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“What does bonding entail for dragons,” Claire said trying to break up the staring match between the mother and son.
When Mara turned to her with a wicked gleam in her eye, Claire knew she was going to regret having asked that. “Before or after the sex?” Mara said, not letting her face crack from the serious expression even as her eyes twinkled.
“Momma,” Malcolm complained. Claire was willing to play the game though even as it felt like her cheeks could probably warm her cooling stew in front of her.
“Let’s start with before the sex,” Claire said, taking a sip of water, trying to cool herself down.
Mara’s eyes gleamed with approval when Claire played along. The momma dragon seemed to know this would be more painful for her son than Claire and took some enjoyment from it. “Well, if I’ve taught the three of them anything, there’s this thing called ‘foreplay.’”
“Kill me now.” Desmond’s head dropped to the table as Claire barely contained her laughter.
Everett looked like he would rather be anywhere but here as he kept his eyes on his food and Malcolm looked torn between killing his mother and wanting to vanish. Brantley and Roderick’s shoulders shook as they suppressed the laughter threatening to erupt from them.
“We can always arrange another lesson,” Everina said with her own wicked grin, joining in on the fun.
Claire bit her lip and said, “they must have been excellent students when they were younger. Or they had excellent teachers.”
Malcolm turned his horrified face from Mara to Claire and Claire lost the battle with her laughter as giggles erupted from her.
The composure broken at the table, Roderick and Brantley roared with laughter. Mara and Everina cackled like the evil queens they were and her Triad just stared at all of them like they had lost their minds.
“But in all seriousness,” Claire said, wiping the tears from underneath her eyes, “I’m afraid I don’t know much about bonding ceremonies even for witches.” Her mother had mentioned the importance of using her bonds but maybe she had actually meant completing the bonds?
“Well for dragons, after the sex,” Mara teased Malcolm one more time, “usually at the peak of ecstasy—”
“Can you not use words like ecstasy?” Malcolm’s golden skin looked a bit green right now.
Roderick slapped Malcolm on the shoulder. “Do we need to have a conversation if those words are wigging you out? Give you some pointers?”
Malcolm pushed his dad’s hand off with an eyeroll. “I don’t have a problem with the words, only when it’s my momma saying them.”
“How do you think you got here?” Brantley said, leaning forward on the table and wiggling his eyebrows.
“A stork dropped us all off,” Everett shot back.
“Anyway.” Mara said, shooting them all a look for interrupting her. “At the peak of ecstasy, dragons usually mark each other with a bite and then through the bite they will channel their fire into the connection. That’s how it works with dragon pairings. I imagine Elves and Fae have their own ways of bonding with their partners?”
Claire nodded, thinking about the herbs that Greta had slipped into her pocket when she said goodbye to the Elder in the Forest. “I know the Elven traditions but not the Fae.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” Claire said looking at Roderick, “are there any Fae books in your library you would mind letting us look at? All the ones from the Academy disappeared during the Great War.”
Roderick nodded. “You are welcome to anything in the library. I will pull a few books that I know of that might be of interest.”
Claire nodded her head in thanks as Everina cleared her throat and looked pointedly at Everett.
Everett looked like he wanted to roll his eyes but didn’t for fear of Everina’s wrath. “For gryphons, we would exchange feathers.” His eyes darkened as he spoke, filling with heat and Claire blushed for an entirely different reason as she thought about the feather that had drawn her in the hoard.
Desmond took pity on her heating cheeks and chimed in. “And for witches, it’s a strand of my magic twined with yours.”
Claire took another bite of stew as she took in all of the information. While Everett and Desmond didn’t come out and say it, she would guess that their bonding activities would also take place during other… more intimate activities.
As if reading her thoughts, Desmond spoke, “All of the bonding rituals will take Energy out of all of us.”
Energy they might not be able to waste if they had to head to the Fae lands soon. Claire nodded to show she understood and thankfully the topics changed to other things. Everett told Brantley and Roderick of Claire’s idea about using their bonds during training and they both promised their help in setting something up in a few days' time. From the shared grins they exchanged, it was going to be no easy challenge but that was good. Something big was coming, they couldn’t afford to be unprepared.
After dinner, the four of them escaped to their rooms. As soon as the door shut, Malcolm groaned and rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m so sorry, little treasure.”
“For what?” Claire asked, eyebrows crinkling together.
