by Zoe Chant
“This a real diamond?”
“Yes.”
The man let out a low snort, which Darklis supposed meant he didn’t actually believe her.
“Hmm. I could move this if I had to. Lotta young idiots getting married these days.” The man turned the ring around in his fingers a few more times, squinting at it. He seemed to be looking at it much harder than he needed to, Darklis thought – but maybe he was trying to convince them he was giving it a fair appraisal.
As he turned the ring, however, Darklis heard him suck in a breath as if surprised, and then his head flicked toward her, eyeing her clothes once more.
“You aren’t from around here, are you?”
There was a note of suspicion in his voice that set alarm bells ringing in Darklis’s head. And if there was one thing she had learned, it was to trust her gut when it told her things weren’t quite right.
“No,” she said. “We’re in town for a friend’s... birthday party. It’s fancy dress. As you can see.” She grinned, gesturing to her clothes.
“Yeah, pretty fancy all right,” the man muttered, turning his eyes back to the ring. “You need somewhere to stay?”
Darklis opened her mouth to say they were fine, when it struck her that it may not be a bad idea to have a recommendation for some low-cost accommodation.
“We’re fine for a couple of nights,” she said, trying to inject her voice with as much new-in-town enthusiasm as she could. “But now that we’re here, it’s like... wow! It’s New York! There’s so much to see. We might want to stay on for a few extra days.”
“Mmm.” The man seemed distinctly unimpressed. “Well, you still feel that way, check this place out.”
Taking one hand from the ring, he reached down to flick a card across the counter to her. Picking it up, Darklis read the words CHEAP ACCOMM, followed by an address.
She resisted the urge to grimace. Sure, it wasn’t going to be the Plaza, but they were hardly in any position to be picky just now.
“Thanks,” she said, slipping the card into one of the deep pockets of her robes. “So, do you think you’re interested in the ring?”
“I’ll give you five hundred for it,” the man said. “Come back in a week or it’s sold. Deal?”
“Five hundred? Five hundred dollars?”
Darklis glanced over her shoulder as Liev’s voice sounded from across the shop. He strode over to them, face darkening.
The man scowled. “Look, if you’re not happy with it, you can go elsewhere. But no one’ll give you more than that. Maybe if you hadn’t tried to sucker me by saying it was a real diamond –”
“It is a real diamond.”
Darklis could see Liev was getting a little steamed. His blue eyes flashed, jaw muscles clenching.
“And it’s worth a lot more than five hundred dollars,” he said. “It is a family... a family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation. I’ll not have you –”
“Look, it’s just a loan, buddy. This is collateral. You’re not selling it to me. You want your precious ring back, just come back in a week with the money. Plus interest, of course.” The man glowered. “That, or get out of my shop.”
“We’ll take it,” Darklis said quickly, before Liev could get out another word.
She tried to cast Liev a meaningful glance, but he wasn’t looking at her.
What I wouldn’t give for my dragon right now...
If her dragon had still been within her, she could have sent Liev a psychic message telling him to calm down, and that the man wasn’t insulting his family’s honor. He was only trying to drive a hard bargain.
But then again, if they’d had their dragons, they could have just shifted and flown home. If they’d had their dragons, Liev would know that he was her mate.
She swallowed, pushing the thought away.
“Five hundred is fine,” she repeated. “And we’ll definitely be back to pick it up. With the interest.”
“Yeah, sure,” the man grunted, not taking his eyes off Liev. “I’ll write you a receipt.”
Still glowering, he turned away and began scribbling on a piece of paper behind the counter. Taking the opportunity while he was distracted, Darklis touched Liev on the shoulder, moving him to a darker corner of the already dark shop.
“Hey, calm down,” she whispered, glancing back to the counter. “He’s not insulting you. He’s just... he’s just a dick.”
Darklis rarely swore, but the word she’d heard Josie, her cousin Isaak’s mate, call some of her more annoying co-workers rose unbidden to her mind.
Liev blinked as if startled, before a small smile began to creep across his lips.
“A dick, you say?”
Darklis couldn’t stop the small giggle from escaping her mouth. Liev was so proper, his accent and manner so polished, that it was strange to hear him use a word like ‘dick’.
“Yeah. Kind of,” she said, smiling, as she glanced toward the counter, hoping the man hadn’t heard them. “But he’s giving us money, so knock it off, okay?”
Liev inhaled sharply, and for a moment, Darklis thought she had offended him. Certainly, there was surprise in his clear blue eyes as he looked down at her. But then, he smiled.
“As you wish, Darklis. I will knock it off.”
“Hey, if you want this money, come and get it now,” the man called out gruffly. “Or if you’ve changed your mind, come get your shit and leave.”
At once, Liev bristled – his muscular shoulders bunched up, his jaw tightening again. Darklis held her breath, before reaching out and pressing her hand against his arm.
Immediately, Liev seemed to become calmer. He let out the breath he’d been holding, and glanced down at her.
“I have knocked it off, Darklis. I promise.”
It wasn’t only relief that made her grin as he spoke.
She went to the counter as the man snarlingly counted out five hundred dollars in tens, twenties and fifties. The paper was ragged and dog-eared, but it was money.
“Thanks,” she said as she picked it up, folding it over in her fist. Her robes didn’t really have any fully secure pockets.
Speaking of...
“Hey,” she said, turning back to the man. “You wouldn’t happen to sell secondhand clothes, would you?”
***
“All right,” Darklis said, as they stepped out onto the curb. “After buying the clothes, we have four hundred and fifty dollars left.”
She carefully folded the notes before tucking them into her jeans pocket. Swallowing, she raised her eyes to look at Liev’s face – not, she told herself, allowing them to linger on where the worn denim of the jeans he’d bought hugged his muscular thighs, or the way the casual shirt he was now wearing did nothing at all to conceal the hardness of his abdomen and chest. And as for the way the worn brown leather jacket they’d found clung to his shoulders, hanging off them as if it’d been made for him...
Darklis only just stopped herself from shaking her head to clear it. Now wasn’t the time. Sure, Liev was distracting as hell in those clothes, but Darklis was pretty sure Liev would be distracting even if he were wearing nothing but a hessian sack.
“What do you suggest we do now?” Liev asked her. “You said the other members of your clan have human mates – is it possible we could make contact with them? Explain the situation?”
“It is,” Darklis said slowly, thinking. “Not Stefan, my brother, though. His mate Holly is about to give birth, and they’ve returned to our ancestral lands for it. They’ll be totally off the grid for now. Isaak and Josie are out of the country – Josie’s a big-shot university professor, and she’s giving a talk in Greece about her conservation efforts. So I don’t know how to get in contact with them right now.” She frowned.
“My younger brother Magnus has a human mate as well,” Liev said. “But she lives in Drakos Castle now. I cannot contact her.”
Darklis smiled at the mention of Magnus. “I remember Alanna!” she said brightly. “She
writes to us from time to time. I’m so glad things are going well. I mean... considering.”
Darklis knew she wouldn’t have to go into any more detail than that. While it had been clear to anyone who looked at them that Alanna and Magnus were a perfect match, it didn’t change the fact that Alanna had been raised as a dragon hunter – or that her father was the Lord High Hunter, who had assigned Alanna the task of slaying Magnus as a rogue dragon.
Of course, things had gone very differently to how anyone had expected, and Alanna and Magnus had turned out to be fated mates. Even things between mates could be rocky, Darklis knew. She couldn’t help herself from glancing up at Liev, her heart clutching in her chest.
But if Alanna and Magnus can get past that inauspicious start, then surely...
Surely, Liev would remember? And then things would be okay?
Maybe you should just tell him, a voice in her head said – which, if Darklis hadn’t known better, she would have said was her dragon.
Don’t be so stupid, she quickly thought. Now’s not the time. Not when we don’t have our dragons, when we’re stuck here with no way to get home, when he doesn’t even remember, and not when he’s a dragon prince, who’s probably already betrothed to a dragon princess...
Darklis pulled herself up short. She hadn’t even thought of that last one before now. But now that she had... well that was how these things worked, wasn’t it? Royalty married royalty. It didn’t seem too far-fetched that he might already have a bride-in-waiting.
Liev would need a wife who could bring him riches, political advantage, power in her own right... and Darklis was fairly certain that she, even as the sister of a clan leader, could do none of those things.
The Novaks had almost been wiped out not so long ago, their hoard severely depleted. There wasn’t a lot she could offer in a marriage to a dragon prince.
And in that case, maybe it really was for the best that he didn’t remember they were mates.
She swallowed. Her heart felt heavy within her.
“Darklis? Is everything all right?”
She glanced up to find Liev looking down at her, concern in his eyes.
“Yes, yes, of course,” she said quickly. “I was just... thinking.” She tried to focus herself on the problem at hand. “So I can’t contact either Holly or Josie, and you can’t contact Alanna. And honestly, it’s getting pretty late.”
It was true. It had already been late afternoon when they had... well, arrived was one way of putting it, Darklis supposed. Now, it was early evening, the sun sinking lower, casting long shadows between the buildings.
“Is there a way we could travel to your family’s lands?” Liev asked.
“Perhaps,” Darklis said. “But it’s a long journey – they’re clear across the other side of the country. I think the money we have left over would be enough to buy bus tickets to get us to the right state, but then we’d have to get through the desert in our human forms – I mean, assuming that we don’t get our dragons back in the next couple of days.”
“Days?” Liev sounded surprised. “How long is the journey?”
“Two days, I would guess,” Darklis said. “I’m not certain.”
Liev glanced up as a car drove by, loudly sounding its horn.
“Can we not obtain a car, perhaps?”
Darklis grimaced. “My license is back at Drakos Castle. And anyway, I only got it six months ago. I don’t think anyone would hire us a car even if I had it.”
“Then we must take this bus, as you say,” Liev said. “But do you think it’s possible that our dragons may come back to us as we sleep?”
Liev sounded so hopeful that Darklis wasn’t certain how to respond for a moment. But then, thinking about it, she realized that perhaps he could be right.
“I’ve read a lot about spells and enchantments that wear off overnight,” she said slowly. “Especially ones involving transformation. Sometimes that’s all it takes – sometimes you need a full moon, or for someone to cast another spell while you’re asleep, or sometimes it’s true love’s ki–”
Darklis cut herself off abruptly. Don’t say things like that!
“Anyway,” she continued on quickly, hoping Liev hadn’t noticed. “We don’t know what kind of spell was cast by the portal. Maybe it’s only temporary.”
“If the manticore jumped through it too, we can assume that it too lost its power to shift,” Liev said. “Would it have willingly jumped through if it thought it would lose its shifted form permanently?”
“Good point,” Darklis agreed. “That doesn’t seem likely – though I suppose we can’t rule out that maybe it didn’t know, or that it was desperate enough that it did it anyway. But that’s a pretty drastic action to take. I know I’d rather just get caught than lose my dragon forever.”
“Well, for our own sakes then, let us decide the effects are temporary,” Liev said, and Darklis wondered if he truly felt as certain as he sounded.
But does the alternative really bear thinking about?
No, she quickly decided, it didn’t.
“We will stay here for tonight. If, as you say, spells wear off with sleep, we may find ourselves returned to normal in the morning,” Liev continued. “If not, we will look into purchasing these bus tickets. We will find your brother and his mate. And from there, we will know what to do next. Does this sound like an acceptable plan?”
Despite herself, Darklis found herself reassured by Liev’s certainty, even if she knew he couldn’t actually be certain about anything.
All her life she had lived with uncertainty – sometimes not even knowing if she was going to live to see the next day. To have someone who, even in these circumstances, seemed to know what to do, how to take charge, to make her feel safe...
Darklis felt a warmth in her belly that wasn’t only to do with the fact that Liev was so stunningly handsome.
“Yes. Yes it does,” she murmured, not daring to look up into his eyes. Clearing her throat, she took a deep breath. “Wherever we stay, it’ll have to be cheap.” Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the card the pawnbroker had given her. “But luckily, I think I know just the place.”
Chapter Seven
Liev
“We’ve only got one room left.”
Liev narrowed his eyes at the hotel receptionist. She’d barely looked up from her phone when they’d entered, and hadn’t checked the booking records at all before snapping out her answer.
“That’s fine,” Darklis said, her voice as calm and measured as ever. “If it’s a twin, we’ll take it.”
The receptionist sighed, then shrugged her shoulders. “It’s a room. Do you want it or not? You won’t find anything cheaper, so if you want it, now’s the time. It’ll be gone in the next couple of hours.”
It was Liev’s instinct to tell this rude woman that no, they would have no need of her rooms after all, but, recalling what Darklis had told him about knocking things off, he kept his mouth shut. The last thing they needed was to get into more trouble because he couldn’t keep his temper.
“I – I suppose we’ll take it then,” Darklis said, though she sounded a little uncertain.
“Pay upfront,” the receptionist grunted as she rose, turning to grab a key from a hook on the wall behind her.
Liev looked away, not trusting himself to hold his tongue. For himself, he hoped he could have borne the woman’s insolent tone with grace. But for her to speak to Darklis that way – !
Swallowing, he studied some papers stuck to a noticeboard in the hall until Darklis had finished paying and collected the key.
“Liev?”
He turned to see Darklis looking expectantly at him.
She is so beautiful.
The thought rose into his head unbidden.
For a moment, he could only stand, staring at her, his mouth dry.
“Are you coming?” Darklis seemed to be mildly amused by his sudden immobility. Liev gave himself a quick shake. He had to keep his head together. They
were in an unfamiliar city, in a potentially very dangerous situation. He couldn’t afford to get distracted.
“Of course,” he said, quickly making his way back along the hallway.
“Elevator’s busted, so you’ll have to take the stairs,” the receptionist helpfully called after them as they passed her.
Darklis stifled a laugh. “Why am I not surprised?”
The stairs were dark and smelled of things Liev decided he would prefer not to think about too closely, but it didn’t take long for them to make their way to the second floor, and from there to their rooms. Darklis had to force the key into the lock and jiggle it around before it would unlock, but at last, the door opened.
“How much did you say these rooms cost?” Liev asked as he surveyed the small, cramped room before him.
“Room,” Darklis said as she followed him inside, closing the door behind her. “And not much.”
“Only one room?” Liev said, turning back to her, a tightness in his throat, warmth in his stomach. “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure this place doesn’t do suites,” Darklis said, glancing at him. “Why? I mean, it’s a bit cramped, but –”
There is only one bed.
Liev coughed. Was it him, or was it warm in here?
And why couldn’t he find the words he needed to express his discomfort?
“It is just that – I only mean to point out that –”
You are mates, a voice in his head said. You can sleep in the same bed. You should sleep in the same bed.
She doesn’t remember that! Liev snapped back at it. And we are alone here, and she has no one. Telling her now would be akin to taking advantage. I will tell her when we are safe again.
“Oh,” Darklis said, as her eyes fell on the sole single bed in the middle of the room. “I... I was sure I said I wanted a twin...”
“The receptionist said they only had the one room left,” Liev pointed out. He cleared his throat. His cheeks still felt unaccountably hot. “But in any case, it doesn’t matter. I will sleep on the floor.”