by K.N. Lee
He had a point. Elian mulled over Gavin’s words. Why would Rickard want Rowen if not to bring her to justice in Withrae.
“And, look here,” Gavin said. “Prince Rickard seems to be less angry and more concerned about Rowen. If he was going to bring her back to be executed, why would he ask about Rowen's magic?”
Impressed, Elian chewed and thought. He kept his face clear in an attempt to look as not impressed as possible, but what Gavin had just said was more than he thought the boy capable of.
Gavin continued. “So, here’s what we do. We go back to Withrae in the company of Feyda and Perdan as 'prisoners' because frankly, we’re are out of money and at least Feyda and Perdan will pay our room and board. They will be our free ticket back into Dragon territory, and we will play our part.”
“And, if Feyda and Perdan aren’t intending on returning to Withrae with us?”
“Then we will still have to find our way back to Withrae with all due speed if we hope to get there before Rickard returns with Rowen.”
“What if Rickard comes to the inn first?”
Gavin snorted and leaned back in his chair, a self-satisfied smile on his face. “Rickard still has ships in the harbor. How does I know this? Because I’m not an invalid like the two of you, and I was actually able to hold a civilized conversation with a lovely little lass behind the bar. The presence of the Withraen Navy is both good for business ashore and also controversial in terms of sovereignty for Kabrick.”
His smile faded as he paused. This intrigued Elian. If only he could read his brilliant scribe’s mind.
“If anything, Rickard will take Rowen back to his ships and sail for Withrae. That is…if Rowen is still alive.”
On that thought, silence filled the room. Elian dreaded the idea of what would become of their quest if she was dead.
CHAPTER 13
T he silence that filled the cavern without Rowen’s sweet voice was maddening. She had been gone for far too long. Where did the Red Dragon take her? When they left, Rickard had just been in between dosing and mulling over his next steps. He had to get her away from this cavern, and back to Withrae.
They were on a strict timetable, and had a royal coup to execute.
He paced the cavern and planned his next move. As hours rolled by with worry over Rowen’s whereabouts, he knew what he had to do if she did indeed return.
He needed to tell her why she lost her memory.
After his second nap of the day, he propped himself up on his elbows when the Red Dragon swept into the cavern with Rowen on his back. She carefully lowered herself to the floor with a large clay jug and a woolen sack in her arms. She immediately looked right at him.
“Rick,” she said with an excitement in her voice that he wasn’t used to being directed his way. “You’re awake.”
She crossed the room, a pleasant smile on her face. “How are you feeling?”
Had she forgotten how rude he was to her?
Rickard shrugged. “As well as I, considering.”
She sat on the floor beside him. “Well, I suppose that’s good.”
He noticed that she was soaking wet, and her dress clung to every curve of her body. He tried to avoid staring, but the way it clung to her breasts was distracting.
He cleared his throat and raised his eyes to hers.
“Here,” she said, softly. “Have a drink.”
Rickard pushed himself up and drank from the jug. The water was pleasantly cool and sweet. “Where did you get this from?” He asked, drinking more.
She folded her legs before her and nodded toward the exit. “There’s an amazing oasis in the middle of the Wastelands. You have to see it.”
He cracked a grin. “Maybe you’ll have to take me there sometime.”
Her smile faded, slightly. “I’d like to, but unless you’re going to carry me, I can’t shift on command.”
“About that,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “I know why you are having trouble with your memory.”
“Oh,” she said, her eyes widening.
“You see, no one guided you through your first shift from human to Dragon. I don’t think anyone expected you to be able to. You were never guided through the sacred ritual.”
She shrugged. “I suppose. I can’t remember too much from my past. There are just disorganized flashes that don’t make much sense. So, this could be true.”
“I will guide you,” he said. “I will train you how to shift like a proper shifter.”
The smile that came to her face melted his heart. If he could reach out and pull her into his embrace, he would. With the Red Dragon watching them, he decided against it.
He gasped when she threw her arms around his neck and embraced him on her own accord.
“Thank you, Rick. I can’t think of anything more pleasing,” she whispered into his ear.
I can.
He swallowed, trying his hardest not to dwell on how her full bosom was pressed to his chest. The urge to touch her was too great. He stroked her hair and closed his eyes as her scent filled his senses.
“Of course. Anything for you.”
When she pulled back, he steadied himself against kissing her.
“Is the man well,” the Red Dragon asked.
“I am,” Rickard replied. “And, I have you to thank for my quick recovery.”
“Don’t thank me. Just leave.”
Rickard and Rowen shared a look.
“Ioan,” Rowen said and Rickard figured that was the Red Dragon’s name. She came to her feet and motioned for Rickard to do the same. “Rick has revealed to me why I have lost my memories. It would serve us both if you would allow him to train me and help me recover them.”
“How would it serve me?”
She straightened her wet dress. “I would remember why I came here, and put back the missing pieces to why my blood led me to this very place.”
Ioan stood to his full height which reached the very top of the cavern ceiling. He lowered his head to face both Rickard and Rowen. “Tell me more.”
“It’s quite complicated, really,” Rickard explained. You see, for most shifters, we undergo years of meditation, study, and physical and mental training to combine and control both human and dragon consciousness. Rowen doesn’t have that kind of time.”
“But,” Rowen said, stepping closer to Ioan whose eyes never left Rickard’s face. “You do.”
Rickard didn’t like the way Iona was watching him, but pressed on for Rowen’s sake. He was their only chance. “I propose that you expand time for us so that she can learn what she needs to know in a fraction of the time.”
“Yes,” Rowen said, nodding. “I’ve seen what you can do, Ioan. Please.”
Ioan didn’t reply right away. Instead, he watched them both, thinking. While he thought, Rickard stepped beside Rowen and took her hand into his.
She looked up at him and smiled, and he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
Ioan snorted. “Clever thinking,” he said. “For a human.”
Rickard chuckled. “Perhaps,” he said. “But, I’m not a human. I’m a shifter.”
CHAPTER 14
T he cavern filled with a translucent bubble that rippled and spread from wall to wall.
Time.
Is that what it was supposed to look like?
Ioan had transformed something invisible into something tangible and alluring.
Rickard stood in awe as Ioan opened his wings and blew fire onto the bubble, encasing it with flames.
“Step inside,” he said.
Rickard and Rowen were hand-in-hand as they stepped close to the boundary. The heat of the fire warmed their cheeks and illuminated their faces, and the call of magic ushered them ever closer.
“Inside, time will slow. What would take years, will take seconds. So, keep that in mind. And, do not get too comfortable with the magic. Leave as soon as the task is done.”
Rickard nodded, and looked to Rowen. She seemed anxious, her cheeks flushed and her e
yes widened. It meant the world to him that he was the one given the privilege to train her in this most sacred rite of passage.
Perhaps that was how it was meant to be.
“Are you ready?”
Together, they stepped through the veil of time and for seconds were lost to the world.
Once the ceremony was over, Rickard watched as Rowen shifted into the most beautiful and glorious white and scarlet dragon. Everything about her was perfect. Her wing span, her delicate neck, her shimmering scales, and her silver eyes.
They did it.
Her memories and consciousness were integrating themselves, and soon she would be a full Dragon with all of its advantages. Nervous, he stood aside and allowed her the space she needed to finish the final change. This was the moment he both looked forward to and feared. If it worked, she would remember Lawson the fraud as her beloved. She would also remember how much she hated Rickard, though he were truer than she could imagine.
If she did remember those things, he would deal with it. He was determined to make her fall for him, at all costs.
He smiled as she spun around in a white light than was more beautiful than any transformation he had ever seen.
When she made an abrupt stop and shot a look at him, he knew then.
She remembers everything.
Her eyes glowed and before Rickard could utter a protest, she blew a stream of red fire into his direction.
“You bastard,” she said. “I know who you are and what you’ve done!”
“Listen, Rowen,” Rickard said, holding his hands out before him. This was exactly what he was afraid of. It would take some clever words to get out of this mess. “There is much that you do not know.”
“I know that you tried to have me executed,” she roared as she stepped forward in her Dragon form.
“All I’ve done is try to protect you.”
She ran at him, ready to tear him to pieces. “I know nothing of the sort.”
She blew fire at him and he ducked and rolled out of the way. His heart pumped and adrenaline rushed through his veins as he ran from the cavern toward the exit. She was fast, and now knew how to control her new body and the fire within. Still, he was faster and more experienced, and would not be defeated by his student.
“Get back here, Rickard!”
A gust of warm wind blew into his face as he ran out of the cavern and onto the mountain. The heat of her fire chased him as he did the only thing he could think to do.
He leaped above a formation of stones and jumped off the cliff. As he fell, he shifted into a Dragon and before Rowen could fly after him, he shot into the air and knocked her down with all of his strength.
With a grunt, she returned to her human form and slid into the ground.
He pinned her.
“Enough of this,” he growled down at her as she struggled to free herself from his grasp. “I will not fight you.”
She glared at him. “I hate you,” she hissed.
Those words would have hurt him if he didn’t see something more within her eyes.
“And, I love you, Rowen,” he replied. “Most ardently. Hate me or not, my feelings will not change.”
Her mouth opened to speak, but snapped shut. Instead, her gray eyes searched his for truth.
“Haven’t you figured that out already?” Rickard asked her. “After saving you from the burning ship, did you not wonder why?”
His heart was in his throat as he spoke those words. They were new to him, never having been said to any other woman in all his years. It was as if he’d been saving them just for Rowen, and the fact that she didn’t look at him with hate anymore only quickened the beating of his heart.
Before she could reply, he kissed her mouth, stunning her into submission.
The taste of her mouth was better than he had dreamt. Sweet as the water from the oasis and the coconuts she’d brought back with her. But, the warmth of her body, and the way she looked up at him once he pulled back stirred a desire within.
“You’re being earnest,” Rowen stammered. Her brows furrowed. “Aren’t you?”
Ioan cleared his throat, causing the ground to quake. “Enough of this foolishness,” he said. “You will not disrespect your teacher, Rowen.”
Without breaking their gaze, Rowen nodded. “Sorry, Ioan. I don’t know what came over me.”
Rickard stroked the soft golden curls of hair at her ear with his thumb.
“Now, come back inside,” Ioan said, and turned away from them.
Rickard began to speak when Rowen’s body tensed beneath him. Her eyes widened and and she pushed him off.
Dumbfounded by her strength, Rickard sat on his knees and watched her stand.
“Dear me,” she said, almost breathless. She ran her hands through her hair as something occurred to her. When she looked at him, he was almost afraid of what revelation had come to her.
“Nimah,” she whispered. A smile came to her face. “Nimah—the first Dragon shifter—is my mother!”
“What?”
Rowen turned and ran back into the cavern. “She is the White Dragon,” she shouted.
White Dragon?
Rickard came to his feet and dusted his pants off.
This should be interesting.
CHAPTER 15
T he markings!
Rowen’s face paled and her heart raced as she ran back inside the cave. The chest. It held the answers. Rickard’s words replayed in her mind, but something else shouted at her.
The markings she felt on the side of the chest were familiar, and now, she knew why.
“What are you doing?” Ioan asked as Rowen knelt before the chest and traced the markings.
Tears filled her eyes and a smile came to her face.
“Mother,” she said. “It is you.”
The markings were the same pattern as her mother’s scales. Rowen had traced them countless times during her childhood when her mother would shift and play with her in her Dragon form. She wiped tears from her eyes and turned to Ioan, and a very confused Prince Rickard.
“My mother is either the White Dragon, or related to her,” she said.
Ioan’s eyes widened and he lowered his head down to face Rowen. “What are you saying?”
“It explains why you thought I was your beloved. These scales match my mother’s. She is connected to this one way or another.”
“Remarkable,” Ioan said, and closed his eyes. “Can it be? Can you be the daughter of my beloved?”
Rickard stepped forward. “I think I know the answer to all of this,” he said, and Rowen and Ioan turned their attention to him.
“What do you know?” Ioan asked.
“Well, the answer is back in Withrae.”
Rowen shook her head. “No. You’re not bringing me back to your kingdom just so they can hang me.”
Rickard rolled his eyes and exhaled. He knelt before Rowen and took her hands into his. “I’m going to control my temper and try to explain this one more time,” he said. “If you cannot tell by not that I would do anything to protect you, you are a fool, and I am a greater one for loving you.”
She took her hands back and folder her arms across her chest. “Prove it. Prove to me that you love me, because I know you. I know how good you are with words. I need more than your words right now if I am going to trust you.”
“Fine,” he said, and sat down beside her. It took him a minute to continue, as he seemed to be gathering his thoughts.
Rowen followed his gaze out to the darkening scene outside the cave. If Rickard did indeed love her, it would change everything.
“I set you up,” he said with a sigh.
Rowen frowned. “But, why?”
“I set up Macana to implicate you in Lawson’s death because I needed to get you out of the kingdom. I also needed to set you up to return as an avenging martyr.”
“So, you were behind all of it? Lawson’s death, my arrest, my trial?” She shook her head, seething. “You couldn’t have kn
own that Elian would rescue me.”
He raised a brow. “Couldn’t I?”
She pursed her lips. Sneaky bastard.
“And, I had Feyda find you,” he said. “Shall I go on?”
“Yes,” Rickard said, looking to her. “Because, if I hadn’t Lawson was going to have you killed.”
The color drained from her face and her heart sunk into her gut. Tears were welling in Rickard’s eyes and she couldn’t doubt his honesty if she wanted to, and she wanted to believe he was lying more than anything.
Her voice came out in a croak. “Why?”
Rickard inhaled and looked out to the horizon once again. “Because, as much as you and everyone else in the kingdom was led to believe my older brother was the savior of Withrae, he and my father were plotting to exterminate every half-blood and human in or around the kingdom.”
Ioan snorted. “Damned shifters. Even my race of Dragons learned to give the humans their space. They are not to be underestimated.”
“My father and brother were going to use you as the catalyst for war, destroy the barriers of Draconia, and wage a war on the world.”
Rowen knew then that Rickard was right. Though her heart was broken, it was no longer because the man she thought loved her was dead. It was because he had betrayed her.
She reached for Rickard’s hand, and laced her fingers between his. For the first time, she saw Rickard in a different light. She couldn’t imagine what he’d gone through witnessing his brother’s evil.
“I see now,” Rowen said.
“Yes?” Rickard asked, glancing at her, and down at her hand around his.
“We need to stop King Thorne,” she said with a long sigh. She never considered herself to be the heroic kind of girl. But, this time, she couldn’t stand by. “Before he destroys the world.”