Theo lay awake, the cottage quiet around him. Outside the window, he heard the distant call of a morning bird.

  He stared at the ceiling, gaze following the grains of wood there. The cottage was so cute and welcoming, just like its owner. Glyssa was nothing like what Theo could ever have imagined as a mother dragon—she was warm and sweet, and took good care of her guests.

  The chicken and herbs with the perfectly done vegetables had made for a delicious dinner the night before.

  “I will have to come back here again to learn from you,” Theo had told Glyssa, savoring the taste of the perfectly seasoned chicken breast.

  “Only if you teach me the secret of those blueberry cobblers,” she said, winking at him.

  He grinned. “You haven’t even tasted them yet.”

  She wasn’t the one to answer; Emberion was. “Nothing that smells that good can be bad.”

  Theo cast his gaze down, his cheeks heating at the praise, and possibly just because it was Emberion who said the words.

  “Theo is an excellent baker,” Freya said.

  Theo looked up, his eyebrows rising into his hairline. “What? I thought you hated my baking. ‘Back to the damned kitchen’ and all that.”

  Freya snorted. “Just because that’s not where I want to spend my days, doesn’t mean what you produce in there is anything less than delicious.”

  Theo’s cheeks only grew warmer. “May I ask which ones are your favorites?” he asked, because he would take his chance when he could—and if he knew her favorite baked goods, he could make them more often and bribe her.

  Bribes were good.

  Sugary bribes were excellent.

  And it gave him an excuse to bake more.

  For some reason, everyone was looking expectantly at Freya, though Theo didn’t think they would be as curious about the answer as he was.

  Freya sighed. “That rustic apple thingy you did a while back, if you must know.”

  Theo frowned, thinking through what he’d done with apples lately. “Oh, the galette?”

  “I don’t know what it was called,” she said. “Apples, cinnamon, delicious crust…”

  Theo grinned. “Definitely the rustic apple galette. It did turn out great.”

  “You’ll have to make them for the rest of us sometime,” Emberion said.

  “I’ll make anything you want,” Theo said. “Eh, all of you, I mean.”

  His face would end up permanently beet red if this continued.

  Now, lying on a mattress on the floor, his hand came up to touch his cheek. Not red and hot now, at least, though the mere memory of Emberion’s intense eyes on him made something stir deep in his gut. It got no better as the images of Emberion trying first the blueberry cobbler, and then—even worse—the nut-filled cookies, flashed before him.

  “The cobbler is good,” Emberion had said, licking his finger free of the last bit of grease from the cookie. “But I like cookies better. These were… very good indeed. Though I want to try chocolate in this human form, too.”

  It had been a simple moment, but it had caused more of the strange fluttering in Theo’s stomach.

  But it was stupid, because what would someone like Emberion ever see in someone like Theo? Being friends with a mighty dragon, a perfect specimen no matter which shape he took (sure, Theo had only seen him in dragon and human form, but he was convinced that even if Emberion took the form of a skunk, he would be the most perfect skunk ever)—while Theo was… Theo. A weakling prince who would never want to fight if given a choice. A boy who knew nothing of the world.

  A disappointment.

  Emberion might take some fleeting interest in him, but it was sure to be just that—fleeting.

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  The sky brightened, sending slivers of light through the curtains, marking the arrival of morning.

  Bruni moved and groaned in his sleep, pain-filled enough to make Theo wince. He may be keeping up his fa?ade while awake, but in sleep, that mask fell away. These were the pressing matters at hand that Theo should be thinking about; it wasn’t about Emberion’s mesmerizing eyes and charming smile. They needed to face the witch and destroy the amulet, or else Bruni and the other dwarves were doomed, as were the stone giants. And possibly everyone else, too.

  Freya stirred and opened her eyes to look at Theo.

  “Good morning,” he said, twisting his head to look at her. “Sleep well?”

  “Surprisingly so,” she said. Another pained groan from Bruni had her sitting up and squinting at the corner where he lay. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  Theo shook his head. “We need to find the amulet and destroy it.”

  “Easier said than done,” she said on a sigh. “But yeah. Not like he will ever admit he’s sick. Or in pain.”

  “He’s stubborn,” Theo said. “Like someone else I know.”

  She gave him a faint smile, raising an eyebrow at him. “Something you’d like to say, Theo?”

  “Just thank you,” he said. “For coming with us. Me. For being stubborn enough not to give up on me.”

  “You’ve surprised me on this trip,” she said. “I thought you’d jump at the chance to return home.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe I have something to prove.”

  “Oh, you have lots to prove,” she said, a playful smirk on her lips. “But I didn’t think you would.”

  He stuck his tongue out at her.

  She rolled her eyes with a chuckle. “Now there’s the man-child Theo I remember.”

  Bruni gave a long groan and sat up, drawing pained breaths. He blinked slowly, but his hazy gaze didn’t seem to take in much of his surroundings, and he brought a fisted hand up to his heart. He hunched in on himself as he breathed through what must be a considerable amount of pain—after all, he didn’t seem the type to exaggerate.

  Freya and Theo both waited for him to get through the worst of it, then Theo said (even though he knew that Bruni would most likely just bite his head off, because Theo was apparently a glutton for punishment), “You okay, Bruni?”

  Bruni looked up, noticing their presence for the first time, and his gaze flitted around the room. “Getting there,” he muttered, hand finally falling away from his chest. “Is it morning?”

  Theo nodded. At least Bruni hadn’t ripped him a new one for asking.

  “Will you be able to travel with us today?” Freya asked, a line of concern between her eyebrows.

  “I’ll be fine,” Bruni said.

  “You keep saying that,” Theo said.

  Bruni stared him straight in the eye. “And what would you say is the alternative, boy?”

  Theo opened his mouth to answer, but realized he had no good answer to give. He hadn’t figured Bruni to be the type to believe in the power of positive thinking, but perhaps he did. Perhaps his refusal to admit that he was sick was to keep himself going.

  “Thought so,” Bruni said, and fought to get up on his feet, gasping for breath at the end of it. “Where’s that dragon? We should get a move on.”

  “Outside,” Theo said.

  Emberion had taken one look at the crowded living room where Theo, Freya, and Bruni slept, and shook his head. “I will sleep outside.”

  Theo might have stood in the window and watched as he undressed (like a right perv, he thought to himself, both then and now, blushing) and then shifted in just a few seconds from human to massive, scaly dragon. It was so awe-inspiring, Theo had difficulty finding the words for it. Then Emberion had curled into a ball and closed his eyes, and Theo had watched him for a few more moments until Freya cleared her throat and he jumped, his heart racing.

  “He’s a dragon, Theo,” Freya had said, one fine eyebrow raised.

  “I know that,” Theo had muttered. “Obviously.”

  “At least it explains why you have no interest in Lady Rosewick,” Freya said.

  Theo stared at her. “What?”

  “She’s a pretty girl,” Freya had said. “Having her for a wife… it shouldn’t make you recoil.”

  Theo had swallowed hard. “So you’re saying I’m…”

  “You’re staring at a male dragon shifter like he’s water in the desert,” Freya said said. “I think that speaks for itself.”

  Theo hadn’t found any response to that, his mind utterly blank as he took in the meaning of it. What she’d said made a lot of sense—he’d never thought about taking Ariana to bed, but Emberion made his hands tingle with the want to run them over the other man’s bare skin.

  Theo had sat down on his mattress and checked through his packing, trying to focus. His gaze had fallen on the sword his father had given him, and on a whim, he pulled it out. The sword gleamed in the low light, and as he looked closer, he noted runes carved into the blade on both sides in thin, sharp lines. His gaze had fallen on the sword his father had given him, and on a whim, he pulled it out. The sword gleamed in the low light, and as he looked closer, he noted runes carved into the blade on both sides in thin, sharp lines.

  “You’d best take care of that sword.”

  Looking up, he had found Bruni, looking at him through narrowed eyes, arms crossed over his chest so that the black tattoos glared at Theo.

  “Is there anything in particular I should do?” Theo asked, having no idea how to care for a sword.

  “Keep it clean, dry,” Bruni said. “Oil it after use. Make sure it doesn’t start to rust, though those runes should keep it in shape.”

  “What else does the runes do?” Theo asked, running his fingers over the curved lines.

  “Runes aren’t my forte, especially not this old sort,” Bruni said. “You’d have to ask Dorin to be sure. It’s his thing. But that one I know, it’s supposed to add strength, and that one—” he pointed to one further down, “—is for precision.”

  Theo sighed. “My father gave it to me. A sword. Do I look like someone who can use a sword?”

  “You don’t,” Bruni agreed.

  Theo snorted. “Yeah.”

  Bruni had merely nodded at that, and sat down on his bed. The slumped posture had made him look so incredibly exhausted, Theo wondered how he managed to stay upright at all.

  “Let’s go have breakfast,” Freya said, waking him from his reveries.

  Theo nodded and stood.