In contrast, Edgar, soft and serious, with scales of light blue-green and a mess of brown hair,mightimpress a human with his looks. But though he made some dragons uncomfortable, he wouldn’t say he impressed them. His family loved him, but no one longed to appease him, to lay treasure at his feet, one piece at a time, until he was theirs.
Edgar put a hand to his throat, then lowered his gaze to his computer screen.
He realized he’d left his notes on a potential love scene open and firmly closed the laptop before he looked back up.
He wasn’t surprised at Justin wandering through his family’s house. The Khans owned a house just across town, and Justin had been friends with Edgar’s older brother, Felix, practically since they’d both been hatchlings. Justin had spent summers with them as a child, and too many weekends to count since then. If he didn’t have a key of his own by now, then Edgar’s mother would have let him in, and possibly told him to come see Edgar.
She would never give up.
Edgar was forgiving, however, since Justin smiled at him, and looked compelling in his fleece jacket and jogging pants. He’d probably played some kind of sport before coming over. Which, although interesting to imagine, still didn’t explain what he was doing here. Aiden should have messaged Edgar to warn him. They had an arrangement. Edgar told stories in which a bootlegger, or smuggler, or pirate fell in love with two people instead of choosing one while Aiden pretended those stories were not about him, and in return, Aiden messaged Edgar on the doings and whereabouts of one Justinian Khan.
Not like a spy. Like a reporter, or a kind friend who understood dragon anxiety about such matters.
“Justin.” Edgar couldn’t help but smile back despite his confusion over the situation. “Didn’t your classes just begin? You’ve stressed repeatedly that humans are harder on beings in their colleges, which means you have to be your best. Oh—” Edgar’s thoughts splintered in different directions. He imagined Justin sick of humans treating him badly, storming off—but no, that was not Justin’s way. Justin was tired, then, and needed a break—no, he wouldn’t come here. They were friends, but Edgar was a seer. The room offered peace, but Edgar sometimes didn’t.
But… Justin did not hide from the truth, either.
Puzzled, Edgar focused on him again. “If you’ve come looking for Felix, you’re in trouble, because he’s not here. He’s interning in Los Cerros. First time he’s ever lived on his own, and he’s being a big baby about it.”
Edgar had never lived alone. He still slept in his childhood bedroom—or on this couch more often than not. He most likely would never move out on his own. Seer he might be, but he was much too weak for the world of humans. They demanded action, not thought, and didn’t like the truth as much as they claimed to.
Justin, naturally, owned a house near his college campus. Edgar had never been there, not even when the housewarming invitation had arrived in his name. He knew better than to look at the lair that could never be his.
“I know where Felix is.” Justin rolled his eyes before coming forward into the room at last. He sat on the other side of the couch without disturbing a single volume stacked on the arm closest to him. “He has the money to hire a housekeeper, but won’t, because he wants to prove something. Then he texts me at four in the morning about fabric softener. Big baby is right.” He released a noisy sigh as he stretched out, perfectly at home in a sea of books. “Felix will be fine, Ras. I’m more interested in what you were doing when I got here.”
“Um.” Edgar made a truly embarrassing gurgling sound that was meant to be a gentleshush. “When did you get here?” He widened his eyes. “Was I making faces again?” Everyone said he made faces when he was writing, and he didn’t want to know what his expression had been while contemplating Red Wolf’s fragile mating bond.
The cloud of smoke around Justin was white and fluffy and as satisfied as the curl of cat’s tail.
Edgar put his laptop to the side and sat back. Despite his rising blush, he smiled again. Justin didn’t appear to be in any hurry to leave. He put his arms behind his head—once again without dislodging a single book at the back of the couch—and let out a breath as he got comfortable. He smelled like someone finally getting home after a long day.
Edgar paused. “Are you exhausted from school already? If you aren’t well, you shouldn’t have driven up here for the weekend—oh.” He glanced away, but the only thing to look at that wasn’t Justin watching him with intensely dark eyes was his clasped hands in his lap. Edgar considered the shimmering hint of emerald scales on the backs of his hands and then, much too late, noticed that he was wearing the black flannel pajamas he tended to wear when he was feeling sad. He tried to smile, light and friendly, but his voice wobbled. “Are your parents hoping to introduce you to someone?”
With dragons no longer in hiding, they were free to choose partners wherever their hearts desired. Which was great for those dragons lucky in love, but somewhat alarming to the older dragons, who worried either that dragons were dying out, or that all the mingling with humans and elves and the like had weakened the dragon bloodlines.
It was true that dragons now were smaller than the ones of legend, at least according to how humans had depicted them, but Edgar thought it was a bunch of people worrying over nothing. The introductions were constant and annoying for the first few years and then trickled off once parents ran out of eligible dragons to throw at their offspring. But that was the exact sort of reason that Justin’s father might have called Justin up here.
Aiden really should have warned him.
“Are you hiding here with me?” Edgar teased, although his hands tightened, his vision filled with gray smoke, and there was a not-insignificant pain in his chest. “You should go. You might not find a life partner, but you could at least find a playmate or two. Unless you’ve already found some at school.”
“Edgar Erasmus Magnat.” Justin slowly shook his head. “What goes on in that brilliant mind of yours? Have you been imagining me in wild orgies? You have, haven’t you? Thousands of different tales running through your brain…. Admit it. Some of them were orgies.”
“I’m serious,” Edgar answered primly, oddly at ease with the stormy up and down feelings of jealousy, and the excitement and delicious pleasure at being subjected to Justin’s fearless teasing. No one else ever joked about the stories and yet understood exactly what it meant to have a mind always running. Edgar wasoddand Justin did not mind. “You should go,” Edgar said again, though his fire raged. “You should be looking for your treasure.” For a moment, he could not breathe. “And if your treasure is not there, you could go back to school and find a human, simply to irk your mom. Think about that. Hmm? Not even your mother could argue if you found yourself a dragon’s boy.”
A dragon’s boy was an archaic term, and gendered besides, since it didn’t always mean a literalboy, but at its root, it meant the bond between a dragon and the Other it loved and swore to protect. It was not unlike a mating, but also… so very different. Even a weak dragon with no treasure, like Edgar, was more powerful than a human, or a fairy, or a werewolf. That changed the nature of any relationship, made the dragon stronger somehow, in ways even Edgar didn’t understand. Theyhadto be stronger, to meet the needs of their boy. They had to be stronger because to keep the balance, mighty, powerful dragons had to submit to their treasure. It was unthinkable and wonderful all at once.
“A boy?” Justin frowned hard for a few moments, then switched to a grin. “You think I’m that powerful, Ras? I’m flattered.”
Justin’s large, well-muscled body seemed closer. But that could have been Edgar’s pointless, possessive fire making him more aware of the heat from another dragon not very far away.
Edgar rubbed his arms, as if that would make his awareness of Justin disappear. “Youwillbe that powerful.” He had no hesitation for that vision. “You wouldn’t have it any other way, and neither would I.”
He meant it to be funny, although it was true. But Justin cocked his head to study him and then nodded. “Then I will be, if you need it.”
“You—” Edgar’s throat locked for a moment. “You’re welcome to stay here, if youarehiding from more potential matches. You may stay as long as you like.” Edgar’s little lair seemed to curl around Justin, or maybe Justin wore all the possible futures and stories in the room like a mantle.
Justin made a small scoffing sound despite his wide smile. “Ras, I swear to you, I’m not hiding from anything.”
