Page 125 of Dragon Her Heels

I had, however, made it clear to Darlene there would be no restoration of fertility until he decided to share the secret important enough everybody held their silence on the matter. While she’d hesitated, she’d agreed, accepting it was for the best we stayed firmly in the friends with frequent benefits category until we became a bit more vocal.

I accepted I could have, at any time, asked for him to tell me what he hid—and that I might one day have to stand equal with the divines due to my decision to take up the mantle the Fates had left behind. And that secret could become a canyon neither one of us would be able to cross.

I supposed Darlene had an excellent point regarding my silence, and if I wanted change, I would have to cultivate it.

Damn.

The evening before we were scheduled to take Elegance in Moonlight on a road trip to New York for his race, I made the decision to end my silence, cornering Yuless in our bedroom, barring the door, and eyeing him.

He raised a brow, as I hadn’t even given him a chance to get out of his clothes so we could start our evening routine of showering before bathing together. “Should I be concerned?”

“No, but I might be concerned depending on what you have to say about what I have to say.”

“Is this a clothing on or a clothing off discussion?”

The next time he asked me that question, I would appreciate his method of defusing potential conflict; if I told him clothing off, he understood I needed to vent and would appreciate attention afterwards. By indicating clothing should remain on, it was serious.

I’d change the script a little, however.

“Clothing on to start with, but after we get over the first bit, we can experiment with strip teasing through the rest.”

Strip teasing would derail just about any fight in its tracks, as I tended to lose all ability to concentrate once he put his chest out on display.

I sure would love summer in my personal slice of heaven when it rolled around again, not that fall had been kind to him as of yet. As more than a few of the men loitering around my land helped with the chores while showing off their chests, I would not complain about the weather.

The trees requiring cold to produce received their needs from the weaves I fashioned around them, giving them their ideal conditions no matter what nature threw my way.

A little more each day, I changed the fate of everyone and everything to come to my property, even the dragons.

No, especially the dragons.

Their nodes recovered while mine sustained them all in comfort. And should the magic one day fade from the world again, I hoped my slice of land would see them through the centuries as needed.

Yuless regarded me with interest, and after a while, he nodded. “All right. What’s wrong?”

“We have a lifespan problem.”

He blinked, and then his forehead developed a series of rather deep furrows. “I don’t understand.”

“I keep playing with magic I shouldn’t, and it’s probable I’ll outlive even the Devil at this rate.”

“I’m still not understanding the problem.”

“I’m exactly the kind of person to become like Ashley, but even worse.”

The marks on his forehead smoothed, and he let out a huffed breath. “I see. You’ve been worrying about if one or the other of us will die first.”

I nodded.

“My mother is the Universe and my father is her hope for the future of life, Crystal. I was born the day the Universe decided she no longer wished to be alone in the vast expanse of nothing, and she built a planet for me—and others like me—to stand on. She did make some mistakes with me and my brothers, I will admit. Realt and Saurrel are two of my brothers, by the way. I was the first hatched, Realt was third, and Saurrel was tenth. The rest from the first clutch have all passed on, as their times came to a close. I observed with interest when the Lord of the Morning fell, and I provided him with companionship as he sought to make his way in the world. I witnessed when life became free to do as it wished and broke the chains of fate—and the moment the Fates were cursed into being by humans gifted with the power of that will and the strength of mass conviction.” Yuless scowled, and he wrinkled his nose. “I’ll admit, I became quite concerned upon finding out you are the new Weaver of Fates. But you are up for the task.”

I twitched, and piece by piece, the little details I’d acknowledged but failed to put together clicked into place—and how my idiot of a boss always managed to figure out when I needed to just take a day off or punt his scrawny little ass into the lake.

And why I’d never seen him and Yuless together, no matter how many times I’d heard someone talk about how they’d just seen the Destroyer of Georgia a few minutes prior.

Sometimes, I could be stupid.

Sometimes, I wore blinders.