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G

ideon’s prediction that the Blazing Blunderbuss wasn’t very far away was correct. Gideon dropped Helena and Demetrius on the deck before he grabbed hold of the railing. Helena and Demetrius were shivering and struggling to get to their feet but very much alive.

Hara climbed over Gideon and onto the solid wood of the deck. Gideon changed and rolled onto the deck.

Hara swore. He was bleeding from his shoulder. The Duke must have hit him with a stray bullet when Gideon had charged him.

Hara slipped an arm under his and helped him to his room. He rolled onto the bed and Hara asked, “Should I get Hermia in here to see if her stitching is any better than mine.”

Gideon shook his head. His eyes closed with pain. “No need. It will close up soon.”

She wasn’t so sure of that. The wound was still bleeding sluggishly. She pulled a chair over and sat next to the bed. She was contemplating getting some water and cleaning him up when the bleeding stopped. Maybe it had been the flying that had kept the wound open for so long.

Hara touched her own shoulder. That was almost completely healed. She said, more to herself than Gideon. “I’m immortal.”

Gideon opened his eyes. “Maybe. We haven’t established yet the parameters that will mean we will live forever.”

Hara shook her head. “But you think dragons are immortal but what does that mean for me?”

“Remember once I told you about how all the little tiny stuff that is inside of me that came here through nothing and joined with all the little tiny stuff that is you.” Hara only vaguely remembered that conversation. He had tried to explain how dragons had come from their original planet by tangling their small bits with people’s small bits and that is why they looked like humans when they shifted.

“Yes, you called it entanglement or something. I didn’t understand it but you mean because of that I will have the same life span as you.”

“Yes. While my matter remains in this form, you will live as long as I do. Dragons do die but now that we are at peace with humans, it is rare.”

Hara contemplated that concept for a moment and asked, “Is that why the Emperors only stay on the throne for fifty years. Are the others still alive?”

“Most of them. There was one who killed himself doing something daring but the others are still alive.” His voice wasn’t as pained as it had been a moment before.

“Not all of them were mated to dragons. In fact, none of them were,” Hara said, confused on how they could all live so long when they weren’t purely dragons.

“Hybrid dragons are different. They seem to have the same longevity we had on our home planet. Which is about a thousand years. The Empire is only six hundred years old so we have seen the hybrids grow older but not die yet.”

“William? William the conqueror is still alive.” Hara asked about the first hybrid who had started the Empire at the start of the millennium.

“No, he was the one who killed himself doing something daring. He had too much dragon blood in him, in any case. He wanted to collect the whole world. And that would have ended badly.”

Hara leant back in the chair. “So, I’m related to dragons and now I’m practically royalty.”

“I wouldn’t call being royalty practical,” Gideon said with a smile in his voice.

“It is if I can rescue a Roshian spy.”

Gideon chuckled, but closed his eyes on the pain it caused. Hara couldn’t imagine him flying with that wound for the hours it had taken them to find the Blazing Blunderbuss.

She placed her hand on his uninjured shoulder. “I’ll go get you some food and check on the others. Then we need to do something about the Duke.” She got up to leave.

Before she could leave the room, Gideon asked, “Will you fly with me again?”

Hara had her hand on the door handle and stopped to turn to look at him. His eyes were open and the gold seemed bright at that moment.

She said, “Yes.”

He smiled. “Good. That means I’m finally yours.”

“Is it a trust thing?” She had been wondering why only mates could ride on the backs of dragons.

He shook his head. “Partly. But more about intimacy.”

She was shocked by this answer. “Intimacy?”

He smiled and closed his eyes, but not in pain. “Mmm, you see when dragon’s mate, they entwine together in the air. We can’t do that with our human mates but flying as we did gets pretty close.”

Hara was tempted to throw something at his head and instead resisted the urge and just slammed the door as she left.