Free Blue Skies on Fire by Zenina Masters Page A

this miraculous place where shifters and fey can mate in harmony?
    I have placed the necessary links in the vault. You will be able to transport yourself there once you have made the booking. Do not go in without warning. It would be rude, and one of my kind has gone to the trouble of creating the Crossroads, so treat it and its magic with respect.
    So, behave or I will get myself frosted. Got it. See you in a few weeks, Father.
    Behave, my son. The deep draconic chuckle shook the ground.
    Visiting his father while he slept always left Andor with a headache. Telepathic communication might come naturally to dragons, but it was not part of Andor’s skill set. It hurt a little if he wasn’t shifted.
    With his duty to his family confirmed, he headed up to the vault on the fifth sublevel. Inside, he found a note that said, When Andor gets his head out of his ass and wants to be a grownup.
    He grimaced and picked up the package underneath the sarcastic note. It seemed he had to be a grownup. It had just taken a few hundred years.
     
    * * * *
     
    Teebie looked at the reservation list and blinked at the iconography that indicated a VIP. There hadn’t been one of them in quite a while. A mythical shifter was about to spend time at her home.
    The fact that the shifter was male was a little unusual. Most of the mythical shifters that had needed to seek out the Crossroads were females. It was harder for a powerful female to find a mate than it was for a male.
    Teebie arranged a room with a balcony and set up the bed. All she knew was that her guest would be arriving in the next three days and that he had flight as part of his shifted form.
    Dira had given her complete control of the Open Heart Bed and Breakfast, and the power that the Crossroads generated was used to alter the structure of the building to suit the needs of the guests.
    The little fact that the Crossroads was now self-supporting was not something that she had been invited to share. Dira’s help blending the fey and shifter magics had created something that was evolving and growing. Keeping up with it was something that Teebie tried to do.
    It was necessary to bleed off the extra power that was being generated with every mating, so her aunt had put her in charge of the new expansion. Dira and Mak were splitting their time between the Crossroads and their new home. The human world thought that Dira was fun and exotic. She was modelling for Mak’s family’s clothing line and enjoying the attention from the public and her new family.
    The fact that Dira managed to balance her old family with her new was part of what kept her in a position of honour in Teebie’s mind. It was the realization of a dream that Teebie hoped would one day visit her. Seeing couple after couple get together was starting a sharp ache in her chest. Being the only djinn in town was beginning to make her less exotic and more pitiable.
    As she got ready for the new arrivals, she looked down at the hands holding the clipboard. Blue. Out of all her siblings, she was the only one who defaulted to blue. She sighed and put the information aside as the Crossroads vibrated with the newest arrival. It wasn’t one of hers, but her guests wouldn’t be far behind. It was time to pull a fantasia and get the mops and brooms working while the current guests were away and the new ones had yet to arrive.
    The longest time before more wishes that she would fulfill.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    The Crossed Star was getting busy, but Teebie wanted to talk to Chuck or Spike. There was another balance ceremony in the morning, and they needed something special.
    Chuck was tending the bar. “Evening, Teebie. What can I get for you?”
    “Our union tomorrow is a little different. He is a wine fey, and her human persona is a restaurateur, if you can imagine that. We need a bottle of wine that is fairly special for the event. Something that they can take home with them.”
    Chuck frowned. “I think I may have something,