Why are you here? Blaz’s back leg stretched forward and he scratched at his head with a back claw. His tail flicked at the end, like a nervous twitch. Like he was trying to play it cool.

“I need a hand with something. I’m hoping you would consider a trade.”

You have nothing I want. No, that’s not true. I would take Harpy off your hands; she’s young and tender. He gave an evil grin that Pamela reacted to.

“I’ll smash you with those boulders if you even touch Eve,” she said, popping another piece of meat in her mouth.

Blaz’s head snaked forward. Little witch, you perhaps do not realize that I could eat you quite easily. One bite would do it.

She put her hands on her h*ps and I just watched, wanting to see how much piss and vinegar the kid had.

“I’ll crush you with boulders, you can’t stop that.”

I’ll fry you with lightning.

Her lips thinned. “I’ll pull down your mountain on your fat stupid head.”

Blaz laughed in her face and what happened next was one of those things that I will never forget.

Pamela glared at the dragon, lifted one hand and the ground began to shake, the rocks and pebbles rattling and dancing across the earth. The shaking intensified, except for where she stood; the earth heaved, throwing Blaz backward. Along the edges of the mountain, the cliffs where the other dragons had perched crumbled, cracked and fell to the ground. This had gone far enough.

I scrambled to her side, grabbing her arms, nulling her magic.

“Hey, so you know that being a show off will make you a target?” I stared into her eyes, didn’t let her miss the fact that I wasn’t going to let this pass without saying something.

“He thinks I’m weak.”

No, I don’t think you’re weak. Blaz moved closer, a wary eye on the witch. But I had no idea you had those kinds of abilities.

“You aren’t going to try and hurt my family?”

He blinked several times, as if her words had been a foreign language. His eyes slid to mine.

I shrugged. “We are tight-knit. I won’t apologize for it.”

I won’t make any such promise. Now what kind of trade do you want?

I put Pamela behind me, just in case. Though to be fair, I already knew that he wouldn’t hurt us. He would have killed us by now if he’d been going to.

“Round trip flight. That’s it. Done. You’ll never see me again.” Which I knew without him saying so was what he wanted. Whatever binding had happened between us, he didn’t want it. Didn’t want to be responsible for me. Which was fine by me. If Eve was right, it was just a bunch of stupid ridiculousness anyway.

His eyes narrowed and he drew a line in the dirt between us. Where are we going?

“You would take me, Pamela, and one werewolf to Venice. We’re going to pick up someone there, and then you would take us all back to London.”

Sounds simple.

“It isn’t.”

His tongue flicked out and ran along his teeth. And I get what out of this?

“I’ll owe you a favor, to be cashed in when you need it.”

He laughed, his sides heaving with mirth, scales glittering in the dull sunlight. What could you possibly do for me?

“I could Track for you.”

Blaz went very still, and then slowly nodded. Done.

For some reason I suspected I should be more worried about making a deal with a Dragon than I was. He’d agreed far too quickly.

Yes, I had a feeling I should be much more worried.

Let’s go. I have other things I could be doing.

I motioned for Pamela to step up and I lifted her up onto Blaz’s back. This was happening faster than I’d planned, but I wouldn’t get another chance at the kind of help I would need to get us all home in one piece.

As I mounted up on Blaz’s back, I Tracked Jack, his life throbbing dully in the south. Like he was being hurt, or maybe like the cancer was making a resurgence. I wasn’t sure, had never Tracked him before and this—what I felt inside my head—was more of an ache than an actual pain.

I settled in behind Pamela, then flicked my whip out and around Blaz’s neck for a handhold. He turned around to stare at me, arching his darkly scaled eyebrow.

I’m not going to try and dump your ass this time.

“You say that now. I know how fast I can piss people off. I’d rather have something to hang onto.”

He chuckled and the muscles underneath us bunched. With a shot of power, he launched himself into the air, wings driving downward, and he actually used them to push off the ground as well. A few sharp wing beats and we were high in the air, circling around the mountain. I pointed out the direction where Eve, Alex, and O’Shea waited.

Pamela’s hands clutched my wrists, and her blonde hair streamed back around me. And for a moment, I could think that she was Berget, that I hadn’t failed my little sister again. A heavy ache spread through my chest, like the weight of one of the boulders crushing me.

Tracker, I do not want to know, but I will tell you this: If you go into battle with a grief like the one coursing through you, you will put not only yourself in danger, but that of your family.

“You always spy on people’s thoughts?” I snapped, giving the whip a jerk, wishing I could tighten it around him enough that he would actually feel it.

Your emotions come through to me. Just one more reason that you need to be far away from me. Far, far away.

I wanted to ask him what the other dragons had meant when they’d spoken about the binding, what had happened to him and I?

Then again, maybe I didn’t want to know. Yeah, at this point in my life, with all the shit I had going on, that was probably better.

Chapter 18

IN ORDER TO pick up O’Shea, Blaz had to land, and that meant crushing trees. With a glee I could feel as if I were Tracking him, Blaz went to work, hovering just above a cluster of trees, taking them out with his claws and tail, a grin stretching across his face so wide I could see the corners of it from his back. Leaves, mud, rocks and branches flew as he cleared a patch large enough for him to land.

Pamela turned to face me. “Kinda destructive, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, kinda. But he is a dragon. I’m not sure they’re known for being quiet and humble.”

Humble, yes. Quiet, no.

Tucking his wings in tight, Blaz dropped into his cleared area. I slid off his back first and then caught Pamela as she slid down his scaled side.

“We’ll be right back,” I said as we turned and headed toward the shack where we’d left the others.

Please let them all still be there and not fighting. Even taking Pamela with me, I’d been unsure of how O’Shea would handle being alone with Eve and Alex. As we stepped out of the thick bush and into the smallish clearing, a spurt of relief washed through me. Which, considering what was waiting for us, was kinda weird.

O’Shea stood between us and Eve and Alex, who huddled back against the shack. O’Shea’s hackles were standing straight up, making him look even bigger, and his teeth were bared. As we came into view, he lifted his head, took a sniff and relaxed. With a shake of his head and shoulders, the tension was broken.

He’d been protecting them.

Eve let out a squawk, flapping her obviously just healed wings as she ran toward us, bumping into O’Shea as she ran by him. O’Shea gave a grunt, but didn’t make any move toward her.

“Rylee, what was that great crashing noise? It sounded as if the forest was being destroyed.” She bobbed her head several times, golden eyes watching me intently.

“Blaz brought us here.” Soon enough, I would have to tell her that the dragon who’d wanted to eat her was going to be with us for a little while. But not yet.

“Who is …?”

“The dragon,” Pamela said.

Ah, f**k, I hadn’t counted on the kid.

Eve squawked and let out a screech that made my skin crawl.

I held a hand up to her. “Eve, stop it. He’s not here for you, he’s here to help get us all to Venice, get Jack, and then he’ll take us home. There are too many of us for you to f**king carry.”

“He wanted to eat me!” Her wings were spread as wide as they would go and her feathers were most certainly ruffled.

I let out a sigh. “Fine, then you can take Alex with you back to London and wait for us there.”

Alex let out a whimper. “Stay with Rylee.”

The Harpy flapped her wings a few times, stirring up the bush around us. “I don’t like it.”

“I know.” I stared up at her. “I can do this salvage without you, Eve. It’ll be quick, you can—”

“No. I will come. You are my mentor.” She seemed to pull herself together. “I can take more than Alex, though.”

“You may have to, on the way back. Depends on how Jack is doing.” I led the way back through the trees to where Blaz waited, sprawled out on his back. The dragon was snoring lightly, eyes shut against the light mist that fell, but it was a ruse. I could sense that he was awake. Bugger, this blood mingling thing on top of my Tracking was making my head hurt. Too much of other people’s feelings inside my head at once was not a good thing.

O’Shea took one look at him, glanced at me, and then looked back at the dragon.

“Yeah, I can hardly believe it, either.” I reached over and slid my hand along the top of his head, the tension easing out of me as I did. He gave a soft woof, shook his head and plunked his ass down beside me.

Eve was not so subtle. Her body fluffed up, wings spread with alarm that she couldn’t seem to contain. Her eyes tracked every breath the dragon took, and her beak clacked together in fast, rapid clicks.

I’ve already eaten Harpy today. I’m quite full. Blaz rolled to the side to stare at our group. He moved slowly, and I could tell, without knowing why, that he was worried about freaking Eve out. It didn’t work. Eve hopped from foot to foot, wings flapping, lifting her a few feet off the ground.

His eyes flicked to me and gave me a slight nod, maybe confirming what I was suspecting? This bond thing was weird; I didn’t like it. Blaz gave me a grin and a wink, but then he lifted his head and stared out behind me. Like there was someone there.