(Fire and Claw, #2)
Publication date: September 1st 2026
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Dragons value family above all else—but when a dragon shifter can’t shift, how will he protect the ones he loves?
Lochlyn Blackmoor, the last dragon shifter in Alessia, has lost his ability to shift. Heartened by a prediction that he will shift again, Lochlyn retreats to Dragon Ridge with his beloved wife, Rosalie. They’re content to enjoy a quiet life, until they receive unsettling news from the capital city.
The king’s seer has been marked for death, all because she helped him free Rosalie’s sister from the king’s clutches.
Despite his current weakness, Lochlyn embarks on a mission to rescue the seer with his brother-in-law and spymaster in tow. Almost immediately, one of their few allies—Arthus Flameborn, Grand Master of the Order of the Phoenix, who also happens to be Rosalie’s grandfather—abandons them. As they run out of time and options, Lochlyn turns to a former foe for assistance: Basilisk, the same rogue shifter he freed from the Order’s dungeon, and nearly killed him.
Basilisk proves himself a worthy ally, and his vast knowledge Alessia’s royal family comes in handy more than once. As more of Basilisk’s past is revealed, Lochlyn learns Alessia’s darkest, most dangerous secret, information so deadly It could unravel everything he’s ever known. To make matters worse, the ruthless Grand Master wants to form a relationship with his granddaughter, Rosalie, and he doesn’t care who he hurts in the process—not even Rosalie.
And only a dragon can overpower the Grand Master.
Excerpt
The sun had barely crept over the horizon when Curran jogged down the castle steps. When he woke his blood had been rushing through his veins, and he wanted to use the sunrise as cover to shift into his phoenix form. Granted, Dragon Ridge was far from Serpens, and it was unlikely that word of a phoenix flying above the remote mountains would get back to his father. But Curran had been careless once, and that led to his and Caterina’s capture. He wouldn’t risk his princess’s safety again.
Curran walked toward the stables, intending to visit his horse, Barleymane, before he shifted. As he passed through the herb garden, he heard Rosalie’s voice. He walked toward where he’d heard her, and saw her standing in front of a thatch of dried out grasses shaking out her hand.
“Balls,” she muttered, then she blew on her fingers.
“Something wrong?” he asked, as he stepped onto the path. “Why are you out here so early?”
“No, I . . .” She looked at her hands and frowned. “I’m trying to make my fire come when I call. It seems to have a mind of its own.”
“You’ve called your fire before.” He remembered watching her shift to warrior form when they’d been attacked by the basilisk outside the palace. She’d reminded him so much of Aurielle in that moment, her bravery on full display as her body burned brighter than the sun. “What makes you think you won’t be able to call it again?”
“Yesterday, after Lochlyn cut the lead charm out of Devlin’s neck, I tried to cauterize the wound,” she began. “But nothing happened, and I haven’t been to call it in so long. What if . . . what if my fire never comes back?”
“That won’t happen,” Curran said, then he sat on the ground. “Sit with me?”
“All right,” she agreed, sitting in front of him. “What are we doing down here?”
“We’re having a lesson,” he replied. “My fire wouldn’t come for the longest time. My mother and Auri assumed I was latent, which would be unusual being that my parents are so powerful. Mama wanted me to be patient and wait for my fire to find its own way out, but I hated waiting.”
“Me too,” Rosalie said. “How old were you when it manifested?”
“Almost eight,” he replied. “Auri would sit with me just like this, and try to coax the fire out of me. If not for her, I may never have found it.” He extended his hand. “Want to try?”
“Yes,” Rosalie said as she placed her hand in his. “What do we do?”
“Watch.” Curran lit a single flame on each of his fingers; since he and Rosalie were blood relations, his fire wouldn’t harm her. “Feel how each flame is different?”
When Rosalie nodded, he extinguished the flames, then he held up his hand with his palm toward her. “Put your hand against mine.” She did, and he lit one flame at the tip of his index finger. “Close your eyes, and feel the flame. Not just the heat, but how it’s moving between our skin.”
She let her eyes close. “It feels . . . it feels like water flowing between us. But it’s sharper than water.”
“Very good. Now search for that feeling inside yourself.”
Her brow pinched. “What if I can’t find it?”
“Then we try a different way.” Curran regarded his niece. She didn’t look very much like his sister, but Rosalie resembled Aurielle in many other ways. One of those ways was what Curran once called stubbornness.
“You’re determined like your mother,” Curran said. “Auri was one of the strongest warriors I’ve ever known, and not just physically. Her mind was just as strong as her body, and if she couldn’t defeat an obstacle one way, she would come up with a new plan and try again. Auri never would have let a few flames get the better of her, and I don’t think you will, either.”
“Mama certainly wouldn’t have let a bit of fire win,” Rosalie agreed. “I wish she was here to teach me.”
Curran grasped her hand. “I wish she were here, too. Maybe . . . maybe the best way to honor her is for you to become the phoenix she always knew you would be.”
“You think she knew,” Rosalie began, then a flame bloomed between their palms. “Curran! I did it!”
“I knew you would,” he praised, his face split by a grin. He lowered his hand, and the flame extinguished.
“That always happens,” Rosalie pouted. “Unless I’m very angry, my flames only last a few seconds.”
“Give it time,” Curran said. “The more you work with your fire, the more control you will have. After you’ve attained your warrior form a few more times, we can work on getting you to fully shift.”
“Into a full phoenix?” Rosalie traced the spot where the flame had been on her palm. “Then I could fly with Lochlyn. My mother could fully shift?”
“She could,” Curran replied. “She burned even brighter than my father.”
“That’s amazing.” A cloud passed across Rosalie’s face, and Curran worried their impromptu training session had dredged up some unpleasant memories. But the emotion passed as quickly as it appeared.
“Have you anywhere to be right now?” Rosalie asked. “Or do you have time to talk about my mother a bit more? I’d love to hear what she was like growing up.”
Curran smiled, and realized his own shift would have to wait. He had more important things to see to at the moment. “I have all the time in the world. As for what Auri was like when we were young, she was an absolute terror.”
Rosalie laughed. “She was not!”
“Oh, yes she was.”
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