The chimera was gone.
Alyx took a deep breath.
The encounter had been unsettling—but as they’d told her, the chimera hadn't been as scary as he'd sounded.
If anything, a grumpy voice booming from the shadows reminded her of her boss.
Of course, her boss had never held the fate of the entire world in his hand—although by the way he went on about quarterly sales figures, you'd have thought so.
“What now?” she asked as she turned towards Braeden.
“Let's catch up with Ginny,” Jared suggested, coming closer, now that the chimera was gone. “I'm sure she'd love to meet you. And I don't know about you, but I'm starving.”
***
An hour later, they were all gathered around a table in the kitchen. They'd surprised Ginny just as she was in the process of pulling a cake out of the oven.
Braeden had given it a suspicious look when Ginny had proudly declared that it was lavender-flavored chocolate cake, but a first bite had immediately won him over.
“There's not much to do up here but catch up with my shows,” Ginny said. “I got the chimera addicted to Game of Thrones now—meanwhile, I've fallen into a hole of binging on all sorts of cooking shows. The only problem is, there aren't enough people around to keep up with my experiments.”
“It's amazing,” Jared said, his voice muffled as he swallowed another bite of the cake. “Lavender, really?”
“Just a hint of it,” Ginny said proudly.
She'd started out talking so softly that Alyx was afraid that they'd scared her to death with their sudden appearance in the kitchen. But just a few minutes later Ginny had visibly thawed. She was obviously proud of her creation—as she should be.
The cake was incredible. It consisted of creamy, gooey layers of chocolate cake and chocolate ganache, with just the faintest hint of the lavender to give it a touch of something special. Something that made her want more and more, just to feel that burst of richness with a hint of flower on her tongue.
“It's incredible,” Alyx said, sighing in pleasure. “You should have your own show.”
Ginny smiled softly. “Oh, no. I couldn't deal with that sort of attention. But I enjoy experimenting and feeding the chimera's guests.”
“I need to come back to Sky Home more often,” Jared said and grinned. “Last time I had to spend several days here, it was still all Game of Thrones.”
“The chimera claims he hates how wrong humans get dragons,” Ginny said with a wink at Alyx, “but honestly, secretly he loves it.”
Alyx laughed softly, looking around the kitchen in wonder.
Sky Home was built into a mountain as well, a network of tunnels and caves connecting to the huge cavern that served as the council chamber. It should have reminded her of the fire dragon lair—but instead, it felt completely different.
The kitchen felt lived-in, filled with warmth. The tunnels hadn't made her feel trapped.
The room they'd been given even had a window, so that real sunlight filled their room. They were so high that from their window, she'd been able to look down at the cloud cover that kept Sky Home hidden from the eyes of humans.
“Are you always alone up here?” Alyx asked curiously. “It's so different from Wing Island.”
“I used to live in Mountain View—the home of the storm dragon and his mate,” Ginny explained.
“My own home,” Jared added. “Very different from Wing Island as well. You two should come visit.”
Ginny smiled softly. “That big, empty house of yours could use some life.”
Jared sighed, as if that was an old argument. “Who knows, maybe one day I'll find a nice griffin shifter to settle down with. But right now, the council keeps me way too busy.”
“What do you do?” Alyx asked curiously. She still didn't really know how the shifter world worked. “Is it sort of like a shifter government?”
Jared nodded. “Pretty much. I'm not a member of the council of elements. I’m more of a messenger. It's very rare to have a master of an element. It's always a dragon who's born with that power, and even they go insane from it if they don't find a mate to balance their power.”