As I watched the flower and the flame empower the very essence of my blood, worry was set aside in favor of hunger and curiosity.

  The hunger stemmed from what this would mean for my draconic family members. The curiosity was due to the fact that this was unlike anything I’d had a chance to witness before.

  The two forces had something to exert their influence on this time. Now that they were no longer fighting, they bolstered each other beyond what was reasonable. The power of my blood was at least three to four times more intense than it had been at this stage when I used the beetle flame alone. And that was a conservative estimate.

  On a personal level, while fascinating, this didn’t fill me with particular excitement. It would simply let me increase the deadliness of my blood and my innate poison resistance with a bit more ease, since I could effortlessly absorb the properties of my own blood.

  For Alys, Amara, and Aesa, however, the story was different. If devouring their own refined blood had been a major boon before, then it would be several times more effective with the flowers added to the mix. If this also synergized with the effects of living and devoured flowers in some way, such as making the digestion easier, then the benefits could be even greater.

  The Molten Expanse was already powerful. But so long as we had time and a large enough supply of the flowers, I could make my newfound grandmother the most powerful dragoness in the world. And my mate would be right behind her.

  The sort of safety that could offer to all of us made me dizzy with happiness.

  Then, as my hand slipped from where it had been gripping the table for dear life, I realized that the sense of vertigo raging through my brain wasn’t entirely the result of giddy joy.

  Thankfully, strong arms caught me well before I could hit the floor. Alys’ voice echoed indistinctly in my ears as a hand slapped down onto my forehead, feeling awfully cold compared to my clammy skin.

  “Fool boy,” Grandmother growled. Once again, I felt her forcefully drawing the feverish heat out of me. “What were you thinking?!”

  “Thorn? Talk to me, please,” Alys whispered.

  My mind quickly cleared now that my brain wasn’t trying to boil away inside my skull. I realized my dragoness had my head cradled in her lap, fingers gently tangling in my hair as she tried very hard not to panic.

  “I-I’m fine,” I rasped. “Though I could use some water. I think I have some in my storage bag, so I’ll just —”

  “You’ll do nothing,” Alys snapped, hands tightening in my hair. “I’ll get it for you.”

  I wisely decided to keep my mouth shut as my dragoness leaned over me to reach the storage bag at my hip. She pulled back, and I was treated to the disapproving look of Grandmother, who rolled her eyes and sighed when I flushed.

  “Here.” The waterskin was shoved in my face. I mutely accepted it, then proceeded to drain it.

  “Really. You should know better!” Aesa glared at me, arms crossed tightly over her chest. “You nearly gave yourself heat stroke, and then immediately did the same thing again, except harder and without giving yourself the chance to rehydrate. You are my sweetling’s mate. You should know how to deal with heat! I know my mate complained endlessly about how hot it was for him to sleep next to me, in spite of insisting on it, regardless, that foolish —”

  She cut herself off, old pain shining through her annoyed tirade. I could do nothing but lie there and blush, especially since I actually enjoyed Alys’ warmth. I didn’t want to say as much and make the differences between me and Aesa’s mate all the more apparent.

  Mortals are so very fragile, after all.

  “I apologize,” I whispered instead, my gaze drifting from Grandmother and up to Alys.

  I found myself musing gratefully on the fact that my dragoness was currently worried enough about me not to make her displeasure known using her tail. She could wield that thing better than a whip if she chose to. I’d seen her crack a log with it just the other day when she got frustrated.

  “Do not apologize,” Grandmother snarled, making me realize that I had gotten rather distracted by looking into Alys’ eyes. “Avoid doing something this stupid again. Or at least, avoid doing it without taking proper precautions,” she amended.

  I nodded. Obviously, this was an important avenue of alchemical research. She knew I couldn’t drop it entirely.

  I truly appreciated how well Aesa understood me and my work, without any need for self-justification or explanation on my part.

  As if to demonstrate her understanding further, she went on, “Now, having said that… what did you learn?”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Staring at the hungry grin adorning Aesa’s maw, I allowed myself an internal sigh of contentment.

  I have the best grandmother.

  Not moving from my position, I laid out my recent discovery. Aesa began pacing in shorts bursts as soon as I finished speaking. Hunger, anticipation, and a hint of greed raged across her expression whenever her stoic mask cracked, and it did so often.

  I merely took the time to rest and savor the feeling of Alys’ fingers stroking through my hair, though I noticed my dragoness had turned contemplative as well.

  I knew Alys’ feelings on the subject were complex, but I also knew that she did crave power, to an extent. She wasn’t as manic about it as her grandmother was, nor was she about to try and smother everyone for their own protection. But she valued the ability to protect herself and her loved ones nearly as much as Aesa did.

  “How much could you… No, would you be willing to…”

  Grandmother snarled and turned away from us, hands clenching and relaxing in a rhythmic way that told me she was purposefully trying to calm down.

  Thankfully, I was fairly certain I knew what she was trying to ask.

  “I can put as many, ah, ingredients, through the refinement process as you can give me,” I told her. “You will need to spare some time to get us more of the flowers, and I will need to do some experimentation to see how many ingredients a single flower can help purify before losing some of its potency, but I think we can easily produce enough of the end product for all three of you.”

  Aesa paused. The thankful look she shot me faded quickly, replaced by one of thoughtfulness. “I will need to see how far I can go before I impact my own strength and regeneration negatively, but that shouldn’t take long to learn. I already have some ideas of my limits from all the nonsense I’ve been put through by fools over the years.”

  I winced. It wasn’t hard to imagine why The Molten Expanse had a good grasp of how badly she could hurt herself before it began to have a negative impact. I didn’t like the thought of what my dragoness might have gone through without her grandmother’s protection.

  I also didn’t like the fact that I was more or less asking my own grandmother to mutilate herself on a daily basis. But since she’d been about to ask me to supply her with the means to grow more powerful herself, I could push past that.

  The more important item on my agenda was learning the limits of the flowers.

  I needed to figure out the optimal ratio of flower to blood, flesh, and potentially even bone, if we were really going to try and maximize the rate of improvement for both my dragoness and her grandmother.

  As for Amara, I had noticed the brief moments of awkwardness she occasionally experienced with her mother, along with something I’d call resentment. I wasn’t sure she would be willing to join our plan to make them all much more powerful using the refined materials, not until I managed to come up with a proper potion. I would have to speak to her about it.

  At the moment, though, I decided to focus on other matters.

  “We still don’t know how these refined ingredients will impact Alys now that she’s pregnant,” I pointed out reasonably. “Or if they are even safe for her.”

  “We will try this evening, before dinner,” Aesa declared, then paused and turned to look at us. “If you are both fine with that,” she corrected herself. “I am certain they will only benefit her and your unborn child, but I can understand the worry.”

  It was touching that she offered us the choice when she so clearly wanted to push.

  I looked up at my dragoness questioningly. She hesitated, but nodded with considerable determination.

  It was settled, then. We had a day of experimentation ahead of us. It would only wrap up well after dinner, once Alys had ingested some of the refined materials. I was facing hours of work. I had already come close to knocking myself out.

  Yet I would be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying myself, or that I wasn’t looking forward to the rest of the day.

  —

  When we finally left my lab, all of us were rather tired.

  Me, from focusing so intensely on the process of refining my blood using varying amounts and parts of the flower, and bleeding for it every time.

  Aesa, because she had gone outside and devoted many hours to… ‘testing the limits of her healing.’

  Alys, because she had spent the rest of the day making large pots for me, while also honing her ability to create and manipulate flameshard glass.

  Still, we didn’t mind the weariness. Our day had been full of achievements.

  I had worked out the ratios of flower to blood and flesh using my own. It was horrid, and I found myself appreciating Grandmother’s stamina more and more, even after all the healing items I applied to myself. But it was worth it. We even got to test the ratios on Aesa’s own ‘ingredients’, to rousing success.

  These tests had yielded a decent supply of refined materials. I’d immediately handed half over to Aesa, who had looked both incredibly grateful and oddly guilty when she accepted them. I strongly suspected she felt like she was ‘stealing’ from her granddaughter, or something equally silly.

  I considered trying to talk to her about it myself, then decided it would be better to nudge Alys into doing so. It would be good for both of them. My dragoness was much happier and more confident now, with her family back in her life and openly supporting her. Likewise, the reassurance would probably be more impactful to Aesa if it came from Alys rather than me.

  Those thoughts and more, as well as a vague cloud of worry over testing the refined materials on Alys, swirled around my mind as we finally entered our kitchen.

  To my surprise, the scent of cooking food hit me immediately. I looked towards the kitchen and spotted Amara and Kiri, of all people, cooking together.

  “So I think that — oh, look, dear! They’re here!” Amara beamed in our direction, motioning for Kiri to turn.

  The Winter fae did, confusing me greatly when the sight of me sent dread wafting across her expression of quiet contentment.

  “Look who came to visit! She’s been such a help today, too!” Amara cooed, giving the fae a side-hug. The twitch of Kiri’s lips told me the gesture would have made her break out into a massive flush if she were capable of it. “She came to see you, Thorn dear. But she didn’t want to interrupt your work, so she decided to wait with me.”

  “Truly? Well, how can I help?” I offered, instantly and sincerely.

  Kiri paused. Then she offered me an expression that was, for her, a warm smile.

  “I… was hoping we could talk. You, me, and Alys, if you two could spare the time,” Kiri said hesitantly.

  I only had to exchange a quick glance with my dragoness before we both nodded.

  “Of course.”

  Why the silly Winter fae looked relieved, like she’d been expecting us to deny her, I didn’t know. I merely resolved all the more to help her as best I could.

  From the way Alys’ tail tightened around my waist, I could tell my dragoness shared my sentiment.

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