Queen of Dragons by Shana Abe

Author:Shana Abe
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy Fiction, Dragons, General, Romance, Fantasy, Metamorphosis, Fiction, Love Stories
ISBN: 9780553588064
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2007-12-26T08:00:00+00:00

She would fly there. There was nothing he could say that would convince her to cinch herself back into human clothes and climb into that coach for the daylong trip to Chasen Manor—especially with his sisters as company. She supposed she could have ridden in the second carriage, the one they had to rent to transport her safe, but the thought of trapping herself inside a tiny, enclosed space, jostling over ruts and ridges and mud holes for an entire day…

Far simpler to fly. Kimber knew it too. In front of his siblings he attempted to persuade her, but in the end, when it was down to just the two of them arguing in her antechamber as the others waited downstairs, he gave a shrug and began to remove his clothes once more.

He would not, naturally, allow her to go alone.

As if she hadn’t spent her life that way. As if she hadn’t crossed the world by herself, in moonlit dreams and awake. But one look into his eyes was all she needed to realize he would not be moved on this.

“The sanf are out there,” he said flatly.

“I won’t be going anywhere near them. They’ll be roasting in the heat on the ground. I’ll be high above.”

“And I’ll be right beside you.”

“That’s really not necessary.”

“Indulge me. Consider it a favor. Just think of all the ways you might demand repayment.”

He said it with a perfectly temperate expression. There was no reason at all for her gaze to drop to his lips, to remember in a flush of warmth their languid touch and taste, to feel that wonderful, awful nervousness wash over her again.

“I promise you’ll get the chance,” the earl added, mild.

Mari felt her mouth go dry. “Another promise.”

“Aye. And if I break it, well…perhaps you’ll be merciful. A man is only so strong.”

She’d heard of chameleons, odd little almost-dragons that changed their skin to match every new environment. In the plaster-and-gilt civilization of the Seaham resort Lord Kimber Langford did no less. In nearly the same short amount of time she had taken to drag a brush through her hair and slip into a robe—she was going to Turn, after all, no matter what he said—he had transformed into someone new: his jaw clean-shaven, his queue tied neat, his coat of pressed silk redolent with something both musky and pleasant, like myrrh. Even the seams to his stockings were straight. By all outward appearances he was a wealthy, entitled peer of the realm once again, shining with silver buttons and garters.

Only his eyes betrayed what dwelled inside him. Against the glamour of the chamber they glowed cool, phosphorous green.

It was a Gift, a rare one. And it didn’t manifest in their human shape without animal provocation.

She faced him squarely. “You were going to fly anyway. I overheard you tell your brother.”

His mouth quirked; he draped his coat across a side table. “Resourceful. But didn’t your parents teach you that eavesdropping isn’t very polite?”

“My parents had no hope of it, I hear everything.

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