Breath of Flame and Shadow by Ophelia Bell

converged in a spot in the shadow of the mountain, as plain as day. Mixed with it, however, was an energy even more ancient and therefore immensely powerful for the fact that it lingered so clearly.
    Rafe dipped to follow it, sinking through the air without care, as desperate as he was to reach her.
    He landed with a shuddering surge, the earth shaking and dust rising up around them at the entrance to a cave. Trevor slid off his back and fell boneless against a rock.
    “She’s in there,” Trevor said, as though he sensed it as much as Rafe did.
    Rafe peered into the narrow, dark space. It wasn’t a pleasant kind of cave. Wet and craggy. Upon his first look, he didn’t see how a full-sized dragon could even fit. But she had, because she was in there now. Maybe in her human form, but his senses only read dragon .
    “Rowan?” He sent the question out, grasping at anything, but got no answer.
    Shame wasn’t a common emotion in Rafe’s repertoire, but he felt it then. It had been entirely his fault for not giving in and marking her that first night, the very second he knew he could be happy with no other woman. The problem was her, though. He couldn’t simply claim a dragon like her. It would disrespect her to do so, as majestic as she was. He wished he knew what bloodlines she belonged to, but it had to be Court. He’d sensed that power in her from the beginning, known she was better than him all along. So how could he claim ownership of her when the opposite was more preferable? And the opposite was something she was unlikely to agree to, on simple, human principle.
    He should have asked. That was his mistake. He should have told her everything, then gotten down on his knees and begged her to claim him. But there was no precedence for a dragon submitting to another dragon as a mate. They only submitted if they were being disciplined. For thousands of years they’d only been allowed to mate with humans. She couldn’t have known that, either. His other mistake was not giving her the details of their political history. But politics kind of put a damper on sex and sex had always been a dragon priority.
    It still was, if they were going to save her.
    “Rowan, I don’t know if you can hear me, but we’re coming in.”
    Trevor handed Rafe a head lamp, which he declined. The human was prepared for anything. He was geared up now with a pack of supplies on his back and stood at the entrance, waiting for Rafe’s signal.
    “Why are you hard?” Rafe asked, point blank.
    Trevor’s face flushed and he looked down at the bulge in the front of his snug-fitting pants.
    “Proximity? I don’t fucking know. All I know is that I want what you want so much I’d fuck that feeling until it came all over me. Do you promise I can still be hers when we’re in there?”
    “Yes. You first.”
    The passage wasn’t that tight, so they could walk upright, but had to remain single-file.
    “Do you wonder if only one of us will survive to save her?” Trevor asked, some ways in.
    “We’ll both survive.”
    Trevor laughed. “You don’t see the parallel to insemination?”
    Rafe paused, considering the comment. “What do you mean?”
    “We’re the sperm swimming up the vagina. She’s the egg. It’s a contest, I think… Who will she let impregnate her first?”
    “You think too literally,” Rafe said.
    “Do I?” Trevor asked.
    The human was getting impetuous, and was beginning to endear himself to Rafe for it. Trevor reminded him of Rowan in some ways. He believed it possible she might prefer this man over himself, and if she loved Trevor more, Rafe didn’t want to have a hand in keeping them apart.
    “Move on,” Rafe said.
    “You can’t even answer me. I think you love her. Is that literal enough?”
    “You love her, too.”
    “So you don’t deny it.”
    “I would die for her. Would you?”
    Trevor stopped moving.
    “Yes. God yes,” Trevor said, turning his head slightly to glance back at Rafe.
    They stood silent