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Jerawk woke limbs tangled round Casey. The smaller human had burrowed under the dragon’s muzzle and into his neck. Casey’s dark hairs felt waxy, and his scent bore through the lingering musk of their sex. Jerawk ran his ankle gently along Casey’s calf, enjoying the simple pleasure of skin and scale rubbing together. Arm tucked under Casey’s shoulder, other arm hooked over the man’s ribs and hands clasped behind Casey’s back. It felt good holding Casey like this. Jerawk never once had a relationship where he was the bigger partner, but it was nice to cradle this sweet human. They were not so different. Not so alien. They both understood how important a loving embrace was.

That word—love. Casey felt new exciting, and last night confirmed a lot of longing Jerawk sensed but wasn’t quite sure existed between them both. Yet, love felt too soon, too strong a word. Too intimidating. Jerawk did not know how their relationship continued into the future. He would never give up Kyle and Chisur, and Earth wasn’t really a place where Jerawk might carry on a relationship with a human anyways. At least not yet. Jerawk wasn’t naïve enough to believe Casey might jump at the chance to reboot his life totally alone. Kyle didn’t have any strong connections to lose when he decided to stay in Archayon, but Jerawk knew that was not a norm here. Even if humans didn’t feel nearly as intimate or interconnected, most still carried firm bonds that affixed them to other humans and places. He knew this was Casey’s place; knew he had people here.

Jerawk suspected neither he nor Casey would resolve this problem any time soon.

And Jerawk was okay with that. Casey made him immensely happy, and just because their future wasn’t certain didn’t mean they needed to give up on each other. They just needed to spend some time figuring out what exactly their relationship was at this point…

All of Jerawk’s little touches while he mulled this over slowly coaxed Casey from sleep. A cute, little groan from the human announced his waking. He quaked against Jerawk and took a deep breath, whispered, “Mmm, you smell so good in the mornings.”

“Hehe, you sure that’s not just the smell of last night?”

“No, it’s you. I remember smelling you when you hugged me, and I just knew.”

“Knew?”

Casey finally leaned away, his soft brown eyes looked up into Jerawk’s face. His sleepy smile flushed the dragon with all his affection. Casey said, “I knew that I would want to see you again and again after this weekend.”

Jerawk hugged him tight, his heart picking up a little as he did; the action felt knee-jerk—as if those words made it so he couldn’t even bear them being even a few inches apart. The dragon knew not to call this feeling love yet. But he also knew with certainty it would deepen there. Deepen dangerously, deepen quickly, like a car accelerating into a crash. All he could do was brace for the impact.

***

“Remember when you had me against the wall in here?” Kyle asked Chisur inside the focusing chamber. The smooth chamber had a single pedestal centered in the room shaped from the pale carved stone that made up the rest of the walls and ceiling. The stone was more conductive to Archayon’s energy flows, and so the chamber made communing with the planet easier.

The prince walked past Kyle and sat down, legs folded, next to the pedestal and said, “You were practically breathless at my touch.”

“Who says I’m still not?” Kyle teased, mirroring Chisur and sitting across from his mate. The prince smiled at the banter, but other concerns still troubled him. Troubled them both. Kyle sensed it and leaned forward to touch Chisur’s knee. “We can do this, love.”

A deep breath, on the exhale: “You’re right. It’s just communing.” Chisur shut his eyes and both dragons retreated into their shared mind. Both approached the door erected between them and Archayon. Before, one might commune with the planet by reaching out to it and drawing the planet to one’s bodymindspirit. Archayon would enter, and leave when ushered out. But for both dragons, it now felt like the planet shared a lesser tether to them. It remained present all times of the day, occasionally prickling at their senses and urging they reach out to the planet’s consciousness.

They each opened the door at the same time.

Warmth, greeting. Excitement to see them. A flood of images: the prince’s suite, the two of them lying together, the two of them at the borders of Archayon when they first healed a piece of the planet, and more images. It had memories of their relationship as if the planet had been there from the beginning. And all the while, inside the room, the very stone was blinded by the glowing dragons’ scales. Their jaws clenched. Power surged through them both like it had not since the night Chisur turned Kyle into a dragon on Earth. It wasn’t just Archayon sharing some of its power along a new conduit, it was like Kyle and Chisur were being pulled inside the very source of the planet’s power.

Chisur spoke in his mind, What is it you want?

The planet showed them both in a muddle of ideas and sensations: Darkness. A cry for help, contained to a shell of hard light. Could not see through light, but the cry recognizable. He needed help. He was one of the two. Protecting the two… they were companions. They healed. Smashing shell, two dragons on the floor, the one on top hurting the other. Pain to be in the shell when hard light surged around. He reached, took power needed to protect. Protect. Love and protect.

Archayon cycled through this several times. While Chisur still processed what this meant, Kyle said, Thank you.

Another surge of warmth, in both dragons' minds; images of their home life again, smells of each other, the touch of those in their life: Jerawk hugged against Chisur’s chest, Setara braiding Kyle’s hair, Mephis taking Eska from Kyle’s arms. More concepts: Heal. Bind. Bind. Bind.

We wish to heal you, Chisur said. But we need your help, too. You are giving us too much power, it overwhelms us.

It was like the planet struggled to speak this whole time, but then came the words: We are bound.

You’ve formed a tether to us? Kyle asked. They both seriously feared this.

No. Bind. Bind. Bind. We are bound.

The answer frustrated Chisur and confused Kyle. Seeing it as fruitless, Chisur changed their line of inquiry, Does it hurt you when we channel your energy?

No.

How do I bind? Kyle asked, pulling them back to their previous subject. Chisur knew what Kyle was really asking but—

Do you really think—

Bind! Archayon’s excitement interrupted Chisur. Bind! Bind!

A low growl rumbled through Chisur’s chest. We are getting nowhere.

As if to answer the prince, Archayon showed them tangled lines of light. Two came together, ends wrapped around each other, one string red and the other black. The knot where they joined blended to the string until it became one smooth line, the red now darkening in the middle of the joined string till it became black.

That’s us! Kyle said.

So much excitement from Archayon rolled through them their scales nearly blistered with heat.

More strings appeared before them: silver, violet, white, gold. Each one braided around Chisur and Kyle’s string, woven to each other. This time, they did not join. It filled Chisur with wonder to see, but for Kyle it was like getting a clue to a puzzle he spent the last year trying to solve.

How do I do that? Kyle asked, reaching in his mind for the bound strands. But his fingers passed through it like he tried to grasp light.

Bind. Heal. Bind.

Chisur sensed his mate’s frustration, but the prince felt prepared for the non-answer. The headache from having such a massive, invasive presence had been soothed, though. Energy brimmed through him, but not recklessly so. Kyle was too obsessed with this binding business to notice the change.

But what do I need to do to bind like you do?

Kyle…

Chisur I’m so close to figuring out—

The planet interrupted Kyle by echoing the same mantra. He nearly groaned aloud while Chisur attempted to steer their conversation elsewhere: You’re no longer hurting us. Does this mean the next time we reach out we won’t be overwhelmed?

We are bound.

Chisur said to Kyle, I think we’ve got just about everything out of this that we will.

Reluctantly, Kyle agreed. It took a few minutes to usher the planet back through its door so the two of them were alone again. They dispelled the energy in the room by channeling it back into the planet and finally opened their eyes. Kyle sighed and leaned against the pedestal, head resting against the warmed stone.

“At least we should still be able to use our magic,” Chisur said.

“Chisur… when it showed us the strings, do you think Archayon was trying to tell us something?”

“What do you mean?”

Kyle sat up and counted off, “White for Mephis, violet probably for Jerawk, gold for someone else in your family—possibly Eska…”

“And silver?”

Kyle shook his head and leaned back on the palms of his hands, legs unfolding and stretching out so his feet rested on Chisur’s lap. The prince, without prompting, started kneading the soles with his thumb while Kyle asked, “Who do we know who has silver scales?”

Chisur grunted. “That bastard who hurt Jerawk.”

“Your sister’s hair is silver.”

“I had a professor I once fucked who had a silver pattern.”

Kyle snickered. “Could be Eska’s attendant. She loves silver jewelry.”

Chisur smiled and studied Kyle’s feet as he worked. The black scales yielded easily under the firm, prodding of Chisur’s red thumb. The prince had gotten good at foot massages once Kyle became heavy with Eska and had been prone to his feet swelling painfully. They shared the quiet until Chisur moved to Kyle’s other foot. “All I know is what we suspected. Our connection is not quite a tether to the planet.”

Kyle said, “Thank goodness. I can barely wrap my mind around how anyone could handle something so big in their head all the time.”

“Mmm, all we can really say about this bond is we have no idea how the planet made it, but we can commune quicker and better.”

“If the planet knows us as well as we know each other, it might be able to help channel magic like we can across our tether.”

Chisur laughed a little. “It sounds like a super power when you put it like that.”

Kyle nodded. “They had Oracles that spoke with the planet before the Scarring, didn’t they?”

“I hardly want such a self-important title, but I suppose they did exist. We certainly can’t deny we exhibit all the symptoms, hmm?” The trouble, they both knew, is that if Archayon did have Oracles in the past, it had stopped reaching out to them a millennia well before the scarring. The last accounts came long before Archayon experienced its first industrial revolution.

Both felt a ripple through their minds that made their backs go straight. Archayon sent a message to them: an image of a crimson and gold dragoness moving through the palace to Chisur’s door.

***

Setara did not like leaving promises to fester. Today she would see her niece, knowing before she even left Lunelei’s apartment that Chisur and Kyle were home and had no plans. Setara wanted to get it over with, and wanted to in such a way neither dragon could be prepared for her visit. They both, right now, left her a little nervous for reasons she did not wish to think about. She didn’t want them to have time to come up with what they might say or do to convince her to come around more often.

Next week Chisur would meet with Lunelei again. That already felt like too much contact. At least in the sparring grounds Setara could keep him too busy to speak to her.

Setara expected to get the drop on her brother and his mate. So it left her flabbergasted when she reached the door to her brother’s suite and it swung open with both dragons there. Eska was cradled in Kyle’s arms. Setara barely glanced at her niece before Chisur had pulled her into a strong hug.

The dragoness gasped against her brother’s neck before she pushed away and asked, “You knew I was coming?”

The two dragons exchanged a look before Chisur returned, “You weren’t planning on telling us you were coming?”

“I… never mind, let me see my niece, will you Kyle?”

Kyle smiled and handed the dragoness over. Eska looked up bright-eyed at Setara, her mouth hanging open in a little O. Setara felt the couple watching her as if they waited for some kind of magic to happen. Eska, seeming satisfied, stretched her legs a little before settling into Setara’s arms. Her eyes fluttered shut and she took a deep, gentle breath.

Kyle said, “She was sleeping before you came, sorry if you expected to play with her.”

“It’s fine,” Setara said before moving to the couch in Chisur’s suite. She took a seat and Chisur sat beside her while Kyle pulled around one of the chairs beside the couch so he flanked Setara. Truthfully, feeling her brother’s tail run back against hers, his mate’s ankle brushing her calf as he shifted, those things felt good. But Setara wanted control over her feelings and—

“Is everything alright, sister?”

Setara noticed the tension in her shoulders that Chisur must have seen. Cursing herself, she relaxed her body and took a breath before she said, “I’m fine.”

“Have you been well?” Kyle asked.

Last night, fighting in the pit as Lunelei, Setara had been run through by a spear. She still won the fight, but the healing the mender did afterwards didn’t solve the ache right below her ribs. “Well enough,” Setara said. “Sorry, there is not much I can talk about.”

“Not much you can, or you won’t talk about?” Chisur asked.

Setara fixed him with a glare but Kyle intervened, “What Chisur meant is we are happy just to have you here.”

Setara glanced down at the babe in her arms and did feel soothed by the warm weight of the tiny dragoness tucked against her. Her niece’s eyes fluttered and those tiny hands groped at the blouse Setara wore. She had stopped by her old rooms to grab something to wear that was more fashionable than Lunelei’s nondescript clothes.

“I’m happy I came,” Setara said, testing the words in her mouth as she said them. It wasn’t a lie, but a part of her wished it was. “Eska is as cute as you said she was.”

Both parents beamed at this.

“We’re glad you are fond of her,” Kyle said.

“And there is something the two of us wanted to discuss with you,” Chisur added, laying a hand on her thigh.

Setara shifted a little at his touch but said, “Alright, out with it.”

“We want you to share guardianship with Eska,” Kyle said.

Setara saw that both watched her with unflinching expressions. “I’m sorry?”

Chisur squeezed Setara’s leg. “If something happened to either of us, Eska would technically go to mother to raise. We don’t trust her, though. We trust you. And if you have guardianship—”

“Nonsense,” Setara scoffed. “Nothing will happen to the two of you. You are Archay’s heir, Chisur. You can’t afford to die. You won’t.”

Chisur’s brow furrowed. “After what happened in the Lower Warrens, can you really say that, sister? Can you look me in the eyes and say that Kyle and I don’t have enemies plotting against us because of who we are?”

Setara glanced at Eska. The thought of losing her brother filled her with a grief and rage she thought only Phelise’s death could make her feel. She shook with it, biting her tongue to keep from snapping at Chisur for even suggesting he might be killed.

From her other side, Kyle touched her shoulder. “We do not wish for things to be like this, but if they are we must plan for the worst. For Eska’s sake.”

Setara blinked away tears and looked from one dragon’s face to the others. Both carried the same, steady affection and concern. “I won’t allow it. No one will hurt either of you so long as I’m breathing.”

“Setara…”

“No Chisur, I don’t accept this. I can’t. I won’t even consider that I’m not strong enough to protect you.”

Setara cradled Eska a little tighter, still fighting back tears. She would burn down every tower in the sprawl before she let her brother come to harm.

Kyle’s hand rubbed up and down her shoulder, “Don’t consider it as us asking for you to step in for us should something happen, then. We will keep this offer for you, because we want you to know how much we trust you. And so you know how important it is to us that you stay alive as well.”

“We want you to be a part of Eska’s future,” Chisur finished for his mate. “Whatever it is you are doing, don’t throw your life away for us when she will need you as well.”

Of course, they had talked and planned some heartfelt trap for her. Probably soon after she agreed to visit Eska. Setara laughed at her own weakness, a soft and brittle sound before she wiped the tears from her eyes and said, “You two are just too much. Fine, I will agree, but only if we all promise each other none of us are going anywhere anytime soon. I… if I lost the two of you, I’m not sure what I would have anymore.”

Both dragons leaned in and hugged Setara. She felt Eska squirm a little while Chisur and Kyle both embraced her. “We promise,” Chisur said in her ear. They released her, and Setara struggled to control the surging affection for them both. She needed to survive. She hadn’t thought that at all in the last year, but now she felt it. Setara needed to survive for those she loved, and she needed to commit herself to her mission to protect them as well.

The three of them talked for some time. Chisur’s new attendant served them tea. The steaming drink with a lavender color prickled in the mouth but soothed their throats as they spoke on Chisur and Kyle’s plans for Eska. Setara quizzed them on what schools she would attend. She sat Kyle in front of her and taught Chisur how to braid his mate’s hair, and before she knew it, three hours had passed before her brother checked his phone on the table.

He set it back down and said, “Mephis will be here soon.”

Setara glanced at them both. “Is this the sort of visit I should give privacy for?”

Kyle, who now bounced Eska on his knee, said, “If you’d like to stay you can. We don’t have plans for anything crass.”

Chisur squeezed his sister’s hand. “It might be wise for you to stay. I asked Mephis to gather some information on one of the dragons that attacked the Warrens.”

Setara raised a brow. “Did you now? Not exactly the best use of Mephis’ time, don’t you think?”

“He has access to surveillance around Archay that I can’t get to without mother knowing, and I would prefer to keep our mother out of it,” Chisur told her.

Setara nodded. She wondered, briefly, if the reason her brother and mate did not trust the queen had to do with how Airok handled Phelise. If so, she did not blame their grudge.

Setara decided to stay. When Mephis knocked on the door, Chisur welcomed him with a warm embrace. When he saw Setara sitting next to Kyle, his mouth hung open a moment before he said, “Uh… princess. It is good to see you!”

Setara received him with a smile and said, “It’s good to see you, too. Have a seat.”

A small dragoness followed Mephis inside. Her lavender scales blended to a lighter, softer purple in places that reminded Setara painfully of Phelise. This was not Phelise, though. This dragoness’ eyes were a rich red and scanned the room with a sharpness that belied her small stature. Mephis said, “And this is my assistant. Velina, this is Princess Setara.”

The dragoness bowed gracefully, tail lifting into the air and raising the hem of the white dress she wore. She said, “An honor to meet you, princess. You were my idol growing up.”

Yet her eyes betrayed no excitement. “Yes, pleased to make your acquaintance,” Setara said. “Will you be joining us today?”

“Of course, my lady.”

“Setara is fine.”

This threw the dragoness a little, but she smiled and nodded. From her left, Setara felt Kyle reach over and squeeze Setara’s hand. The princess didn’t need a tether to know Kyle would explain the assistant’s presence later.

Velina held under her arm a tablet which she set on the table. Mephis began to access the tablet, and soon projected a screen of light in the air over the table. The holographic image displayed Lunelei, which didn’t surprise Setara at all. She assumed her disguise would be their only link to the attack.

The princess leaned back into the couch, her wings folding against her back while she let the others talk.

“What were you able to find?” Chisur asked.

“Well, by all legal accounts, your dragon is dead, Chisur,” Mephis said. The albino dragon used his magic to interface with the tablet and swipe from the image of Lunelei to a death certificate issued two years ago. Mephis swiped from that to an obituary listing within KalXay Tower.

“He was studying magic at the same university you went to,” Mephis said while Kyle and the prince scanned the obituary. Setara pretended to follow along.

“That explains why he is so adept with magic,” Chisur said. The obituary was real, and detailed the life of a thirty year old university student who Setara adopted as her disguise. It was easier to hide as a real person when an alias wasn’t entirely invented.

“So he faked his death?” Kyle asked.

“Or your Lunelei is a fake,” Mephis suggested.

They had no way to tell without Lunelei revealing the truth to them.

Mephis swiped again to a stream of Lunelei’s fight with Nairs. “He showed up on the pit-fighting circuit this year. Going by Lune. He rarely kills opponents, and his fans call him the Silver Saint.”

Chisur glared at the projection of Lunelei punching Nairs to the ground. “I want to know who taught him how to fight like that.”

Setara spoke up, probing with, “One does not learn to fight overnight.”

“Could explain what he was doing with those two years,” Kyle said.

Chisur shook his head. “I am not so sure, dear… something about the way he spoke to me…”

Now Setara felt a little nervous, and watched her brother carefully.

“Is there any surveillance captured of the dragon around the sprawl? A particular tower he frequents?” Setara asked Mephis.

“We’ve searched those databases up until last year and found nothing, my lady,” Velina answered.

The tension in Setara relaxed a little. That meant that Mauren did their job well. A bulk of the A.I.’s processing simply worked to scrub any sort of surveillance that might pick Lunelei up on a camera or recording device.

“So he is only seen when he wishes to be seen,” Chisur said. Eska had started whining, and while Kyle excused himself to feed her in the bedroom, Setara noticed neither the prince nor his mate glanced at each other. Setara knew the two probably were hatching some private scheme via their tether. Some nonsense with magic, no doubt. Setara needed to be sure she stayed on guard when next they met.

“What is the goal with Lunelei?” Setara asked her brother. “Do you wish to capture him?”

Chisur frowned. “Something to that effect. He hides too much to trust. I want to know what he tells us when we have him cornered.”

“Do you still plan to meet him alone next week?” Mephis asked. “We could assign some dragons from—”

“I do not think he will hurt me,” Chisur told Mephis with a reassuring look. “He had his chance at our last meeting.”

“The prince is hardly alone when he has his tether,” Setara said, and the two shared a knowing look.

They went over more details of Lunelei. A profile assembled based on his life before his death. Setara listened coolly and waited until Mephis and Velina both said their goodbyes. After the dragons left the room, Setara said to Chisur, “You should not have let that dragoness in on that meeting.”

“You have a reason not to trust her?” Chisur asked. Across the room, the door opened and Kyle returned with Eska in his arms.

“Velina holds some leverage over Chisur and Mephis’ head. She caught them fucking in Mephis’ office,” Kyle said as he crossed the room. He set a sleeping Eska in her crib while the prince grimaced at the look Setara gave him.

“Really, prince?”

“I understand it was a mistake.”

“Very well,” Setara folded her arms across her chest. “Expect that she is a spy, probably for mother.”

“Are you basing this on anything?” Kyle asked, sitting down in a chair with Setara and her brother still on the couch.

“A normal employee would be fine looking the other way with a sizeable bribe. It seems she’s using her leverage to get into places she has no business in,” Setara told them both. “Was it not obvious? I could tell soon as she walked in the door she should not be trusted.”

“What would you have us do, then?” Chisur asked.

“Feed her information, but don’t let her anywhere important and don’t let her hear what you actually want kept secret.” Setara sighed and closed her eyes, thinking. “In games like these… don’t let anyone know all the cards you hold.”

Chisur pointedly confronted her again: “And what is in your hand, sister?”

Setara snarled and walked away from them both. She felt their gazes, knew what they wanted from her. It made her frustrated at the situation, and at the two of them. She took deep breath, let them both see the conflict she wrestled with. She did not want them to think this was easy, at least. She had thawed that much. When she faced both dragons, she said, “Brother, I keep my secrets for both our sakes. Someday I will be able to share them. I do trust you both, but I also know how you both meddle, too. Be patient with me.”

For once, Chisur merely nodded. “Alright,” he said. “Kyle and I have talked, and we will trust you.”

Setara sighed. “Thank you both.”

“Remember our promise, though,” Kyle said.

“Do not throw away your life when you could ask for our help,” Chisur added.

Setara smirked, “Frankly I’m insulted you think anyone could hurt me.” She glanced at the door. “I should go. I have stayed out longer than I meant to.”

Chisur got up and said, “I can see you out of the palace.”

Setara shook her head. “There’s no need.” Really she did not want Chisur to see where she went.

Reluctantly, Chisur let her say her goodbyes before Setara left the suite. Most of her siblings no longer lived in the old palace. Typically children of the queen left the nest to live in the towers they built careers in, either as wealthy entrepreneurs, council representatives, and other places of power. The Archay line had widespread influence across the sprawl. Setara, as the old heir, kept rooms in the palace, and Chisur returned there after he failed as a scholar. Setara’s rooms were on the other end of the old palace. Going through the polished stone halls brought back memories Setara did not wish to dwell on. The smell of tapestries recently washed reminded her of shoving Phelise against one and kissing her. Passing through the old throne room, the princess could see herself playing hide and seek with her mother. Airok, of course, turned it into a lesson on finding other dragons with magic. Setara had been seven at the time. Phelise had been with her by then, only allowed to play at Setara’s urgings.

Setara’s door was propped open when she arrived. Not how she left it, nor how someone would leave it if they did not want Setara to know she had visitors. The princess opened the door fully and saw her receiving room as she left it: furnished for entertaining large parties, with the walls lined with tasteful décor from contemporary artists in Archay. The door to her room also stood ajar. Setara did not need to guess who she might find there.

Sitting on her bed of violet sheets was her mother, studying the clothing Setara had left in the room. A dark grey shirt and set of matching shorts. Each nondescript and fashioned for her to have a full range of motion while wearing. Setara said in the doorway with all the cold steel she could muster, “Mother.”

Airok set the clothing down on the bed. “It is good to see you, Setara.” At the princess’ growl, Airok added, “I see we are not on speaking terms yet.”

“You made sure of that.” Setara began to strip, putting away her clothes in a closet still stocked with dresses, gowns, and clothing for all occasions she used to need them for.

While she zipped the back of her shirt up around her wings, Airok said, “Setara, Archayon needs you.”

“I’m already busy serving the sprawl.”

“I need you then.”

“I am not available for you,” Setara told her as she snapped the button that hooked the waistline of her shorts around her tail.

Airok sighed. “You make everything so difficult, daughter—”

Setara’s tail lashed against the floor to cut her off. “Lock the door when you leave.”

She managed to get through her bedroom door before Airok said, “Setara, if you must hide what you are doing from me, I will assume it is work done against me.”

The princess snarled and faced Airok, “Do you mean to mark me a fugitive, mother?”

The queen’s wings lifted in a shrug. “What else can I do?”

Setara stared at her. Doing this… her mother wanted Setara under her control. She knew if she did not kneel to her mother, Airok would indeed come for her. Did the queen really expect her daughter would just betray the sprawl? After a lifetime of trying to protect it? Setara knew her mother’s resources, knew if she refused she would never be able to show her face as the princess again. Not at the palace or sprawl. She might even put others in danger if she contacted them.

Setara clenched her fist. A feeling, a thing she could not conceive putting into words or thought made her sick to her core.

“We will be enemies, daughter. I do not wish it, but you will leave me no choice.”

Setara fought to keep her voice even. “I will outlive and outlast any hunters you send to find me.”

Setara barely remembered slamming the door behind her. She floated through the palace, thinking this might be the last time she would visit in a long time, and before she knew it she had returned to Chisur’s suite, knocking on the door. Her brother answered. Setara grabbed him by the horn and tore him into an embrace.

He grunted and asked, “What’s wrong?”

She whispered in his ear, “I will keep my promise. I love you, brother. We will see each other again.”

His hands tried to close around her waist, “Sister what is going on—”

Setara ripped herself away, body trembling. Wishing for his touch, knowing she had no idea when she might feel it again. Setara told him, “You and Kyle trust no one but yourselves. I am sorry, I must go.”

“Wait!” her brother was fast, grabbing her by the arm and tugging her back to the door. He kissed her brow and hugged Setara tight. “I love you, too.”

Setara looked up and relaxed a little in his strong, smoldering gaze. An old, longing ache she wished she knew how to quench rose in her hips again. Chisur must have felt it, too. He gently led her into a kiss this time. Not the urgent seeking Setara had pressed upon him, but the soft and warm touch of his lips that left her shuddering. A breath and it passed, but it felt much longer.

Chisur stroked her cheek. “I know this is something you must do. I wish things were different so that we could… perhaps someday they will be.”

Setara grasped for her coldness just to get her feet back under her. “Optimistic fool,” she muttered. “Phelise was the same way—I suppose I have a type.” She broke free of his embrace and gave him one last, warm look, then fled the palace.

***

Jerawk’s breath washed across Casey’s ear. Even that made the human’s skin come into focus. He huffed, felt the dragon’s claws tease across his flat stomach. Gentle as thorns just brushing his skin. The dragon was over him, wings fanned out so the bedroom light was shuttered through his violet membrane and washing the bedsheets in that color.

“You want more?” Jerawk asked, husky-voiced. A slight growl in the question—and complete control. Casey’s hands were bound and hung on a hook over his bed’s headboard. His wrists ached in their cloth bindings; they had been at this for a while.

The small human licked his lips and said, “Yes.”

Those claws pricked a little deeper. To scratching that made Casey’s back arch till they broke skin. His gasp met with the sharp, pricking pain that made him dizzy with a pleasure he needed to describe carefully to Jerawk to convince the dragon to do this. A buzz in the human’s brain, a warming flush of heat between his hips, his cock aching above his wet vent. Jerawk had not touched him there in the last hour. Casey felt warm blood tease across his brown skin, just a few weak lines before the dragon ran a soft-scaled digit over the wound. A still-strange tingle from the dragon tapping his magic to close the cut soon as he made it, not fully healing Casey, but repairing the skin to make it seem like a cat’s scratch. The flesh was prickly and still sensitive. His torso had been lined in these scratches.

Though new to this, Jerawk had taken to the moment. His rigid, dark and alien cock throbbed over Casey’s waist, precum occasionally dripping onto his brown skin. By now, he and his practically stank of draconic musk. Over the last few days, Jerawk’s smell had overpowered everything else in the room. And Casey reveled in it. The heated smell of draconic lust made his legs quiver; seemed to leave him vulnerable to the dragon’s lightest of touches.

Jerawk licked his ear before that muzzle traced down Casey’s skin. A touch at his neck, then a snarl before those jaws snapped around his collarbone. Casey moaned. His cunt clenched down on nothing while fangs punctured skin. A bright, painful buzz radiated where teeth met skin. His hips thrashed a little, as his moan broke into a set of gasps. The pain almost too much before Jerawk released him. The dragon tipped Casey’s head up before their lips met and that long, dexterous tongue entered his mouth. Casey tasted his blood. The warm metallic taste mixed with Jerawk’s saliva and left him quivering while that seeking tongue played with his mouth. It still amazed him how soft the dragon’s lips were. Jerawk’s hand closed around the bite, and those open wounds turned to red welts. Another set of marks for Casey to remember the dragon by.

Jerawk broke the kiss and told him firmly, “I can’t wait any longer, Casey.”

The human only summoned a whimper. Jerawk settled between Casey’s legs, spreading them easily. The dragon teased his cock across Casey’s wet lips, the shaft rubbing against the trans man’s cock a moment. He groaned. Jerawk had not touched him once down there, and now all his senses felt too sharp. The rigid warmth of that ebon dick made him lock up before Jerawk angled the spaded tip to his entrance.

Warmth, fullness. The texture of draconic cock rubbing his depths. Casey clamped down, almost urged Jerawk to stop. The penetration near painful. Jerawk filled him out so wonderfully. He usually didn’t enjoy being penetrated, but ever since that first night, every time Jerawk entered him it was rapturous. Casey’s hips bucked upwards so their waists met at the knob at the base of Jerawk’s cock. That knot had split Casey open so many times his cunt practically drooled and loosened when it rubbed against his lips. The dragon sighed. He quaked, his cock flexed inside Casey and spilled precum.

“It was like you were made for me,” Jerawk whispered, eyes shut as Casey tried his best to squeeze down on the dragon’s girth.

Casey shivered while Jerawk pushed his legs together and hooked them both over his left shoulder. With his thighs closed, his vent had a tighter hold on that cock. The dragon wrapped an arm around Casey’s legs, leaning forward a bit before he started sawing in and out. He slowly stirred up Casey’s cunt. The trans man’s wet spilled from his lips with Jerawk’s precum. The dragon’s productive cock leaked constantly, and Casey was not sure he ever found a bottom to his new partner’s stamina. That wonderful draconic cock hollowed Casey out for the dozenth time this weekend. It did not take long for Jerawk to push the human to his peak.

Casey squirmed a little in his bindings. A gasp turned moan turned crescendo as his hips flooded with pleasure, lower belly and thighs filling with warmth and release. His cunt spasmed, Jerawk’s smacking hips became slick and wet. The dragon laughed. “That’s it, fucking cum for me.” A snarl, Jerawk grinding his hips a little harder. Casey felt that knot slowly working inside him. The human tried his best to relax. A deep breath, an ease of tension and then Jerawk popped inside of him. That fullness rooted deep as it could be, that knot pressed tight to Casey’s g-spot. Each time Jerawk tugged and pulled, he worked and rubbed that spot. It hurt. The splitting pain and pleasure left Casey breathless, back arched.

Jerawk swung Casey on his side, legs now on the bed. Twisting around that firm cock still inside the human’s cunt made him groan. A sound cut off by Jerawk’s kiss as the dragon’s hands reached down and teased Casey’s smaller shaft. The dragon quickly rolled it between fingers and thumb, jerking off the trans man’s two inch dick. Casey, only just recovering from one orgasm, came again. Jerawk’s kiss muffled his sounds. The messy, wet sex almost too overwhelming when Jerawk reached his end. A flood of heat began to fill Casey’s core. Draconic cum, which by now Casey knew all too well, lined his tunnel. Seed spilled from around Jerawk’s seal, a testament to how fucked loose Casey had been the last two days by the dragon. Thick, white lines of spunk pushed out his swollen labia and down his legs. Jerawk shuddered. His cock flexed inside Casey. The human reveled in the dragon’s weight. His heat. His scent. His virility so sure Casey felt like he’d have been knocked up if he still carried a womb.

Jerawk broke the kiss, and panting, untied Casey’s hands. They dropped into the bed, limp and sore before the dragon nuzzled into his neck. A little wobbly, Casey hugged the dragon close before he finally spoke:

“Fuck Jerawk.”

The dragon chuckled. “That was what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

“Uh huh.”

Jerawk rubbed a hand along Casey’s thigh, both of them silent a moment before Jerawk said, “Tomorrow I have to go home.”

“I know…”

“I promise I’ll be back.”

Casey giggled. “After all this sex, I should hope I’ve left you with a good impression of Earth.”

“The best,” Jerawk teased.

“So are we, like, dating now?”

The dragon grabbed Casey’s hand and squeezed it. “What would you like to call us?”

Casey sighed and settled on his side with Jerawk spooning him. They were still joined together, and all of the pains from their play actually had Casey feeling exhausted. “I’m not sure. It just… we’re a real long shot, huh, Jerawk?”

A rumble from his chest. “My hope is it will not be like this forever. Ideally, in a few years, dragons might be able to casually travel to and from your world.”

“That’s such a long time, though, isn’t it?” Casey said. For Casey at least. He never had a relationship that lasted longer than two years. People got sick of him—his neuroses, his poverty, the problems caused simply by existing as trans and brown. And once the novelty faded, how could Casey possibly compare to—

“You’re spiraling, aren’t you?” Jerawk asked. He had gotten very good at reading him over the last two days.

Casey squeezed the dragon’s hand. “Yeah, you’re right. Around you I usually feel comfortable, in a way I don’t normally with folks. I want that, but I don’t just want it every now and then. Besides, I don’t know how many times my neighbors will believe my microwave keeps exploding.”

“We just need to be patient, dear. This is all new and scary to me, too.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry.”

Jerawk kissed his head. “You don’t need to apologize for sharing your anxiety. To me, you are my mate and I will do what I can to nurture you and our relationship. From now for as long as we both may want it.”

“Mate?” Casey asked. “That seems pretty, um, serious?”

Jerawk chuckled, “It is, perhaps, more casually given between dragons. It is just a sign of my devotion to you. Some dragons are mates without even doing all the things we’ve done to each other this weekend, you know.”

“Hehe, I suppose I like that…” Casey said, shuffling backwards to try and get deeper in Jerawk’s embrace. “I never really thought of relationships in terms of devotion, you know. It’s not a word we use here often.”

“Well, by me calling you my mate, I’m making a promise of my devotion to you. That is all.”

Casey craned his neck back and kissed Jerawk before he told him, “Then, I promise to be devoted to you, too, no matter the planets or people between us.”

Jerawk laughed, joyous and light from his throat.

“What is it?” Casey asked.

“Nothing, just giddy, is all. Thank you, Casey.” Jerawk hooked his legs around Casey’s, left wing unfolding to wrap around them both. Jerawk whispered, “We will figure this out together, Casey. I promise you.”