eyes finally found him.
“Jaxx? What are…?” Her gaze went to her sleeping sister. “What’s…?”
Jaxx refused to stand. He moved his touch from Fiora’s cheek to hold her hand. “She asked me to stay.”
“What?” Salena crept closer, not hearing him.
Jaxx didn’t want to wake Fiora. “She asked me to stay with her.”
“She did?” Even with her surprised statement, Salena had to believe him. No one could lie to her. “That’s unusual. Why you? Why didn’t she send for me?”
“I calm the visions,” Jaxx answered. He lifted his hand. Fiora mumbled in her sleep. He returned his touch, and she settled.
“That’s… I don’t know what that is.” Salena kept her voice quiet as she sat across from him on the circular couch and leaned forward. “I came to tell her what happened. The queen was incredible. I think Fiora will find the way the general stomped off amusing. He looked like a pouting child. I thought it would lift her spirits.”
“She already knew. She said she saw it in the timelines,” Jaxx answered. Half his attention was focused on where Fiora’s skin pressed to his. “She wants me to take her back to the general.”
“What—why?” Salena stiffened. “She can’t go back there. That makes no sense unless it has something to do with those doomsday visions she’s been mumbling about. I wanted to let her rest before asking her about them.”
Jaxx nodded. “Yes. She thinks it might save Shelter City from destruction if she is returned. The general won’t take losing today lightly.”
“No, I don’t suppose he will,” Salena agreed. She took a deep breath and held it for a long moment before letting it go. “We can’t give her to the general.”
“I have no intention of letting her go back.” Jaxx tried to hide any hint of possessiveness in his tone, but Salena pulled it from him with her very presence.
Salena smiled knowingly. “You’re attracted to my sister.”
Jaxx tried not to answer but found the word forced from his throat. “Yes.”
“I suppose it makes sense.” She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back. “I mean, you couldn’t have me, so you go for her.”
“That’s not—wait, what?” Jaxx frowned.
Fiora stirred and he glanced down to find her staring up at him. She slowly sat up. “You are in love with my sister?”
“He asked me to marry him,” Salena said. “I said no.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Jaxx answered.
“Did you ask me?” Salena demanded.
“Yes.” The word pried from his throat. “But it was a joke because my mother, and then the bridal ceremony, and we were getting ready to smuggle food simulators because the other cache was raided and…”
Fiora arched a brow at his rambling explanation. Salena started laughing.
Jaxx looked at the two sisters, feeling as if he was outmatched.
“He’s right. It was a joke,” Salena relented. “His mother was on his case about losing his crystal and not taking the breeding ceremonies seriously.”
“You have ceremonies for breeding?” Fiora’s gaze started to drift down his body, but she caught herself and corrected course to look at her sister instead.
“Breeding festival is the old term used in the hope that the marriages would be blessed with children. Until my generation, the radiation from the sun suppressed our ability to have female dragons. My ancestors made a deal with aliens to bring compatible women once a year in hopes that matches could be made.”
“I’m not sure if that’s sad or strange,” Fiora answered, rubbing her temple. Under her breath, she said, “Sorry, I know that sounded rude. Comments just slip out.”
“You never have to apologize for speaking the truth,” Jaxx assured her. He never really stopped to contemplate just how strange their traditions must seem to the outside world. Now, with the questions reflected in Fiora’s expression, he couldn’t think how best to explain the old ways. “The ceremony is how my parents met, how the king and queen met. That’s how most of the older generation found each other. Galaxy Brides contracted women to come to the ceremony to try their fate.”
He always assumed he’d meet his mate in a similar way. But the death mark hung over his head, lingering over every decision he would make from this moment forward. He could not bind himself to a woman only to leave her, no matter how much pain it caused him.
“They officially changed it to a mating festival,” Jaxx said, hoping to end this course of conversation soon. “Though I supposed that might not sound much better.”
“Blue radiation from one of the planet’s