Free Soul of the Dragon by Natalie J. Damschroder

what that something was.  
    “Tell me about your cloaking,” she urged. “I don’t really know the extent of your powers.”  
    They talked for the next two hours about Cyrgyn’s abilities and how he’d developed them. The cloaking he’d figured out early, hiding in the woods from hunters and other potential adversaries. He’d simply hidden with his mind, and they didn’t see him.  
    “You can’t do it during the day?” Alexa asked.  
    “The sun becomes too strong and penetrates the veil,” he explained. “In the woods, in the fog, in the rain, I have more invisibility. Full sunlight reveals all, however.”  
    “What else? Obviously, you can fly. Your wings seem too flimsy to hold your massive body, though.”  
    “Dragon flight is more magic than physics. I cannot explain the mechanism, only that it is there and it wasn’t hard to learn.”  
    “Fire.”  
    “What about it?”  
    “How do you create it?”  
    “Alexa, I am not a zoologist. I have heat. When I focus and blow, it becomes fire.”  
    She figured she’d have to accept some things that just were. “What else? Can you move things? Change things? Turn someone’s hair white?”  
    Cyrgyn shifted and studied the ceiling. “No, not really. I am aware of your location, approximately. Your life force.”  
    “You mean how much of it I have?”  
    “Yes.”  
    That was intriguing. “Like a video game.” She laughed, but Cyrgyn didn’t look amused. “What about Tarsuinn?”  
    “I used to know. I sensed his existence, but once he attained a certain age, I could sense him no longer. I am regaining that, I believe. I feel the pull of his life force.”  
    “Can he sense us?”  
    Cyrgyn rested his head on his paws. “He is a mage,” he said, as if that explained everything.  
    “No, he was a mage. Now he’s a man.”  
    “Alexa.” He lifted his head and glared balefully at her. “You do underestimate him. Tarsuinn has never lost his magic. As a boy he levitated objects. He controlled fire. He cloaked himself from my observation. He has retained his awareness. There is no doubt he retained his magic as well.”  
    Alexa knew Cyrgyn had more experience than she. He had a better knowledge of Tarsuinn the Mage. He’d witnessed incidents that defied explanation. Hell, he defied explanation. Yet she felt more like Rock Davis than she ever had. Skeptical to the point of suspicion.  
    Until she remembered the conference room door jerking out of her hand yesterday morning.  
    Before she could say anything, the phone she thought of as the “Jolie Smith” line rang. She snatched the phone from the clip on her belt.  
    “Anell Breathwater.”  
    “You can save the accent, Ms. Ranger.” Tars’ voice was smooth, controlled. Confident. “I trust you’ve considered my proposal?”  
    “I have.”  
    “And?”  
    She eyed Cyrgyn. “I want to meet you. To discuss it.”  
    The dragon gave a disgusted huff.  
    Tars sounded pleased. “Of course. How about this evening, over dinner? I can pick you up.”  
    Alexa’s turn to snort. “Yeah, right. I’ll meet you at Dominic’s on Tenth. Seven o’clock.” She snapped the phone shut.  
    Cyrgyn’s sigh fluttered her hair. “And so it begins.”  
     

Chapter Six
     
     
    Cyrgyn watched Alexa and knew he could wait no longer. Alexa needed backup—as opposed to protection, which was what he really wanted to provide. She was letting her knowledge and skill blind her to the unexpected—what Cyrgyn believed she would call “a rookie mistake.” He couldn’t convince her that her path was the wrong one. And he could not walk it with her. That left only one other option.  
    He ground his teeth together. It was the last thing he’d wanted to do. The man represented everything Cyrgyn longed for, everything he’d lost. He hated him with as much passion as he hated the mage. But Alexa was more important than his feelings for his associate.  
    He looked at the