“Can we not take that literally?” Cora said with obvious disgust. She still clung to Jasper’s shirt, as if she couldn’t’ stand to be away from him.
He wondered if she feared stepping into another trap, or worried about what was going on with him. He tried not to think about his own problems. Whatever was wrong, it would resolve itself. His clan didn’t need to know. The court would only bother the crap out of him with their concern and not solve the issue.
Chapter Fifteen
Cora groggily made her way around the kitchen. It was unfamiliar. Every cabinet held a new surprise, and not what she was looking for. All she wanted was a mug for her morning coffee. Why was it so hard to find a mug?
Her irritation had her slamming the cabinet doors, the resounding bang filling the kitchen and echoing into the living room. Jasper was still asleep. He’d slept through the night after the incident in Grove. Cora had crept into his dreams just to keep an eye on him. When he’d stepped into the burning building, she’d set aside her fears. It was beginning to look like she never should have looked away.
Guilt that his missing eye was to explain for the collapse ate at her. His body might not be responding well to the loss. She worried that it was pouring too many resources into healing, trying to replace what could never be gotten back in a futile attempt to protect itself. If that was the case, it was only making Jasper weaker.
And she’d brought that on him. If she’d moved out of Cal’s way. If she hadn’t chosen to stay. There were so many ifs that could have kept them away from that moment. She didn’t know if she was worthy of what Jasper offered her. She could be his queen, but she didn’t know if she was worthy.
If anything, Cora felt like a failure weighing him down. The longer she stayed, the worse she would make things. If it weren’t for the mate bond tying them together, she might have left. Her love for him was enough. She would do anything to keep Jasper safe, but the mate bond meant that he wouldn’t rest until he chased her down. The last thing Cora wanted was to steal the king from his people.
They needed him.
Without Jasper, Cal would find a way to stake his claim on these mountains. No one wanted that. Cal needed to be stopped. She knew Jasper was trying not to use force, but there had to be a way to keep Cal from crawling back. She was done with him. She was done with running and hiding from him.
No one here in Jasper’s mountains saw her for just her scales or the prestige it would bring the clan. She wasn’t a broodmare to make more little crystal dragons. Eventually, she would have to produce an heir for Jasper because his family ruled these mountains, but the thought didn’t fill her with dread.
If anything, the thought was a ray of hope in her life. It was a little piece of happiness that the future promised her. Her days would be spent by Jasper’s side, in the heart of this family.
Cora wasn’t sure when she’d given herself over to Jasper, but it hadn’t left her empty. He’d given just as much of himself to her, too.
“Is that coffee I smell?” Jasper’s voice carried into the living room and into the kitchen.
Cora turned to find her mate groggily making his way toward her. Once again, he wore nothing but a pair of boxers, and it made her feel like the luckiest woman in the world. Jasper was a sight to behold, a god that walked among men. She couldn’t help but feel a little plain until he took her face in his hands and beamed down at her like she was his world. The way his eye swept over her face, over the line of her lips, and flared with his demon’s hunger, warmed her through and through.
He kissed her gently, lingering like he might push for more. She basked in his presence until he moved to reach for a cup of coffee.
“How are you feeling?” She couldn’t hide her nervousness. They didn’t know what caused his blackout. She didn’t even know where to begin looking.
Jasper arched a brow. “I feel like I need to call a meeting.”
That’s not what Cora expected. Was he ignoring his blackout? She wanted to press the issue and get to the bottom of it, but he found his phone and began tapping away at the screen. Cora didn’t understand why he wasn’t more worried about himself.
But as he retreated to the living room and slowly sank into the couch, she realized he was purposefully ignoring it. Jasper was the king of these mountains, mountains that were under attack. Any sign of weakness would be taken advantage of. If he refused to show that weakness, then Cal would have no way to abuse it.
Cora blazed at the thought. Her skin heated, like a fire in her core was going to explode. Jasper could do nothing for his clan if he didn’t address his problems. What if another blackout took him while they were dealing with Cal again? Then there would be no way to hide the weakness.
Everything is alright. The demon’s voice slipped into her mind, soft and soothing.
She wanted to tell it there was no way to be sure, that it couldn’t know everything. But it was just as much a part of Jasper as Jasper was a part of the beast. She gritted her teeth and waited for an explanation. She deserved one. Or else she would go on worrying.
I have found the culprit and taken care of it.
His assurances told her nothing. As much as Cora knew she should trust her mate, she didn’t want to be blind either. Trust had to go both ways. Jasper and his demon could not expect her to stay silent, to play the part of the perfect wife. He’d said himself that was not what he wanted from her. If he truly trusted her, he would tell her.
You’re not going to like what caused the blackout. I do not want to weigh you down with inconsequential matters.
“Like hell was that inconsequential,” Cora blurted out loud.
“I’m going to assume you’re having a conversation with the demon and not losing your mind back there.”
“He’s absolutely insufferable,” Cora admitted. She stepped around the couch and dropped onto the seat beside her mate.
Jasper’s arm went around her instinctually. Tucked in his warmth, she relaxed a little. It was then that she noticed the buzzing in the air. It was not a real sound, but a vibration of energy. Tension and fear filled every inch of space, quivering in the shadows. The end of this war was quickly approaching and all of Grove could feel it. Cora only wished she could tell how it would end.
She had hope that they would win, that Cal would leave. There was no absolute way to tell the future, though. She was left with the indefinite, the undetermined. And it made her weary.
“I need you to communicate with me,” Cora told her mate. “You said yourself that you don’t want me to be a dragon wife. I can tell you’re more interested in a queen. Well, a queen helps. She knows everything so she can advise her king.”
Jasper set aside his phone. She glimpsed charts and a chat button, realizing he’d been working. Even when the world felt like it would fall on their heads, Jasper was trying to take care of his clan’s finances. Before speaking, he downed the last of his coffee like the caffeine would give him the little bit of life he needed to endure this conversation.
Cora scowled at him, growing impatient.
“I’ll warn you once more. What the demon and I discovered will make you uncomfortable. Are you prepared to deal with that? Or do you trust me to save you the pain?”
Fighting back the urge to gulp, she nodded before realizing that wasn’t an answer at all. “I need you to tell me. No one should be in the dark right now, least of all me.”
He nodded, sagely. “Alright. If you insist, the demon found a curse clinging to me.”
“A curse? Who had time to put a curse on you? None of Cal’s dragons have even touched you lately.” She paused, thinking of the dragons they’d invited from Cal’s clan. Any one of them could have been a spy meant to infiltrate Jasper’s clan.
“It came from you.”
She stopped breathing. The world stopped turning. At least that was the way it felt when her body jerked to a halt. “I didn’t…I never…I wouldn’t.”
Wh
y would Jasper accuse her of such a thing? Cora didn’t hate him. She didn’t want to see Grove destroyed. If anything, she realized she was starting to fall for him. Who was she kidding? Cora loved him. There was no way around it.
Jasper saw the flurry of emotions that must have crossed over her face because he added, “The curse crossed over to me after we made love. It had been placed on you, but when we were that close, the demon had the opportunity to swap it over to me. That way, you wouldn’t have to endure it’s influence anymore.”
“So, you’re saying someone cursed…me?”
His lips pressed into a grim line. She could see regret etched into every line of his face. Guilt tried to sink into her bones, but she shook herself. Someone had cursed her. And Jasper had taken it, borne the weight of it for her.
The missing eye, the blackout. It made more sense now. The curse twisted his fate, made everything that happened to him that much worse. What could have only ended as a single scar when Cal attacked ended as the loss of an eye. In the burning building, a fallen beam hit harder than it should have.
The fire, she realized. The one she’d accidentally started when wildfires should have been nigh impossible.
“Cal had me cursed, but why?” the words were barely more than a slip of air between her lips. She didn’t know how to lend them her voice. She feared what that would mean.
“Perhaps he cursed you in the hopes that you would be so inconvenienced that you would come back to him. If the world outside of his clan was horrible and filled with mishap after mishap, then maybe life with him would seem great by comparison. Witches often sell their spells for profit. He might have found one willing to step into the darker arts to produce a curse for him.”
“I’m going to rip his tongue out,” Cora growled.
“Hold up there, killer.” Jasper laughed, lightening the mood. “Don’t go running into a fight just yet.”
Adrenaline hit her heart. Her head snapped up and she looked to her mate. “Your demon said it was taken care of. What does that mean? Are you just going to endure my curse?”
“First of all,” Jasper said, placing a hand over hers. “It is not your curse. It’s just a curse. Plain and simple. Second, the curse is gone. There’s no need to worry about it anymore.”
She pulled back, confused.
Jasper’s demon filled his eye. The molten gold swirled in it as his face turned stern. “I burned it away,” the demon said.
“I didn’t know that was possible…”
“Anything is possible if I say it is.”
The creature that once inspired fear in her now offered a sense of safety. It was a strange sense, like having a guard dog. There was a wall between her and anything that would seek to harm her. Nothing would get past the demon.
Before she could say anything else, the front door burst open. She wondered why he didn’t bother locking it, but the metallic dragons would probably just break the lock and later buy a new one to replace it. That was probably a lesson Jasper learned firsthand.
When Lilah appeared, Cora quickly snatched a pillow and thrust it over Jasper’s groin. A growl rattled her throat, possessive and sharp. Jasper made a small sound of pain before taking the pillow from her. Cheeks warm with embarrassment, Cora offered a small apology, but Jasper was looking at her with pride.
This was the first time she’d openly claimed him.
While everyone probably assumed that she and Jasper were getting along, Cora had shown no indication of wanting to be his mate. Until now.
He pulled her tight to his body and stole a long kiss. So long that the others were starting to make sounds of discomfort. They cleared their throats and wiggled in their seats. Cora didn’t care, though. All she knew was the heat of Jasper’s lips on her own.
“Okay,” Wyatt grumbled. “You didn’t call us over here this early in the morning to put on a show.”
Jasper pulled back, but didn’t turn to address his court, yet. He stole a moment to stare at her. Cora leaned into him, eating it up. This was her mate. Her man. Her love.
Her king.
He’d lost an eye for her and burned through a curse to save her the torment. She felt a sudden need to step up. What had she offered him in return? It wasn’t a whole lot.
You are enough, the demon whispered in her mind.
“It’s time we get rid of this nuisance once and for all,” Jasper announced.
Chapter Sixteen
He hadn’t told her the whole truth. A pang of guilt struck him, but it could do nothing to him. The little bits of the curse still clinging to him could, though. The things it did seemed inconsequential. Like how he’d reached for the milk and it’d been empty. Or the broken lock on the front door from his irritating family.
All those things could be chalked up to life, plain and simple, but now that he knew the curse was there, he could feel it working. Would it react when he faced Cal? Would it be able to do more than minor inconveniences?
There was no way of knowing. The demon was still working to burn it away, but the process was tiring. He felt the heat inside his head. It was nigh insufferable. At any second, he would keel over, his brain melted. But he couldn’t tell Cora. She believed the curse had been dealt with.
So, he stood beside her as they walked through town like nothing was wrong. The sun was high, and they could not bring the fight to Cal. Not when everyone in Colorado could see the dragons. It would happen at night, when they were hidden by shadows.
Everyone they passed tried not to stare at Jasper, and failed pathetically. He didn’t mind, though. He knew it was the dashing eye patch and scar combo that had people staring. He wished he could step aside and show off his Valkyrie of a mate. Her Nordic blond hair swayed in the cool wind. When she looked over her shoulder to make sure he was following, her pale eyes danced with delight.
It stopped his heart every time.
When she reached back for him to tug him forward, his breath rushed back in a wave of exhilaration. He reached into his pocket and touched the little box he’d swiped before leaving the house. This was a risk. It wasn’t even a calculated risk.
He could send the demon to brush against her mind, gauge what she might think, but then she would be onto him. Cora caught him every time. This wasn’t something he could mess up. He didn’t want to risk her finding out.
Are you finished? he asked his beast. His head was still on fire. He couldn’t chance the curse making a mess of this. Not even in the smallest way.
It needed to be perfect.
Just wait, the creature growled menacingly at him. The demon was doing it’s best, but that wasn’t enough.
So, Jasper continued to follow his mate through town. They checked out all the little shops along Main Street. He came across the mayor and shook hands. It felt weirdly like looking in a mirror. The way people watched, he suspected they felt the same way, as if they were looking at doubles. Jasper was to the shifter community what the mayor was to the government in town.
When they parted ways, Cora led him to a small park in the center square. Trees overhead were attempting to sprout buds, casting a haze of green over everything. People walked their dogs around the perimeter. The small animals would stop and stare at Jasper and Cora, as if they couldn’t decide if the dragon shifters were a threat.
“You’ve been acting distant all day,” Cora noted.
He worried she was on to him. Had he been a shakable man, a nervous sweat would have broken out along his forehead. Actually, he thought he felt a bit of perspiration beginning to bead on his skin. He only had once chance to get this right.
“Are you worried about tonight?”
He let out a breath, thankful that Cora didn’t know what he was about to do. Well, what he was going to do soon. When the conditions were just right.
He’d never been so nervous about anything in his life. Not even the idea of leading a clan of giant dragons frightened him as much as this did.
Get it right.
Jasper stood. He turned toward Cora. When he thought she would look up, she looked down. His stomach turned. He followed her gaze and found the toe of his shoe placed in the middle of a pile of dog poop. She covered her mouth and muffled a laugh.
He groaned, the sound turning into a growl as he stepped away to clean his shoe. Part of him was thankful he hadn’t knelt in the pile of feces, but he was also irritated that the curse was still at work. He felt it flickering like a bunch of vicious fireflies in the back of his mind. They went off, filling his head with warning bells, moments too late.
Pulling the box from his pocket, he stared at it. The little, blue, velvet box had belonged to his mother. Before that, it belonged to his father’s mother. The family heirloom had been passed from wife to wife. He wanted to pass it to Cora, but no moment felt right.
Fear that he would screw this up haunted him. She could still say no. Cora could still decide to leave Grove. That was, perhaps, what terrified him most. He loved her already. She was a part of him that he would never be able to separate himself from. That he would never want to separate himself from.
But her thoughts and feelings were her own. His demon was busy with the last of the curse and could not read her mind to see if she felt the same way. There was a chance that he would go down on one knee and she would back away from him.
What would he do then? Jasper knew that the knowledge of her dismissal would break his heart. To face that kind of pain before heading into a fight with Cal would put him in danger. His head wouldn’t be in the right place.
Tucking the box back into his pocket, he wondered if now was even the right time.
***
Cora wondered what was wrong with her mate. He started the day with confidence, assuring her that the curse had been vanquished. He went on to devise a plan to rid the mountains of Cal once and for all. Now, in the middle of the day, he seemed troubled.
Aurum Court Dragons: Boxset Books 1-5 Page 66