Unleash the Storm by Annette Marie Page B

dryly.
    Raisa got up, leaving Jezel and Sivan to play dice, and sat beside the older women. “Shona, you should tell the story of Diza the Dragonet.”
    Shona smiled and began a story about a mischievous dragonet who got lost in a dangerous forest. As Piper listened to the tale with a smile, Ash rose, slipping away from the firelight. She looked over as he headed away from the camp. Giving Lyre a questioning look, she got up and followed him into the surrounding trees.
    She trotted a few steps to catch up before he vanished into the darkness.
    “Hey,” she murmured. “What’s the matter?”
    “Nothing,” he replied, his voice equally quiet. “Just needed some space.”
    “Oh.” Her steps slowed. “Do you want me to leave?”
    He reached back and grabbed her hand, pulling her after him. Her heart fluttered a little. She matched his stride as they wandered into the trees. She let the silence envelop them, content to keep him company.
    The forest was quiet, the leafy ground absorbing their footsteps. The trees had narrow trunks and rose high above their heads before sprouting narrow canopies of red leaves, the scarlet washed out by the silvery light reflecting off Periskios. Pale light spotted the forest floor, illuminating dangling strands of white vines that hung from the branches of the trees overhead. Since Ash hadn’t warned her about anything, she assumed none of the plant life here would try to eat her, unlike in the Overworld.
    She watched him out of the corner of her eyes as they meandered among the trees, their hands entwined. Netia’s question repeated in her head. The others had found it hilarious—mostly because it was so inappropriate—but Ash hadn’t looked amused. Piper wasn’t sure if he’d just been humoring the child, but she didn’t think it was funny either.
    A dominant daemon bloodline like the Taroths’ would pass from father to son with minimal dilution, but she hadn’t thought about what that meant for the bloodline’s continuation. Maybe she’d subconsciously blocked out thoughts about it. If Ash was the last Taroth, the only way the line could continue was if he fathered children. Even as the very last Taroth, he could singlehandedly restore his family’s line—one of the reasons he was so dangerous to Hades.
    If Ash didn’t reproduce, the family line and name would die with him. The responsibility for continuing the bloodline of the draconians’ ruling family rested solely on his shoulders. And if he were going to produce a Taroth offspring, it would be with a draconian woman.
    Painful jealousy stabbed her but she shoved it down. One day at a time with him—that’s what she’d decided. She’d take whatever time with him she could get, and if someday he had to leave her to go make Taroth babies, then so be it.
    “What did you think of the story?” Ash asked abruptly, his deep voice rumbling through her bones like part of the night. “About the dragon king?”
    Unsure what kind of answer he was looking for, she said, “It’s quite the tale. Most cultures have a myth or two about their origins or their creator. What I found most surprising was the apparent reference to the Overworld water dragons.”
    He stopped. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
    “The silver dragon, Lady of Seas,” she mused. “In a way, the water dragons are to the ryujin what the dragonets are to the draconians, though I don’t know what kind of bond the ryujin have with their dragons. It’s pretty crazy that a draconian legend would mention them though, huh?”
    “Yeah …” He gave his head a little shake. The silvery glow of Periskios highlighted one cheekbone as he looked at her, the other side of his face in shadow. “I never liked the dragon king story.”
    “Why not?”
    “It’s a romantic pseudo-explanation for a lot of things we don’t understand. Where we came from, our bonds with dragonets, why we can help them change form. Even the ley lines and the different