by Anya Nowlan
“But when!? All the preparations! The gold moon is in two weeks! We will never have time to…“
“Shh, Denna. Calm down. It’ll just be us. And someone from the council to mark the occasion. No need to plan anything big. We can have a party at Emerald Court later,” he soothed, patting her on the shoulder.
Denna seemed to calm down a bit. Ruby thought it was adorable – at least someone was excited for her wedding.
“Well, there are so few of them there now… Whatever you wish, Master Cillian. Will I send George? Do you have any bags? I should get back to cooking, lest you go hungry! Can’t have a malnourished dragon, can we!” she chattered, clapping her hands together at her own little joke.
“I think we’re good, Denna. Just have George set up the bedroom next to mine. I want to give my bride a bit of privacy, if she wishes it,” Cillian said with a wink at Ruby.
She was proud that she didn’t blush this time. Though, yes, she wanted to.
“Oh, she won’t want it for long. No dragon princess ever does,” Denna remarked sagely, before twirling around and disappearing into the castle as quickly as she had appeared.
“Is everyone here so…”
“Exuberant?”
“I was going to say friendly, but that works as well, yes,” Ruby said, attaching the helmet to the seat and fluffing her hair a bit.
“They like to see their dragons happy, that’s all,” Cillian remarked mildly, showing her towards the door.
Making him happy didn’t sound like the worst thing in the world. Perhaps Colorado could be fun after all.
***
Ruby had spent a few days at the keep already, and though it started feeling homier, she was also beginning to get bored. Other than reading a book and lounging on the roof, trying to get a tan in Colorado, there wasn’t much to do. And Cillian, who had been peculiarly scarce as well, was of no use in aiding her. Her stuff had arrived the very next day after they’d got to Emerald Ridge, and from what she could tell, her parents were certain that Colorado was Amish country, and she had to dress the part.
She didn’t even know she owned so many turtleneck sweaters and gray slacks. Cobbling together something out of the pile of clothes that could actually be worn had taken an afternoon, and she wasn’t even particularly picky. The thought had crossed her mind a few times that maybe she was trying a bit harder than usual to impress a certain dragon she knew, but as soon as it came, she made it go away again. No time to be boy-crazy. Not when said boy was ruining her life, sort of.
She was mostly over that by now, but it still stung a little that her voice hadn’t mattered at all in the decision. Was a little bit of respect so much to ask for?
Ruby sighed, curling her legs under her as she read a book on ancient dragonkin medicine that she’d found in one of the many, many living rooms. Most of the text was in some odd, slanted font and in a language she couldn’t pretend to speak (though she spoke Italian, French and a smattering of Latin for her work), but she could certainly understand the pictures. Or most of them, at least.
The entire dragon body was sliced and diced in minute detail on the pictures, and Ruby had learned perhaps even too much about dragon physiology by the time she was halfway through the book. Like, for example, some dragons had two hearts – one in the middle of their throat and one lower in their chest. These dragons tended to have longer necks. Also, dragon mating habits, when in their dragon form, were… brutal and came with spikes, and what she could only assume were some rather painful positions.
She had to wonder if sex in their human form was similar. Ruby grinned to herself a little. Cillian looked like the type who would pull hair and smack a girl around if she asked nicely. Yum.
There you go again. Down, Ruby.
She sighed, flipping through the pages and eyeing the various illustrations. Dragons came in many shapes and sizes, but the only dragon she was interested in was nowhere to be seen. She’d heard him in the corridors a few times, and she was pretty sure that the earthquakelike tremors that shook the house from time to time were just him landing from a flight. It had freaked her out the first time, but Denna had just given her a wistful smile over breakfast and told her how nice it was to have dragons around again. That had been the extent of their communication.
She almost felt… abandoned, for lack of a better word. However, it did give her some time to think, and that she was grateful for. She’d spent her life constantly surrounded by people telling her what to do, where to go and how to think, so being the master of her own domain for a while was a nice change.
Ruby certainly hadn’t had a hard life. Although her father had a bad reputation, and she was sure most of it was well earned, she’d never been subjected to its grittier side. She was Antonio Accardo’s only daughter, and that made her the apple of his and her mother’s eye. She’d been kept and pampered and surrounded by nothing but fluff all her life, and as she grew older, she couldn’t wait to get out of it.
And now, here she was, in her late twenties and still being pushed and pulled by her parents. It embarrassed her that she’d chosen to act out against it so late (wasn’t it something that teenagers were supposed to do?), but in a way, it had been liberating to do something so incredibly stupid that she would have been mortified to hear of it had it been any of her friends. Dumb? Definitely. Worth it? Well, maybe not… Unless she could count being whisked away by a mouthwateringly hot dragon as a bonus, in which case, abso-fucking-lutely.
Ruby was just about to delve deeper into the complex structure of the dragon wing, when Denna scampered into the living room, all smiles and smelling like pie as usual. Cillian had told her that Denna and the other servant, George, were both lizard shifters, and Denna had been more than happy to tell Ruby her life story. Ruby liked the two. They reminded her of her grandma and grandpa, though neither of them could have been more than sixty. They tended the keep and the Greenmeadows, when any were home, and it was obvious they loved doing it.
“Miss Ruby! Master Cillian is waiting for you outside. I think he has a surprise for you! Come quick,” Denna said, beaming happily as a conspiratory smirk clung to her lips.
“Oh? What surprise?” Ruby asked, uncurling herself from the chair and setting the book down.
She looked down at herself, judging the teal shirt and black yoga pants she was wearing, and decided that they would just have to be good enough. If she hadn’t made an impression on him by now, then it was a bit late to worry about her appearance anyway, right?
You’re not trying to impress the dragon. Never mind if he’s the hottest thing within a thousand miles of here. Maybe more, she chided herself, flustered by her body’s continuous lack of cooperation.
Whatever she did, she couldn’t help but get a little bit excited whenever she heard Cillian’s name being mentioned.
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you!” Denna laughed, showing Ruby out.
“Can’t argue with that,” Ruby agreed with a smile and followed her dutifully.
CHAPTER NINE
Cillian
Cillian was uncharacteristically nervous. For a dragon, who made his living keeping a cool head and finding solutions to other people’s problems, he was surprisingly headless in a situation that could determine his personal happiness. The more he thought about it, the sillier it seemed. And every time he decided to pull the plug on his grand scheme to win Ruby’s heart, he’d stop and force himself to sit down and wait it out.
Patience was not a virtue he possessed. He was seated on a red checkered linen tablecloth on a grassy knoll overlooking the vast, expansive dark forests that the keep lorded over. Emerald Court was somewhere down there, just a tiny little spec in the sea of green, its golden roofs glinting in the sunlight. He’d always loved the view from up there. He hoped she would too.
He heard the faint sound of Denna’s voice in the distance, and when he got up to look towards the keep, he saw the little woman waving at him enthusiastically and then skittering off,
probably giggling like a schoolgirl. Ruby’s flame-red hair bounced on her shoulders as she walked across the coiffed lawn towards him, looking a bit taken aback, but still smiling. That was a good sign, right?
He thrust his hands in his pockets in an effort to make his body stop twitching nervously. He wore a white tank that showed off all his tattoos and a pair of ragged, worn jeans over combat boots that had seen better days, and strangely, felt both under and overdressed for the occasion. Brass knuckles hung from his belt as an added touch – a habit he had picked up after getting jumped one too many times. Maybe if he were shirtless, she’d find him more compelling to be around?
Stop faffing about, dammit. It’s just a girl. Get over yourself, he told himself for the umpteenth time.
Still, the thought of undressing didn’t seem entirely bad, especially if he could peel off her clothes as well.
“Hey, stranger,” she called, her plush lips curving with an infectious smile.
He grinned back but toned it down just a little lest he seem like an over-enthused schoolboy out on his first date.
“Evenin’. Thought I’d steal you away for a bit. I feel like we haven’t had a chance to talk since we arrived.” Cillian motioned towards the spread he’d arranged (mostly with Denna’s help).
Apparently his idea of a decent picnic was potato salad, charcuterie, a freshly baked loaf of bread, blackberries and a cool six-pack on ice, and by the look she was giving his offerings, she agreed.
“I hope you haven’t eaten yet,” he said, knowing full well that she hadn’t.
Denna had been in on his plan the whole time – saint of a woman. He’d have to thank his forefathers for hiring her family all those centuries ago. Wooing was so much easier with a good accomplice.
“You’ve gone all out. What’s the occasion?” Ruby asked, taking a seat on the tablecloth and giving an appreciative glance at the breathtaking view before her.
“Just figured we needed to talk a bit, that’s all. I know I sprung the whole marriage thing on you a bit suddenly, and you haven’t really had a chance to ream me for it yet.” Cillian sat down and offered her a bottle of water, but she pointed at the beers instead – a woman after his own heart.
He obliged by tossing one to her. She cracked it open and took a swig. Seeing the liquid glisten on her lips made it nigh impossible to stay seated and not lean over to kiss her. Damn him for having vowed to be a good, well-behaved dragon. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to keep the vow for too long.
“You think I’m going to curse you out for it?”
“I would, I think. I’m not big on other people making decisions for me, and I think you’re not so different,” he said, passing a plate to her and whacking a big scoop of potato salad on his.
He broke off a piece of bread and handed it to her, and when their eyes met, he was relieved to see that he hadn’t managed to blow it yet. Dragons above, he loved it when she looked at him like that. He wasn’t sure what was going on in that pretty little head of hers, but sometimes, her gaze would linger on him and make him feel every bit the daring, impressive savior. Not that he thought she needed saving.
If anything, Ruby Accardo was the kind of woman that a hapless foe would have to be saved from. Cable and the Crimson Fang Riders had just been, for lack of a better term, an unfortunate interlude. He was glad that the ring Cable had given her was still languishing on his coffee table back in Chicago, instead of being here, or even worse, on her. The dragon stone dangled right between her breasts, casting its eerie glow and giving Cillian an unwanted additional reason for staring at her cleavage.
“You’re right,” she finally said, giving him an excuse to look at her.
He liked watching her. Everything she did was thoroughly riveting for him – a fact that further eroded the basis of his argument that the whole fated mates thing was a load of bullshit concocted by bored historians, who wanted to mess with the heads of the younger generations. He had spent the last few days keeping himself as painstakingly far away from Ruby as he possibly could, just to prove that he wasn’t falling madly in love with her and that he could stay away from her if he wanted to.
As was becoming bluntly clear, he’d been completely wrong. Being away from her now that he knew she existed was torture, pure and utter pain. He had a maddening desire to take her down to the hoard, chain her to it, cover her in gold and jewels and fuck her until neither of them could think or walk straight. And then he’d do it all over again. His cock hardened just at the thought of it.
“I am?” he asked, clearing his voice and telling himself to cool it with the mental images. “I mean, of course I am.” He smirked, drawing a smile from her. Good. He liked seeing her smile. “I’m a bit surprised you stuck around, though. I was half-expecting you to make a break for it.”
“The thought crossed my mind a few times,” Ruby replied, buttering the bread.
Her face lit up when she took the first bite. Denna was the best cook this side of the Bible Belt!
“And?”
“And I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
“About staying?” Cillian pressed, feeling like he was sitting on hot coals but choosing to ignore it – dragons weren’t afraid of a bit of heat.
“About you,” Ruby said simply, popping a blueberry in her mouth.
Well, that shut Cillian up for a moment. The Italian mob princess had some sass. He couldn’t say it was surprising, but he enjoyed the reminder.
“So what is it that you do exactly?” Ruby asked after a bit of a lull in the conversation.
The sun was ticking lower and would be setting by the time they were done with dinner, making the scenery that much more romantic. Thinking about it made him curse himself for being such a sap, but hell, victory was reserved for the brave, after all.
“I fix things.”
“What things?”
“Complicated things. I guess you could say I have a bit of a gift.” She looked at him expectantly, and with a sigh, Cillian explained.
It always felt a bit awkward to try and put what he did into words.
“I can sense solutions the way you can smell a good cup of coffee or see something beautiful and appreciate it for what it is. Most of the time, my personal expertise isn’t even really needed and the issue can be fixed with a bit of old-fashioned legwork. But sometimes, I can see solutions where no one else can. It’s a dragon thing. Or, should I say, a Greenmeadow dragon thing. All of us have different traits, my family has this.”
“It’s served you well, it seems,” she noted, looking at the keep.
He glanced in the direction of her gaze, but where she must have seen greatness, he saw a downward spiral – odd how the Greenmeadow magic seemed to work on everything but their own problems.
“You’d think so,” he said, a hint of bitterness clinging to his words like a bad hangover on a good Sunday.
“It hasn’t?” she asked, popping another berry in her mouth.
It was like being tied to a rack and whipped every time he had to watch her lick her lips or bat her lashes or well, do much anything. But the alternative – being away from her – had been ten times worse. So he persevered and filed everything away for a later time, when he could stop judging himself for wanting her so badly.
“Well, yes and no. Yes, because we’re still here. Not many dragon families are these days. But my kind has stood firm. Some here, some back in Ireland. If anything, we’re a stubborn, hard to uproot race of shifters.”
He took a chug from his beer, liking the way the cool drink felt against his always flaming insides.
“And no, because while we’re still here, there’s not much left. By human standards, we’re ridiculously well off. And for at least a good few generations, the Greenmeadows will be okay. But dragons aren’t meant to be just okay. We’re supposed to be so stupendously wealthy that losing a couple of trillion would just be something to discuss over dinner. Vehemently, yes, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I know how it sounds
to anyone other than a dragon, but I swear, it’s a legitimate problem,” he said, grinning a little.
Ruby was wearing an enticing smirk, and a lock of her hair was caressing her cheek. At least she wasn’t laughing out loud at how preposterous his words were. That was more than he could hope for from most humans.
“Is that why you’re a fixer? To deal with the dent in the family coffers?”
“Sort of. Being a fixer won’t make us rich again, but it might stave off becoming destitute for a while. Again, by dragon standards. Us Greenmeadows have never really worked much. Which, of course, is the reason we’re in this predicament now.”
“You haven’t? How’d you get all the, well, everything, then?” she asked, looking honestly interested.
Cillian always felt uncomfortable discussing his awry family, but with her, it seemed almost natural. Like he was talking to a close friend.
“There are different types of dragons, to put it bluntly, some who grew with the times and some who got stuck in how things used to be. Most of the latter group have died out by now, and I have the feeling the Greenmeadows may be among the last few hanging on. While many of the dragon families that are now doing well, have moved into business in one way or another, we never really did. The way we made out fortune is a bit more… old school. You know those tales of dragons safeguarding vast hoards of loot, breathing fire on intruders and generally being a nuisance?”
“Yeah, sure,” Ruby said, quirking a brow at him.
“That’s us. My forefathers guarded the treasures of the old kings, and as kings are oft to do, they died far before the dragons did. And since our allegiances were to the king or their family, there was nothing stopping us from making off with the bounty when the king got dethroned. And we did, for countless centuries.
The problem is, there aren’t that many kings left, and there certainly aren’t any unclaimed caves filled with treasure out there to loot. So we’ve sort of been coasting, basking on top of our piles of gold and waiting for the return of the good old days. I doubt they’re going to return before we run out of fortune, though.”