Light Dragons 01 - Love in the Time of Dragons

at Gabriel’s house. My natron, and my dehydrator, and my dead fox, and everything else.”
    “I will give you new things. Better foxes, better natron.”
    I raised my eyebrows. “Do you even know what natron is?” I asked him.
    “No,” he said, blithely waving away the question. “But the natron I give to my son will be the best quality.”
    “If you want to dump Gareth for Baltic, I wouldn’t mind,” Brom whispered to me, clearly enjoying Baltic’s determination to outdo what he thought of as a rival.
    “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind,” I told him with a little flick of my fingers to his ear.
    Pavel made a little bow to me. “I am pleased to see you again, Ysolde. It has been a very long time. You have not changed at all.”
    Baltic said something in that language I didn’t understand.
    Pavel looked a bit startled, shooting me a look that I had a hard time deciphering as I answered, “It certainly has. And thank you.”
    Pavel gave Baltic a little nod and took off into the depths of the house.
    “Brom, why don’t you and Jim go outside and look around,” I said.
    “OK. We can look at the barn. I wonder if there’s anything dead in it. . . .”
    “Weird kid you got yourself there,” Jim said over its shoulder as it followed Brom out the front door.
    “Just see that you mind your manners,” I warned it. “And don’t try to escape, because you won’t like how Baltic deals with pests.”
    “There is some business I must attend to,” Baltic said, pulling out his phone.
    “What sort of business?” I asked somewhat suspiciously. “Dragon business? Because if so, I want to talk to you about that.”
    “No, mundane business.”
    “You mean human-type business? I had no idea dragons did that sort of thing.”
    He shrugged. “Most of my fortune was claimed by others when I died. It takes some time to rebuild that, and since I will need a good deal of funds to restore Dauva, I must deal with business affairs.”
    “Oh. I wish I could give you some money, but I don’t make very much as an apprentice, and Gareth funds us from the yearly manifestations. So I’m pretty much broke.”
    “I do not seek fortune from you, mate. Only your love.”
    I glanced down the hallway as Pavel crossed from one room to another. “Er . . . does Pavel live here with you?”
    “Of course. He is my oldest and most trusted friend. He survived when the others did not.” Baltic paused in checking his phone messages and slid me a glance. “Are you sure you do not lust after him?”
    “Dammit! How do you know what I’m thinking? Are you a mind reader, too?”
    He sucked in a huge breath, approximately a quarter of all the air in the house. “You do lust after him!”
    “No, I do not! For heaven’s sake, Baltic! I don’t give a hoot about him, not in that way. I was just a bit curious about whether or not . . . oh my god! You didn’t! Oh! You did ! I can see by that expression, you did! You told him about me and my fantasy about guy-on-guy action, didn’t you!”
    Mollified, Baltic ceased seething at me and punched in a number on his phone. “Yes. He said you could watch the next time he has a male lover over.”
    “Oh! I can’t believe”—I whomped him on the arm—“I can’t believe you told him that! I am going to die of embarrassment! I will never be able to look him in the eye again! I’m never going to forgive you! How could you do that to me!”
    Baltic just looked at me, waiting.
    “Do you think he’s going to have a guy over soon?” I couldn’t help but ask.
    He frowned. “I don’t know. You shall have to satisfy your lustful ways upon me until he does, and even then, you may watch only, not participate. And you will not bare your breasts to Pavel or anyone else.”
    I gave him a look that should have shriveled his testicles. “I have no desire to have an orgy! All I said was that sometimes it was a bit interesting!”
    “So you say,” he muttered darkly, heading for a room I assumed was his study.
    I swore under my breath at the obstinate, jealous, infuriating man, and wondered which of my male acquaintances I could hook up with Pavel.

Chapter Twelve
    T he day was as dark and damp as my mood, the smell of snow heavy in the air. Bright Star, my mare, moved restlessly beneath me as we waited at the foot of the hill, watching as a line of men and horses wound its way in and out of the woods, moving toward us like a massive centipede.
    Baltic rode at the lead, as he always did,