by Ripley, Meg
“It’s not that.”
Archard’s forehead wrinkled in frustration. Things had been so wonderful only a few minutes ago. “Then please, just tell me what it is. We already know what happens when we don’t talk, and I’d rather we fix this now.” They were fated to be together, and they could get through anything. He knew it.
“I’ll have to show you.” Kaylee took off her backpack and laid it on the ground next to her. Her shoulders shuddered as her wings erupted, and her nose and mouth elongated to the beautiful form of the shimmering green dragon he’d found in the night back on Earth. His hunger for her grew once again to see her in this form, but her eyes remained sad as she turned to look at him. Instead of saying anything, she tipped up her chin and showed him the three crystal clear scales that resided on the soft spot at the top of her throat.
He understood now why she had to show him. “I didn’t see them before, because it was dark,” he mused. “Kaylee, this is incredible! You’re…the Awakened One?” Joy surged through him.
But Kaylee dashed it away as she melted back down to her human form and tears rolled down her cheeks. “It’s news to me, too. I knew there was something strange about my birth. My father only told me that my mother had died here on Charok. I always knew Naomi was my stepmother, but she’s been around since I was a toddler. I didn’t think about it all that much.”
“I don’t understand,” Archard said softly, lowering himself to the ground in front of her so he could look up into her face. “The Queen’s been gone since The Great Curse, and you said you were born on Earth.”
She nodded. “Yes, and there are words hidden in the pictures that go along with that script you showed me. Several of the Queen’s eggs were taken away from this place after she died, but the prophets didn’t know where they’d gone. That’s why they hoped at least one of the dragons born of those eggs would survive and return. According to this,” she gestured angrily at her neck, “I was the one.”
He took her hand, and when she tried to jerk it away from him, she only pulled harder. “I know that must be hard for you, but it doesn’t mean that things are any different. You still have your father and your mother, and you said you always knew you weren’t hers biologically.”
Kaylee slowly pulled away from him, crying harder. “What it does mean is that you only feel what you feel for me because you’re a royal guard.”
“Don’t say that.”
“But it’s true! You said yourself that you have an obligation to protect those of the royal family. You think the way you feel about me has to do with love, but it’s not like that.” She stood up, grabbed her bag, and stalked down the mountain.
Archard watched her go, the pit in his stomach deeper than the deepest gorge on Charok. His job was to protect the family, not to get romantically involved with them. What could he do?
15
Kaylee swiped the tears away from her eyes, but more continued to come, blurring the path in front of her. Archard had insisted on walking up the mountain so she could see all the details of the place he loved. It would’ve been easier for her to fly off, but she didn’t know where she was going anyway. There was no place there that was special to her. There might have been a reason for her to come, but the truth she’d discovered hadn’t resolved that disconnected feeling she’d had all her life. If anything, it was worse. She knew now that her parents had lied to her, and the one person she thought she belonged with was only driven by a moral obligation passed down from his family.
She heard him behind her, and this time she knew for certain that he wasn’t an ogre. Archard called after her as he clambered down the steep slope. “Kaylee, wait! We should talk about this!”
“I don’t want to talk!” she shouted back, and the effort only made her cry harder. Why hadn’t her father told her the truth about her royal lineage? There was no chance that she would love Naomi any less.
“Just stop, please!”
But she charged on ahead and regretted it only a moment later when the ground disappeared from under her feet. She flung her arms out to catch herself, but her fingers met with only dirt and sand. She was too terrified to even scream for help. The slanted ground beneath her was loose and unforgiving, and as the tears cleared from her eyes, she saw that it ended in a sharp precipice. Kaylee was heading for a cliff, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. This was it. She’d risked everything to perform that spell and come here, and now she was going to fall and kill herself.
But the black figure of Archard appeared once again to pluck her out of danger’s grasp. His claws wrapped around her just as the ground disappeared completely. He brought her back to level ground, all the way up near the royal caves, and let her down roughly. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Killing myself, apparently,” she retorted, embarrassed that she’d once again put herself in physical danger. “I couldn’t see where I was going.”
He huffed as he circled around her. “Even so, you could’ve shifted. That would’ve saved you from the ogre, and it would’ve saved you from that damn cliff.” His scaled lips stretched back slightly in a draconic smile. “I think you’ve spent too much time among humans.”
If he was trying to be cute, Kaylee wasn’t up for it. “Yeah? Then why do you keep helping me, if you think so little of me?”
Archard tilted his spikey head, watching her closely. “I suppose it’s my job, isn’t it?”
“Great, so that’s what this is? I really am nothing more than a job to you? How romantic.” She turned away from him, but that only put her facing the royal cave again. There was no good place to turn.
“Hey! I never said that.”
“You don’t have to, and neither do I. We both know it’s the truth. And it makes perfect sense, really. You’ve lived your whole life waiting for the royals to come back, so of course it would seem like something more than that when we finally did meet. Archard, there are so many implications here that I can’t even keep track of them all.” She felt betrayed on so many levels, even by herself. She’d been a fool not to see that there was a much bigger picture, and she hadn’t bothered to step back and try to see it until now.
“I can’t seem to change your mind,” he finally said quietly. “But at the very least, I’ll still perform my duties.” He remained in dragon form as he lit a fire just inside the entrance to the royal cave and flew off to find them a meal. By the time it was done and he’d implored her to at least eat a little bit, the sky was beginning to grow dark. “We’ll sleep in here,” he said, gesturing to the place that had started all the trouble. “It’s going to be cold tonight.”
“Isn’t there someplace better?” She didn’t want to spend the night near those ancient murals that told of her family history.
“Not close by. Come on.”
She threw bitter daggers when she finally turned to look at him once again. “I don’t want to sleep anywhere near you.”
His tongue flicked over his sharp teeth. “Suit yourself, but I suggest you at least shift. You’ll stay warmer than you will in that.” He nodded at her human body as though it were merely a garment and talked into the cave.
Kaylee rubbed her shoulders, knowing he was right about the weather. She’d been plenty warm the night before, but that had been in the safe confines of his arms. He was probably right about shifting, too, but the last thing she wanted to do was take the form of her ancestors. She headed inside after him, settling down on the complete opposite side of the grotto from the dark dragon and wrapping her jacket tightly around her. It was going to be a long night.
16
In the morning, Kaylee slipped out just before daybreak. She’d hardly slept at all, and there was no point in continuing to try. When she was out of earshot of the cave, she pulled her binder from her backpack. She’d not only taken careful notes when studying Varhan’s spell book, but had also taken numerous pictures and printed them out to copy the pages. It was going to be difficult to find all the diffe
rent ingredients she needed, especially since she wasn’t familiar with the lay of the land and only had the wizard’s scribbled drawings to show what they looked like, but she would do her best.
She didn’t get far before she heard Archard calling for her. He appeared over the edge of the ridge above her, his pale skin gleaming in the sharp sunlight, bringing his dark hair to more of a contrast. He descended quickly after her, and she could see anger combined with something else in his face. “I’m glad you’re okay. You know how dangerous this place is.”
Kaylee stopped her walk to turn to him. “You don’t have to guard me, Archard. Forget about your job and leave me alone. I’m going back to Earth.”
“You can’t do that,” he responded automatically. “I mean, you showed me that spell, and so did Varhan. It’s not as difficult as the one that got us here, but it’s not exactly simple.”
She glowered at him, pissed that he would once again question her. It had nothing to do with her supposed position as a member of the royal family, but she had a feeling he would treat her like she was incompetent no matter who she was. “I can, and I will.”
“Kaylee…” He put a hand on her arm.
She stepped back. “There’s nothing left here for me. I wish I’d never come.”
“So what are you going to do instead?” he challenged. “You can’t just run away from everything.”
“Why not?” Kaylee threw her arms in the air. “I’ve spent my whole life running towards it all; I just didn’t quite know what direction to run in. Now I can go home, confront my parents about lying to me, and then go off to live my own life somewhere away from other shifters. I don’t want to see my parents or any of the rest of them. I don’t want to see you and your family, either. It’ll only remind me of what a sham my life has been.” She felt tears pricking at her eyelids once again, which only pissed her off more.
“You don’t mean that,” Archard said quietly.
“I do, and you should be happy. You won’t need to worry about your job anymore, at least not when it comes to protecting me. You can stay here and guard your musty old caves, but you won’t have to save me from ogres or catch me before my stupid ass falls over the edge of a cliff.” She turned away, determined to continue her descent and find the necessary herbs.
He wouldn’t let her. His hand latched firmly onto her hips and yanked her back until he held her against his body. His voice was low in her ear. “I understand. It’s got to be so difficult for you. I’ve always known what I was meant to do, and it isn’t fair that your own truth should be hidden for so long. But you can’t just give up on all of it.”
“Archard, I don’t belong anywhere. It’s not something I’m still waiting to find out; I know it. It’s time for me to go.” She pushed away from him, and he let her go. Her skin was cold where it missed his warmth.
“At least let me come with you.”
She paused, considering it. None of this was really his fault, but being near him caused her such pain now. “No. I don’t want you to feel any obligation toward me. We’ll go our separate ways.”
She felt the hole in her heart grow bigger as his footsteps retreated.
17
Archard would’ve kicked himself all the way up the mountain if he thought it would’ve helped. Why did he have to open his mouth and say such stupid things? Why didn’t he just take her in his arms, kiss her the way she deserved to be kissed, and remind her that they were meant to be together? No, instead he had to crack jokes about how it was his job to be with her, and that wasn’t something any woman wanted to hear.
But as he neared the royal cave again, he knew exactly why. It was because he had his own doubts as soon as she’d revealed her true heritage. How was he to know if the way he felt about her was because she was his fated, or the person he was supposed to protect? How could he distinguish the two, when he knew he would want to protect his mate just as badly as he would want to protect someone of the sovereign family?
He stepped inside the cave and picked up a torch. He’d made them what felt like ages ago now, always keeping a supply on hand for when he wanted to explore the caves. It was easy enough to light, and he passed the prophecy as quickly as he could before descending into the darkness. Archard slowed as he examined portraits of ancient Queens and Kings. They were always shown as dragons, though any official hearings and courts were always held in human form. Many more bodies could fit into a room when they walked on two legs, and it tended to keep things more civilized. At least, that was how it’d been told to him. Archard had never been there for any of it, and he knew for certain that he would never be now.
Continuing on, the torchlight flickered over the lengthy description of a war that lasted for nearly a decade between two rival factions of dragons who had long since reconciled. Then there was a piece about a Queen who bore so many children, she could hardly keep track of their names. Several ribald comments had been scrawled in at some point in time, doubtless long after the Queen in question had died.
Archard headed in even deeper. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but Kaylee’s words echoed in his mind. She said she didn’t belong there; that there was nothing left for her on Charok. It made him wonder what could possibly be left for him. He had the caves, but he knew that no one would return to them the way the prophecy predicted. Kaylee had already come, as an heir to the Queen, but she had turned around and left him, too. Was there much point in him protecting this territory any longer? He didn’t even have his family there now.
As he studied a detailed picture of royal guards marching along the bottom of the cave wall, each roaring their wrath for anyone who dared to assault the Queen behind them, he felt like a complete failure. How did the generations before him perform such an impossible task? Were all royals so stubborn? The Queen in the painting was a similar color to Kaylee, a pale green. Her face was proud, yet beautiful. Perhaps Kaylee was just like anyone else of her line. It was her determination, after all, that drove her to always be looking for something more to life. When she let go of that, she was fun and carefree. She had flaws, certainly, but those flaws were part of what he liked about her so much.
No, loved. She’d mentioned that word, even though they hadn’t said it to each other. Archard knew they didn’t have to. He did love her. But how could he love someone when he was supposed to be her servant?
Archard continued to advance into the mountain, finding the older paintings that didn’t have nearly as much care and detail as the newer ones. Instead of being sectioned off, with each piece carrying a central theme, it was more like the graffiti Kaylee had explained to him on Earth. Random pictures and words were recorded wherever the owner felt like putting them. He’d dismissed them as old and worthless, but he was seeing them with new eyes now.
A fat dragon lay on its back, picking bones out of its teeth, and another one was stuck forever between its two forms as it tried to fly off a cliff with the legs of a man still dangling beneath it. But at least someone had been serious at one point, because a poem was scrawled off to the left.
None is safe from the spell we call love.
It haunts him, no matter where he hides.
And if, by chance, he happens to escape,
Then in his heart only misery will abide.
Archard stared at the words. He’d seen them before, but they’d never meant much to him. He never imagined that he would be one to turn away from true love. But did the poet know the dilemma of loving someone who wasn’t meant for him? Did he have any idea what it was like for a man to fall in love with the woman who could be his Queen? Judging by the careful script and the small drawing of a dragon laying with his wings spread around him like a wet blanket, he probably did.
Hell with it. He could be completely wrong, but Archard didn’t care anymore. He couldn’t just give up and let this go. He might not be able to perform the duties of his forefathers, but he’d be damned if he’d let himself be a weak man. Turning back toward the entrance, he ran
until his two feet on the packed sand turned to four, the tips of his wings brushing the roof of the cave. The torch fell and fizzled against the rock wall, and he burst from the cave and into the air.
Kaylee was nowhere on the mountainside. He’d spent far too long poking around in the cave, and there was no telling where she’d gone to get the ingredients for her spell. In his duress, Archard couldn’t even remember what they were. He closed his eyes and spread his wings wide, letting his instincts tell him where to go. He caught an air current that pulled him down to the foothills and over the woods. Damn. She could be anywhere amongst the thick trees, and so could the ogres. He should’ve told her that it wasn’t safe; that at the very least, she could stay on the mountain with him until she was ready to leave.
But a flash of movement caught his eyes. She was there, by the stream. He crashed through the treetops and splashed down into the creek, shaking the cold water from his foot as he shifted back to the form she was more familiar with. Her eyes were red and puffy, and by the way she held her mouth, he knew she was going to send him away again.
“Kaylee, you’ve got to listen to me. I love you. I don’t care if I’m supposed to be a royal guard.”
“But that’s what you’ve always wanted,” she started to argue.
“No! I don’t care about any of that, not in the same way that I did before. It’s a legacy, and it’s one that I’m proud of, but life isn’t the same as it was for the dragons who lived here a generation ago. It’s time that I accepted that. And that even if things hadn’t changed and the Great Curse had never been cast, I still wouldn’t care. I’m supposed to be with you, Kaylee, and I’m going to be, royal guard or not.” He let it all out in one breath, fearing that if he stopped for even one moment, she would find a way to change his mind once again. “You told me to go away, and I Iistened to you because I wanted to make you happy. But I’m not ever going to go away again, because that’s not what makes me happy.”