The Viper's Nest (Kit Davenport #4)(27)

Wait, what?

“Tiger lily,” I repeated in a dry voice, narrowing my eyes at Austin when he walked back into the room. “Of course it’s a tiger lily.”

For his part, Austin just shrugged unapologetically, and I got the distinct feeling of satisfaction from him as he stretched out a hand to help me up from the floor. That did remind me though, I still needed to get payback for my first tattoo. Caleb had already given me a great idea of how to do it too.

“All right, I made the spell a temporary one, just in case there are any weird side effects. It’ll only last a month, and then we need to re-ink a new, stronger one if you want it to be a permanent thing.” Austin looked to both Caleb and I, and we both nodded our understanding. “I’ll teach you a new kiddie spell, and you can repeat it. If you get it right the first time, the spell is clearly working. Got it?”

“Got it,” I confirmed, then watched closely as he drew a symbol in the air and carefully enunciated some words in their mage language. Or was it Mage, with capital M? Compared to the last few lessons we’d had together, this time his actions and words seemed almost easy to follow, so it was no surprise when I was able to flawlessly execute the same spell seconds later.

“Yay!” I screamed when the piece of paper lifted from the table and floated for a few seconds in front of us. “It worked!”

“Thank the fucking gods,” Austin groaned. “This just made our lives a whole hell of a lot easier. Caleb, you want to stay for the lesson or take a time out?”

His twin hesitated a moment. “Are you just going to be going over the basics one at a time?” Austin nodded. “I’m out then. That shit is boring as hell. I’ll bring you guys lunch later.”

Smacking a quick kiss on my lips, he took off out of the den and left me to my magic lesson. This time, though, I was excited. Sure, it was probably going to be boring and monotonous, but without Austin losing his shit at me for being a slow learner or me losing my shit at him for being a shitty teacher... dare I hope this could even be enjoyable?

Okay, that was probably taking it a bit far. But the future was looking just a little brighter for the surly Ink Mage and myself.

“I bet you can’t teach me everything I need to know in a week,” I blurted out without really thinking about what I was saying. Austin’s brows raised in surprise, though, and I wasn’t going to take it back. He’d told me it took Yoshi close to eight years to teach him everything he knew now, so by saying a week, I was pretty damn confident he wouldn’t take the bet.

“You’re on,” he smirked. “If you lose, you have to be my slave for a week.”

My eyes widened, but I nodded. “Fine, but if you lose... I get to tattoo you with whatever I want.”

Austin barked a sharp laugh and shook his head at me. “Done. But no sabotage, or I’ll know.” He tapped his temple, and I rolled my eyes at him. We really needed to work on blocking our damn emotions from each other too.

“Let’s begin.”





10





VALI





Cole and I shifted back to human form again the second we hit the ground, a skill we’d been working on a lot. Half our battle, as dragons, was going to be in not being seen. We didn’t have it easy like the damn wolf shifters. If someone saw one of them out in the forest, they wouldn’t think anything of it. Just a wild animal, right?

Yeah. Not so much if they stumbled across a twenty-foot-tall dragon. Our loss of control during the gala had already pulled far too much media interest, even if it did get us out of a shitty situation.

“How far is it from here?” Cole asked me, pulling out a pair of pants and a shirt from the bag he’d carried in his claws. He tossed the first set to me, then dressed himself in the second.

“Only about a mile,” I replied quietly. “If my GPS tracker didn’t shit itself on the way here.”

Pulling the dark gray T-shirt over my head, I picked up the little digital display I’d carried in dragon form and checked it. “Seems fine.”

We’d chosen this area to land in as there were no humans within the mile or so it would take to get to our destination. It was nearing midnight, and the only light came from the stars, meaning we had a much better chance of making it to the ground without been seen, just in case anyone was hiking or some shit.

“Let’s get this done quick then,” my brother snapped, tossing me the bag with my shoes in it, and I quickly tied them. Much as I would have preferred to just take the bare essentials, we needed to maintain a certain level of normalcy to avoid arousing any undue suspicion. Which meant pants, shirt, and shoes.

Not wasting words, I nodded sharply and led the way through the thick forest until we hit the fire trail which would lead us to the Washington State Women’s Correctional.

The two of us walked in silence the whole way, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Despite the rocky start we’d had to working on our relationship, I really felt like I was finally getting through to my bullheaded little brother. Whether he liked it or not, I was here to stay.

He was trying his best to make me want to leave. I wasn’t stupid; of course I knew what he was doing. But he seriously underestimated how invested I was in this... thing. This magical connection that Kit had built between us. I’d practically fallen in love with the minx the second she stepped out on that stage at Onyx Auction. I’d known instantly that she was who had broken the years of silence from my brother.