What Fire Dragons Treasure - Cristina Rayne Page 0,47
I’m about to propose work even better.”
“You want me to be seen somewhere else in the country,” Amber guessed, a huge surge of trepidation instantly rising in her gut. She felt Raphek stiffen beside her.
Airon nodded. “And not just anywhere.” His eyes fixed apologetically on Raphek. “I know we talked about me flying a message signed by Amber tonight to her divorce attorney in Austin, but I think we can, as the Terrans say, kill two birds with one stone if I take Amber along with me and she makes a surprise, in-person visit in the morning, instead. Even better, Otaron has established a Draknos safehouse just outside the city limits, so there will be virtually no risk of her being seen in the area prematurely. Otaron can also help us with things such as securing rideshares and burner phones for Amber when she must navigate Austin alone.”
“If Amber agrees and His Majesty agrees, then I will fly her down myself,” Raphek said, intense eyes practically daring his friend to argue.
Airon held his hands up in surrender. “I have no objections if His Majesty doesn’t. Two set of eyes is always better than one in these kinds of tricky operations.”
“It’s a good plan,” Amber said reluctantly, her eyes sliding towards Matty, who was so absorbed in the cartoon he was watching that she doubted he had heard a word they had said. If King Dagon okayed the plan, then this would be the first night Matty would have to spend without her nearby since they had entered Elysia South. God, she hated having to leave him, but if she didn’t, then the nightmare of her soon-to-be-ex’s family’s machinations would never end.
Raphek’s arm tightened briefly around her waist before he slowly released her. “Then let’s go speak with the king.”
“We’ll need to stop at Emma’s first,” Amber said. She reached across Raphek and gave Matty’s sleeve a tug to get his attention. “Hey sweetie, do you want to go over to Emma’s again today while Mommy and Raphek work? Emma told me she wants to introduce you to a new friend who lives near her.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
By the time night had fallen, Amber was so anxious about leaving again that she could barely eat anything. However, she had forced down as much of the dinner Raphek had prepared for both her and Airon as she could, aided by the thought of how stupid it would be to faint in her lawyer’s office and screw up everything just because she had been too nervous to eat.
As she stood in the pitch black darkness next to the camouflaged entrance to the firedrakes’ secret tunnel waiting for Raphak and Airon to shift to their dragon forms, Amber suddenly had a powerful urge to see Matty one last time before they left for Austin. However, as soon as the thought entered her mind, she knew that it was a bad idea even if it weren’t much too late for that given that they were already outside of the kingdom.
She had already explained to Matty when they had dropped him off at Emma’s that he would be having a sleepover with Emma, Sevek, and Jaws in addition to meeting the little boy that lived on Emma’s level. Matty had taken the information with a measure of excitement, but if he saw her again after he hadn’t seen her for most of the day…
Yeah, it was best for both of them to wait until she was picking him up to see each other.
If Airon hadn’t been present, she would have watched them shift, but though Raphek might not mind her seeing him nude, she definitely didn’t want to see Raphek’s best friend nude, even by accident. She frowned. Not that she would have been able to see much detail in this gloom, anyway.
The mechanics of shifting fascinated her. It happened so fast that Amber had not been able to really tell how exactly a man could grow and change into something so fundamentally different in composition as a dragon.
If her whole mess of a life ever settled down, then the mechanics of shifting would be one of the first of the million plus questions she was dying to ask Raphek about the Draknos.
Amber was startled out of her wistful thoughts when a large, red-scaled dragon head with black horns abruptly filled her entire vision, his eyes glowing an eerie red mixed in with the fire-orange of his irises.
“Ready to go?” the dragon she assumed was Raphek rumbled, his