rib cage. He brushed his cheek against her hair, nuzzling it in a way that somehow felt more intimate than his kisses.

Hand in hand, they walked around the lake, exploring a small river with fish and their scales glinting in the sun.

“Bears rarely come to this area,” he told her, still holding her hand, seemingly unwilling to let it go. “This place, this whole mountain, really, is claimed by dragon clans. It’s not something they want to mess with, so they give this a wide berth, even though there’s a lot of food and water for survival. So, you could go hiking all alone, and you’d be perfectly safe.”

“What about the other dragons, though?”

“Oh… well, as long as you mention who invited you here, you should be okay. Though it’s true, they don’t take great to any perceived trespassing on the mountain. Aha… look…” he pointed at a gleam of blue in the water. “A lucky fish. Catching one of those gives the eater great fortune. They’re a fae creation, but let me tell you, they’re hard to catch. Even if you spot them.” He disturbed the water slightly, and the gleaming fish seemed to vanish on the spot.

“You have fae things up here as well?” Chloe said, both fascinated and slightly concerned. The fae areas were generally dangerous and alien to the human population.

“Yes, but nothing quite as sinister as Jenny Greenteeth or creatures that want to lure you off the path or kill you in various interesting ways. Probably the most interesting thing about the mountain is the Old Spirit. It is not really something people see – it’s a spirit that is said to be one of the ancestors of dragons, and it watches over its kind here. People will leave offerings to the Old Spirit, along with their attempts to catch the luck fish or various other creatures of fortune that litter the place.” He grimaced. “Another reason why my parents never shared this with my uncle Randall – he wasn’t always so respectful of nature. He would leave things in a worse state than how he found them; they used to tell me, back when they did go on holidays with him.”

“The more I hear about your uncle, the more I hate him, and I already hate him quite a lot.” She squeezed his hand. “He really sounds awful. And… to think he would…”

“Yeah.” Tiran stared up at the sky. “I hoped to leave an offering for the Old Spirit while I’m here. One of the shrines is nearby. I’ll show you.” He led the way, and she followed, holding his hand until it became too awkward to walk while doing so, and they reached a bend in the river where a notable collection of stones was piled up on one side of the bank, around what appeared to be a stone bowl. The bowl itself had little carved patterns of long, two-dimensional dragons along the edges, and Tiran fished out a silvery necklace.

“This belonged to my mother.” He placed it in the bowl. “And this, to my father.” The second item to join the bowl was a gold cufflink. “Last, from me.” The final item to go in was a small dragon figurine. “I don’t know if you’re watching, Old Spirit, but I could do with a win. Two of your… children are gone. My parents. These are the last gifts they will give. I will give more myself, but I do wish there could be some justice. I understand it is not an easy ask.” He bowed to the bowl, and Chloe felt the need to do the same. A part of her thought these very nice, valuable things might get stolen by another hiker, but she didn’t want to say it out loud because the whole ritual seemed important to him.

They left the shrine and made their way through a lovely stretch of woodland forest with a path covered in pine needles. Being immersed in nature to such a degree awed Chloe, and she breathed in clean, crisp, slightly chilled air that was refreshing with every breath.

Coming from the city, the whole shift toward the more rural Dreadmor Academy and then this isolated mountain area represented a vastly different lifestyle – but one that she appreciated with her full heart.

Wouldn’t it be nice to live out here, off the grid, away from all the troubles of civilization? Just nature in its fury and glory, catching your own food, burning your own logs in the winter for heat… although from what she’d read about winter, perhaps it wasn’t quite as romantic as it appeared on the postcards.

With that thought, she realized, in a thrilled rush, that this was a date. They were here now, in the middle of a beautiful area, just existing. Sometimes kissing. That sounded like a date to her.

Since she didn’t want to dredge up any painful topics, she only spoke if Tiran began first, as that seemed the safest route.

“Sometimes, we’d make a little campfire out here. Do you see the disturbed ground? And the logs – we found and shaped them, so they’d be better for her.” He paused, smiling, at three thick logs sculpted to be a little more comfortable for sitting. One log was much smaller than the others. Chloe imagined a younger Tiran sitting there, surrounded by his parents. She worried something like this might be too painful, but he seemed able to deal with it.

He shook his head then. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be reminiscing so much – we’re not just here for me. If you want, though, next time, let me know of a place that’s important for you. We’ll fly there when we have a day off.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m happy this place is helping you.” She sensed, as well, that being here was a step forward for him. Showing something so personal, so intimate. A part of his life that was now forever changed. And he wanted to show it to her.

Eventually, they checked on the stew, whose aroma permeated the family cabin with a mouthwatering, meaty smell, along with the tang of dark beer. At the end of a long cook time, as the evening descended in full, the stars crawled into the sky, bright and without a single trace of pollution to hide them.

They sat together in the warm cabin and ate the stew, which turned out to be more flavorsome than she’d anticipated. Her previous experience with stew wasn’t exactly great since her mother tended to skimp on the spices and sometimes used cheap, gristly cuts of meat that you’d have to chew for minutes at a time until there was nothing left but a small, tough ball. This, however, fully warmed her from the inside, as well as making her feel full after eating just half of it.

“In the autumn, and sometimes winter, this would be our go-to meal. It”s not so great in the summer – you tend to want lighter, cooler meals then. But in the winter – this stuff is divine.” He consumed his entire bowl with an eager hunger. “I can’t make it as well as they did. But at least I can honor them in this way.”

Looking at the dark sky outside, Chloe felt a quick, daring urge within. Her heart rate increased, and she wondered if she might be bold enough to go through with it. He saw her looking outside as he cleared away the bowls and cutlery. “I can take you back to the academy now. It’s not an issue. We have some goggles and a balaclava here if you want to stay warm during the flight.”

“Will you be coming to the academy as well tonight?”

“We have another day free tomorrow. I’ll be returning and finishing up the stew, of course.” He beamed, and the expression took her breath away. Her eyes trailed to the bare bit of skin exposed in the dip of his now partially unbuttoned shirt. They traveled further, roaming the contours of his body without hopefully being too obvious.

Sometimes, she wondered if she was really the type of person to have feelings. She might just be one of those rare types who were unable to live with as much excitement as others if, when it came to relationships, she would be complacent in them but never quite matching the vigor seen in movies, heard from friends, and even what she saw between her own parents, who still hadn’t lost their passion so many years in.

Then, of course, she looked at Tiran right now, felt that strange stirring, and wondered if she might just be lying to herself. That all it took was the right person.

The memory of the kiss lingered on her lips. The wonderful, electric sensation as they meshed, hands grasping, and the gasp of shock when his tongue had, at one point, flicked her bottom lip, requesting entrance. It sent another warm wave that had nothing to do with the blazing fire or the cozy sensation of the cabin.

Out here, in the middle of nowhere, there was nothing to interrupt them.

“I was thinking… maybe I could stay here tonight,” she said shyly. “If… if it’s not an issue.”

His eyes widened, and he appeared to swallow something. “I, yeah, sure. There’s, uh, two bedrooms. You can take… this one if you want.” He pointed to the room that she knew once belonged to his parents.

“If it’s not an issue, I wouldn’t want to impose –”

“You’re not imposing anything on me. Don’t worry.” He approached her slowly, gently placing a hand on the small of her back to usher her inside the room. “Make yourself comfortable,” he said, apparently oblivious to the electric jolt that appeared to transfer from his resting hand to her lower spine.

She held her breath, her heart thumping ever faster as she looked around the room. “It’ll do nicely. But… I admit. I was hoping for…” She turned to him slowly, her movements careful and deliberate. She reached out with one hand to cup his cheek, feeling the bristle of his beard. She kept her gaze locked on his, wondering if he might hear her skittering heartbeat since she had no control over it. His eyes searched hers in return as if searching for an answer and perhaps getting it.

Their lips met again with fervor and passion. Her arms pressed him tightly to her, and he did the same, and it was as if flames burned wherever their bodies made contact.

This felt right, this felt natural, and Chloe did her best to push aside the little doubts, the ones that wondered if this was serious and if he liked her as much as she hoped or if it was only her who indulged in such emotions.

He’d never given her any real reason to doubt, though – all the doubt was conjured from the chaos of her thoughts.

“Let me know if things go too far or if this gets uncomfortable,” he whispered against her lips, and somehow, the care in those words turned her on more than anything else. She clung to him, losing herself in the kiss, eyelashes brushing against his, breaths mingling together. One kiss became many, and they began light, teasing movements toward his bedroom. Crossing the threshold sent a thrill rippling through her, a sense of expectation for the room and whatever might occur in it.

He gently lowered her onto the bed, and she pulled him down with her. They took a moment to adjust into comfortable positions, still engaging in heavy kissing and caressing. All with clothes on, though the longer this went on, the more she wanted to start tugging things off. His leg hooked between hers and pressed in a way that made her gasp and writhe, both trying to escape the sensitivity yet not really wanting to move far enough to escape.

Now, the words sweet torment made more sense to her when, before, they’d just slid by. His lips pressed against her neck as he ground against her, eliciting another surge of pleasure, causing her to leg lock him to keep the close contact. She arched and stretched her neck, allowing him easier access, and the warm breath and pliable lips sent her crazy from the stimulation and had her gasping for more.

The torment heightened, and she began to pluck at his clothes, even as he plucked at hers.

“Are you sure this is okay,” he murmured against her skin, even as his hands deftly lifted her top off.

“You ask me that again, I might have to smack you,” she replied, busy with unbuttoning his top. She wanted just to rip it open, but it seemed a shame to ruin such a nice shirt, so she opted for the slower, politer route. That polite patience was wearing thin, however, and the desire to feel Tiran’s skin against hers grew without limit, and her heart felt as if it was pumping fire through her veins.

The electrical sensation had her pressing against him, running her palms over his skin, over his shoulder and muscles, and down to his firm rear, now exposed. She felt his hardness pressed against her stomach, and a seething desire to adjust, to have that not resting there but going between her legs, began to override any sense of reason.

“Wait, wait,” he gasped, halting the action as she began to fumble with his hardness. “Do we, uh, want to stop at this point, or…”

“I want to go all the way,” she whispered, and he gently entwined his fingers with hers, lifting them away.

“I admit I didn’t expect things to progress quite this far.” He kissed her neck, her cheek, and her lips before withdrawing from the contact and the bed entirely. “One moment.”

He vanished in an almost comical way, and she lay there in the bed, still aroused, slightly puzzled, and sat up on her elbows, listening intently. It sounded like he bumped into something or several somethings, and there was also a curse before he returned with a pack of condoms.

“Ah,” she said. Right. Condoms. That was probably smart.

He placed them on the side of the bed and went for close contact again, skin to skin, their lips roving over each other, chasing the wonderful, sometimes alien sensations that rippled through them both. The brief pause had lowered some of her excitement, but this helped to get it right back up again, and she embraced him with vigor and kissed his forehead as he worked on putting on one of the condoms from the box.

When he had it on, his hands took a teasing motion, running along her thighs, between her legs, stumbling over the wetness there, which caused him to groan. Her excitement was at a fever pitch, and she struggled to find as much pleasure as possible from him, resulting, finally, in the contact she craved. He slid inside without much resistance, and it didn’t take long for her to become completely undone, lost in the rhythm of their body movements, lost in the chase for each other’s peak. It wasn’t always graceful, but the enthusiasm and passion overrode everything else.

Tiran got the bright idea at one point to brush her bundle of nerves with each of his hip thrusts, and the journey to the peak didn’t take so long from then. She’d only experienced this a handful of times, and those were solo adventures when attempting to learn more about her body. This time, the boiling warmth spread through, so brief yet so astounding in its strength, numbing her muscles in the process. She struggled to hold onto Tiran as he went for his own peak, and stroked his face, kissed his neck and chest when he did.

They cuddled briefly before the both of them, without words, ventured into the bathroom and shared a shower. This time, a more sensual experience followed, where they washed each other’s skin with hands and shower gel, embraced under the hissing water, taking the time and dedication to look after one another and clean up. They stole a few more kisses, but the experience itself elevated because of her already sensitive body and lingering rush of endorphins.

They wrapped up the evening with some hot chocolate, and snuggling on the sofa.

“We should have more dates like this,” Tiran said, cradling his mug with one hand and her shoulder with the other. “Preferably far away from the academy. Some people there have very sharp hearing.”

“Oh crap,” Chloe said, hand over mouth in realization. “Right. All the werewolves and everything. I guess they can hear what’s happening through the walls, right?”

“Dragons, too,” he said. “Our hearing is pretty decent as well. Big cat shifters, even better – their hearing is insane. But I guess if you don’t mind listening to hanky panky, it’s fine.”

“Don’t say hanky panky,” Chloe groaned. “That sounds so bad!”

He leaned closer to her ear. “Hanky panky.”

“Don’t make me have to explain to a police officer why I murdered my date…”

He laughed but stopped, and they relaxed in each other’s company until retiring to the same bed together, this time for sleep.

Sleep didn’t exactly come with pleasant dreams, however. Of course, she hoped to reflect on the activities shared with Tiran over and over, but at some point, her mindscape shifted to something else entirely.

She dreamed, at first, of flying through the air, but not on a dragon’s back – as an actual dragon. She looked on either side of her, and her wings were gossamer and see-through, unlike anything Chloe had seen depicted in the books and from what Tiran described. The ghostly wings were silent, like the soft feathers that blanketed an owl’s flight, and in the sky above, the stars were so bright that they seemed more like spotlights. The light warmed her skin, and it was as if she drank fuel from the stars themselves to keep herself running.

A mountain loomed ahead, and a sense of belonging welled inside her breast. This mountain was home. The people here were home, and the wildlife that lingered was home as well.

She swooped down, and a large, gnarled tree seemed to reach for her; it opened its trunk wide, and she flew right through into a strange clearing where the dryad that gave her the blessing waited. Landing before the dryad, she separated from the wings and the sensation of power and now saw two things – the dryad, with her woven, bark-like form, and an ethereal, transparent dragon that seemed to disappear into darkness when she squinted too hard.

The dryad and the transparent dragon faced one another, two strange beings from completely different places, eyeing one another with both respect and wariness.

“So, you are the one who gifted the human your magic,” the dragon said, and its voice carried an ageless quality that was neither male nor female. “I sensed the magic.”

“And you brought me here, into this dream,” the dryad replied, suspicious but with open body language.

“I require the use of it,” the dragon said. “I will take it for my own, for the human sleeps on my mountain.”

“It is a gift,” the dryad hissed, its dark eyes wide in incredulity. “If you steal, we will have a problem.”

“We can arrange a deal between us.”

The dryad scowled, but now they both looked at Chloe, who felt like an intruder in this far-too-vivid dream.

“Human,” the dragon said. “When you wake up, your pendant will be gone.”

Chloe gasped, now no longer sure this was a dream at all. “You’re stealing from me? What are you?” Even as she said that, the site of the shrine crossed her mind. She saw Tiran leave the offerings to the Old Spirit, a draconic ancestor.

“The will that you and my child both seek,” the dragon said, “is hidden in the very cabin you slumber in. It is a secret spot, untouched by any except for those to whom the cabin once belonged. This is part of the help I can offer. The other help is harder. The Unseelie Court appears to be meddling in affairs they shouldn’t be.”

The dryad hissed again, and purple and red flowers began to bloom over her branches. “They long swore they would not!”

“I believe it is a rogue member. This one made a contract, killed two of my children, and attempted to use a dangerous glamour on a third one. Since this third child still lives, most likely, they will attempt it again. I will place an anti-glamour charm on both my child and you, Chloe.” His silvery eyes burned holes into Chloe. “My price is your pendant. And I already know you will accept.”

Something in that irked her. “You know, you could just… ask rather than just say you’re taking it.”

The Old Spirit grinned, showing sharp, ghostly teeth. The dryad, however, continued growing twisted, dark-colored flowers as if a fury was brewing within.

“The Unseelie Court. Rogue or not – my forest has been in danger recently. Ghosts, black with malice, stirring. It was why I required this human’s intuition. Could it be the Unseelie?”

“It might be. Your forest is of no concern to me; only my mountain is. But what I can say is that the Unseelie dabble in dangerous glamours, and their magic has a corrupting influence on the mortal souls. Alive or dead. It was partly why they agreed to an accord so many years ago. They did not wish to stain our world with their dark deals. Even the witch, Baba Yaga, would spit on them, and her own brand of magic is malicious in its own right.”

“The Morrigan might or might not know.” The dryad looked thoughtful, some of the anger cooling. “But she has been inactive for some time. I last saw her two hundred years ago, and she was already withdrawing from mortal affairs then.”

“Morrigan is not the answer.” The Old Spirit glared before turning back to Chloe once more. “Your magic will be chaotic once again. The future is chaos, though, and should not ever be delved into too much. It wears the soul thin.” There was the merest trace of a warning behind that, and Chloe had the sudden, cold suspicion that perhaps the dryad had not been entirely truthful in her gift. She didn’t voice the suspicion, however, and watched as the dryad slunk into the grass, leaving just her and the Old Spirit.

“Are you appearing to Tiran in his dream? He asked for you.”

“I am not.” The Old Spirit gave her a rather critical glance. “You will pass on the message of the will hidden in that place and of an agent of the Unseelie Court, working with that treacherous slime of a child who has harmed their own. And of the anti-glamour.”

“What about Professor Umber? Was he in on the plot?”

“No.” The Old Spirit’s large, shimmering wings spread out, engulfing almost the entire clearing. “Just an unwitting carrier of a venomous message. I leave you now to your sleep. You will remember everything when you wake.”

The clearing faded, as did the Old Spirit, and Chloe’s dreams stilled into sweet darkness and blissful rest.