Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
“We’re excited, too. The Tupã fall into the category of myth for us. We all remember hearing about them when we were young, but none of us have ever met a lightning dragon.” Luka leaned forward, his voice dipping so that it sounded like he was telling an old ghost story. “It was said they never left their secret mountain home and most of their mates were found within this one mage clan that no one ever saw. According to legends, the Tupã were the most powerful dragon clan.”
Misha barked out a scoffing laugh. “Yeah, right. That sounds like Tupã propaganda there. They never went to war with the Valerii over territory.”
“Are you saying the nearby Metal Clan wouldn’t have been a formidable fight?” Vasily drawled.
Misha lifted both hands and shrugged. “Their king, Roca Mayta, is impressive enough, but I’m not so sure the Tupã were all that impressive without facing the Valerii first. That’s all I’m saying.”
Luka smiled and shook his head dismissively as he dropped back in his chair. “Whatever. The Tupã are long gone as far as anyone knows, along with the Sousa. It would have been nice to know them personally, but we missed our chance.”
“What I don’t get—” Dimitri started, causing something within Samuel’s chest to tighten as the man’s gaze suddenly narrowed on him. So much for enjoying the dragon’s insightful banter. “—is why you came here by yourself. The other scientists that came through here and needed guides had entire teams.”
“Yeah, well, those scientists either had sizeable grants or corporate money backing them,” Samuel muttered. “I’m here on my dime.”
“Seriously?” Ilya demanded.
“There aren’t a lot of foundations out there tossing money around for research into mages. It’s growing. Since the discovery that dragons still exist, there’s renewed interest in mages, but not as much as in dragons.” He looked down at his half-empty bottle and picked at the label. “But no one has heard of the Sousa so no one is interested in funding my research. Plus, I’m not exactly sure if or how I want to share my research. At least not beyond the mage clans.”
“That’s crazy,” Gregori whispered.
“I’ll talk to Thiago and Rodrigo about that. I bet he’d even want to reach out to Alric,” Luka interjected. “It’s in the best interest of mages and dragons to research what happened to the mage clans over the past several centuries. If there are trained historians, archeologists, and whatnot out there wanting to do the research, then the least we could do is throw some funding their way.”
“It would save us from having to do the work,” Vasily murmured.
“Besides, I wasn’t supposed to be here alone,” Samuel grumbled under his breath before chugging down the last of his beer.
“What?” Dimitri asked.
Samuel quickly shook his head, wishing he hadn’t said that out loud. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dimitri motion to Ilya for another beer. A couple of seconds later a fresh, cold beer was shoved in front of his face. He hesitated and then accepted it. It was still early in the evening. He had plenty of time to sleep off a little booze.
“Come on, Sammy. Share with us. We’re going to be spending a lot of time with each other. We’re gonna be like brothers,” Dimitri wheedled.
Samuel downed half the bottle and glared at the dragon beside him, who was flashing him what he probably thought was his most ingratiating and winning smile. Samuel’s gaze shifted around the bonfire to find the others staring at him in the same way.
“Please, Samuel. Talk to us,” Sofi prodded.
A long, low sigh drifted from him and he slumped more in his chair. What the hell? It wasn’t like he had any other close friends he could complain to. He gave a small, dismissive wave. “Long story short, bad breakup.”
“That’s why you’re down here alone?” Dimitri’s voice seemed torn between anger and disbelief.
“Yeah. His name’s Kevin Myers. We’ve been…ugh…we dated for about a year. He’s been to Rio and São Paulo a few times in the past. He’s also fluent in Portuguese. He’d agreed to come down and support me on this trip. He was going to translate and help with some of the logistics so I could focus on my research.” He huffed and threw one of his hands up. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I got here fine on my own.”
Except that there was a hell of a lot of anger and resentment in his words and nothing he could do about it. It was more than feelings of betrayal he couldn’t shake off. His failure with Kevin was a painful reminder of how he kept coming up short in life, and he was going to keep coming up short if he let himself be attracted to men he had no business being with.