The touch was briefly distracting, elegant fingers moving over skin, sparks he'd never felt even in the halo of dragon fire...but it was that warm and open smile that grabbed him right around the heart and squeezed. It made her face glow with a light he could feel on his face, a light that made him believe in the Sun Goddess of the dragons, believe in the Ember and the life he breathed into man and dragon.

And she knew one. A dragon shifter. She knew one.

"Not a shifter of the Five Realms, I'm guessing." he murmured, fighting the sudden urge he had to cover that hand mapping muscle and tendon from wrist to elbow, to press it close and keep it there--to hold onto this amazing thing he'd found in a beautiful fucking queen who knew.

His smile now was one of vaguely dazed amazement, open and joyful and honest. The kind of smile he'd been trained to carve out of his own face in the name of strength and cunning--the kind of smile that always meant the Night Dragon felt he still had one final lesson to learn before he'd ever be truly great.

"I just--I don't know any other humans that have met a shifter before." he explained. "There are others in the realms, I know, but I'm the only one in Nocturne--someone brought in from another world. Was she the one that taught you magic?"

Then another thought occurred to him...the way she smiled talking about her...crap, maybe he's misread this entire situation.

"Are--was she one of your mates?"