Kes nodded. “It’s part of the magic we’re all born with. We can create our elemental stone, and mold it as we please. And within the spaces we make, we can do other magics. I don’t need servants—inside my sapphire castle, I can do the cooking and cleaning and gardening just by concentrating on it, and conjure up whatever I can imagine.”
“No more barley for you, Mirel,” said Rami with mock solemnity.
“What a relief!” Mirel exclaimed, laughing. But she meant it, too. No more barley ever again meant she was finally done with her old life. Leaving her village had been frightening when it was only happening in her imagination, but now that it was a deed already accomplished, she was glad. It was as if a weight she’d gotten so used to that she no longer even noticed it had finally been lifted from her shoulders, allowing her to stand up straight for the very first time.
“I might get Kes to make me a barley wrap, on occasion,” said Rami. “I actually did like it.”
She poked him in the ribs. “You’re weird.”
“Let me create your rooms,” said Kes. “I’m sure you’d like to relax a little before the bonding. I can make a shared bedroom, but I thought you might like your own spaces too.”
Rami nodded—it was obviously something he already knew about himself—and after a moment, Mirel did too. She’d never had her own space, but she’d never liked having people around her every second of every day, and she’d often longed for a room all to herself.
Then what Kes had said sunk in. Mirel repeated, “Make our rooms?”
“Yes,” Kes replied simply. “Just tell me what you’d like.”
Rami began to describe something that Mirel suspected was a bigger and better version of his previous room, he seemed so confident in the details. Or maybe he spent his spare time imagining his perfect room. She wished now that she had.
When he finished, Kes closed his eyes, concentrated for a moment, and then said, “Done. Through that door.”
He indicated a door that hadn’t been there before. With a wave and a smile, Rami strode through.
Kes turned to Mirel. “What would you like?”
“I…” Her mind went completely blank. Finally, she blurted out, “I lived with two cousins and an aunt in a room where we barely had space to walk between the mattresses. Anything would be better than that. Honestly, even that room would’ve been better without the aunt. She was like your cousin—criticized everything. Me especially. I don’t know, Kes. Just put the mattress on a bedframe instead of the floor and don’t recreate my aunt, and I’ll be happy.”
He laughed. Then he looked her over, very carefully, making her feel hot everywhere his gaze touched.
“Just seeing how you’re built, so I can size the bed and bath, and make you some clothes,” he said. Then, before she could get embarrassed, he added, “And imagining seeing you without your clothes, in my bed tonight.”
“Oh.” Mirel’s voice came out in a whisper. It still felt strange to know that anyone would want her, let alone a dragon—let alone Kes. But he did. She could feel it in the air between them as well as hear it in his voice.
He closed his eyes, then said, “There. If there’s anything you don’t like, just let me know and I’ll change it.”
Half-dazed, Mirel walked through the door. It closed behind her with a soft click, and she found herself in the room. In her room.
She looked around, marveling. The walls and floor and ceiling were sapphire, and the deep blue gave it a sense of peacefulness and rest, as if she was floating in warm water. When she took another step, she noticed that the floor was textured, just enough to give her crutches traction so she wouldn’t slip. There was a big bed with a quilt and pillows in deep green, comfortable-looking armchairs in matching green, and a wooden wardrobe carved with flying dragons.
Huge windows looked out at what seemed to be her own private garden, full of scarlet roses and lush grass, with winding paths through the flowerbeds and a gnarled apple tree with a little swing hanging from a sturdy branch.
An open door to led to a bathroom with a sunken tub, already filled with steaming water scented with roses. Mirel undressed and soaked in it, letting it ease her aching muscles. It also had a window to her garden, so she watched the butterflies and squirrels and birds and flowers until the sky faded from blue to pink, and then to orange.
It was time.
She got out of the water, which had never cooled, dried herself with the soft towels, and walked naked to the wardrobe. When she opened it, she found everything she could possibly want and many things she’d never even imagined: embroidered gowns, sturdy trousers, silken gloves, and a few filmy translucent dresses that she puzzled over until she realized they must be meant to be worn to bed.
She hesitated over one of those, then decided that she’d feel awkward in it unless she could somehow instantly appear in bed rather than spend any not-in-bed-yet time wearing it. Instead, she put on some underthings in the same delicate, see-through material, then a dress of rich red silk and a pair of silk slippers in a darker red.
Another door had appeared in her room when she looked up. Smiling, she stepped through, knowing where
it must lead.
Mirel was unsurprised to find Rami and Kes waiting for her in a beautiful room, sitting on a bed more than big enough for three. The three of them looked at each other. She had never before seen a man gaze upon her with the naked hunger she saw in both of their eyes. They wanted her, and they wanted her now. And she wanted them, just as desperately.
She had expected it to be awkward, at least at first. After all, she’d never had sex at all before, let alone sex with two men at once. And she had no idea how the bonding part of it worked. But now that she was actually in the room with them, she didn’t feel awkward at all. They were her mates, but so far they’d barely even touched. They needed to do something about that.
She walked to the bed and sat down on it, then reached out to the men. Their arms enfolded her, and for the first time, they kissed. Mirel opened her mouth, first to Kes’s passionate intensity and then to Rami’s gentler sensuality. They kissed and caressed her, and also each other. Watching the two men together didn’t make her jealous, but only made an even hotter passion burn within her.