Which led back to his current predicament: caught in the middle of political maneuverings.
Hunter couldn’t really blame them. He didn’t like Court or
Regis’s
rules either. Sure, he kept a suite at Court, but it wasn’t home. Some dragons, like earth drakes, enjoyed being surrounded by all that stone, but Hunter ached for sky.
He ached to fly.
Which would never happen again and, like every other dragon, he’d just have to live with it.
At least there was one small blessing in this situation.
Anaea’s
body had connected to the earth’s magic and in record time, since it usually took days or even years for the connection to awaken. Thank the Mother of All. He didn’t understand how earth magic worked, something about the innately magical spirit of a dragon awakening a dormant connection to the earth’s magic within a human vessel—so dormant that a human hadn’t connected with the magic without dragon assistance for two thousand years. But he wasn’t going to look this gift horse in the mouth.
Even better, her magic seemed strong enough to activate his private gate.
Which meant he wouldn’t have to face the humiliation of having to ask the Gatekeeper for help.
Particularly for
Newgate’s
gate, since Jade, an ex-
lover,
minded it.
Anaea’s
magic actually was surprisingly strong. She hadn’t needed power words or gestures like most dragons and she could call fire. In most cases, a dragon’s magical ability was small, like seeing auras. But about twenty percent of dragons developed something significant as well, like lightning, or wind. Hunter’s old body had had null magic. But he was gone, and earth magic changed with each new vessel.
It stung that
Anaea
could call one of the rarest
magics
, fire.
He dipped into
Anaea’s
mind, searching once again for her thread to the earth’s magic.
It was nowhere to be found.
Hot panic raced through him as it had before. The thread had to be there. She had called fire and activated the medallion. That could only be done by earth magic.
He searched harder, looking for a weak or inconsistent thread, and found a fluttery connection.
Which didn’t make any sense.
It should either be there or not. Not there one minute and gone the next. The only time he’d heard of a connection feeling fluttery was if the human body was somehow actually dying. But
Anaea
was very much alive. The wounds, ice-shot and otherwise, were healed, as was the hypothermia from her swim in the river, and now all of his soul magic was focused on eradicating the cancer from her body. She’d be cured by the time they reached
Newgate
.
Which was information he buried as deep as he could within his consciousness.
It would be cruel for her to learn the accident that cured her would result in her execution.
And the risk of that had just increased. If he couldn’t open a gate by himself, he couldn’t sneak into Court. He was going to need help getting in, and that meant going to the Gatekeeper.
Jade was going to revel in ridiculing him about his new female body, likely announce his arrival to Regis, and cause an entourage to meet him in the receiving hall. The gossip would spread like wildfire.
To top it off, he’d have to be overly cautious, since Jade was one of two dragons who could see multiple souls in a single body. But if he asked another drake, even a friend, to open a gate, more questions would be asked and that friend could be put in danger—and he wasn’t going to do that to a friend. Which meant Jade was his only option and he’d just have to pray he was too useful to Regis to be reborn when he body-hopped to a new male vessel later.
Now he really needed
Anaea
to hand over control.
Anaea
parked the car on the top of a six-story garage on
3rd Avenue
and turned off the engine. She still couldn’t believe what was happening. But her acceptance, or not, of the situation didn’t stop anything. Of course, how she could explain the man in her head and the attempt on her life was beyond her.
Grab the bag and head to the stairwell.
She did as instructed. There wasn’t anything else she could do. Well, she supposed she could go running to the closest psychiatrist. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t. Perhaps she could beg Mark for help since she was now in
Newgate
. But the voice in her head hadn’t tried to take control of her body since the hotel room, three hours ago. She didn’t even know his name.
It’s Hunter.
She jumped and sucked in a slow breath, trying to still her racing heart.
God, how intrusive.
Listening to her thoughts.
Of course, he was in her head and might not be able to help himself. But still no excuse to act on what he overheard. She was going to have to be careful what she thought about.
That made her snort. Sure, she could control what she consciously thought about, but not any of the unconscious thoughts.
Hunter, huh?
she
asked, dragging herself back on topic.
Is that a name or a title?
She felt what she could only describe as a shrug in her mind.
Both.
I see.
She concentrated on him, trying to find more meaning in that single word. If he could hear her thoughts, maybe she could hear his. But his answer was ambiguous and so was any sensation that came with it.
Dropping the keys in the garbage bin by the door to the stairwell, she took the concrete stairs down to the street. It wasn’t fair that he could keep his thoughts from her and yet hers were an open book.
More like a megaphone announcement.
“Would you stop that?”
Don’t speak out loud.
She bit her lip.
So now what?
Now we visit a friend of mine. Turn left here.
She stepped into the flow of pedestrian traffic shadowed by the towering skyscrapers. Here in the heart of the city, the vehicular traffic was thick and plumes of exhaust clouded the street. The snow had stopped falling but the sidewalks were edged with filthy brown mounds and cars splashed slush on those too close to the edge.
This friend will solve this little problem of mine... ours?
She could feel him trying to figure out what to tell her. Hints of emotions and thoughts flitted too fast and too ephemeral for her to catch and examine.
Not exactly.
At least he hadn’t outright lied. She didn’t know if that made her feel better or not. She pulled
Pearl
’s coat tighter around her. With only an oversized T-shirt and no hat, she was starting to really feel the cold. It had been fine in the car with the heater blasting, but now out on the street where the wind whipped down the road and the tall buildings created a wind tunnel, it went right through her thin clothing and chilled her to the bone.
Should I even bother asking what ‘not exactly’ means?
she
asked, recognizing the ridiculousness of the question.
No answer. And more hints of thoughts.
Great.
It was probably something she needed to know and he wasn’t going to tell her.
Stop here at the bus stop and get out some change from the side pocket of the bag.
She unzipped the small pouch and pulled out a handful of coins.
You’re going to have to explain it sooner or later.
No, I’m not.
You really think keeping me in the dark is an option?
A mix of emotions swirled through her, then he spat out a string of curses in a variety of languages, most of them dead.
Wow, you can curse like a sailor in Latin and Old English. That’s impressive.
Maybe if she tried humor, he’d open up a bit.
How—?
She bit back a chuckle. All things considered, it felt good to catch him off guard.
Didn’t bother to find out anything about me, huh?
I was respecting your privacy.
He practically growled the words.
I’m a—
Her throat tightened. She wasn’t anything anymore.
I was a linguist.
He didn’t respond, but she could sense
a thoughtfulness
to his silence.
The 81B pulled up to the stop and she got on, taking a seat close to the back.
Now that you know something about me, why don’t you tell me something about
you.
Like what the heck is going on?
You’re not going to believe me.
She snorted and a woman with a toddler a few seats down gave her a concerned look.
I’m talking to a voice in my head. I think I’ve already made the leap to unbelievable.
Oh, it could get weirder than she imagined.
The thought was so clear he might as well have said it.
Would you just spit it out?
His reluctance to share was driving her crazy.
It’s better if you don’t know all the details. We’ll talk to... a friend and then talk to... another friend and...
And then our problem will be fixed with vague unknowns who don’t even have names.
That’s not fair.
“Life isn’t fair.”
The woman gave
Anaea
another furtive glance and hugged her child close.
It’s better this way. And it would be easier if—
No.
But you don’t even know what I’m going to say.
Oh, yes I do, and this is my body. You’re the interloper.
The bus turned a tight corner and she clung to the pole beside her to keep from sliding from her seat.
It’s dangerous if they don’t think it’s me.
I’m sure it’s more dangerous if I don’t have a clue about what’s going on.
Dangerous so far had involved getting shot in the chest and almost run through with a sword.
But damn it.
It was her body and the more she knew, the better she could cope.
Hunter growled another string of curses.
Fine.
Fine.
All right.
He squirmed, twisting around within her and making her stomach churn. He really didn’t want to tell her anything, but it couldn’t possibly be worse than her current situation.
Oh for goodness
sake,
spit it out already.
I’m a spirit—
I kind of got that.
—of a race of spirits.
“A race of what?”
In your head.
The woman with the kid stood and shuffled to the front of the bus.
How can there be a race of spirits? And why can’t you just be spirits someplace else?
Bitterness washed over her, but he sucked it back before she could identify any specific details about it.
Without a human vessel I’ll lose cohesion and die, and there are consequences to changing vessels too often. As for the rest, you’re on a need-to-know basis, and that you don’t need to know.
She bit back a nasty retort. Making demands just seemed to make him clam up. So he didn’t want to talk about his spirit state.
Fine.
She could relate
,
she didn’t particularly want to talk about her cancer.
Okay, so you’re stuck in me.
Until I can make arrangements for an appropriate, unoccupied vessel.
And that will be when?
As soon as business is taken care of.
And that’s what we’re doing now? Taking care of business?
Uh huh.
And you said it was dangerous if they don’t think it’s you.
My people have laws to protect us, to keep us a secret. Sharing a body with a person breaks one of our oldest laws. If they realize we’re both in here they’ll kill us.
Hunter’s presence softened and regret seeped through her.
I didn’t mean for you to get caught up in this. I had thought—
The image of her standing on the bridge on the wrong side of the railing flashed through her mind’s eyes. He had thought he was doing the right thing by saving her. And now he was stuck in her and she was stuck with him... at least until business was taken care of.
From the turn of his mood she didn’t think she’d get more information. But there was time to learn more
later
, hopefully before she needed it.
You still don’t get to use my body, but I promise I’ll do what you say.