Dragon Fate by Elsa Jade Page B

howling as they climbed toward the mountains.
    This was the path Ashcraft’s private jet had taken when Anjali had tried to flee with her friends, having failed to kill a dragon. Rave had forced the plane down—or not so much forced as helped Piper land it—because he refused to lose Piper, his solarys. If not for that ancient mating bond, likely the dragonkin would’ve not pursued, the secret of their existence too precious to risk on revelation, even for revenge.
    Not that the Nox Incendi didn’t do revenge. Torch was the last of his line because his elders had thought to challenge Bale as reyex, thinking that because the stone blight had struck him hard he would fall easily.
    A stone might fall, but it could crush a lot of cluelessly conceited dragon-shifters in its path on the way down.
    The Dorados had spared the youngest of the defeated line, and when his line’s name was struck from their rolls, they’d given him their name instead. Because while their revenge was fire and fury, their sense of justice was tempered in that forge as well.
    He’d struggled to live up to the second chance, to pay off the debt and maybe someday restore the lost line. Now he finally had a real chance to make it happen.
    Or die trying, apparently.
    Being on the bike was almost like flying. Well, nothing like flying, but the closest he could get while on the ground. The curves of the road up the mountain soothed him, and for a moment he forgot about everything except the swoop of the asphalt, the bite of the air, and the heat of the female pressed to his spine.
    She was so close that he felt the first shiver.
    He’d made sure to give her his jacket while he stayed in his t-shirt only so he’d get cold first, but she was more delicate than he’d thought. More delicate than she probably wanted him to know.
    But they didn’t have much farther to go.
    Three more bends of the road and he turned off at an unmarked side road. The clouds were more tattered, letting through gleams of sunlight, and at the slower speed it was almost warm.
    Didn’t hurt that Anjali had tucked herself even closer to him.
    How fast would he have to go before they actually merged?
    The asphalt gave way to gravel and he had to concentrate on keeping the bike upright. Anjali shifted her weight perfectly with his. He guided the Indian to a halt in the middle of a gravel turnaround and cut the engine.
    He’d never actually heard deafening silence before. It was kind of spooky. They were surrounded by rough sandstone and tough, stubby brush—like a tomb.
    One soft tick of the engine broke the spell, and Anjali stiffened, pulling away from him, as if that one tick had been the shortest bomb countdown in movie history.
    Before she could blow up at him, he said, “You’re probably cold. Come with me.”
    He steadied her as she swung off the back of the bike.
    She looked at the powerful machine. “Quite the antique. Is this part of your treasure trove?”
    He smoothed his hand over the fuel tank as he dismounted. “I told you, I haven’t chosen my treasure yet. This is Bale’s. But…he doesn’t get out much anymore.”
    “Probably a good thing,” she mumbled.
    Torch didn’t contradict her as he led her through the maze of crumbling rock. “One of my tasks as enforcer for the clan is containing the Nox Incendi within the Keep.”
    She cast him a sidelong glance. “Prisoners?”
    He snorted. “No one can hold a truly pissed-off dragon. At least not without serious damage. No, with Rave’s help, Bale made a place that was perfect for dragonkin so we wouldn’t have to fight them to keep them.”
    “Rich, beautiful, mysterious.” Anjali nodded thoughtfully. “Who would ever want to leave the Keep?”
    “Exactly. Everything they want is there. But sometimes…they need more. So we come here.”
    He stopped and let her step past him between two pillars of rock. She gasped.
    Red sandstone and gray limestone banded the wild landscape dropping away from their