[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Almost there.
Jiang moved closer to the birds to wedge them in the tight corridor between the
buildings. His cool scales crackled from the heat of the flames but he pushed back.
Luckily downtown sat at the edge of the sound and Jiang could pull moisture from the
air. Even a water dragon might dry out from too much contact with flaming birds.
There!
The convention center stood before them. A long glass and steel arch covered the street
below. Using his dragon vision, Jiang spotted the glow of the activated spell. Jiang
stopped midair as the phoenixes plunged into the trap. Li almost didn’t stop in time.
Jiang clamped his teeth onto one flaming wing and jerked Li back from the pull of the
enchantment. His mouth sizzled from the contact. Gasping, he quickly released the
phoenix.
A little concentration pulled water into his mouth to douse the elemental fire.
Dropping close to the ground, he found his group and landed directly beside them.
Gallen had his hands out whispering some arcane spell while the phoenixes thrashed
in their magical net.
Jiang transformed into his human shape, dressing himself in his scales as he changed.
Li landed beside him, his flaming feathers changing to a pair of leather pants and a
plain white shirt. “I want to talk to them before you send them away.”
Jiang waited for Aden’s decision.
Aden assessed Li with his cool blue eyes. Jiang barely remembered to breathe while he
waited for their leader’s decision.
“You have five minutes. If you think they will calm down, we will give you more
time.”
Li bowed to Aden, then leapt back into the air, a phoenix once more.
Aden turned his attention back to Jiang. “What do you think?”
“I doubt he’ll be able to reason with them. They are too far gone,” Jiang reported sadly.
They stood waiting. A street musician began strumming the guitar in a weird parody
of their anticipation. Not even two minutes had passed before Li landed back beside
them. He transformed quickly and from his expression Jiang already knew what he’d say.
“Send them.” Li turned away but not before Jiang saw the wetness in his eyes.
“Ready, love?” Aden asked his mate.
Gallen nodded.
Without warning, a crackle of magic signified the arrival of additional sorcerers. Jiang
sucked in a breath. Fear shot through him at the sight of the sorcerer with a scar on his
cheek—a mark Zhou had given him on that fateful day thousands of years ago. The
sorcerer hadn’t aged a day.
Two other sorcerers appeared beside the leader. Jiang didn’t recognize them.
“Follow my lead, young mage,” the leader said. He waved his hands and muttered a
few words Jiang didn’t recognize. A loud boom shook the ground and the fenghuangs
disappeared.
Li sucked in his breath beside Jiang then fell to his knees, sobbing.
“Hey, are you all right?” Jiang asked. He wrapped a hand around Li’s arm and helped
him to his feet.
“I’m alone. Without my brothers and sisters.”
Jiang knew the fenghuangs spent their entire life bonded. How did someone recover
from losing their other half? “Why didn’t you go with them?”
“I found my mate,” Li confessed. “My huang had been chosen by my parents—they
knew I was gay, but didn’t care. They said I would get over it. I sensed my mate a year
ago. He came to the theater. Unfortunately, I don’t know which one was him. In the
large crowd I couldn’t pick him out. I have to stay in Seattle to find him.”
“We can help you,” Gallen said, coming to stand beside Aden. “You helped us. We will
help you.”
“Come home with us. We’ll help you find your mate.” Aden stepped forward and
patted Li on the shoulder. “Maybe you can take him back to China with you and reunite
with your brothers and sisters?”
“No.” Li shook his head. “I’ll never go back there. I was cursed there, and it will never
be home again.”
“Yet, you sent your friends away,” the lead sorcerer said, staring at Li. “Why?”
“Because your spell drove them mad!” Li threw a ball of fire at the sorcerer.
The magic wielder brushed it aside as if it were nothing. “I was under orders. I am
sorry to have caused you so much grief, but there was little I could do then.” Pain filled
the sorcerer’s eyes. “You were not the only one who suffered that day.”
Jiang stepped forward, putting himself between the phoenix and the sorcerer. “There
isn’t anything that can change that now.”
The sorcerer sighed. “Zhou is my mate.”
Wow!
Out of all the possible explanations, that one hadn’t occurred to Jiang. “Then why did
you petrify him? Does he know?”
“Yes. I turned him to stone because the emperor would’ve had him killed. I couldn’t
take the chance. I convinced the emperor that I could get rid of the dragons. The spell
took far longer to shatter than I had expected.” The sorcerer frowned at Aden. “I’ve
heard that your family has long been a burr among the local sorcerers. Now you appear
to have become involved in the business of dragons.”
Aden surveyed the sorcerer with a cold stare. “Perhaps if they weren’t a group of
assholes, I wouldn’t enjoy bothering them so much.”
Gallen nudged Aden in the arm.
“What?” Aden eyed his mate in surprise.
“Not all sorcerers are bad.” Gallen folded his arms and glared at his mate. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]