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Chapter Two
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All beginnings are difficult.
Celestial Palace of the Jade Emperor.
“Are we supposed to wait here all day? It’s downright rude.”
Ere huffed a hank of long, dark hair out of his eyes and squirmed restlessly on the bottom of the hundred steps that led up to the entrance of the biggest fucking palace he’d ever seen.
He thought it was a hundred, anyway. He couldn’t count them all since he couldn’t see to the top.
The golden stairs seemed to ascend straight into the clouds. Well, they kind of did, since white wisps floated by, obscuring the topmost steps in curling mist. The white dragon that had carried Cloud and led him and Sorin here had long since disappeared into those mists.
They’d traveled here in dragon and phoenix form, but when they landed in the Celestial Realm, he and Sorin had involuntarily transformed into their humanoid forms.
Magic was all around them, filling Ere with wonder…
For about the first two hours while he waited for the Jade Emperor to grant them audience.
“Patience is a virtue,” Cloud said serenely, the epitome of patience and virtue, as he leaned his long graceful frame against one of the towering columns that supported the covered walkway that led to the steps Ere now lounged casually upon.
“One I happily don’t possess,” Ere quipped.
“Time has not been wasted,” the Elite warrior pointed out. “You now know the rules to abide by within the heavenly realm. Break them at your own risk.”
Cloud had spent the last couple of hours instructing him and Sorin on Celestial protocol. Do’s and Don’ts. The who’s who of Heaven.
There was a lot to keep track of.
“You mean—don’t talk to thexian nu,” Ere ticked off one finger at a time as he spoke. “Don’t touch, break or take anything. Don’t make jokes with the guards. Don’t argue with the Jade Emperor or any of his staff. Don’t drink or eat anything unless it’s specifically offered. Don’t piss in the gardens. No skinny dipping in the rivers, lakes or ponds. No raising your voice…”
Ere rolled his eyes with all of the considerable sarcasm at his disposal.
“What else? No breathing through your mouth? What if I have a cold? Not that Immortals could fall ill, but just for argument’s sake. What if my nose is stuffed? What if I have togoand I can’t find the toilet?”
Cloud pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and index finger and closed his eyes. It appeared that even the virtuous had their limits.
Sorin looked between them stoically, though a corner of his mouth twitched with amusement.
Yes, Ere could be exhausting. But Sorin knew, that for all the ways the male could aggravate, he was more than worth the trouble.
“Just…” Cloud visibly struggled not to growl with frustration.
“Be on your best behavior, dragon.”
“Aren’t I always?” Ere said, batting his lashes innocently.
Unsurprisingly, no one answered with agreement.
“Being a considerate host is also a virtue, I read somewhere,” he added. “Where is this mighty Jade Emperor who issued the summons? Dragging me out of the most enticing bed of warm muscles and hard cock?”
He flicked a sultry gaze at his Phoenix Mate, who regarded him impassively with hooded eyes, thick arms crossed over his enormous chest, long trunk-like legs braced apart. He looked as stalwart as the mountain they’d climbed to get here.
Immovable. Unshakable.
But Ere saw the fire that burned in his golden eyes. He knew intimately just how volcanic Sorin could be.
