Page 39 of Phoenix Fall


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Enormous wings beat the air no more than twenty feet above us, and indigo orbs the size of my hand gleamed in the darkness. My mind struggled to interpret what my eyes told me was there.

There was no mistaking the wings, the shining scales, and the long, wicked head crowned with spines. It was a Dragon. It was huge. And as I stared, it opened its jaws and snarled at us.

Not at us. At Matt.

Matt answered it with a growl, his body morphing to beast as he leaped to do battle, claws outstretched.

No! Even with his muscles and teeth and claws, he wouldn’t stand a chance against that Dragon.

I sat up with a gasp, my heart thundering and my mind in chaos.

Adream. It had only been a dream. But it had been so freakingreal.

Out in the hall, a door slammed. I wasn’t the only one awake.

My body ached to complete what the dream had started. I’d never experienced such a powerful urge. It gave me a glimpse of what it must be like to be an animal in heat—to crave sex above everything and anything else.

I wanted him. Desperately.

Humans didn’t behave like that. And even if they did, I had an implant to help regulate my cycles. Overactive ovaries shouldn’t be an issue.

But then again, as I’d so recently discovered, I wasn’t human. What I was, was horny. But with a roommate only feet from me, and a communal washroom, I was destined to remain that way.

I tried to focus on other things. The dream had been so real. I would have had an easier time dismissing it as a figment of my imagination if it weren’t for the fact that I now knew Dragons existed.

As did werewolves.

And, apparently, giants with bright-red skin and orange eyes. Mari’s stentorian snores ripped through the darkness. I sighed and laid back down. Between Matt’s after-shower reveal and my roommate’s snoring, no wonder I was having unsettling dreams.

But as I sank my hands into Trix’s fur, I didn’t think I’d be getting any more sleep tonight.

11

Talakai

The sound of a door slamming woke me up, but I was already thrashing my way to coherence through a cloud of rage.

Rage.

I snapped out of the dream rigid, aching, furious, and ready to inflict injury upon my new roommate. Talons emerged from my fingertips, eager to do battle, and my wings pushed against the skin of my back, striving to burst free.

Over adream.

True, the Dire had been wrapped around my dream woman. Only she wasn’t a dream. She wasreal. But him and her together had only been a figment of my fractured imagination. Hadn’t it?

I wasn’t so sure. How had I dreamed of her while semiconscious in Xumi’s chains?

If I were a Dire or Sabre, I would have an answer—they experienced living dreams when Fate took a hand in their lives. But Dragons? I’d never heard of it in my kind.

If Haki were here, I could ask him. If there were ever two Dragons destined to be together, it was him and Kala.

I rubbed a hand over my face. I had no answers, other than the fact that the slamming door hadn’t been my imagination—the Dire was gone. Had I awakened him? Maybe I’d uttered that last scream out loud?

If so, he was a wise man to leave. Never stay in a small room with a shrieking Dragonshifter.

My heart pounded, and I had to force my lips back over teeth grown long and sharp. I used to have better control than this. You didn’t survive in the underworld by letting your emotions rule. Especially over a sharding dream.

Of course, I wasn’t in the underworld now. And much as I tried to deny it, I wasn’t the Dragon I used to be.