Prince Taurian: Dragon Ruins Compilation (Return of the Dragons Book 2)

by Rinelle Grey

  It wasn’t until the automatic library doors slid open that he smelled it. A definite scent of dragon. Taurian tried not to be obvious about sniffing the air as he inhaled the scent deeply.

  Fire dragon. He was sure of it. So it was unlikely to be Ultrima.

  It was likely to be the dragon who had sent Karla. The gold eyes she’d mentioned indicated he’d been a fire dragon as well.

  For the first time, his hopes rose just a notch. The possibility of finding another dragon, any other dragon who wasn’t a lightning dragon, lifted his spirits.

  And made him wary.

  He had no idea what had happened in his clan while he’d been asleep. He had no idea how long that had even been, though Karla assured him it must have been at least a hundred years, probably two. In that time, anything could have changed.

  There could have been another breakaway clan. Or Ultrima could have convinced others from Rian clan to join him. Hopefully not, but he couldn’t afford to take anything for granted.

  He strode forwards to catch up with Karla, who had moved ahead as his footsteps slowed, and took her hand.

  The startled look she gave him and the brief scent of desire told him she wasn’t as angry as the glare she gave him and the way she pulled her hand out of his indicated. He wanted to call her on the dissonance, but now wasn’t the time. Not when there was an unknown dragon around.

  “We need to be careful. A dragon has been here.”

  “Ultrima?” Karla demanded, her voice a low hiss.

  Taurian shook his head. “No, a fire dragon. Hopefully an ally. But we can’t be sure, so keep alert.”

  Karla nodded, her lips pressed together. She glanced up at the open doors, hesitating, giving Taurian a chance to move past her and through the doors first.

  A young woman, about Karla’s age, with brown hair falling around her shoulders, looked up from the library counter. Taurian recognised her instantly. She had been here last time, when they’d been followed by Ultrima. He tried not to hold that against her. She worked here. Of course she’d been here.

  She looked past him, noting Karla, then beyond to the empty pathway. Then her eyes switched back to him, and she smiled. “Hi, you must be Taurian.”

  That was when Taurian realised that the library was deserted. Last time there had been at least half a dozen people here. It had been later in the day though, so perhaps it was quieter at this time. The doors hissed closed behind them, and they were alone.

  Taurian’s alertness didn’t abate one bit.

  He should have felt relieved that she knew his name, but Ultrima knew his name too. And after all the surprises he’d had in the last couple of days, nothing relieved the tension in his body. Until he saw his brothers and sisters safe and well, nothing could.

  Or maybe until he mated with Karla.

  No, now wasn’t the time for that thought. He pushed it away. “And you are?” he growled.

  A man stepped out from the door behind the counter, his black hair and gold eyes just like Taurian’s. But his expression as he put a hand on the woman’s shoulder, was distrustful and his posture was decidedly protective.

  “Gretchen, it’s great to see you.” Karla pushed past Taurian, past the counter, ignoring the possible danger in the dragon standing behind her, and gave the woman a hug.

  Gretchen returned her hug, although her eyes didn’t leave Taurian. She looked wary, but something else as well. Excited? Anticipating something?

  Taurian shifted his expression to the man. He was the one he needed to watch. There were a thousand questions he wanted to ask, but first he needed to be sure who they were.

  Everyone stared at each other for a few moments. Karla was the one who broke the silence. “I take it you know about…”

  Taurian was relieved that she trailed off before saying the word. She was being careful, which was a good thing. It was hard though, wanting to find out all the information they needed without giving something.

  “Yes, she knows about the dragons,” the man said. He stepped out from behind the bench, away from the woman, and nodded respectfully to Taurian. “I’m Jayrian. You must be Prince Taurian. I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you.”

  Taurian wanted to trust him. He so badly wanted this to be what he was looking for, and to hear that his entire clan was just waiting for him to appear. But he couldn’t risk it. Not yet. “You are from Rian clan?” he demanded.

  The man opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Gretchen butted in. “You’re awfully rude for a prince.”

  “Shh,” the man said, touching her hand lightly. “It’s okay.”

  She put her hands on her hips and frowned at him. “It’s okay for him to treat you like crap just because he’s a prince? After everything you’ve done for him?”

  The young dragon looked pained. He threw a worried look at Taurian, and tried to shush the woman.

  Even Karla looked at Taurian a little nervously.

  What did they expect him to do? Breathe fire on her? They didn’t know much about dragons, did they? Even the man who was one.

  Taurian couldn’t help but admire the woman’s spirit. He never had liked unwavering flattery. And did he really expect a friend of Karla’s to be deferential? “It’s fine. If we are to trust each other, we need to be able to speak our mind. An honest accusation is better than a false respect.”

  The woman, Gretchen, shot Jayrian a ‘told you so’ look.

  Taurian bit back a smile. “I’m sorry for my distrust. Karla and I have encountered many problems in the last few days.” He let that hang, waiting to see their reaction.

  The woman had been here when Edtrima had been following them and she had done nothing. He thought back to that day, trying to work out if Jayrian’s scent had been there. It would have been overwhelmed by Edtrima’s odour, but he was sure he would have remembered if he’d seen the man.

  Gretchen exchanged a look with Jayrian. “We are aware that Ultrima’s dragons have been following you. We’ve been trying to find a time to approach you, but it hasn’t been easy. I hope they are gone now?” She glanced towards the door as she spoke, as though afraid that Edtrima or Ultrima was still following them.

  “They are gone, for now,” Taurian assured her.

  “How did you lose them?” Jayrian asked, his voice curious.

  Taurian looked at him for a few moments, debating how much to tell him. But if he was, indeed, from Rian clan, then he had no need to keep things from him. If he were from the Trima clan, then he would already know the answer.

  “Apparently Ultrima has told his dragons to back off and leave us alone. At least one of them choose to disobey him, but I don’t think he’ll try that again.”

  His voice must have been a bit ominous on that last sentence, because Gretchen paled a little.

  Karla jumped in to defuse the tension. “So how did you get involved in this, Gretchen?”

  Gretchen looked sideways at Jayrian, and blushed a little. “I’d seen Jayrian at the library a few times, and, well…” she broke off and blushed again.

  Karla’s smile was a little wistful. “You liked him?” She didn’t look in Taurian’s direction.

  Taurian itched to reach out to touch her, to put an arm around her and claim her as his own. But now wasn’t the time. At least, that’s what he told himself.

  Gretchen nodded, still blushing. “He seemed really down one day, Christmas Eve, so I invited him to come spend Christmas at my parent’s place. Ultrima accosted us half way there.”

  Taurian frowned. “Ultrima? What did he want?”

  Jayrian answered. “He knew about the mining at the Dragon Scales, and thought the threat of discovery meant that we would let him into your Mesmer chamber to avoid revealing our existence to the humans.”

  Taurian’s eyes shot up. “Rian clan would never consider such a thing.”

  Gretchen and Jayrian exchanged glances. Their worried look made Taurian angry. “You’re not telling me they did?”

 
; He clenched his fists, and it was only with great effort that he prevented himself berating them more heatedly. He needed to know the whole story before he lashed out at anyone.

  “You have to understand, the last three hundred years have been hard on Rian clan,” Jayrian said gently. “We have been under constant threat from the Trima clan, with little chance of defending ourselves. Every attempt to wake you or any of the other princes or princesses has only resulted in dragon deaths. We were running out of other options.”

  His one speech held so many pieces of information, it took Taurian a few moments to take it all in. Three hundred years! Three hundred years of persecution from the Trima clan. They would pay. But… “My brothers and sisters, they’re still in the Mesmer? They’re still alive?”

  Jayrian bit his lip. “I believe so. No one has seen them, of course, but none of the protections around their Mesmer chambers have been triggered, so there is no reason to believe that anything has happened to them.”

  That information alone was enough to make Taurian’s day. Hell, his century.

  The protection around the Mesmer chambers of each of the princes and princesses had been woven by the clan’s life dragon. He’d never understood how a life dragon’s magic worked, it was so different from his straightforward fire magic. That, you could see and feel. Life dragon magic was sneaky and hard to see, and you never knew where it was until you ran smack bang into it. But it was effective. If the protections hadn’t been triggered, it meant that the Trima clan hadn’t entered and killed them.

  His brothers and sisters had to be still alive.

  He wasn’t alone. Far from it. Even if his clan had, apparently, considered letting him die. That thought stirred up his anger again. He tried to dampen it a little. It had been three hundred years. Three hundred years without any of their princes or princesses. That must have left Rian clan’s defences weak.

  In the end, they hadn’t let him die. “Someone came up with another option though, I take it?” He looked at both Gretchen and Jayrian.

  “Jayrian did,” Gretchen said proudly. “And despite the elders not believing in him, he fought for what he knew was right and convinced them to let a human wake you.”

  Taurian nodded. Using a human was a clever idea. The protections would not stop a human, and a watching Trima dragon would not pay any attention to one. It made sense. Except for one thing. “If the two of you knew each other, why weren’t you the one to wake me?”

  Not that he was upset. The pretty brunette was nice enough, but she didn’t make his blood boil the way Karla did.

  Gretchen blushed. Jayrian put a hand on her shoulder and said, “Gretchen would have done so if there had been no other choice, but the two of us have feelings for each other and Gretchen didn’t feel it was right if there was another option. Luckily, she knew Karla, and since Karla had told her she’d recently broken up with her boyfriend, we felt she would be open to the possibility.”

  “Did you know what was involved?” Karla demanded.

  Gretchen winced at the tone in her voice and bit her lip. “Jayrian explained. He did say that you didn’t have to actually… you know… if you didn’t want to.” She blushed furiously at the words.

  Taurian could see what Jayrian saw in the petite human. Pity he was more attracted to the fire in Karla. Convincing someone like Gretchen would be far easier.

  “You could have given me a heads up!” Karla exclaimed. She smiled to take the sting out of her words, but the expression was forced. “I had no idea what I was walking into.”

  Gretchen smiled back, but with a touch of nervousness. “Would you have believed us if we’d told you?

  Karla stared at her for a moment, then gave a short laugh. “Probably not,” she admitted ruefully.

  “And would you have wanted to miss this adventure?” Gretchen’s smile was more confident now.

  As was Karla’s immediate reply. “Not for a second.”

  He knew she’d slip up and admit she wanted him. Taurian wanted to hug her. But she wasn’t smiling at him. She was sharing a moment with her friend. When she looked over at him, her smile thinned into a line.

  His confidence slipped a little. Was her friend right? Was it the adventure she was revelling in, not him?

  Then he remembered how her body had reacted to him. It couldn’t be just the adventure. Could it?

  “Well, I guess it worked out okay.” Her voice was dismissive. “Anyway, it will all be finished soon, if you really do know where Taurian’s clan is.”

  Gretchen nodded.

  “If you are certain Ultrima is not following you, Rian clan would love to welcome you back to our lair,” Jayrian said.

  Taurian let the excitement of Jayrian’s words fill him and take the sting out of his doubt over Karla’s feelings. He was going home. No, not home, he corrected. This lair wasn’t his home, but he would be with his people, that was what counted. Once they defeated Ultrima for good, they could return to their rightful home. And there was no doubt that they would, just as soon as he had woken his brothers and sisters as well.

  “I can’t leave the library.” Gretchen looked disappointed. “I’ll come as soon as I close up for the day?” Her voice rose on the last words, and she looked at Jayrian, waiting for an answer.

  He smiled sweetly at her. “Of course. I’ll be waiting for you.”

  Karla picked up on the exchange too. “Is there something wrong? If the two of you are involved, wouldn’t it be expected that you will be there?

  Jayrian sighed. “I expect it, certainly, but the rest of the clan isn’t so accepting.”

  “They thought Gretchen should have agreed to wake me?” Taurian guessed.

  “No, they understood that. Respected it even. They just aren’t impressed that I’ve fallen in love with a human. They’re pretty set on dragons not being involved with humans at all,” Jayrian explained. He looked over at Karla, and frowned a little. “In fact, it might be best if just the two of us go.”

  A heavy feeling of uncertainty settled in Taurian’s stomach. The first hint that this was going to be more difficult than he’d imagined. He wasn’t sure which he was more concerned about, having his clan accept and admire Karla as much as he did, or having them accept his rule again after all this time.

  Karla’s expression turned into a definite frown. Then she gave herself a shake. “Jayrian has a good point. You don’t need me now.”

  Taurian felt her slipping away, and the thought caused a jolt of panic. This couldn’t be how it ended. He wasn’t willing to just let Karla walk out of his life. Most certainly not while Ultrima was still around and she could be in danger. Even if she didn’t want to be with him, he owed it to her to protect her. That gave him the perfect opening to say, “The clan will have to accept Karla’s presence. She has helped me over and over again, and has not hesitated to turn her own life upside down to do so. She has earned the right to my clan’s protection and respect. As have her friends and family.”

  Jayrian nodded immediately, though his expression didn’t change. It was clear he wasn’t convinced.

  Taurian didn’t care. If he and Karla did decide that they wanted to mate, then the opinion of his clan wouldn’t matter.

  He was a prince. He made his own decisions.

  Until his brothers and sisters were awake anyway.

  Chapter 39

  A tumult of feelings cascaded through Karla’s mind as Jayrian directed them to where Taurian’s clan had moved their lair. She was relieved Taurian was quiet, not interrupting her thoughts. She didn’t know what to say to him.

  She wasn’t even really sure what she was doing here. Yes, she’d felt a little nervous when Taurian had pointed out that Ultrima would not just leave her alone because Taurian had disappeared, but though it was still disconcerting to think that a dragon might be chasing her, she wasn’t really scared of the Trima dragon. She’d talked to him and knew he could be reasoned with.

  So if she wasn’t motivated by fear, why had
she agreed to come?

  It could simply be that she wanted to see a dragon’s lair. To see Taurian’s family, and be sure that he was safe before she left him. She tried to convince herself of that.

  But she knew it wasn’t the truth. The truth was, she didn’t want this adventure to be over. She didn’t want to return to her normal, adult life, filled with bills and paperwork and red tape.

  Who would?

  Oh, she knew she would have to eventually, but right now, she was going to take this excuse to see one last bit of magic before she had to go. She didn’t need to deny herself that.

  Just as long as she kept her distance from Taurian. That shouldn’t be too difficult in the middle of his clan lair, especially not when dragons didn’t approve of humans. Once Gretchen brought her father, Lisa, and Bruce, it wouldn’t be hard at all.

  Only a day or two now, that’s all she could allow herself. Then this would all be over.

  “Through the trees there,” Jayrian pointed.

  Karla dropped the debate in her mind and steered the car where he indicated, through a gap in the trees.

  Not that they were worthy of the name. Stunted and twisted, they were barely taller than the car.

  “There is a magical protection on the area,” Jayrian explained. “You may see shadows and feel afraid to go on, but I assure you it can’t hurt you.”

  “Are you sure?” Taurian asked sharply.

  “Gretchen made it through with no problems.”

  Taurian nodded. “If you feel uncomfortable continuing at any point, let me know,” he said to Karla.

  Karla took a deep breath. “Shadows and fear, okay, I think I can deal with that.”

  It could hardly be worse than some of the other things she had faced since meeting Taurian. Dragons chasing her had to be worse than shadows, right?

  So she wasn’t surprised when she saw dark shapes sliding through the trees. She ignored them, and kept driving. Then the fear grabbed at her heart with a suddenness that took her breath away. She broke out in a cold sweat, and her hands started trembling.