Dragon Around Read Online Free

ear. “How close were you with unicorns in your past, Dira?”
    “None of your business.” She continued to walk slowly at his side, ignoring the feel of heat coming off his skin. She loved being warm.
    “I was just wondering, because my family and I are only aware of a dozen more unicorns on earth, and they are all of different races and on other continents, not to mention over two hundred years old.”
    “You don’t say. I must have read it somewhere.” She was relieved when she saw the familiar door of the Open Heart.
    “I doubt it. Only other mythical beings recognize another, and they are the only ones to know all the lore.”
    Dira snorted, and the alcohol swirling around them ignited into a bright flash.
    Mak jumped. “What was that?”
    “Will-o-the-wisp.” She batted out the last flicker of flame and kept them on their path.
    “I don’t think so.”
    “What do you know, you’re drunk.” Dira chuckled and eased him up the front stairs to the porch.
    “Not that drunk. I have already gotten rid of most of the alcohol.” He leaned on her a little as they entered the entry hall.
    She hoisted him up the stairs and to his room. In the doorway, he leaned forward and whispered, “What do I get if I guess what you are?”
    “You get to go to bed, alone.” She shoved at him, but his grip tightened and he pulled her inside.
    He closed the door and pressed her back against it. “I believe that I deserve some reward for figuring it out.”
    She blinked up into his deep brown gaze. “Tell me what I am and I will give you a single kiss.”
    He whispered, “Phoenix.”
    Her laughter cut through his smugness. “Incorrect. But here is something for trying.”
    She went up on her toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek, inhaling the intoxicating scent of him. Before he could turn his head, she shoved him back and opened the door, closing it gently behind her.
    Dira walked downstairs and leaned on her desk, getting her racing pulse under control. Once she stopped fantasizing about what it would have been like if he had guessed correctly, she got back to her preparations for breakfast. She had to get back to bed and then up in a few hours to make breakfast for the early risers.
    Muffins didn’t make themselves. Not without a kitchen fey anyway, and it had been three hundred years since Dira had a magical maid.
    Life back then had been simple, but she had stayed away from humans because the scent of filth and disease had not been particularly attractive to her. The fey were cleaner than humans, but ever since they had outed themselves to humanity in the time of Queen Victoria, they had become insufferable.
    It was amusing to her that not one of the shifters that she had met over the years had run into a fey, but she supposed that one sort of magic repelled the others.
    Shifters walked through the human world but rarely engaged with them. They preferred to work around the human world and socialize with their own kind for the most part.
    There were exceptions to every rule, but as far as Dira was concerned, most humans could not deal with shifters on an equal basis. They lacked the instinct for it.
    Shaking her head to reassemble her concentration, she walked into her kitchen and assembled the dry ingredients for fresh blueberry muffins. Her pans were standing ready, the blueberries she had picked that afternoon were in a bowl, and she was off to bed.
    Dira yawned as she opened the door to the cellar and headed down to her private quarters.
    Mak could take care of himself.
     
    * * * *
     
    He had guessed wrong. Mak couldn’t believe it. If she wasn’t a phoenix, what was she? He was going to have to make a call, but he was going to get to the bottom of this.
    Mak looked out at the false dawn lightening the sky. He may as well get a few hours of sleep before trying to find a way to contact the one person he knew who might have an idea about other mythical species, his mother.
    If there was one being in the universe