by Meg Ripley
Her sleepy eyes looked happy as she stretched and stood. “I never thought I would be comfortable sleeping on a rock,” she commented with a yawn. “In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever slept so well in my life.”
Archard smiled. “I know. The bed at your house was comfortable, but in a different way. Now eat up. We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”
“We do?” she asked with a blink.
“Absolutely. We’re going to the royal caves. There’s a lot I want to show you while we’re here, but I want to start there.”
“Whatever you say.”
Three hours later, when they’d made love once again after breakfast and then taken a long hike up the mountain, Archard stopped in front of a massive cave. “I never thought I’d see this place again. I spent so much of my life here.”
Kaylee peered into the darkness inside before retrieving a flashlight from her bag. “How come?”
Archard realized he’d never actually told her much at all about his life on Charok. She only knew that he lived there. “My family has had the honor of being royal guards for as long as anyone can remember. There aren’t any members of the royal line left, but I still feel an obligation to learn about this place and make sure it’s safe. I guess that seems silly, but I can’t help it.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t sound silly to me at all. I understand. I don’t have the same kind of attachment to the archeological digs that I go on, but I still want to see everything from them preserved. It’s something I really love about my job.”
The cave floor was smooth and hard. The winds had only brought a few dry leaves inside, but it appeared to have otherwise remained untouched in the time he’d been gone. “Look at the walls. You have your libraries on Earth, but this is like ours—well, one of them. There are other caves as well, but this one carries everything about the royal family. I’ve spent so much time looking at these walls, I think I practically have them memorized.”
“They’re beautiful,” Kaylee said as she leaned forward to examine them. “You told me about this, but I couldn’t have imagined the detail and the color.”
Archard saw the cave drawings with a new appreciation. She was right. Even though they were drawn on rough rock walls and with limited tools, they were just as impressive as the paintings he’d seen back on Earth. The main difference was how much these meant to him, since they were all about the people he’d spent his life wanting to protect. It left a hole inside him to know that he’d been born too late and had missed the last of the great Kings and Queens. “Can you read them?”
“Yes.” She touched the wall, careful not to put her fingers on the delicate writings. “This section speaks of the birth of a child. It’s so loving; so tender.”
“Some of the birth announcements are a little more boastful than that, but the royals seemed to love their children as more than just the continuation of their line.” He pointed to another section on the other side of the wall. “There are tales of war, peace, and everything in between. They continue the further you go into the cave, and it goes on for miles.” He realized as he spoke that he’d brought the perfect person back to Charok with him. “It’s this part that I’ve always wondered about the most. Maybe you can help.”
“I’ll do my best. What is it?” She traced her flashlight over the wall to the section he indicated.
Archard sighed as he once again studied one of the most recent writings. It was still as old as he was, but so many of the scribes had been eliminated by the Great Curse. “The prophets wrote it here as the War broke out. I asked Lucia about it, and she always just brushed it off as nonsense.”
“The Awakened One shall return when the time is ripe,” Kaylee read easily. “You shall know her by the mark of the Queen.”
“I always hoped that meant there were would be more dragons who would come back here, maybe even with the Awakened One. I don’t know where they’d be coming from, and I can’t say what it means to be an ‘Awakened One,’ but it gave me some hope.” At that time, though, it’d been because he hoped to find his mate. He’d found her now.
“And the mark of the Queen?”
He gestured to the underside of his chin with three fingers. “Three scales, right in a row, and completely clear. It’s a trait that was passed only through the sovereign bloodline.”
Kaylee had turned pale. “Surely, someone else could have that birthmark, right?”
“No. It was passed down through the female line, so it always stayed in the family. Lucia saw it on the Queen herself before she died. Why?”
But Kaylee didn’t answer. She stepped away from the script and headed for the opening to the cave, her flashlight making a circle of light next to her on the floor.
Archard glanced at the wall again before following. When he caught up to her, she was sitting on a small boulder just outside the cave entrance, bending forward and clutching at her stomach. “Are you still stick? Or maybe those berries didn’t sit right with you. You’re not used to eating them.”
“It’s not that.”
Archard’s forehead wrinkled in frustration. Things had been so wonderful only a few minutes ago. “Then please, just tell me what it is. We already know what happens when we don’t talk, and I’d rather we fix this now.” They were fated to be together, and they could get through anything. He knew it.
“I’ll have to show you.” Kaylee took off her backpack and laid it on the ground next to her. Her shoulders shuddered as her wings erupted, and her nose and mouth elongated to the beautiful form of the shimmering green dragon he’d found in the night back on Earth. His hunger for her grew once again to see her in this form, but her eyes remained sad as she turned to look at him. Instead of saying anything, she tipped up her chin and showed him the three crystal clear scales that resided on the soft spot at the top of her throat.
He understood now why she had to show him. “I didn’t see them before, because it was dark,” he mused. “Kaylee, this is incredible! You’re…the Awakened One?” Joy surged through him.
But Kaylee dashed it away as she melted back down to her human form and tears rolled down her cheeks. “It’s news to me, too. I knew there was something strange about my birth. My father only told me that my mother had died here on Charok. I always knew Naomi was my stepmother, but she’s been around since I was a toddler. I didn’t think about it all that much.”
“I don’t understand,” Archard said softly, lowering himself to the ground in front of her so he could look up into her face. “The Queen’s been gone since The Great Curse, and you said you were born on Earth.”
She nodded. “Yes, and there are words hidden in the pictures that go along with that script you showed me. Several of the Queen’s eggs were taken away from this place after she died, but the prophets didn’t know where they’d gone. That’s why they hoped at least one of the dragons born of those eggs would survive and return. According to this,” she gestured angrily at her neck, “I was the one.”
He took her hand, and when she tried to jerk it away from him, she only pulled harder. “I know that must be hard for you, but it doesn’t mean that things are any different. You still have your father and your mother, and you said you always knew you weren’t hers biologically.”
Kaylee slowly pulled away from him, crying harder. “What it does mean is that you only feel what you feel for me because you’re a royal guard.”
“Don’t say that.”
“But it’s true! You said yourself that you have an obligation to protect those of the royal family. You think the way you feel about me has to do with love, but it’s not like that.” She stood up, grabbed her bag, and stalked down the mountain.
Archard watched her go, the pit in his stomach deeper than the deepest gorge on Charok. His job was to protect the family, not to get romantically involved with them. What could he do?
15
Kaylee swiped the tears away from her eyes, but more continued to come, blurring the path in front of her. Archard had
insisted on walking up the mountain so she could see all the details of the place he loved. It would’ve been easier for her to fly off, but she didn’t know where she was going anyway. There was no place there that was special to her. There might have been a reason for her to come, but the truth she’d discovered hadn’t resolved that disconnected feeling she’d had all her life. If anything, it was worse. She knew now that her parents had lied to her, and the one person she thought she belonged with was only driven by a moral obligation passed down from his family.
She heard him behind her, and this time she knew for certain that he wasn’t an ogre. Archard called after her as he clambered down the steep slope. “Kaylee, wait! We should talk about this!”
“I don’t want to talk!” she shouted back, and the effort only made her cry harder. Why hadn’t her father told her the truth about her royal lineage? There was no chance that she would love Naomi any less.
“Just stop, please!”
But she charged on ahead and regretted it only a moment later when the ground disappeared from under her feet. She flung her arms out to catch herself, but her fingers met with only dirt and sand. She was too terrified to even scream for help. The slanted ground beneath her was loose and unforgiving, and as the tears cleared from her eyes, she saw that it ended in a sharp precipice. Kaylee was heading for a cliff, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. This was it. She’d risked everything to perform that spell and come here, and now she was going to fall and kill herself.
But the black figure of Archard appeared once again to pluck her out of danger’s grasp. His claws wrapped around her just as the ground disappeared completely. He brought her back to level ground, all the way up near the royal caves, and let her down roughly. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Killing myself, apparently,” she retorted, embarrassed that she’d once again put herself in physical danger. “I couldn’t see where I was going.”
He huffed as he circled around her. “Even so, you could’ve shifted. That would’ve saved you from the ogre, and it would’ve saved you from that damn cliff.” His scaled lips stretched back slightly in a draconic smile. “I think you’ve spent too much time among humans.”
If he was trying to be cute, Kaylee wasn’t up for it. “Yeah? Then why do you keep helping me, if you think so little of me?”
Archard tilted his spikey head, watching her closely. “I suppose it’s my job, isn’t it?”
“Great, so that’s what this is? I really am nothing more than a job to you? How romantic.” She turned away from him, but that only put her facing the royal cave again. There was no good place to turn.
“Hey! I never said that.”
“You don’t have to, and neither do I. We both know it’s the truth. And it makes perfect sense, really. You’ve lived your whole life waiting for the royals to come back, so of course it would seem like something more than that when we finally did meet. Archard, there are so many implications here that I can’t even keep track of them all.” She felt betrayed on so many levels, even by herself. She’d been a fool not to see that there was a much bigger picture, and she hadn’t bothered to step back and try to see it until now.
“I can’t seem to change your mind,” he finally said quietly. “But at the very least, I’ll still perform my duties.” He remained in dragon form as he lit a fire just inside the entrance to the royal cave and flew off to find them a meal. By the time it was done and he’d implored her to at least eat a little bit, the sky was beginning to grow dark. “We’ll sleep in here,” he said, gesturing to the place that had started all the trouble. “It’s going to be cold tonight.”
“Isn’t there someplace better?” She didn’t want to spend the night near those ancient murals that told of her family history.
“Not close by. Come on.”
She threw bitter daggers when she finally turned to look at him once again. “I don’t want to sleep anywhere near you.”
His tongue flicked over his sharp teeth. “Suit yourself, but I suggest you at least shift. You’ll stay warmer than you will in that.” He nodded at her human body as though it were merely a garment and talked into the cave.
Kaylee rubbed her shoulders, knowing he was right about the weather. She’d been plenty warm the night before, but that had been in the safe confines of his arms. He was probably right about shifting, too, but the last thing she wanted to do was take the form of her ancestors. She headed inside after him, settling down on the complete opposite side of the grotto from the dark dragon and wrapping her jacket tightly around her. It was going to be a long night.
16
In the morning, Kaylee slipped out just before daybreak. She’d hardly slept at all, and there was no point in continuing to try. When she was out of earshot of the cave, she pulled her binder from her backpack. She’d not only taken careful notes when studying Varhan’s spell book, but had also taken numerous pictures and printed them out to copy the pages. It was going to be difficult to find all the different ingredients she needed, especially since she wasn’t familiar with the lay of the land and only had the wizard’s scribbled drawings to show what they looked like, but she would do her best.
She didn’t get far before she heard Archard calling for her. He appeared over the edge of the ridge above her, his pale skin gleaming in the sharp sunlight, bringing his dark hair to more of a contrast. He descended quickly after her, and she could see anger combined with something else in his face. “I’m glad you’re okay. You know how dangerous this place is.”
Kaylee stopped her walk to turn to him. “You don’t have to guard me, Archard. Forget about your job and leave me alone. I’m going back to Earth.”
“You can’t do that,” he responded automatically. “I mean, you showed me that spell, and so did Varhan. It’s not as difficult as the one that got us here, but it’s not exactly simple.”
She glowered at him, pissed that he would once again question her. It had nothing to do with her supposed position as a member of the royal family, but she had a feeling he would treat her like she was incompetent no matter who she was. “I can, and I will.”
“Kaylee…” He put a hand on her arm.
She stepped back. “There’s nothing left here for me. I wish I’d never come.”
“So what are you going to do instead?” he challenged. “You can’t just run away from everything.”
“Why not?” Kaylee threw her arms in the air. “I’ve spent my whole life running towards it all; I just didn’t quite know what direction to run in. Now I can go home, confront my parents about lying to me, and then go off to live my own life somewhere away from other shifters. I don’t want to see my parents or any of the rest of them. I don’t want to see you and your family, either. It’ll only remind me of what a sham my life has been.” She felt tears pricking at her eyelids once again, which only pissed her off more.
“You don’t mean that,” Archard said quietly.
“I do, and you should be happy. You won’t need to worry about your job anymore, at least not when it comes to protecting me. You can stay here and guard your musty old caves, but you won’t have to save me from ogres or catch me before my stupid ass falls over the edge of a cliff.” She turned away, determined to continue her descent and find the necessary herbs.
He wouldn’t let her. His hand latched firmly onto her hips and yanked her back until he held her against his body. His voice was low in her ear. “I understand. It’s got to be so difficult for you. I’ve always known what I was meant to do, and it isn’t fair that your own truth should be hidden for so long. But you can’t just give up on all of it.”
“Archard, I don’t belong anywhere. It’s not something I’m still waiting to find out; I know it. It’s time for me to go.” She pushed away from him, and he let her go. Her skin was cold where it missed his warmth.
“At least let me come with you.”
She paused, considering it. None of this was really his fault, but being near him caused
her such pain now. “No. I don’t want you to feel any obligation toward me. We’ll go our separate ways.”
She felt the hole in her heart grow bigger as his footsteps retreated.
17
Archard would’ve kicked himself all the way up the mountain if he thought it would’ve helped. Why did he have to open his mouth and say such stupid things? Why didn’t he just take her in his arms, kiss her the way she deserved to be kissed, and remind her that they were meant to be together? No, instead he had to crack jokes about how it was his job to be with her, and that wasn’t something any woman wanted to hear.
But as he neared the royal cave again, he knew exactly why. It was because he had his own doubts as soon as she’d revealed her true heritage. How was he to know if the way he felt about her was because she was his fated, or the person he was supposed to protect? How could he distinguish the two, when he knew he would want to protect his mate just as badly as he would want to protect someone of the sovereign family?
He stepped inside the cave and picked up a torch. He’d made them what felt like ages ago now, always keeping a supply on hand for when he wanted to explore the caves. It was easy enough to light, and he passed the prophecy as quickly as he could before descending into the darkness. Archard slowed as he examined portraits of ancient Queens and Kings. They were always shown as dragons, though any official hearings and courts were always held in human form. Many more bodies could fit into a room when they walked on two legs, and it tended to keep things more civilized. At least, that was how it’d been told to him. Archard had never been there for any of it, and he knew for certain that he would never be now.
Continuing on, the torchlight flickered over the lengthy description of a war that lasted for nearly a decade between two rival factions of dragons who had long since reconciled. Then there was a piece about a Queen who bore so many children, she could hardly keep track of their names. Several ribald comments had been scrawled in at some point in time, doubtless long after the Queen in question had died.