Even if it would have gotten me killed.
39
Sebastian
I stood on the plateau and waited for the Dragon.
It be late, and we needed to get ready for Night Games. But that be the least of my worries—because I’d been here before. In my dreams. When I’d first galloped up onto it, my long legs had seized in shock, destroying my usual fluid rhythm.
This placecould not be real. But here it be.
The implications of such had me rearing and screaming my defiance to the setting sun. I came back down, flattened my ears, and tossed my mane. A fit of temper I could only indulge in because I be alone.
I told myself it mattered not. That there be no way Fate be going to ensnarl me in her grip. Not again.
I’d barely survived it the first time.
I embraced my change beneath the moons, shedding my sleek, four-legged equine form for my human one. As I pushed the short silver body hairs to interweave as clothing, I bent to pick up the spiral horn I’d dropped.
All along the edges be fine, razor-sharp teeth. Myths about my kind included us lowering our horns into the laps of virgins. It always amused me. The reality didn’t belong in anyone’s lap.
A whisper of wind against wing—my sharp eyes deciphered the huge form banking toward me. Scales gleamed turquoise in the moonlight as the Dragon backwinged to a smooth landing on the plateau.
He crouched to let the two forms on his back slide onto the ground. Cody’s muscled body be distinctive. The other be a much shorter man with rather bushy hair and a slim physique wrapped in a trench coat.
“Sacré bleu,” the smaller man muttered. “All that swooping and banking and diving. I should puke all over you, then maybe you’d treat me better.”
“Yous could haves walked,” Tyrez rumbled as his body shifted back to human.
“We’d be here all night, waiting for him,” Cody pointed out.
It took effort to keep my lips straight. The Satyr amused me. He be an unusual mix of cocky and terrified. “Hello, Jacques.”
The Satyr paced up to me. His disguising glamor didn’t work on me—the horns partly hidden by his bushy hair, as well as his two toes with their hoof-like tips, be clearly visible. But to many, he’d appear as a slightly hairier than normal human.
It be not just his glamor that didn’t work—the pheromones he secreted also had no effect. But to a human and many other species, he’d have them begging for his attentions in an instant. He didn’t need muscles to conquer worlds. Jacques be a power in his own right.
To me, he had a different kind of value—his talents meant that he be an expert at garnering information across the realms. While lost in the Satyr pheromones, people told him their deepest, darkest secrets.
That be a very useful talent.
Tyrez could shift faster than most. He already towered over Jacques as a human. I let my gaze trail from the Dragon to Jacques.
“You’ve only had a few days. Did you find something already?”
The Satyr looked smug. “I didn’t have to do any digging. Last week, I came across something interesting, according to what Tyrez indicated, anyway.”
The big Dragon snorted. “Couldn’t just tell me. Wanted a meeting. Sharding drama queen.”
“Mon ami. I get my perks where I can. Besides, it’s not like I’m getting paid for this.” Jacque’s bushy brows twitched as his eyes narrowed. “Something that I wish to protest, by the way.”
“You’ve had a Dragon ride and get to hobnob with a Unicorn,” Cody said. “Some would consider that payment enough.”
Jacques crossed his arms and glared at the Sabre. “Sérieusement?Like either of those put food on the table.”
The Satyr had a point, and I valued his input. I reversed my horn in my palm and extended the smooth base to him.
“Here. It’s fresh.” The horn would dissolve to dust over time, and the dust be worth a small fortune.
