by Imogen Sera
He could hardly believe that she was here, could scarcely believe that she was his. It had felt to him as if some force had been working against them; there was always something keeping them apart. First it was her illness, and he had thought at the time that there could be no worse pain than being able to see her, to know she was his, but unable to speak to her. That was nothing, though, to the agony he’d felt all these months, cherishing her, loving her from afar, but knowing that she was someone else’s. Both were dull compared to the last two weeks he’d spent searching for her, fearing for her life the whole time.
It was worth it though, he thought, if only for this moment. As he looked down at her, she sleepily rubbed her cheek against his palm, then blinked slowly. Her eyes widened as she realized where she was, and then she grinned at him and stretched up to press her lips against his.
“Hi,” she said, smiling prettily at him.
“Hi,” he said, and then, “I love you.”
Her mouth made a circle of surprise as her cheeks turned pink.
He pulled her closer, pressed his lips to the top of her head briefly. “You don’t have to say anything, sweet, I just need you to know that I do.”
She nodded against his chest, and then giggled. He looked down at her with raised eyebrows.
She smiled widely at him, her face burning red. “I’ve never—” she began, ”that’s the first time that I’ve…” she trailed off helplessly.
He watched her expectantly, enjoying the way she laughed and pressed her face into his arm.
She covered her face with her hands, then parted her fingers to see him through them. “Orgasm,” she said, then closed her fingers and lay against him again, her hands still over her face.
“That’s not true,” he chuckled, taking her hands gently in his. “I saw you.”
Maggie groaned and threw her arm across her face. “Oh my God. I knew it.”
“Just for the record,” he teased, “I really enjoyed that.”
“It was your fault,” she said, “you were making me crazy. And I meant the first time with someone, to be clear.”
That made him grin. He leaned to kiss her, holding her close, treasuring her here: warm and solid and real.
“Tell me what happened, Maggie,” he said, “Why did you leave?”
Her face became serious; her brow furrowed. “I will,” she promised. “I’ll tell you everything. But I need your help first.”
.....
It would take two days to arrive in Haverbrook to fetch Maggie’s mother. Maggie had wanted to leave straightaway but Caelian had convinced her that sleep was important, so she’d stubbornly gone directly to sleep and woke him the next morning before the sun was up. She’d expected him to be annoyed at her childish impatience, but the only emotion he showed was faint amusement, and he’d been ready to leave nearly as soon as he was up.
“We’ll… fly?” she asked nervously as she pulled on the pants she’d gotten from Hilda, bending to roll them up around her ankles.
“If that’s alright with you,” he said. “We’ll travel much faster that way.”
She’d agreed after a moment, anxious about it but ignoring her feelings for the sake of her mother.
It had been better than she’d imagined. She didn’t love it, but it was the sort of thing she could become accustomed to. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath as she waited for him to shift into dragon form, and to her relief she found that when he did he was just… Caelian. Different, certainly, a beautiful gray blue and the most massive creature she’d ever seen, but his eyes were full of intelligence and were just her Caelian.
She wasn’t fond of heights so she kept her face pressed against his warm scales for the first portion of the day, one of Caelian’s fur cloaks wrapped tight around her to block the wind from her. Despite that her hands and cheeks were frozen, but he positively radiated heat and it felt so nice that she shifted around in different positions to touch different freezing body parts against him. She enjoyed the day, and when they landed in the late afternoon he insisted that they needed to eat and discuss where to stay that night.
“I thought we could get there tonight?” she asked.
“We could,” he said, “but you said that Bradley always works during the day. I’d rather avoid him if we can, and just fetch your mother and go.”
She nodded, not liking the delay but appreciating the thought. Caelian could rip Bradley apart without any issue, but she didn’t suppose he was the type who took something like that lightly.
They ate together in town, ignoring the bartender talking loudly about rumors of dragon sightings nearby. She sat next to him, never wanting to be further than a few inches away, and he kept his arm tightly around her waist all through dinner. She’d never enjoyed touches from Bradley, which were only ever affectionate in public, and seemed to be a display of ownership. This was something entirely different, though. His arm was warm and comforting, and she knew without a doubt that if she tried to shrug it off he’d accept it with the same easy grace that he accepted everything else.
They flew a little further before stopping for the night, and when he saw her red fingers he insisted on dragging her from shop to shop to find more appropriate cold weather gear. It was quite temperate and pleasant on the ground, but in the air was a different story. Maggie loved watching his expression as he held up different hats next to her face to see what would complement her best. She knew again that she could make a decision and he would accept it, but he seemed to be enjoying looking after her, and it felt nice to be the one being looked after.
They retired for the night, and although she was exhausted after the day she couldn’t keep herself from rubbing against his bare chest, from running her fingers down to the waistband of his pants. She wanted him badly, having spent all day with him but unable to really touch him, and when he licked her thoroughly, until she shook and pushed his face further into her, until she called his name, she had no objections. She tried to reach for him, to pleasure him in the same way, but although he was straining against his pants he removed her hand gently, kissed her deeply and ordered her to rest.
“There’s lots of time for that later, sweet, but I suspect tomorrow will be difficult and you need your rest.”
She laid against him, thoroughly sated, and it took almost no time for her to drift off.
They left early the next morning, after she’d ridden on his fingers and spasmed around them while he’d suckled at her nipples.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Juliette was frightened by the knock on the door. It was clear for Maggie to see, despite the younger woman’s grin upon seeing her friend. She ushered Maggie inside and shut and latched the door before embracing her; Maggie hugged her back, warmly, until she noticed her friend’s pained expression.
Maggie and Caelian had agreed to see her first, hoping to find out any news of Bradley and her mother before encountering them. Caelian stood guard outside, worried that Maggie had been spotted in the town where everyone knew she was missing. Maggie hadn’t expected to see the cowering woman in front of her, almost unrecognizable after only a few weeks.
“You’re hurt?” Maggie asked, standing back, surveying her friend. Juliette’s long sleeved dress covered her from neck to toes, but the hollows of her cheeks were deep and her gaze was guarded.
“Not badly,” she said, but her arms were crossed stiffly over her midsection. “Nothing out of the ordinary. I’ll be fine.”
Maggie’s chest squeezed painfully at her friend’s distress, or rather her lack of distress over her frightful situation. It brought an unpleasant memory to the forefront of her mind. The women had traded stories, one day, about the rare times their husbands had been kind. Romantic, they had both thought. The thought turned Maggie’s stomach now. There was nothing romantic about tiptoeing carefully through life until some pompous pig thought you worthy of an affectionate touch, especially when that touch came from the same hand that had struck you only a da
y earlier.
“What happened?” Maggie asked. “Caelian is here with me, we can keep you safe. Just tell me what happened.”
Juliette nodded, resigned, and slowly sat down. “A cracked rib, I think,” she said, “for speaking out of turn about Elisabeth.”
“What about her?”
“Edward has a friend who wants to marry her.”
Maggie’s eyes widened and her hands covered her mouth. “She’s eleven. That can’t happen.”
Juliette nodded miserably. “I know,” she said, her eyes welling with tears. “I don’t know what to do. I argued with him like I never have before, and in the end all I got was this,” she said, gesturing to her ribs. “I can fight him physically but it makes no difference. He says my sisters are a burden, and if I don’t support this then he’ll cut off Scarlett and Eloise.”
“He’s disgusting.”
Juliette nodded again. “Eloise can find a husband, I’m sure. She’s younger than I’d like, at seventeen, but at least she’ll be taken care of. Scarlett’s pretty, but no one wants a wife who can’t see. Edward would throw her out and I don’t know what she’d have to do to survive. So my choices are to marry off my sister, who’s a child, or throw out my blind sister who has no hope of supporting herself. What am I supposed to do?” She looked up at Maggie pitifully, her chin trembling.
Maggie sat and put a comforting arm around her. “It will be alright,” she promised. “I’ll fix things.”
The trouble was, she didn’t have any idea how.
.....
“Caelian,” Maggie said helplessly, collapsing against him once she was outside again. “We can’t just leave them to this.”
“We can’t take them with us, Maggie. I want to, but we need to get your mother home as quickly as we can. We can’t do that on foot, and we can’t fly with six people.”
Maggie nodded, torn.
“We’ll get your mother to the palace, and then we’ll leave straightaway with help and come sort this out,” Caelian said, his arm winding around Maggie’s waist and pulling her to him. “I know this is hard for you to see, but we can’t be distracted from our original goal, which was rescuing your mother.”
She slumped against him, glad for his support. She knew that what he said made sense, knew that a few days wouldn’t make much of a difference in the lives of the sisters, but everything in her fought against the sensible thing to do. She wanted fire and fury to rain down on the heads of the men of the town, wanted them to pay for their sins with their blood.
Caelian wouldn’t burn the town, she knew, even if she asked him to. He was too good, too kind, too sure that the world was a just place. Maggie was none of those things, but she also knew that asking him to do it wouldn’t be fair. He clearly wanted desperately to please her, and she shouldn’t take him with her down her path of vengeance and venom.
“I’m sorry, sweet,” he murmured to her, “I know how difficult this is for you.”
“You don’t,” she said, but brushed her lips across his knuckles. “Let’s get my mother.”
.....
Maggie’s mind was buzzing with possibilities as they walked down the lane toward Bradley’s house. He should be out of the house during the day, but it was impossible to know if anything had changed in the weeks since she’d left. She supposed she should feel anxious about this, or she would have a month ago, but something about having a big, scorching hot, fire breathing dragon on her arm gave her confidence.
She leaned her head against his shoulder as they walked, and she could feel his eyes on her. They had walked this way one time before, she thought, her wild hair blowing behind her, but that occasion had been much more solemn. Then she had felt as if she were trudging to her grave; now she was marching to her new life.
They paused in front of the big door, and Caelian flashed her an encouraging smile. She knocked on the door, loudly, and a moment later Gerald answered.
“Margaret,” he said, his face flushing. “We’ve been looking—”
“I’m here for my mother,” she said, pushing past him into the house.
She swept up the stairs and down the long corridor, not needing to look back to know that Caelian followed. She paused in front of the small wooden door, ignoring the voices that were becoming louder from the rest of the house, and glanced up at her big companion. For the first time, she allowed herself to feel fear. Would her mother be alright? Would she be alive? She pushed the thoughts from her mind and opened the door.
The room was empty. The bed had been stripped, her mural painted over, and aside from the empty furniture the only items in the room were her dozens of letters from Caelian. They were strewn all over, some torn, some crumpled, but every single one removed from its hiding spot.
“Where is she?” she asked, her voice breaking.
Caelian turned from her and left the room, stalking down the corridor back to where the servants had gathered in the main hall. Maggie paused for a moment, taking in the room before she darted after him, and when she found him he had Gerald pinned against the wall, towering over him, murmuring something quietly to him. Caelian’s face was calm but his eyes were blazing in a way that Maggie had never seen before. He radiated raw power, intimidating and magnificent. Maggie shivered slightly despite herself.
Caelian released the man after a minute and turned back to Maggie. He crossed to the front door, opened it, and gestured for her to leave. She did, with him right behind her.
“Let’s get your mother,” he said, his jaw set in anger.
“Where is she?” Maggie asked.
“Apparently he anticipated your coming back for her, so he’s been keeping her with him all the time. He’s forcing you to see him.”
Maggie nodded, trying to ignore Caelian’s clenched fists and blazing eyes, but found herself walking a little further from him than she had been. He stopped in place, suddenly, flexing his hands and shutting his eyes for a moment.
He turned to her. “Maggie, I’m so angry right now. I’m furious. But not at you. Never at you. Please, sweet, you never need to fear me.”
She looked up at him and nodded. “I know,” she said, reaching for his hand. “But knowing and knowing are two different things. Be patient with me.”
“Always.”
They began to walk again, purposefully, toward the small main street along which most businesses were located. “I was hoping to avoid this,” Maggie said, glancing toward Caelian, “but if I have to do it, I’m so glad you’re with me.”
He squeezed her hand.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Caelian’s seething anger and the power that seemed to radiate off of him had proved useful when it came to clearing out the building full of Bradley’s subordinates. There’d been a dozen men working, each at a small desk in a large room, and several growled words from him had sent every one of them from the building without protest. The door to Bradley’s private back room had been locked, but Caelian had been able to shove through it with little difficulty.
Bradley’s face had been buried in a ledger, and surprise hadn’t even registered on his face before Caelian had him off of his feet and up against the wall. Maggie found her mother slumped in the corner of the room, her eyes vacant, clearly thinner than she’d been only two weeks before. Her bare feet were filthy, her dress torn carelessly, and some kind of food was crusted on her chin. Maggie crossed the room to her, ignoring her husband, and hoisted her mother up to sit against the wall.
“Should I kill him?” Caelian asked Maggie, the corner of his mouth quirking upward. “I’d like to kill him.”
Maggie furrowed her brow and studied her husband. Not husband, she reminded herself, but the man who’d convinced her that he was for nearly half her life. She wanted him to die. She was surprised by how strongly she wanted it. His pleading and the piss stain on his pants didn’t inspire pity, as she’d thought they might, but instead further fueled her wrath.
“I don’t know,” she said simply, so Caelian hel
d him in place.
She turned her attention to her mother.
“Mama,” she said quietly, and stroked the gray hair from her mother’s sweaty forehead. “Mama, I’m here.”
Her mother’s blank stare remained unchanged, but her lips curled into a small smile.
“We’ll get you out of here, Mama, but I need you to cooperate. We need you to try to stay calm.”
Maggie moved to touch her mother’s hands and the woman began to tremble violently.
“Shh,” she said, “it’s me, it’s Maggie.”