by Donna Grant
“Good.” After a second, he asked, “Why?”
She tore off a piece of bread and shrugged as she finished chewing. “I never wanted or needed anything like that. It’s partly due to my absent father.”
“Your mum never married?”
“She found that she couldn’t trust men. I remember when I was ten and she went on a date but nothing came of it. Every so often, she would go out with a man, but rarely were there second dates, and never a third. She would tell me it was because she couldn’t trust them. Perhaps if she could’ve put that aside, she might have found some happiness.”
He frowned. “It sounds like she was happy. You made her happy.”
“Yeah.” Faith smiled as she thought of her mother. “She was a strong woman who overcame being left behind with a baby. In every way, she showed me how to be independent and not need a man. She encouraged me to find someone, but she wanted to make sure I was never dependent on anyone but myself.”
“I’m sorry I willna get to meet her.”
“Death is part of life.” Then she remembered who she was talking to. “Well, it’s part of a human’s life.”
“Dragons die. I know death well.”
She lifted the wine glass to her lips and sipped the pinot noir. “My mom was my hero. I saw so many of my friends who defined themselves by the guys they were with. I dated my fair share of men, but no one ever seemed to measure up.”
Until you. She wanted to say the words, but they locked in her throat. Talking about her feelings to a man in such a way wasn’t something she’d ever done before. She was afraid of doing it wrong.
And she really didn’t want to mess this up—whatever “this” was with Dmitri.
His soft smile was just what she needed. “I’m sure your mum was verra proud of you.”
“I miss her terribly.” Faith leaned back, no longer hungry.
His gaze lowered to the floor. “It’s never easy to say good-bye to our family.”
“Never.”
As she looked at him, she understood how much he meant to her. The attraction was inconceivable, and the sex so amazing that she couldn’t even think about it without becoming aroused.
Yet something far more profound joined those things. A word she’d never used with a man before darted through her mind. She was so alarmed, she refused to think about it further.
Whatever continued to draw them together and deepen their bond, she knew she liked it. Very much. But there was also a fear she’d never experienced before, one that had manifested after her mother’s death.
Faith was afraid that Dmitri would leave her as her mother had. It was silly. Everyone died eventually. Well, except for Dragon Kings.
Death would never take Dmitri, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t leave her. She inwardly shook herself because she didn’t like the direction of her thoughts.
She looked up and saw that Dmitri was still lost in thought. “Shall we get to the bones?”
“If you’re ready,” he said as he looked up at her.
She got to her feet. “I’m used to working long hours, remember.”
They stood and walked out of the room. As they made their way toward the stairs, she saw that he carried her jacket.
“It’s rather cool where we’re going,” he said.
She took the jacket and put it on as her excitement grew. When they reached the bottom level, she looked around as they walked into a conservatory.
The array of plants and flowers made her feel as if she’d walked into a jungle—or a fantasy world. Then she saw the large fountain. There was no time to stop and look, but she intended to return later.
She let her fingers glide across the thick foliage until they came to what looked like a wall. Muscles glanced at her, smiling before he touched something and the wall turned into a secret entrance.
At his nod, she stepped through the doorway to find that she was inside the mountain. No wonder it looked as though the manor were part of the mountain—it was.
“This way,” Dmitri said as he took her hand and led her down a lighted tunnel.
Though she saw no electrical wires. She rolled her eyes. Of course, there weren’t any wires. This was Dreagan, the home of Dragon Kings. Magic was used here.
She saw several openings off the tunnel that looked to be smaller caverns. The explorer in her wanted to investigate each of them.
Dmitri stopped when they reached a wider part of the corridor. “Farther down the back entrance to the mountain, the opening is twice as large as the one to the cave on Fair.”
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
“We use—used—it when we were out on patrol or simply spreading our wings. It’s how we came in and out of the manor in dragon form.”
“You will use it again,” she declared.
He squeezed her hand. “I hope you’re right.”
“I am. Trust me,” she said.
His lips softened, which was what she had wanted. He then pointed to the left. “That way is the special cavern we use for mating ceremonies. No one but Dragon Kings and those already mated to us can see it.”
“Oh.” She refused to be disappointed that she wasn’t part of the group. What good would it do anyway? Hadn’t she pushed every man out of her life?
“This way,” Dmitri said, turning her to the right, “is something I do want to show you.”
“Don’t keep me in suspense,” she said with a smile.
He tugged her after him as his strides at up the distance. She hurriedly followed, then came to a jerky halt when she saw what it was he wanted to show her.
Her knees grew weak with delight and a bit of panic because she stood inside a cavern that held a large cage with four silver dragons inside.
“These are Ulrik’s?” she asked in a quiet tone.
“You can talk as loud as you want. It’s dragon magic keeping them asleep. And aye, these are Ulrik’s.”
There was a soft light overhead, spotlighting the cage. She took in the gleaming silver scales and the beasts’ even breathing. They were beautiful and magnificent, but she was glad they slept.
Then it dawned on her. “Ulrik is the only one who has dragons on Earth.”
“That’s right.”
“How often do you come see them?”
“Often. All of us do. They’re a reminder of what we sacrificed, and what we’ll do to one day return our dragons to their rightful home.”
She leaned her head against him. “Can humans and dragons live together?”
“I doona know the answer to that.”
“You have it. Look what happened. It’ll happen again if you bring the dragons back.”
He shrugged. “Con thinks it’ll happen even if we doona.”
She had to admit Con was probably correct. The odds of a woman betraying a King were high, especially with enemies like Ulrik and the Dark.
“There are seven billion people in the world,” Faith said. “We’re running out of room for ourselves. The humans would fight against sharing. I’d love to say it’d be different, but I don’t see it.”
“You’re right. We all know this. It’s why we’ve no’ shown ourselves. We hide and watch as the world is slowly destroyed.”
She turned her head to him. “Because you know we’ll eventually annihilate ourselves?”
“All you have to do is look to the past to see the answer. There are some mortals who recycle and ‘go green,’ but no’ enough to make a difference.”
“That doesn’t even count the animals that have gone extinct because we’ve either hunted them to extinction or destroyed their habitat.”
He nodded slowly. “We only hope there is a world left for us when it is all finished.”
She turned back to the Silvers. “We destroyed your lives and your world. Tell me again why you don’t join Ulrik and be rid of us.”
“Our vow.”
“A promise made before you knew what we were capable of.”
“It’s still an oath.”
; She looked down at their joined hands. “How do you not hate us?”
“There are some Kings at Dreagan who do. They fought their instinct to kill mortals by answering to Con. It is a battle we fight every day.”
“A human wouldn’t.”
“I know.”
She turned away from the dragons to look up at him. “Honor and integrity aren’t really our strong points. We’re explorers and inventors. But you’re right. We destroy without thought of the consequences or how it will affect generations after us.
“We worry about the here and now and let the difficulties our decisions make be the problems of others. Sea levels are already rising. How much longer do we have?”
“That’s hard to say.”
“We deserve whatever we get.”
He touched her face before caressing her cheek to her ear. His fingers ran along the shell. “No’ all of you warrant such a fate. You doona.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I know you,” he whispered right before he kissed her.
Chapter Thirty
Dmitri was aware of everything Faith saw as they walked to a cavern where the skeleton waited. He smiled at her wide eyes and how she softly touched the dragons etched into the tunnel walls.
“This place is amazing,” she whispered in reverence.
He’d always thought so, but it was nice that she saw it that way, as well. It was her outlook on life that gave him hope for humanity.
There were good people out there, but many were too wrapped up in their day-to-day lives to look at what was happening to their world.
“Oh. Look at that one,” she pointed to one of the largest dragons carved into the stone.
“Ulrik did that.”
She stopped walking, her head jerking to him. “Do you think he’ll ever return here?”
“I’d like to think so.”
“As King of Kings?”
“Ulrik is the only one who has a chance of beating Con.” That didn’t necessarily mean that it was what Dmitri wanted. “I wish things could be what they once were.”
She turned her eyes back to the carving. “Whether Con wins or Ulrik does, everything will change.”
“Aye.”
He began to walk away when something caught his attention. Dmitri looked around the tunnel. He heard other Kings talking and moving about.
“What is it?”
He shrugged, unable to find the source because he was sure someone was watching them.
“Come on, Muscles,” Faith teased and tugged on his arm. “I’ve got dragon bones I’m itching to see again.”
He looked back to the entry of the cavern where the Silvers were, but he saw no one. Maybe he was just hyper-vigilant. After everything on Fair Isle, that could very well be the case.
Besides, Dreagan was safeguarded with dragon magic—millions of years of it. No matter how hard MI5 looked, they’d never find their way into the mountain. And no matter how many times the Dark tried, they would never get far onto Dreagan without being killed.
He let go of his worry and gave in to Faith. As soon as they reached the small grotto where the skeleton had been laid out exactly as it had been in the Fair Isle cave, she was immediately focused.
* * *
Another of the Kings had fallen.
Ulrik watched from the shadows as Dmitri and a cute blond walked away. By the way Dmitri acted, touched, talked, and kissed the woman, she was his mate.
Ulrik wondered if Con realized it yet. How many more would take a mortal as a mate? He pitied them because he—better than anyone—knew the treacherous ways of humans.
He might take one as his lover every once in a while, but it was rare. It was why he preferred the company of the Fae in his bed.
Never again would a human get close enough to hurt him the way he’d been hurt before. Because he hadn’t realized how deceitful the mortals truly were, he’d allowed one into his heart and his home.
And in the process, he’d lost everything.
His family, his Silvers, his friends . . . his home. But most of all, he’d lost himself.
The more he returned to Dreagan, the more he hated the mortals. He came to see his Silvers. They had been loyal until the last. The only beings to ever be faithful.
When Dmitri and the woman moved out of sight, Ulrik turned back to his dragons. It was nearly time to unleash them upon the world. Yet they wouldn’t help him in his quest for vengeance against Con.
No, that would only be between the two of them. It was a long time coming. A battle that needed to be fought for everyone involved.
It was time the Kings learned just who Con was and what lengths he would go to in order to get what he wanted. Ulrik knew all of Con’s dirty little secrets.
But right now, that wasn’t who Ulrik needed to concentrate on. Mikkel was the current problem.
There was a loud beep in his head, and then he saw Mikkel standing in his shop. The fact that it had taken several days for this to finally reach Ulrik told him that his uncle had attempted to use magic to prevent him from finding out.
Ulrik smiled as he inwardly laughed. Mikkel’s magic paled in comparison to his.
Then his grin faded when there was another picture that displayed in his mind. It was of a woman. A woman he didn’t recognize.
Ulrik touched the silver bracelet on his wrist and thought of Rhi’s abandoned cabin in Italy. In a blink, he was there. He walked inside to the table where a laptop waited.
He yanked out the chair and sat, his fingers already moving over the keys as he brought up the video feed from the store. Ulrik used magic to alert him anytime someone entered his building be they human, dragon, or Fae.
But he anticipated that someone might try to prevent his cameras from recording, so he’d used magic to block that, as well.
He entered the data from the recorders and searched for the day Mikkel had seen his battle with Asher. It was in the early hours of the following morning that Ulrik found what he was looking for.
Turning up the volume, he listened to his uncle talk to the Druid—about him. Ulrik smiled. He might not know who she was, but he would soon enough.
She was American and owned a pub near enough that she could pay Mikkel a visit. How hard could finding her be? Ulrik captured a screenshot of her and quickly sent it out to his contacts so they could begin the search.
He leaned back with his fingers laced behind his head as he watched her remain behind after Mikkel departed and sit in his chair behind his desk. She didn’t touch anything, simply looked around.
This Druid thought she was strong enough to take him and Con down. That would never happen. There was no magic stronger than dragon magic.
But, obviously, Mikkel believed she could do it. His uncle might think he was a step ahead, but Ulrik couldn’t wait to prove him wrong.
* * *
Faith walked around the now clean dragon skeleton several times. She’d known he was going to be big after seeing Dmitri, but she hadn’t truly understood because half of the body had been buried in the rock and earth.
“Why didn’t the bones disintegrate?” she asked.
Dmitri frowned at her question. “They were protected in the cave.”
“Not protected enough that the ground didn’t take him.”
“It’s rock.”
She gave him a flat look. “You saw for yourself how deeply the bones were buried. How long ago did you send the dragons away?”
“Long enough that the earth could’ve changed numerous time to claim the skeleton.”
Which wasn’t really an answer. Even through the surgical gloves, she could feel how hard the bones still were. She knelt beside the skull and carefully went over every part of it.
With Dmitri using magic to hold it in mid-air and turn it for her, she was able to look at it from all angles.
She then moved down the neck where she paused at the chip in the bone they’d found on Fair. Dmitri was sure it was from a blade, and now wi
th the bones cleaned, she agreed with him.
When she shifted down to the front legs, she saw that one of the claws was broken off and two others chipped. It could be because of the age of the skeleton, but it was better to be sure.
Faith pointed to the talons. “Does this happen?”
“Imagine the talons on an eagle. They doona break. Neither do dragons’.”
It was the way he stared at the talons, the rage barely leashed, that caught her attention. “You think this was done to him.”
“I can no’ imagine any other way for it to happen.”
That wasn’t a good sign. She went back to her examination with Dmitri doing his own on the other side of the skeleton. They were each looking for something different.
When she next looked up, she found Rhys and another man with shamrock green eyes and wheat-colored hair beside him. She gave them a wave and returned to her work.
Just when she thought she wouldn’t find anything else, she saw a nick in a rib bone. Rubbing her finger over it, she felt the smoothness. Time could’ve worn the chip in the bone down, but she realized that wasn’t the case when she felt the sharp edge of the bone cut through her glove and into her skin.
Faith yanked back her hand. Dmitri was by her side instantly. He took her hand in his and removed the glove. Then he put her finger in his mouth and set his tongue against the wound to stop the bleeding.
“I found another bone that could’ve had a blade scrape against it,” she said as her eyes focused on his mouth.
She shivered when he sucked on her finger. His answering grin made her heart race with desire. But to her surprise, Muscles slowly pulled her finger from his mouth and kissed the tip.
“I see it,” he said, nodding to the bone. “I also found something.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“It’s on the spine.”
“Which I can’t see,” she told him.
In answer, he used his magic to lift, and then turn the bones toward her. “There,” he said, pointing to the sixth vertebrae.
She touched the bone, her heart aching as she realized that this was how the dragon had been incapacitated. “They severed his spine.”
“He couldna move, couldna fly,” Dmitri said in a low, dangerous tone.