Open Flame (Dragon's Fate)

by Lacy Danes

  Madoc inclined his head to Catherine. “May you give us a few moments alone, Mrs. Byron?”

  Catherine’s brown eyes widened. “I should not leave my husband’s side.”

  Anger welled in Fina’s stomach. The unpleasant nausea of the fire threatened to overtake her control.

  Madoc stepped closer to her. His spicy-pepper-and-sweet smell floated about her as if he had hugged her himself. Her angry urge eased from her body.

  Concentrate on my feelings. Madoc’s voice threaded through her memory. Anger wound her stomach tight. Fear for her father made her heart pound against her ribs. Gooseflesh washed her arms.

  Indeed, her strength and the love of a powerful, caring man wrapped around her tight. Did he love her? She looked at him, and their gazes met. His lips tipped up in a smile that spoke to her soul. Even if he had never said the word, his love danced in his every touch, word, act.

  She would concentrate on that. Everything she cared about was protected in this moment. The pouches in her mouth eased, and she released a small amount of smoke through her nostrils. “It is all well, Catherine. I am here if Pa needs something, and I know you won’t go far.”

  “Very well. I will go and open the shop. Will you bring your father up to the shop after he finishes his repast?”

  “Of course.” Madoc smiled at her.

  Catherine grasped the brass key from the counter and her brown-and-gray shawl from the back of one of the wooden kitchen chairs. She glanced back once more and then strode down the hall and out the door.

  Fina blew out a breath. “Pa, this is Madoc. He is a good man. He is here to help us.”

  Her father rubbed his chin, and his gray-streaked brown hair slipped over his ear, half covering his eye. “Do we need help, daughter?”

  “I have so much to say. I don’t know where to start.” She glanced at Madoc. “The beginning is best.”

  “Indeed. Always is.” Her father squeezed her hand.

  Fina told him of Madoc. Of him coming to the shop and of meeting him in Paris. She left out the bit about becoming Zir and distance jumping.

  Her father stared at Madoc. “I had not been well for days before you came to the shop those years back.”

  “I should have told you Franco sent me.” Madoc pulled out a chair and sat next to him. “But I didn’t know if you were aware of who Franco was.”

  “Franco.” Her father nodded his head. Then shook it. “A fool with all his mad talk about time. But an excellent watchsmith.”

  “Not a fool. He is a part of time that you know exists. Five ticks verses three.”

  Her father made the tick for both three, then five with his mouth. “I met Franco years ago. His theories challenged my mind. He always believed there was more to time than what I saw. I decided to try to prove his mind either mad or sound. In doing so, I created some of the most beautiful, creative clocks in all of England.”

  Fina squeezed his hand again. “Indeed you have.”

  Madoc leaned in closer to her and her pa. “There is some unpleasant news that we discovered in France.” He glanced to Fina, then stared back at her father. “This is not something I am proud to say. Fina discovered your apprentice and your wife have—”

  Her pa closed his eyes and shook his head. “I know.” He slammed his deformed hand on the tabletop. “I don’t want to know the specifics. We have struggled since my illness. They are not to blame.”

  “But Pa—” Her eyes widened as she stared at her father. Stress weathered his skin. The texture stretched taut over his cheekbones. Thin wrinkled old lips turned down in a frown above his bony chin. It was his prerogative not to know more. “But, Pa, with Madoc’s help, there are other options now.”

  “I will hear no more about this.” Soft, caring green eyes challenged her to say more.

  Fina closed her eyes. It was his choice. She would not blurt out the details of the deception.

  “Mr. Byron. There is good news to express today as well.”

  Fina’s gaze shot to Madoc. His amber eyes met her stare, full of life, love, compassion and certainty.

  Her pa looked at Fina and then to Madoc.

  Madoc concentrated his attention to her father. “I am in love with your daughter. I realize how unconventional a man of my station asking for your daughters hand is, but I wish to marry her and take care of all who are dear to her.”

  He said the word she had been feeling in his actions. He loved her. She stared at him, and her chest tightened, and her heart overflowed with joy she had no desire to hold in.

  “Daughter?” Her pa squeezed her hand once more. “You wish this too?”

  She stared at Madoc. Long black hair, and his knee-length vests, his lacy shirts and his crescent on his cheek. Everything about him defied convention.

  He had bitten her without permission and thrown her into this new strange world. Yet she desired him. His strength now pulsed in her veins. She would learn this new life as his mate.

  They were stronger together.

  He wanted her and her family to be well. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

  Madoc wet his lips. “There is no rush, of course. I wish for your blessing and your daughter’s full consent.” He closed his amber eyes. A lock of his shiny black hair slid loose from his queue and over his shoulder. “The offer is open ended. I will wait for her.”

  Fina surged to her feet. “I do wish this, Pa.”

  She walked to Madoc and angled her head up to stare into his amazing amber eyes. “I do want you. I have so many questions still, but I know with everything I am that you will teach me.”

  She turned back to her pa. “I want us to leave this house and live with Madoc. He will take care of us in a way that Catherine and Jonathan cannot.”

  Her father’s shoulders drooped, and his eyes shimmered with sadness. “Please understand, daughter. Catherine has only been looking out for our survival. No matter what she has done, I love her. I will not leave her.”

  Fina’s heart sank, but she respected her father. He still surprised her with his knowledge and understanding. Fina recaptured his hand. “I will support your decision. I just can’t overlook everything she has done as easily as you can.”

  He nodded. “I have no wish to know what she has done. My wish is that you never have to understand what this is like. My body does not work like it should. My mind and my emotions still run deep. I wish you a life of health and happiness, daughter.”

  She hugged her pa’s small frame. “I love you. I only want you to be happy.”

  “Seeing you happy and married…” His eyes glossed with tears. “A fine match indeed.”

  Chapter Nine

  Hudson walked from Franco’s shop on the Champs d’Elysee. The small sapphire working he and Madoc had commissioned he tucked into his breast pocket. He had never seen anything quite so beautiful. Tempted, he pulled the package out once more. He unwrapped the small gem and held it up before him. The shiny wheel the size of his fingertip glittered with night magic. The etching Fina had drawn glimmered to rippling life with each turn. Amazing. How she did that he would never know. Different from any other working they’d created. This would work. His lips tipped up with expectation and hope.

  The journey home would be grueling and long, knowing he had the possible cure for his anguish tucked in his pocket. He returned the gem to his breast pocket.

  Laura. Her earthy-brown eyes danced with love and life as she had opened the watch he’d made for her on her twenty-second name day. That watch had been the last gift he’d given her. They had loved each other like no other love he had ever known.

  It had been hard to encourage Madoc in his blooming love when Hudson still mourned his own love. He pulled out his own pocket watch and flipped open the case. The image of two bluebirds and a flowering tree branch was painted on the inside cover. Laura’s sweet voice came back to him.

  “Have you seen my watch?” He entered the parlor.

  She had giggled and run around the other si
de of the settee. “I have.” She pulled the chain from between her breasts and let the watch dangle, spinning in the air.

  His breath caught, and he rounded the lane toward his hired coach to the coast and his ship home.

  Laura’s voice echoed again. “The birds are us. The one with the big red chest is you. The flowers on the branch are our children and the moon in the sky our devoted love.”

  The moon…

  He stared up at the moon’s light in the night sky. Clouds floated past, threatening to cover the glow like his heart.

  The damp night chill nipped at his exposed earlobes. He reached up and adjusted his hat to cover more of his ears.

  He would see her again someday. He sighed and quickened his pace.

  Invisible hands grasped his throat and thrust him to the side and into the rough stone of the building. He closed his eyes and struggled to cough for air. The blackness returned.

  “You failed in every way to give me the fire’s mate.”

  “Indeed. Madoc is my only true friend. He deserves love and happiness.” Hudson opened his eyes.

  A foggy black skeleton made of air stared at him. Havanis.

  “What has happened to you?”

  “Fire’s mate burned me. Her power and strength will be mine.”

  Hudson raised his hands and tried to move the air. Havanis did not falter.

  “Made of air. Yet powerful.” Havanis’s black mist jaw opened, and a laugh echoed in the corners of Hudson’s mind. “Your weakness is love. Mine was once too. Love betrays. Love cuts your heart out and slowly stitches up your caring with regret, anger, loss.” The foggy mist released his throat, and cold fingers gripped his shoulder.

  He gulped in air. “Havanis, I will not harm Madoc or his happiness. He is my friend.”

  “I saw this. I know. You still desire love and happiness. That includes passion. Seeing as I have your manhood, that will not become reality until I have my elements of power.”

  “The Zir betrayed you. You want to best them.” He focused on the sapphire working in his pocket. The Zir had never betrayed Hudson.

  “No. A woman’s heart is filled with deceit. The Zir are simply the unfortunate casualties.” The misty skeleton glanced down, and their eyes met. A shiver sliced through to Hudson’s very bones. His teeth chattered. So cold.

  The skeleton diminished. “You will be called upon again. And when I do, you will do as I say, or you will be dead.”

  Hudson reached up and patted his pocket where the sapphire wheel he had concentrated on resided. No bulge met his fingers. Havanis had stolen the working. His lips twitched up. He was no fool. He slid his hand into his inside breast pocket, where a small, hard working still resided. Franco had made two. One for the Zir and one for him. At least he still had one with which to go back in time.

  A coldness seeped into Carmen’s fiery cell. She reached her hands out, unseeing, on the hot dirt floor. The cold… Such a delight. She pushed up to her knees and placed both hands in the cool mist.

  Invisible icy fingers trailed her forehead down to her chin. It had been forever since she had been touched. Her throat constricted, and she leaned her head into the caress. Goose bumps raced up her arms.

  The touch disappeared.

  “I have always cherished when you knelt at my feet. I loved you once. You betrayed me. Your betrayal will end many lives.”

  Carmen stared into the darkness. Havanis. “Please. No.” She stayed on her knees, her hands in her lap. “They are special. They are our creation. Because of my magic and your curse, we created the Zir. Let them live.” Tears stung her dry eyes.

  “You beg. Your fear does nothing for me. You would do anything to leave this isolation. How hard this must be for you to have contact with others but not be able to drink their blood.”

  “Not everything I say to you is a lie.” She had come to care about him in the end. She had hoped he would have seen that. He did not, and now she would never forgive him. Dragons deserved to be in this world. Even if they now roamed the world in Zir form.

  He laughed again. “And I should believe that?” His voice faded into the darkness.

  “Please. Let me out of here. Let me show you they are ours, not just the power you wish to obtain.”

  “Never. You belong here with the darkness all about you.”

  “Please.”

  He did not answer.

  She closed her eyes, and images of Havanis lounging on his bed with his red silk robe open down to his navel pressed into her conscious. His long, fair hair and crystal-blue eyes as he laughed and pulled her to him…

  She licked her lips. His voice had changed. Icy resentment warped his once singing tone.

  He would never let her leave this place.

  She needed to find another answer.

  Epilogue

  Three months later…

  Ilmir floated above his brother Madoc as he signed the papers on the wooden table before the hearth. The small ceremony held to celebrate Fina and Madoc’s finding one another came to a close.

  Jordan stood with Celeste next to them and raised a glass to toast. “To the Zir and finding survival, love and vitality.”

  Two brothers. Two wives.

  Ilmir’s stomach roiled, and he rolled his eyes.

  The Isle became crowded.

  He’d liked it so much better when there were the six beings in the house; the four Zir, Astrid, and Penelope the cook. The three who took care of the animals and grounds all slept in different dwellings on the Isle. He preferred that.

  Madoc pivoted to Fina and grasped her hands. He raised them to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Love. Life. Learning and time.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips. “We have forever to explore distance and time together.”

  Ilmir hated them. He ground his teeth together, and then he shook his head. No. Not hated. Envied. Resented.

  He would never find love in a mate. He had love, though she didn’t know he loved her. He certainly would never allow himself to bite her. What if she died? Jordan had lost loves before he’d found Celeste.

  No. He could not handle a single day if she died.

  He floated from the room and back out into the hall that led to his elemental room. He needed air. He needed to fly and experience the exhilaration that came from a bite. He needed to dream and forget…

  Madoc walked Fina down the hall to their elemental rooms. Hidden in his breast pocket was a flower that reminded him of her. The plant now sat next to their bed for her to care for.

  Fina squeezed his fingers. “This day is filled with firsts.”

  “So has every day been since you bit me.” Happiness overflowed in his heart and filled his soul with love that only she provided. He adored her. Wanted to show her all he knew and learn love together.

  “Since I bit you?” Her eyebrows rose.

  “Very well, since we bit each other.” He touched her arm and stopped halfway down the hall to their room. She turned toward him. He held up an exotic orchid flower to her. It was bright red with blue veins. The petals looked like a dragon head with long, pointed horns.

  She sucked in a breath and grasped the stem. Happiness danced in her eyes.

  Beautiful.

  The red of the flower accentuated the line on her nose. She wore the scales shimmering like a row of rubies down her nose with a pride that shone in her blue eyes. He reached up and traced to the bridge of her nose. Soft. Softer than his marks. Feminine, delicate and strong. “How did you get this bump?”

  “Silly, really.” She twirled the flower in her fingers. “I have always been very clumsy. I tripped in my new boots, lost my balance and slammed into a post out on the square. The post righted me, but not until after my face hit the rough pole.”

  He cringed. That must have been painful. He would have caught her. “Did it break?”

  “I do not know. It did bleed.” Fire-blue eyes stared up at him, and she smiled. Leaning in, she inhaled deeply. “I love the way you smell. Spi
cy peppers and sweetness. The sweet smell I did not know until I came to the Isle. Chocolate.” She licked her lips.

  “I smell like chocolate?” He chuckled.

  “Quite so. I have a little secret.” She ran her hands up his long red-and-black vest and settled them on his chest, where his scales resided. They heated against her touch.

  He adored when she did that. “There are no secrets with us.”

  She bit her lip, and heat bloomed a rosy color on her face. “I did not bleed this moon.”

  The hairs on his nape stood, and he slid his hand down to her abdomen. Beneath his hand, her pulse and a second unique pulse quickened. Their child. “A Zir grows…” His throat tightened. Children. A family. His eyes moistened.

  “You said many children.”

  He yelled out a cry of jubilation. “Indeed, I did. Let’s hope there are three in there.” He winked at her.

  “Oh no. One at a time. I want to cherish this experience over and over.”

  “And so we shall.” He leaned in and pressed his lips to her full ones. He slipped his tongue into her warmth. She kissed him back with all the passion he had in his soul. He reached up and cupped her face.

  She was his. He was hers.

  Together they would embrace the world, and family, with all the fire and passion that pulsed through them as Zir.

  About the Author

  Lacy Danes made a New Year's resolution to write a hot, historical romance. A year and a half later, she achieved her goal. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where besides writing she enjoys horseback riding, gardening and savoring a great martini while watching the world go by. Visit Lacy at her website www.lacydanes.com.

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