Heart of the Dove

by Tina St. John

  "What have you done, Mother? Why this? Why now?"

  "Oh, child." Calandra smiled, reaching up to place her palm against Serena's cheek. "I have lived too long. I have seen all my children and their children enter--and leave--this life. I am tired. Living here, on the Outside, is too hard."

  "No," Serena argued. "We were happy, weren't we?"

  "Yes, we were." Calandra nodded. "But it was wrong for me to keep you hidden away in these woods. I told myself it was to protect you, but in my heart, I knew that I did it selfishly. You were all I had left, and I couldn't bear to lose you."

  "You haven't. You wouldn't have, Mother, not ever."

  Rand strode up behind Serena. He put his hand on her shoulder, the warmth of his touch giving her strength as Calandra's fingers began to grow cold against her palm.

  "You were an exceptional child, Serena. And you have grown into an extraordinary woman. I am...so proud of you."

  "Then, why? Why are you leaving me now?"

  "So you will be free, my dear child."

  Serena felt a sob become entangled in her throat. "I will be lost without you, Mother."

  "Oh," Calandra said, more sigh than answer. "You were never lost. You have known your own way all your life. And you have someone else who cares for you. Very deeply, I think."

  "I love her," Rand said, crouching down to bring Serena into the circle of his arm. "I love her more than life itself."

  Serena looked at his tender gaze beside her, so handsome and true. She felt such elation in that moment, yet at the same time her heart was breaking to have to say good-bye to Calandra.

  She gazed down at the bloodless, beautiful face of the Anavrin princess who raised her, and saw that the time was near. Calandra's bright blue eyes were dimming, her lips gone thin and pale.

  "I am ready," she whispered to Serena. The words were dry, a bare croak of sound. "Now go, child. Take the purse of coins I have saved for you, and go...live your life."

  "I love you," Serena told her, bending down to kiss her fair brow. "I will miss you so."

  Calandra drew her hand out of Serena's grasp. Death was coming, Serena realized, understanding that Calandra would spare her the Knowing of its chill touch. Calandra nodded, closing her eyes. Age began a swift march over her slender form. As it advanced toward dust, Rand lovingly cradled Serena's nape in his palm and brought her to him, holding her until it had passed.

  "I'll have that cup now, Greycliff."

  Draec les Nantres stood, battered and bloody, but an arm's length from them. The hem of his dark mantle sifted around his boots, deep crimson against black. He stretched out his hand, waiting for the Chalice.

  "You would want it now, after what you've seen it do here?" Rand asked in clear disbelief. "That cup is cursed, do you ask me."

  "Cursed or nay, it is mine. We had a deal."

  "Aye, we had a deal," Rand agreed, and after a moment, he handed Draec the Chalice. "If that cup is worth so much to you, then have it and good riddance. But I don't think you'll live very long to enjoy it."

  As les Nantres took the Dragon Chalice from Rand, he looked down at the grave wounds he had suffered in his skirmish with de Mortaine's men. He pivoted to the pool behind him and scooped up some of the crystalline water. "One sip from the Chalice to restore you," he said, quoting Calandra's own words to Silas as he had taken his fateful second drink.

  Draec lifted the golden cup to his lips. As he did, a breeze off the falls caught the edge of his cloak and threw it open in a tempest of swirling fabric. Serena's eyes widened as she focused on the emblem the knight wore on his tunic. It was a black dragon, rampant and snarling over les Nantres's heart.

  Serena stared at it, transfixed. All the times she heard the legend of the Dragon Chalice, the ending was forever the same: if the treasure came back to Anavrin by trickery, or carried there in a villain's hands, a great and terrible dragon would be unleashed on the land. The dark knight's insignia seemed to grin at her now, as did its wearer, les Nantres's green eyes bright with triumph.

  "Oh, mercy," she whispered, suddenly fearing they might have made a grave mistake to bargain with the man. Could she be looking at the prophesied dragon that would rise to destroy Anavrin? "Rand, something is not right--"

  But Draec was already tipping the Chalice up to his mouth, prepared to take the first swallow. He did not get that chance. There was a sudden whistle of disturbance in the air. Something flew past Serena and Rand, deadly fast.

  It was a dagger, thrown from the first shifter Rand had fought in the glade. The slender knife struck with unerring aim, lodging into Draec les Nantres's chest. He stumbled back, a look of utter shock on his face.

  Rand gave a sudden shout of rage. In a trice, he vaulted to his feet and drew a blade of his own, releasing it with lethal speed. The shifter went down at once, dead before his girth hit the ground, Rand's dagger protruding from its bulky forehead.

  But it was too late for Draec les Nantres.

  Roaring in pain, he tumbled backward into the cascade pool, the Dragon Chalice still clutched in his hand. Together, Serena and Rand dashed to the edge and peered in. The water churned as if it were boiling, white plumes of foam and swirling water nearly obscuring the mercenary and the gilded cup he had held as he fell. She did not think the bolt had killed him, for her vision teased with flashes of movement far below the surface of the pool.

  "I've got to help him," Rand said, but as he started to move, Serena placed a warning hand on his arm.

  A sudden cool breeze had rolled in off the falls. It sifted through the glade like a whisper, and then, silence. All had gone quiet, even the high cliff of rushing water.

  "Good God," Rand gasped.

  The cascade was as clear as glass before them. A transparent veil, it stood between the very real world of the glade and another, one of color and light and a beauty that defied description. And at the distant center of this other realm stood a castle--soaring towers, snapping pennons, and white bricks that glittered so bright they seemed to have been hewn from stars in the heavens.

  "Anavrin," Serena breathed.

  "Amazing," Rand agreed, equally reverent as he took her hand in his.

  The illusion danced just out of their grasp, too distant to touch, yet neither moved to try. Although a part of her belonged to Anavrin, there was still much about this world Serena wanted to experience.

  If only she could do so with Rand at her side.

  As quickly as it appeared, the window on Anavrin was gone. The veil clouded over, then turned once more to the lacy rush of the falls. In the pool below, the water ceased its churning. It calmed, like the glade itself, as the new day stretched pale pink fingers through the trees.

  Rand peered into the clear water of the pool. "God's blood. He's gone--les Nantres is not anywhere in there now."

  Serena glanced around the quiet woods and saw nothing but summer foliage and dew-kissed grass. "They're all gone."

  So they were. The ashes of de Mortaine and Calandra, the three dead shifters--all of them were vanished as if never there at all. Like a terrible nightmare chased away by the light, no traces remained of the confrontation that had occurred in this patch of forest. Serena took a step away from the edge of the pool, and the soft click of coins rang at her feet.

  "Calandra's purse," she said, bending down to retrieve it. The satchel was heavy, more than a lifetime's worth of coin. Generations' worth, Serena acknowledged, accepting Calandra's gift with heartfelt gratitude.

  "It's over," Rand said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "We survived it together. And it's over."

  Serena nodded, but she could not dismiss the truth of all she had discovered these past few days. Her blood ties to Silas de Mortaine were something that would never wash clean, nor would they disappear through any brand of Anavrin magic. She was, and would always be, part of the man who robbed Rand of so much. She would always be the child of his enemy.

  "Rand," she began anxiously, "do you think you can ever forget.
..who I truly am?"

  For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, finally, "No. I cannot ever forget that."

  She slumped a bit, but nodded in silent acceptance. He smiled down at her bowed head, and gently lifted her chin until she was looking him full in the eyes.

  "You," he said, "are Serena of the grove. My sweet dove, the angel who saved me when nothing else could have. You, Serena, are my hope."

  "Then take me away from here now," she whispered, clutching him to her.

  "My love, I would like nothing better." He brought her closer, reveling in the feel of her body pressed against his. "But I fear I have nothing to give you. I have nowhere to take you."

  "That's not true." She pulled out of his embrace to look up at him, and he was moved to see the love shining so brightly in her gaze. "Show me the place where you say the sun lights the ocean to the color of my eyes. Show me the king's court in London, where we'll dine on fine food and rich wine. Or the highlands of Scotland, where we might meet some of your mother's kin. Show me all there is to see beyond the boundaries of this tiny grove, only take me with you."

  Now he was smiling, unable to dim the glow of his own emotion when he was looking at the woman who so fully captured his heart. With Serena's head resting against his chest once more, Rand let himself imagine what might lay ahead of him--a wedding in a small highland chapel; a strong and beautiful bride who bewitched him completely; a deep, enduring love that he never thought he would know.

  "It is a pretty dream," he said, letting his fingers roam over the velvet softness of her skin.

  "Let us live it," she whispered. "Let's go and make it real, right now."

  And as she twined her Knowing hands in his hair and brought him down for her kiss, Rand vowed he would make both their dreams come true. He would give Serena a lifetime of adventure...so long as he had the peace of loving her forever.

  About the Author

  LARA ADRIAN is the New York Times and #1 internationally best-selling author of the Midnight Breed vampire romance series, with more than 2 million books in print in the United States and translations licensed to more than 17 countries. Her books regularly appear in the top spots of all the major bestseller lists including the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Indiebound, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, etc. Her debut title, Kiss of Midnight, was named Borders Books bestselling debut romance of 2007. Later that year, her third title, Midnight Awakening, was named one of Amazon.com’s Top Ten Romances of the Year. Reviewers have called Lara’s books “addictively readable” (Chicago Tribune), “extraordinary” (Fresh Fiction), and “one of the best vampire series on the market” (Romantic Times).

  Writing as TINA ST. JOHN, her historical romances have won numerous awards including the National Readers Choice; Romantic Times Magazine Reviewer’s Choice; Booksellers Best; and many others. She was twice named a Finalist in Romance Writers of America’s RITA Awards, for Best Historical Romance (White Lion’s Lady) and Best Paranormal Romance (Heart of the Hunter). More recently, the 2011 German translation of Heart of the Hunter debuted on Der Spiegel bestseller list.

  With an ancestry stretching back to the Mayflower and the court of King Henry VIII, the author lives with her husband in New England, surrounded by centuries-old graveyards, hip urban comforts, and the endless inspiration of the broody Atlantic Ocean.

  Connect online at:

  www.LaraAdrian.com

  www.MidnightBreedSeries.com

  www.facebook.com/LaraAdrianBooks

  www.twitter.com/lara_adrian

  www.goodreads.com/lara_adrian

  www.pinterest.com/LaraAdrian

  A note from the author

  Dear Reader,

  While you may know me best as the author of the Midnight Breed series--dark, sexy contemporary vampire novels with a gritty, urban fantasy edge--I actually got my start as a published author writing medieval romances. Years before Lucan, Dante, Tegan and the rest of the Order’s warriors first stormed into my imagination with fangs bared and guns blazing, there was Gunnar and Cabal, Griffin, Braedon and a few more dark knights in not-so-shiny armor who’d leapt from my keyboard and into my heart.

  As a midlist author in the late 1990s and early 2000s, my print runs were very small, which meant my books were extremely hard to find in stores, even during their first weeks on sale. And when readers can’t find your books to buy them, small print runs eventually dry up and those books disappear forever. At least, that used to be the case. Now, thanks to the Internet and independent publishing, I’m delighted to have the opportunity to resurrect my original releases and offer them to my readers with beautiful new cover treatments and great indie ebook prices, too!

  Starting with HEART OF THE HUNTER, the first in my Dragon Chalice paranormal medieval series, I will soon be reissuing all seven of my historical romances (written under the name Tina St. John). If you like my Midnight Breed series, I think you’ll find much to enjoy about the Dragon Chalice books in particular. Centered on a quest for a mythical cup forged of dark secrets and hidden powers, the Dragon Chalice series allowed me to infuse my dark medieval romances with the mystique of mythical kingdoms, dark magic and dangerous shapeshifters.

  All of my books, no matter their settings or time periods, feature strong alpha heroes who are dark and dangerous on the outside, but loyal and true when it comes to the woman who eventually scales his forbidding emotional walls and conquers his heart. I’m excited to bring you these long out of print titles from my backlist, and I can’t wait to introduce you to all of the other new characters and stories still to come in my future releases.

  To stay informed of upcoming releases, please visit www.LaraAdrian.com and sign up for my private email newsletter. You can also find me on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LaraAdrianBooks), Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/lara_adrian), Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/lara_adrian) and Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/LaraAdrian).

  Thank you so much for reading my books!

  All best,

  Lara Adrian

  Tina St. John

  If you enjoy dark paranormal romance,

  don’t miss

  HEART OF THE HUNTER

  the first title in the

  award-winning

  Dragon Chalice series

  HEART OF THE HUNTER

  Ariana of Clairmont would risk anything to save her kidnapped brother, a quest she knows is fraught with peril. Her only ally is Braedon le Chasseur, a formidable knight with a mysterious past, whose scarred face and brooding nature mask a soul filled with pain. Ariana fears this dangerous man and the secrets he strives to conceal--but Braedon’s touch is pure seduction, his kiss a potent lure that tempts her into a passion she is powerless to resist.

  Once called The Hunter, now haunted by a dark legacy he struggles to deny, Braedon lives in a world of shadow and isolation--until he is thrust together with an innocent beauty in need of his protection. Embarking on a journey that will lead them to a legendary treasure, Braedon will be forced to confront old enemies and the stunning secret of his true nature--or lose Ariana and the only happiness he has ever known. . . .

  www.LaraAdrian.com

  If you enjoyed

  HEART OF THE HUNTER

  don’t miss the second title in the

  award-winning

  Dragon Chalice series

  HEART OF THE FLAME

  Six months in an enemy’s dungeon might have broken a weaker man, but former Templar knight Kenrick of Clairmont has emerged from imprisonment with an unyielding determination, and consumed with a single daunting quest: to find the Dragon Chalice, a mystical treasure said to grant its bearer unlimited power. It is a dangerous chase, one that pits Kenrick against foes skilled in dark, deadly arts. But no obstacle will prove more treacherous--nor more seductively lethal--than the fiery beauty called Haven.

  Caught up in the battle for the Chalice, Haven survives a night of terror that leaves her wounded and near death. Her memory scorched by fever, Haven aw
akens to find herself in the care of the forbidding, handsome Kenrick, who offers his protection in return for her alliance. A tenuous trust is formed between the two, which soon ignites into a fierce passion neither can deny. But Haven’s memory of her past is slowly beginning to surface, and it will threaten the fragile bond she and Kenrick share--and embroil them in a fight for their very lives. . . .

  www.LaraAdrian.com

  Complete list of titles by

  New York Times & #1 internationally

  best-selling author

  LARA ADRIAN

  Midnight Breed Series

  Kiss of Midnight

  Kiss of Crimson

  Midnight Awakening

  Midnight Rising

  Veil of Midnight

  Ashes of Midnight

  Shades of Midnight

  Taken by Midnight

  Deeper Than Midnight

  A Taste of Midnight (ebook novella)

  Darker After Midnight

  Edge of Dawn (hardcover release 2013)

  NightDrake (ebook novella, reissuing 2012)

  A Glimpse of Darkness (ebook collaborative novella)

  LARA ADRIAN

  writing as TINA ST. JOHN