Promised in Fire (Of Dragons and Fae #1)

by Jasmine Walt

“I’m here to prove my worth, sir,” I said stiffly. “I want to serve Ediria with my life. There’s no honor in a pointless death.”

“You know that if you sit this close to me, I’m going to do my best to make your life miserable, right?” he said in a low voice.

“Do your worst,” I responded in a honey-sweet voice, keeping my gaze forward. “It’s never been enough to stop me before.”

and he picked up my test and scanned what I’d written. His eyebrows rose, and he slapped the test back down on the table, picked up my quill, then scribbled a giant A at the top of the page and circled it. “You’re obviously literate, Greenwood, so I see no reason to prolong your suffering.

meant that she was a Greater Fae. More secrets she’s been keeping from me.

snarled as I realized what was happening, as the bindings tightened around my soul, rooting me to the spot, forcing me to obey her command. The mating bond.

But while there were still lines of anger evident in his expression, there was something else. A reluctant curiosity simmered in his golden eyes as he studied me, like I was a frustrating puzzle he couldn’t quite turn away from.

“You need to stop looking at me like that,” Einar said roughly, breaking the silence.

“Like you want to lick me from head to toe.” I thought he was teasing me, but his expression was deadly serious.

I’d never seen anything so beautiful, or so deadly, in my life.

“You’re a giant, twenty-foot-long lizard with spikes jutting out of your spine. If I make one wrong move while we’re in the sky, I’ll accidentally impale myself.”

She was a pretty package wrapped in a shroud of mystery, and despite myself, I wanted to penetrate those layers, to solve the puzzle she so clearly represented.

All I wanted was to hold Adara in my arms, and judging by the way she gripped me, she wanted that too, at least subconsciously.

I braced myself for the usual wave of lust to scorch me, for the overwhelming desire to claim her that I felt whenever she touched me. But instead, I felt a sense of… peace. Of belonging. Like I’d come home.

Because regardless of my conflicted feelings, I would gladly destroy anything that tried to put her in harm’s way.

I slid my hand up his chest. That steady rumble wasn’t just breathing—it was almost like a purr, a subconscious resonance of satisfaction. As if holding me in his arms brought him peace.

back, and before I knew what was happening, his mouth slanted over mine.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t fantasize about sloppy dragon kisses when I close my eyes at night,”

she turned her head and stroked the cheek of the skull perched on her left shoulder. “I do miss this one though, sometimes. His cock had the most amazing shape, hit just the right⁠—”

“I’m a male of mystery. Makes me more attractive to the ladies.”

“Yes,” he said, and the dark rumble of his voice sent a shiver through me. “I’ll dance with you.”

I’m tired of holding onto this hatred in my heart.

but I was faster and stronger, and they had just taken away the most important thing in my life.