by Riley Storm
“Maybe,” Rodney said. “I don’t know what the solution is, but those tent cities are going to be a disaster in a few more weeks. Trust me. There’s got to be two thousand people out there.”
“At least,” she agreed. “And more coming every day.”
Rodney was right though. The dragons would need to do something about it, something to help disperse the crowds, to return some semblance of normalcy to Five Peaks and the people within who hadn’t asked for any of the attention.
I’d tell Trent that, and see if he could get any of his kin to listen, except I can’t because I don’t know where he is.
What she feared most, however, was that Trent wasn’t okay. That he was hurt.
Or worse.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Trent
He reclined in the chair carefully, being cautious of the wounds to his body.
“Okay, um, Trent, is it? What can I help you with?” the woman on the other side of the desk asked, glancing nervously at his condition.
“I’ll be fine,” he grumbled, tired of the attention. “You know what I am.”
At that, the woman sat back. “I suspected. Nobody but one of yours would be as stubborn as to be up and about after whatever happened to you.”
Trent winced, looking away. He didn’t want to think about it. Didn’t want to talk about it either.
“I’ll be fine,” he said grumpily. “Now, do you think you can help me or not?”
“I mean, I can certainly try,” she said. “It’s going to be hard though. Things are rather slim pickings right now with all the, um, uproar.”
“Please, Miss Fitzgerald,” he said. “There’s got to be something out there.”
The woman sighed. “There will be lots. Plenty of people looking to take advantage of the craze and cash in on the massive demand. But there is massive demand, you understand, which means high prices and—”
“I don’t care about the price,” he said, cutting her off rather more brusquely than intended. “Sorry.”
Laura Fitzgerald, real estate agent to the dragons of Five Peaks, waved it off. “You’re tense. And hurting, I would assume. Lord, I don’t even know how you’re on your feet.”
“The legs work fine,” he said, dismissing her criticisms. “You sound like the others. I made it here okay, didn’t I?”
Using the word ‘okay’ was a bit of an exaggeration. Trent had stopped to rest once on the trip down from Mount Atrox. Apparently, his energy reserves will still very low. Two days after the Gate had—
He shook his head, letting the stars that crossed his vision wipe away the thought. That trauma would be dealt with later. This was his priority now. Something he’d had on his mind since just before he’d gotten the phone call in the parking lot.
“What have you got available? As long as it’s not a dump, I’ll pay twice asking.”
“You’re looking at a million dollars for a small older family house then,” Laura pointed out. “Prices have jumped an insane amount.”
“What’s two million get me?” he asked nonchalantly.
Trent had never had anything to spend his treasure on before now. He’d hoarded it, but unlike many of his contemporaries, he’d put it in the hands of a banking whiz from Clan Aterna. Pace Aterna had done wonders with Trent’s money, and he wasn’t afraid to make a splash now if that would speed up the process.
“Nothing.”
He blinked. “What? I thought you said—”
“Right now I have quite literally no listings, Trent. They have all been snapped up. Everything that comes to market sells within a day. I’ve never seen anything like it. Residential, commercial, even the few industrial zoned areas around town are going.”
“When will something else come to market?” he asked, leaning forward gingerly and placing his hand on the table.
The lines where the energy had burst through his scales were still visible, nearly etched into his skin. Black marks that bounced like crazy up his arm, disappearing under the sleeve of his t-shirt, though they reappeared on his neck, up his cheeks, and everywhere else. Trent knew. He’d checked.
They seemed to be healing, but it was taking a long time. Which was probably why Caladin and Kladd, among others, had recommended that Trent spend another two days in bed.
Four days of rest. Forget that. I’ve already spent two days away from Lilly. That’s two days too long. She’s got to be worried sick about me by now.
That was the second reason for him coming to town. He had no way to contact her, having left his phone behind. In the age of cell phones, the memorizing of a phone number was not overly common. Trent had never had reason to memorize Lilly’s number.
But he had a plan on how to fix that.
First, however, he had to buy a house.
“I’m not sure,” Laura said. “Things come and go quickly. I doubt it will be long. How soon do you need it?”
“Immediately,” he said without hesitation. “Tomorrow if possible. I’ll pay whatever necessary.”
Laura sighed. “Not going to happen, Trent…”
He frowned at the way she trailed off.
“What is it?” he asked. “Is it a place I can rent? I’ll take that too.”
“No, those are even harder to come by. You should see the waiting list for a room at the hotel. It’s longer than I am tall. I’m telling you Trent, things are insane right now.”
“You were about to say something,” he said, circling back. “What is it?”
She bit her lip. “I might have a line on a property.”
“I’ll take it,” he said without delay, sitting back in the chair slowly, careful to avoid the burns on his back and side as best he could.
“Can I ask what the urgency is?” Laura said. “Why are you so eager to take a place, sight unseen, and pay so much over asking for it?”
Trent looked away. He didn’t want Laura to see the shame and embarrassment in his eyes. How was he supposed to tell this woman, a mate to a dragon from Clan Teres, that he was trying to prove to his own mate that he was good for her? That he could provide.
Is that really it, though? You already told Lilly that you live up on the mountain. She’s not going to expect you to have a place here in town. So why are you really doing this, hmm?
Trent knew the answer of course. He was just scared to admit it. Scared to admit that he didn’t want to take Lilly to his home. That he was nervous of the reception she would get. Nervous that she would see he wasn’t as good as she thought him.
He could see it in her eyes. She looked at him like he had no flaws. Like he was some sort of perfect person. That was ridiculous of course, because they both knew better. Lilly had seen some of his flaws already. But whenever their eyes met, there was this goodness in them that seemed to come from what she saw in him.
Trent desperately wanted to ensure he did nothing that would remove that glow. That she would always look at him that way. There weren’t words that could encapsulate the way he felt when he looked upon her and saw that shine in her eyes.
It made him feel like, just for that moment at least, that maybe, just maybe, one day he could live up to the potential she saw in him.
“I just need a place,” was what he told Laura, his voice flat.
She eyed him, her disbelief in full view. Still, it wasn’t for Laura to know. Although Trent would treat her with respect, that didn’t mean he was going to tell her everything going on.
“I have a place,” she said quietly. “It’s not on the market yet, but it will be soon. Well, it was up, then they took it down briefly, but now they’re looking to relist. They just haven’t given the word.”
“I’ll take it.”
Laura held up a hand. “It belongs to the mate of someone from Clan Valen.”
Trent frowned. “Why is she selling it?”
Laura sighed. “She lived there with her ex. He cheated on her, and she doesn’t want the memories associated with it now that she’s found her mate.
She’s moving up to the Valen compound to be with Nico there.”
“I’ll take it,” he repeated, feeling a surge of hope. “How soon can they be out?”
Laura shrugged. “At your offering price? Two days, maybe less. From what I gather, she’s mostly been living up there already anyway.”
Two days. He would just have to stall for two days, then he would have somewhere to take Lilly.
Now how am I supposed to stall for two days?
Trent had already put off going to see her so that she wouldn’t see him the way he was. The Gate had killed him, literally. According to Caladin, he’d died on the cavern floor. His body had continued to act as a conductor for the Gate’s energy, his hand literally fused to the grounding rod. He’d left a scale from his palm behind when they’d finally pried him free.
He’d done it though. The Gate had reduced itself in size and was once more acting stably. The dragon clans were still trying to figure out what to do, but for now, arrangements had been made to always have a storm dragon as part of the Gate guard.
Once Trent was healed, he would be expected to return to duty as well. By having a storm dragon there, it was hoped that the energy could be dispersed immediately without being allowed to build to such a deadly intensity.
It was only luck and CPR that had brought Trent back. Nobody wanted that to happen to anyone else.
“Do you need anything else from me?” he asked, making ready to stand.
“Not at this moment. I’ll call Stephanie—that’s the owner—and ask her what she thinks.”
“Great. I’ll pay you whatever you need, just get it done as fast as you can,” he said, standing. “But if there’s nothing else you need from me, then I have somewhere else to be.”
“No,” Laura said, watching him rise, shaking her head. “Not at the moment.”
Extending his left hand—the good one—Trent gave hers a shake. “They weren’t lying when they said you were the best.”
Laura laughed. “Well, thank you.”
Trent nodded then gingerly made his way out of her office, pushing open the transparent glass door. He headed into the reception area then out into the streets of Five Peaks, taking in a deep breath of the fresh mountain air.
That was one task down but, as always, he’d put off the hardest thing until the end.
Now he was going to have to face Lilly. He just had to hope she would forgive him for taking off like that and then not contacting her for two days.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lilly
She was walking through the downtown park outside the town hall, delaying her trip home after work, when her phone rang.
Fumbling frantically at it, she glanced quickly at the screen before answering.
“Hey, Claire,” she said, trying to mask her dejection at the identity of the caller.
“Do you always sound that sad when your best friend calls you?” a deep male voice rumbled.
Lilly jerked upright. “Trent?!” she yelped into the phone, attracting strange looks from several other parkgoers. “Where the hell have you been? Why are you calling from Claire’s phone?”
Her insides went cold as a very terrible thought ran through her.
No. He said I was the only woman he’d ever love. He wouldn’t do that to me…
But Trent hadn’t said that he would never want to sleep with anyone else. Just that he’d never love another. Could he and Claire…?
“You have my phone,” he reminded her. “I, um, I didn’t memorize your number. I used it so infrequently and…well, I wanted to get in touch with you, but you weren’t at the shop, and I had no other way.”
Lilly relaxed. “So you went over to Claire’s and used her phone just to call me?”
“I needed to talk to you,” he said quietly. “I want to see you.”
“I want to see you too,” she was saying before she could think otherwise.
I missed you.
Lilly didn’t say the words, but she hoped her tone conveyed them to him. She wasn’t quite ready to say those things out loud though, not to Trent, not yet. But she’d missed him, and she’d worried about him more than was probably healthy at this stage of…of whatever they were.
“I’d like to take you out for dinner,” he said. “For real, this time. So I can apologize in person, among other things. And…and I’d like to explain to you where I was, and a few other things.”
There was an ominous implication there.
“Is everything okay?” she asked reflexively.
“Yes,” he said with a confidence that made her feel like he wasn’t telling the entire truth.
“Alright. When were you thinking? I can meet you at Climbers in five minutes if you’re sticking around town.”
“Give me ten to get there,” he said.
“I’ll be at the bar.”
“Looking forward to it,” Trent said softly, emotion bleeding through.
What had happened to him? Lilly wasn’t sure, but she could almost feel the change in him through the phone. He sounded somber. More solemn.
“Me too,” she said, hanging up and swinging around to head back the way she’d come from.
Climbers wasn’t far, and with her focus entirely on something else, the short walk passed before she knew it. Lilly sat at the bar, hunched over a drink, wondering just what she was going to hear when Trent walked in.
Is tonight going to end differently than last time?
Although she’d not intended it, after Trent had kissed her in the parking lot, Lilly had begun to have thoughts of where the night might go. That she might end up going home with him.
I certainly am not bringing him to my place anytime soon.
She doubted Claire wanted them to start using her place as a love shack either. They were best friends, but even friendships had limits.
Besides, that would just give Claire the satisfaction of you admitting she was right about you and Trent. That would just make her insufferable. Better to put that off for as long as possible.
So lost was she in her own thoughts that Lilly didn’t hear Trent approaching. Nor did she hear the entire restaurant go silent at his arrival.
“Lilly,” came the soft voice from behind her.
She stiffened and turned, a smile blossoming on her face. “Trent, it’s so good to see you, I—”
Her voice died as she took in his face. And arms.
“What happened?” she gasped, rushing from her chair to stand in front of him. “Oh my god, are you okay?”
He was very clearly in pain, but Lilly couldn’t tell from where. Everywhere might be a good guess, based on the wicked lines across his skin. She looked closer at them.
“Trent, are those burn lines?” she whispered, her hand automatically reaching out to touch his arm.
Trent pulled away sharply before she could make contact.
“I’m sorry,” she said, looking up at him. “Does it hurt?”
“Can we sit?” he said quietly.
He was trying to remain strong, but she could feel it now. The weight of his injuries, the exhaustion under his eyes and, on top of all that, the looks everyone was giving him.
“Patrick,” she said over her shoulder, perhaps more sharply than necessary. “Is there a private booth available?”
There was no response. She turned, knowing full well that Patrick was at the bar. He’d served her drink after all. The manager of Climbers was staring at Trent as well.
“Patrick,” she said, not bothering to hold back this time.
Patrick blinked and focused on her. “Lilly?”
“Private booth. Now,” she said, letting her lips pull back, showing her displeasure.
“Right. Yeah, of course, take any of them.”
She nodded her thanks and then turned her attention back to Trent. “Come on, this way,” she said.
He followed along in her wake. She saw he was moving very gingerly. Despite his obvious injuries, however, he managed to keep up, and not onc
e did he ask her to slow as they went to the back of the restaurant where several booths had been constructed to be as private as possible.
She slid Trent in so that he was facing the back wall and out of sight of everyone, while she kept watch on anyone who might approach. A low hum returned to the restaurant as people resumed their conversations.
“Sorry about that,” she muttered, shaking her. “So rude.
Trent smiled. “I don’t blame them. I look like a freak.”
“That’s a little harsh,” she said. “It’s an unusual injury though. It looks like…”
She frowned, leaning closer to look at his arm and the pattern of the etchings. There was something familiar about the way the lines snaked over his skin, the design that they outlined, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
“Scales,” he supplied, ending her confusion. “It looks like the outline of my scales.”
Lilly sat upright as she suddenly looked at the marks in a new light. “Of course,” she whispered. “Your scales.”
“Yeah,” Trent said, inhaling slowly.
“Trent…” she said slowly. “What happened to you? I haven’t seen you in two days. I was worried that you were hurt or maybe that you had been killed or something.”
Trent smiled wryly. “I did die.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “What?”
He raised a hand to calm her. “For nearly a minute, I was dead. One of the other dragons performed CPR on me, brought me back to life. Barely.”
“Oh, my god. Shouldn’t you be in a hospital then? What if you’ve got other troubles?”
“I’ll be fine,” he said quietly. “I think. I feel better now than I did at first. The bloody thing knocked me out for eleven hours, even after I had my heart restarted.”
“What knocked you out Trent? This wound pattern, what could cause that? I don’t understand?”
“I know,” he said. “There’s no way you would. I don’t even really understand it. I’ll tell you, but that’s going to require some backstory.”
“Backstory to what?” she asked, interested in learning more about Trent. He was an enigma in many ways, though she’d never felt that he’d lied to her. Just that there was so much ‘dragon stuff’ that he kept to himself.