by Ann Denton
His comment led me to switch topics. Maybe he didn’t want to speak about magic openly. A lot of mages guarded their discoveries jealously. Wyle had. Perhaps Donaloo felt I was prodding and was being obtuse to get me to change topics.
I wasn’t certain I believed my own logic, but I wasn’t quite ready to give up hope and acknowledge he was completely mad. "My sister was recently stolen by a dragon. He flew off with her. I came to ask if you've seen them."
"Is it a wise man or a madman who sees only foes—no matter where he looks, no matter where he goes?"
I stopped making roundabout excuses. Clearly, Donaloo’s mental state had devolved since he’d helped Quinn out. I tried to smother my frustration. I asked directly, "Have you seen Princess Avia of Evaness? I wish you would simply give me a straight answer."
"Wishful thinking never solved any problems. But every solution began as a wishful thought." The wizard winked and looked at Blue, who fluttered next to his chair. “Isn’t that right?”
Blue swooped down to land on my lap as I stared at Donaloo, struck by the fact that he didn't end with a rhyme. “Wait. Did you say wish? We are having trouble with a djinni.”
Ryan gave me a sharp look at revealing such a secret.
I ignored him because we’d come because we were desperate for help. If that meant giving state secrets to a wizard, I’d chance it.
“Do you know anything about djinn? Do you know the djinni that attacked me?” I leaned forward.
Donaloo tilted his head and looked at me with a sad sigh. I swear, in that moment he looked present and sane. “A wish started, and a wish will stop the curse. But only when you’ve seen the worst.”
I felt a chill run down my spine and I instinctively grabbed onto Blue on my lap. I needed something to hold. He squawked in protest, but I didn’t release him.
“What about Blue? Can you reverse the spell on him?”
“What is the most potent magic? It’s stronger than death or hate, twice as strong when you reciprocate.”
I gaped at him. I wondered for a moment if he’d think more clearly if I decked him.
Don’t you dare hit my wizard! Quinn popped into my head.
He’s just throwing riddles at me. Is that how he talked to you?
No. But he came to me when I was a kid. I wouldn’t have understood that shite.
I don’t understand it!
Tell it to me.
I recited the riddle to Quinn.
A moment later, I was sent back an eye-rolling image of Quinn. It’s obviously love.
Declan told you that, didn’t he?
What? Sorry. Can’t hear you… Quinn faded from my thoughts.
I turned to the wizard and said, “Love. Love is the most potent magic.”
Donaloo gave a bright smile and nodded. “Correct.”
I waited for a rhyme. But none came. I didn’t know if that meant I’d passed some test. Were those all tests?
I leaned forward in my chair, “Can you help me find who did this? Can you help me find my sister and this dragon and everything else? Please. I desperately need your help. I could offer—”
Donaloo held up his hand, and gave me a small smile, “Offer only love. The only payment worth anything in the end, is the true heart of a friend.”
I nodded, completely uncertain whether he’d agreed to help me or not.
Thunder shook the house, tilting it slightly. Ryan’s tankard fell to the floor. The wizard jumped up from his chair and ran to his front door.
“Trouble’s brewing, the eight kingdoms are stewing!”
Shite. Eight kingdoms? Kenmare only had seven. The poor man’s addled mouth was back to spewing nonsense.
The wind blew open one of the windows and the house started to spin. Donaloo stood and gestured frantically at the door, “Hurry, hurry, time to go. The war is at hand, don’t you know!”
Ryan and I stood and made our way to the door. Blue flew up to perch on my finger, digging in hard as the wind ruffled his feathers.
As we walked out the door, Donaloo reached up and plucked Blue from my shoulder. “A kiss without love is merely a kiss, but love can pull us back from the abyss.” He kissed my bird.
Ew, I thought.
I felt sorry for Blue but was hesitant to grab him away from Donaloo. I didn’t want the crazy man to hurt anyone.
Mother always said to be overly polite to the crazy ones. I took her advice.
“Thank you so much for the tea,” I said.
“It’s never the tea, dear, always the company,” Donaloo winked.
Then he grabbed my hand, pushed Blue into me, and said, “Remember, failure is the toll we pay to cross the bridge to success. You must pay the toll or forego your goal.”
He pressed something small and round into my hand and then pushed me out the door.
I stumbled, falling onto the soft clouds at the base of his house. Ryan followed me out and pulled me to my feet.
Donaloo spoke as if he hadn’t just shoved me down the stairs. “I’ll pack my bags and be with you as soon as I can. For a bird’s eye view is nice for a while, but the ground is better for a man. Tell Cerena I’ll be there to set her castle square.”
Ryan and I watched, frozen, as the wizard’s house whipped around like a tornado had caught it. But the tornado didn’t touch us. It merely turned the house in circles. Faster. Faster. The little cottage spun and spun until it was a blur of color. And then, in a blink, it disappeared.
We were left standing on a cloud.
“Well, that was a waste,” Ryan grumbled.
I stared at the sky as Blue fluttered in front of me. “I’m not certain, it was, actually.”
I held up a coin that glinted in the light. It had the burning rose of Evaness on one side, but the profile of the unknown woman on the other.
“If one ridiculous noble and one ridiculous wizard both hand you the same coin, it must mean something.”
“Maybe carrying the coin makes you go crazy?” Ryan suggested, as he helped me mount the gargoyle.
“Could be. Or it could mean that Aiden and this dragon, and the crazy war the wizard is talking about are all tied together.”
“By what?”
I held up the coin. “This.”
Chapter Fifteen
Ryan left me at the castle door, handing me into Jorad’s care. Connor had returned to the meeting with the nobles. At first, I thought Jorad might force me to return to that dull affair, but he actually followed Ryan’s orders to lead me to Declan’s chambers.
The butler and I didn’t speak to each other, both still a bit taut and angry from our prior encounters, until he held open the door.
“Your Majesty,” Jorad said, bowing his head politely.
“Jorad,” I gave a stiff nod. But then I decided against holding grudges. Perhaps because of the loony wizard’s little lectures on love. Or perhaps because Jorad knew so much about my mother, the thief, and might be useful one day. “Willard did us proud the other day. I hope he continues to do so.”
Jorad’s eyebrows raised. He didn’t give me any further response.
I walked into Declan’s chamber, swallowing a sigh. With some people, it wasn’t even worth trying. Blue twittered on my shoulder, agreeing with me.
Declan spun around in his chair when I walked in, pieces of parchment flying from the stacks on his desk. “Bloss!”
“Hey, handsome.” I smiled and stooped to help him pick up the fallen pages.
I caught Declan staring down the gap at the top of my dress and I grinned. “See something you like?”
He quirked a brow. “Actually, something I don’t.” His hand went into my dress and pulled out a little blue feather. “I knew you were sexually adventurous, but bestiality’s a bit far, isn’t it?”
Blue nearly died. He started tweeting on my shoulder so hard that it turned to wheezing. He nearly fell. I had to catch him and set him down on Declan’s desk. Declan and I watched his fit with amusement.
“Do you
think that’s laughter?” Declan asked.
“Gods, I hope so. Because contrary to whatever you think, I’m not into animals. The idiot crawled in there when Ryan took us on a gargoyle.”
Declan grinned. “That better be it. If I find feathers anywhere else …”
“Wanna check?” I opened my hands wide with a smile.
“Oh no, Peace. Don’t you remember what I said? Our first time, I want you desperate for me,” Declan leaned in and nuzzled my nose and then gave me the world’s softest kiss. His plush lips hardly touched mine and then he was gone, leaving me leaning forward into thin air.
“Argh! Unfair!” I stomped a foot.
“You’re adorable when you pout. And when you bathe.” Declan’s eyes drifted to a tub that sat in the middle of his room.
My gaze followed. “They didn’t move it.”
“I wouldn’t let them. It was the first time I got to see you in all your glory.”
“Apparently, you saw Ryan as me hundreds of times,” I grumbled.
Declan shook his head and sat back down. “Not the same.”
“Why not?”
“That was transactional. Orgasm trading.”
I sat on Declan’s lap and snuggled in, making myself comfortable. I ran a hand through his blond hair. “What is it with me?”
“Perfect,” Declan said softly, his blue eyes gazing deep into mine.
I groaned. “How can you think I’m not desperate for you when you say shite like that?” I leaned up to kiss him.
“Not desperate enough,” Declan murmured, backing away from the kiss. “I want you clawing at me, I want you so needy and desperate that tears fill your eyes, I want you to not even be able to see anyone else in the room because all you see is me,” Declan whispered.
I stared at him. Really looked. Because Declan was being vulnerable with me. He was telling me his greatest wish. He was asking me to grant it.
It filled my heart to bursting to know that he loved me that much. So, I nodded. “Okay.” Somehow, I would give that to him.
He smiled softly and dragged a hand down my arm. “Now,” he cleared his throat, “Ryan said you had another coin.”
I reached into my cleavage, causing Declan to moan. “Really? You had to keep it there?”
I giggled, “Making you rethink your requirements?” I pushed up the girls so he could get a better view. One of my nipples popped into sight.
“Uh,” Declan reverted to grunts, his eyes dilating as he reached to tweak it.
“Nope, I’m not desperate yet,” I tucked myself back into the dress. Now that I knew how much he really wanted our first time alone to be special, I wasn’t going to let it randomly happen. Instead, I grabbed the coin and handed it to him. It was still warm from my skin.
Declan took disappointment better than I expected, but perhaps his submissive side was used to being told ‘no.’ He grabbed the coin from my hand. “It’s exactly like the other one.”
“Yes. Donaloo, the wizard, gave it to me. And said something about failure being the price we pay for success.”
“Donaloo?” Declan’s eyes went wide. “He’s a legend!”
“Well, he’s also only half-there.” I wound a finger around my head in a ‘crazy’ motion. “He may or may not be coming to help us with the dragon.”
“This is amazing!” Declan’s face lit up.
“I might be slightly offended over you getting more excited about a half-crazed wizard than sex with me,” I said.
“Peace, he could help us.”
“I realize that. It’s why I asked for his help.”
“He’s nearly three-hundred-years old,” Declan said, suddenly standing and dumping me off his lap. “Oh, sorry! I wasn’t—”
I laughed, “It’s fine. I realized scholar Declan had come out when I saw your reaction to the name Donaloo. I swear, it’s like you have a separate personality.”
Declan wasn’t listening to me. He was already combing through a pile of books near his bed.
“I don’t know that I looked back far enough in Evaness Treasury History,” Declan muttered aloud. I leaned against his desk and watched bemused, as he paced the room, flipping pages in the book. “Here!” He smacked a page triumphantly with his pointer finger. “I found it!”
I went over to him and peered down at the page. On it was the profile of the woman from the gold coin. “Queen Aubrina.” I looked down at the date. “She lived nearly two hundred years ago.”
“Exactly! I hadn’t found her yet, but I did go through the tax payments from last year. The payment from Aiden and his province was made almost entirely in these coins. They’re in our vault.”
“What does that mean? I can’t punish anyone for their ancestors stealing from the crown,” I shook my head. “Or digging up buried treasure or whatnot.”
Declan bit his lip. “I know. The question becomes, where did he get all these old coins? Doesn’t it seem unlikely that he’d stumble over buried treasure? I mean, his land is smack in the middle of the country… pirates aren’t likely to go there.” Declan started pacing, book in his hands.
Blue fluttered over to me and settled on my shoulder. I patted his wings. “Sunken treasure or a pirate ship seem far more reasonable for the coastal provinces.”
“Sunken treasure!” Declan’s eyes lit up. “That’s an idea.”
“But how would Aiden, or whoever he’s working with, get it?”
Declan shrugged. “If it was in the shallows, a diver could get it. Or magic it up, obviously. They’d need to know the exact location, so divers might still need to be involved. The sea between Sedara and Rasle used to have horrid storms. I did a research project on it for Tutor Mathers once. One of every six or so ships would end up sunk. Quite nasty. I bet there’s a ton of coins down there.” He tapped his lip and paced again.
“But,” I tilted my head and said, “let’s say you’re an incredibly magical person who could control a djinni and a dragon. Wouldn’t you be powerful enough to just create coins? Modern coins?”
“Dammit!” Declan slammed a hand into his bedpost and marched over to his desk. He put a tic mark on the edge of the parchment. But then he ripped the parchment and handed the sliver with the mark to me. “Keep that. Sarding hell! Your version makes more sense. Why the hell would someone powerful use old coins that weren’t just lying around? It would be stupid. Too much work. Harder than minting them.”
“Sorry,” I shrugged, worrying the little parchment into a twist. “I just … I feel like we’re missing something big. And I don’t know what it is.”
“I feel it too,” Declan said. His look was pure anguish. “I hate that I’m missing something because whatever it is, Avia’s the one who ends up hurt.”
I knew he’d been close to Avia when we were growing up. The sad brokenness of his tone mirrored how I felt inside, shredded at the thought of Avia getting hurt. Of Avia being tormented. Even if mother had stolen Avia from her family whoever had taken her … they hadn’t taken my sister gently. They’d sent a dragon to terrorize her.
I slid my arm around Declan’s waist, flicked my hand to send Blue flying off, and then I hugged my knight. “We’ll find her,” I promised.
“We better,” Declan’s voice grew bitter. “I don’t want my damned mother barging in on this.”
“Connor told you?”
“We always tell Quinn everything, so he can spread the word quickly,” Declan said. “I just … I need to figure this out, Bloss. We need to get her back. We’re Avia’s family. Blood or not, kidnapping or not, you and I …” he leaned away and met my eyes as he whispered, “you and I are her family.”
I nodded, fighting tears. My stomach felt sick with the thought that it had been days since she’d been taken. “I know.”
The problem was … we were at an impasse. “Everything about Avia’s kidnapping just doesn’t make sense. I mean, who in the seven kingdoms would want to steal her?”
Declan pulled me in harder. “Her family wo
uld. Whoever Queen Gela took Avia from. The problem is, we don’t know who that is.”
And that was the question we needed to answer.
Chapter Sixteen
Connor collected me from Declan’s room when his meeting was done.
Declan and I had sunk into his books, flipping pages, listless and desperate for answers at the same time.
When Connor saw us, he said, “Enough! Declan, Ryan wants to go over some unusual activity near the border with you so get your figures for troops from the last flyover together. Bloss, come on, I want to show you something and then I need to update you on the rest of today’s meeting.”
I stood woodenly and followed Connor, who waved Blue backward, shooing the bird until he stayed in Declan’s room.
“Nope. No birds.”
Instead of leading me to his room across the hall, he led me to a secret passage, waving off the guard who tried to follow us.
“Subterfuge, sorry,” he told the guard. Then he leaned in and whispered, “We’ll stay within the walls, but we’re going to the north wing where the duchesses and duke are staying. You can alert the guards in that area.”
Then Connor led me through the passage, shut the door behind us, and shoved me against the wall.
“Connor! What’s going—”
His mouth was on mine in a second, no preamble. He kissed me hard.
Gradually, my shock turned to willingness but the second my tongue moved against his, Connor pulled away.
“I need to show you something,” he whispered.
“Okay.” I was a bit confused by his rapid changes of pace. “A good something?”
“We’ll see. Duchess Malia felt off today. And I want to check on Aiden, obviously,” he ran a hand through his curls, suddenly looking nervous. “I didn’t hit your head when I pushed you against the wall, did I? I’ve just … I’ve always dreamt about doing that.”
A grin lit my face. He was so sarding cute and concerned, running his fingers over the back of my head. The alpha move was definitely out of character.
I grabbed his hand and placed it on my breast, giving him a saucy wink. His playful smile back was adorable.