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Jesus. Am I falling in love with all of them?
Too chicken-shit to answer that question, I just nuzzled closer to Kingston, breathing in his rich scent. Kingston smelled like money and boredom, like the finest brandy and expensive leather. It was an addictive aroma, like inhaling pure luxury.
He tucked my hair behind my ear and smiled gently. It was as soft and meaningful as one of Xero’s rare smiles, but it was uniquely Kingston. The aristocratic curves and planes of his face couldn’t lessen the ef
fect of authentic feeling, and for the first time, I saw how he must have looked before wealth and dragonism had hardened him, shifting his priorities.
“I’ve been keeping a secret,” he murmured as he stroked my cheek. “There’s something I want to show you.”
He slid off the bed and I rose up onto my elbows, intrigued. All kinds of things floated through my imagination, from all over the spectrum.
He’s really a prince.
He’s really a spy for Gavriel.
He’s been keeping a wet bar hidden in his room somehow and is going to make me a cocktail.
That one made my mouth water, and for a wild moment, I hoped I was right. As my brain speed-cycled through every imaginable possibility, he rifled through his discarded clothes. When he pulled a small black rectangular object out of a hidden pocket, I blinked.
My mind had come up with some pretty out-there possibilities, but this wasn’t any of the things I had imagined.
“You have a… cell phone?”
He handed it to me, and I studied it, turning it over in my palm. It looked like a twenty-year-old flip phone, but when I opened it up, it had a modern screen.
I frowned at him in confusion. “What the hell?”
He took the phone back from me with a little grin.
“It still connects to earth,” he said, tapping at the screen a few times. “See?”
“What?” I shot upright on the bed so fast my head spun. “You have internet access?!”
“More than that. It can make phone calls. I brought it with me when I came to Fallen University. I’ve stayed in contact with my business associates this whole time.”
“But—how?!”
“It’s enchanted—” he began, but I cut him off.
“No, not that part. I mean, yes, tell me about that, but first tell me how you managed to keep this a secret for so long? You’ve been interrogated twice! And not by some human detective either, but by a serious magical team!”
His smile turned extremely smug. “I’m a dragon, Piper. And this is my treasure. The thing is, the empath and the siren connect to emotions. That mage, Charles, connects to spells. Those are all warm or cold talents, you see.”
I totally didn’t see, but I nodded anyway so he would continue.
“As a dragon, I don’t have any guilt over guarding my treasure, so they can’t find that. Protecting my treasure is a vital aspect of my primal makeup; telling me to reveal my treasure is like telling me to stop breathing. I can do it voluntarily or through direct interference, but if they don’t know it’s there, they can’t interfere directly. It’s fail proof.”
My mouth had fallen open in astonishment, and I closed it again. “That’s incredible.”
“Yes, it is,” he said proudly. “The point, though, is that the phone is enchanted to connect to anywhere from anywhere—across any distance, through any barrier. Even into a different dimension. Which means we still have a lifeline to earth.”
I opened my hand for the phone, and he let me see it again, though I could tell he was growing more reluctant every time he handed it over. He was a dragon, after all. And just like he’d said, this was his most valuable treasure.
Holding the phone with more reverence than I had the first time, I looked for a logo or brand, but the black casing was unmarked.
“Where did you get it?” I asked.
He cleared his throat. “You know how I said I hopped on a private jet and went to Africa to meet with the shaman after I was turned?”
