Sam pressed his hands to his face. “This is the most ridiculous thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“We know,” Urien said gently. “We know we’ve handled this badly. We’re long-lived beings, Sam, but we have no idea how to court a human in the twenty-first century. Everything we tried was either too much or not enough or completely missed the mark.”
Sam lowered his hands, and Urien could tell he was overwhelmed.
“You don’t have to accept this,” Urien said. Even though he didn’t want to say the words, Sam deserved to know. “We know this is overwhelming. We know we should have told you sooner, but we were afraid you’d think we were insane. But we were also afraid to tell the truth, in case the council found out we’d violated secrecy protocols and they might separate us from you permanently.”
“I don’t understand that either. What council?” Sam asked.
“It’s the dragon’s governing body. They have rules about revealing ourselves to humans.” Urien waved a hand. “We’re violating those rules right now. But we decided the truth was more important than following rules that didn’t make sense.”
Sam’s gaze moved between the three of them. “You risked that for me.”
“We’d risk anything for you,” Rux said. “You’re our fourth.”
“You could still have a normal life,” Urien continued. “Normal human relationships with partners who take you to dinner without cooking enough food for twenty people. People who don’t leave gold bars on your doorstep or try to buy your workplace. You don’t have to choose three dragons who’ve been stalking you from their Range Rover and don’t even know how to take you on a proper date.”
Silence fell over the dining room. The candles Rux had lit earlier flickered,casting dancing shadows across the absurd amount of food still covering the table.
Sam stood, and all three dragons stopped breathing at the exact same time.
Sam walked around the table slowly, stopping in front of where Urien sat. Then he moved to Mabon, still kneeling. Then to Rux, who’d braced his hands on the table like he was holding himself back from lunging forward.
“Show me,” Sam said.
Urien’s dragon roared in triumph.
“Show you what?” Mabon asked carefully.
“Show me your dragons,” Sam said. His voice shook, but his gaze was steady. “If this is real - if you’re really what you say you are - show me.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sam
“Outside. We have to go outside,” Mabon said, pushing himself to his feet. “We need space.”
Sam followed them through the house, his heart hammering against his ribs, as he tried to make sense of the last half hour. Logically, everything he’d been told was just crazy talk from three eccentric men who’d fixated on him for some reason. But the heart stones had been physical, tangible things embedded in their chests, glowing with light that had no rational explanation.
The garden behind the estate sprawled across at least two acres, formal beds giving way to wilderness at the edges. Full dark had fallen while they’d been inside, and stars were scattered across the sky. The moon was slowly rising, casting everything in silver.
Sam stood at the edge of the patio, one hand gripping the stone railing,while the three men walked to the center of the lawn, spacing themselves twenty feet apart.
“The shift is very controlled,” Urien said, his voice carrying across the distance. “Not violent. But it’s still...significant.”
“I’m ready,” Sam said, although he wasn’t sure anyone could be ready for dragons.But, here we are.
Rux shifted first. It was nothing like the movies - no Hollywood CGI, or dramatic music swelling. Sam sensed a ripple of power in the air, and then Rux was changing.
Bones restructured with audible cracks as his body expanded, doubling in size, then tripling. Skin became scales that spread from his chest outward, deep crimson overlaid with gold. His face elongated into a massive snout, teeth the size of Sam’s forearm gleaming in the moonlight. Wings unfurled from his back, enormous membranes stretched between claw-tipped finger bones, easily spanning forty feet.
The dragon that stood where Rux had been was the size of a tiny house. Crimson scales caught the moonlight, reflecting it back in shades of ruby and garnet. His eyes - still Rux’s eyes - glowed like banked coals.
Sam’s knees went weak, and he leaned on the railing.
Mabon shifted next. His transformation seemed faster and more efficient, but it wasn’t like Sam was an expert on things like that. Dark scales rippled across his skin, deep brown so dark they appeared black except where the moonlight caught their edges and revealed hints of bronze. His dragon form was slightly smaller than Rux’s but no less powerful, with huge muscles coiled beneath those gleaming scales. His wings snapped open with an audible crack like a sail catching the wind.
Urien’s shift was the most graceful. His dragon emerged in a flow of silver-blue scales. He was the largest of the three, topping Rux’s size by at least five feet. His eyes blazed sapphire-bright, and when his wingsunfurled, they were translucent at the edges, the membranes so thin the stars showed through.
