I chuckled, though my throat felt tight, my chest too. On the verge of more tears—damn him. “That’s very kind of you to say, but you don’t know me at all.”
“That’s true, but everyone speaks so very highly of you.” James nodded to Darius. “Particularly your man.”
“He just knows better than to spill all my dirty secrets—”
“And I sincerely hope you don’t blame yourself for what happened to your mother,” James said quickly, his words stealing the breath right out of me. I stared down at the plucked lavender, my lower lip quivering. It stopped when he placed a hand on my shoulder, still keeping his distance as he whispered, “I certainly don’t blame you. Anyone who does, is a fool, yourself included.”
That earned a smile, and I hastily wiped my tears away. I then set my hand on top of his, finding it warm and worn, like a man who hadn’t been afraid of manual labor over the years.
“Thank you,” I murmured. He responded with a nod, eyes watery again.
“Of course.”
We sat together in a contemplative silence for some time after, all three of us watching the waterfall roll down into the pool; a pool whose waters always remained relatively still—so as not to upset the lily pads. I would have thought my mind would be racing, flying through all the new information, processing it, compartmentalizing it in different corners of my brain for later. But there was nothing. The inside of my head was just… blank.
Happy. In some weird way, James had managed to put me at peace just by being honest and open. Neither my inner psychologist nor that prickly warning echo picked up on anything amiss with the man. While I still wasn’t ready to call him Dad, I could accept that this was the start of something good.
“Can we come in yet? Have you guys had your moment?” A woman’s voice broke our easy silence, and I turned back to find two faces peering at us from the doorway at the front of the hall.
“Leda,” James chastised hastily, rising to his feet and walking toward her—before stopping and looking back at me. “I’m sorry. I told them you would need some time before meeting them, but they’ve been very impatient.”
“Who?” Darius helped me up, my body ready for a nap anytime now, and I dried my calves and feet with a water wicking spell.
“My children. They’ve been very excited to meet you. I can send them away for—”
“No, no,” I said as I smoothed my hands down my slouchy black shirt, its sleeves clipped up around my elbows. I looked like shit, still in the throes of healing, but if I could take the time to meet my father, I was certainly open to meeting my half-siblings. Particularly when they seemed so keen on meeting me.
James waved them in, and I remained next to Darius, watching as two grown dragon shifters hurried inside. The first was a woman—Leda, I assumed—and while she was taller than me, she had the same hippy figure that I did. She radiated strength and poise as she moved seamlessly through the garden, looking like she could feel equally at home on a football field and a ballet studio. Broad shoulders met a full figure, yet she barely made a sound with each passing step.
“I saw her fight in her dragon form,” Darius murmured in my ear as she hurried closer. “She’s fierce. A true alpha’s daughter.” He ran his hand up my back, resting it on my shoulder. “Like you.”
Her hair was a few shades lighter than mine, and I noted a smattering of freckles across the middle of her face. The enormous smile she wore, bearing a set of perfectly white, straight teeth, was hard to miss, too.
“Kaye?” she asked, almost breathlessly. Behind, a lanky, though muscular man trailed after her—clearly the introvert to his sister’s very palpable, extrovert, bearing the same freckled pattern over the bridge of his nose and our father’s emerald green eyes. Hers were more hazel, though no less beautiful.
I hazarded a guess at her name, taking her hand when she offered it. “Leda?”
“Yeah, sorry.” She laughed as we shook hands, a jolt of pleasant familiarity washing over me—like we had been waiting our whole lives to meet. “It’s really nice to meet you. I hear you were a beast on the battlefield.”
My cheeks warmed. I certainly hadn’t felt like a beast out there. “Thank you. You know, Darius was just telling me the same about you.”
“But you saved my best friend from gargoyles,” Leda pressed, and I suddenly realized we were still holding hands. “Claire. She said you and your man here, saved her life. I’m in your debt.”
“Hardly,” Darius remarked. Slowly, Leda and I released each other’s hands, though an invisible tether seemed to keep us connected. “There’s no debt to be paid. Kaye and I just did what we were supposed to do… Defend our kind from a madman and his goons.”
“Well, it isn’t something I’ll forget anytime soon,” Leda told us, her smile wide and her eyes bright. “But, never mind that. I have a sister! I’ve always wanted one, but I just had a brother—”
“Hey,” the man behind her piped up. “Just a brother?”
I caught James smiling to himself in the background, his arms crossed, and the warmth of his expression rubbed off on me. I grinned, unable to help myself.
“I’m Hudson,” the man stated, stepping around his sister briefly to shake my hand. While I still felt that flutter of familiarity, it was stronger with Leda. Maybe I too had spent my whole life craving a sister, a real sister, but had to make do with a brother instead. Hudson had our father’s build and kind eyes. His energy mellowed out Leda’s somewhat, and I suspected under different circumstances, ones where I wasn’t battling anxiety, my fears of meeting my family for the first time, and the remnants of djinn poison, we’d get along like two peas in a pod.
“I know you’re only half dragon, but have you shifted yet?” Leda asked, positioning herself at the center of the conversation again. When my face fell slightly, she shook her head. “Oh, not that it’s any of my business. It’s just so strange meeting your kin in this form. We’d bond right away as dragons. It’d take some of the awkwardness out.”
I stammered through a few incoherent words, then glanced back to Darius for help. From the look on his face, he was mildly unimpressed with Leda’s sentiment, but I couldn’t fault her. I could feel her enthusiasm for this, palpable and infectious; there was nothing wrong with wanting to speed up the process. Only I couldn’t shift. Or maybe I could. I just hadn’t. And somehow that made me feel less like James’s daughter.
“We could go try it,” Leda offered in the silence that followed, her eyes darting hastily between Darius and myself—as if realizing she’d fucked up. “It’s a beautiful day for flying.”
“I think Kaye could use some rest,” James interjected while I fumbled for a response. The alpha strolled forward, then wrapped his arms around each of his children on either side of him. “She was poisoned by a freaking djinn. You don’t shake that off in a few days. Perhaps, Darius, you might escort her somewhere quiet. I’ll have something prepared for you, if you’re hungry.”
“That’d be nice,” I managed, my voice quiet. “Thank you.”
Darius took the hint and steered me out of the throne room. As amazing as it had been to meet my new family, it was starting to feel suffocating. There were still a lot of issues I had to confront about my heritage, and all the shifter politics, dynamics, and the whole shifting thing were just too much to stomach right now.
When we stepped outside, Cedric was waiting for us. Suddenly, I felt my knees give way, and I plummeted to the floor. Darius caught me before I made contact, and he scooped me into his arms, brushing off Cedric’s offer of assistance with a look.
“You did really well in there,” Darius told me as he cradled me in his arms and carried me away from the throne room, away from my newfound siblings and father, and toward what I could only hope was a place that would be calm and quiet. He kissed the tip of my nose when I forced a weak smile.
“Then why do I feel like I got hit by a bus?”
“Because you’re a normal person with normal person
emotions,” he said, chuckling. “I’d be concerned if you were totally fine right now, to be honest.”
He was right, of course. Everything I was experiencing—it was a natural, emotional response to what I’d gone through. Being a psychologist, you’d think I’d know that.
But like others in my profession, I always struggled to turn the microscope back on myself.
Luckily for me, I had my own personal sounding board, a shrink without the fees, right here. A shifter who adored me, but wouldn’t hesitate to tell me the truth. Not anymore. I could read him too well.
And in the end, what else could a girl want?
“Do you think they have any chocolate around here?” I asked. “I could really go for a pound or two.”
He laughed again and kissed me, this time capturing my lips in a slow, sensual kiss that I felt right down to my toes. A chill raced down my spine, banishing the unpleasant feelings away and welcoming in something better.
“I’ll make it happen.”
“Maybe some ice cream.”
“Done.”
“And some Chinese takeout…”
“Your wish is my command.”
Our laughter echoed through the dark corridors—the sound was the best medicine in the world and lifted my very soul.
Epilogue
Three days later, my strength finally came back to me. The last of the djinn poison was out of my system, and I woke up feeling as though I could run a marathon without breaking a sweat.
I’d spent the last several days meeting with James, Leda, and Hudson separately, wanting to get to know them as individuals, rather than the familial clump the three represented in my mind. For the most part, it was just short conversations here and there, usually over a meal, or while I rested in my room, or back in the garden throne room designed by my mother. All three had kept to safe topics of conversation with me, though James had wanted to know the most about my life. Leda seemed happy to have a sister to chat with, while Hudson required a bit of work to pull conversation out of. In the end, I decided I liked them. This new little family suited me just fine, though I still wasn’t ready to call James Dad yet, or see either of his children as my siblings.
But a blossoming friendship was there, and I expected it would develop further, the more time we spent together. Over breakfast that morning, Leda had suggested we go flying that afternoon with Darius and Quinn. I agreed to come just so I could watch dragons soar, a sight more beautiful than anything in the known universe, and dragged Catriona out too—though with Quinn there, she certainly didn’t need much persuading. We all met at the rear castle gates at noon, then ventured out into the mountain range, questing ever higher along well-worn trails, headed for a peak.
“Alrighty,” I said, grabbing Catriona by the elbow and falling back from the rest of the group. Both Darius and Quinn glanced back, noting our absence immediately, but after a pointed look from me, neither hung back to join us. I looked to Catriona and found her blushing, like she knew where the conversation was headed. “We need to talk.”
“We’ve been talking all week,” she said innocently, her gaze landing on a little gray bird that fluttered out of a stony crevice nearby. I scoffed.
“Not about what I really want to talk about.” Darius had been my constant companion during my healing time, which I appreciated more than he would ever know, but his presence made it difficult to grill Catriona like I would have liked. “Out with it. What is happening with you and Quinn? Are you guys a thing?”
“Are we a thing?” Catriona giggled, the sound high and clear as a bell. “What is this, middle school?”
We linked arms, walking side-by-side at an even pace. “Don’t try to change the subject.”
She rolled her eyes, her blush darkening. “Kaye.”
“Catriona.” I tried to hide my grin, knowing I had her. Catriona had always been choosy with her heart. The thought that Quinn, of all people, might have captured it was a surprise.
“I just…” She shook her head as a smile bloomed across her face. “I just like him. He’s… different. He’s quiet but thoughtful, protective but not overbearing. I like embarrassing him, and I think he likes letting me. I don’t know. I just like him.”
“You said that,” I noted. While I planned to tease her relentlessly, her reasons for crushing on Quinn made total sense to me. Catriona was sweet and bubbly, exuberant and kind. Quinn was a prickly, closed book, who probably needed someone exactly like my bestie to thrive. Someone who accepted him for exactly who he was—and liked him for who he was, prickliness and all.
“Oh, I don’t know, Kaye.” Her words flowed fast and true, as if spurred by excitement. “I’ve liked him from the moment I met him. Somehow, I just knew he was someone I ought to keep around. Someone I ought to invest my time in. I don’t know how I knew. It was a gut instinct, I guess… a feeling.”
My gaze darted to Darius’s back. “I can understand that.”
Slowly, anything about Darius that initially bothered me faded away. Suddenly he was a hot guy and a supportive shoulder to lean on. He made me laugh. He dried my tears. He made me feel strong and competent, even when I didn’t think I had it in me. And when I thought back to when we first met, something had compelled me to let him in. Sure, I’d fought it, but when I considered the circumstances that thrust us together, it was all pretty absurd. I could have slammed the door in his face, honestly, whether he was the dark and handsome stranger I’d wanted to sleep with or not.
But something kept him in my life.
Like fate had nudged us together and we just… clicked. Despite the bickering, the fussing, and the headaches, I hadn’t been apart from him for more than a day in months.
I glanced at my best friend. Did she feel the same way about Quinn? Had fate played its hand again and brought two more souls together who needed each other? As we walked alongside each other in a contemplative silence, I made a mental note to get to know Quinn better. If he did for Catriona what Darius did for me, then he too, was a worthy investment of my time.
Besides, I needed to give a best friend’s blessing. While I had seen him fight Abramelin’s minions and I had seen him fawn over Catriona, I needed just a little more before he earned my stamp of approval. I needed to know him, to understand him.
And, honestly, it was something I should have done already, he was Darius’s brother. Hayden and I clicked right away, and while Hayden had flown home after the battle, with the other Sanctius dragons, he and I were on excellent terms.
Quinn? Well, it could be better.
It would be better. He was an important person in the lives of two of my favorite people, after all.
Catriona and I reached the mountaintop last. From our vantage point, we could see the entire range and everything around it. From the deep green forests on one side, to the glittering lake on the other, and well into the clear blue horizon in every direction. I unlinked my arm from Catriona’s and cautiously stepped to the edge, filling my lungs with the crisp air the altitude offered. While the summer sun was as unrelenting as always, I was unusually comfortable in my skin.
The air crackled with excitement as the shifters discussed which routes to fly. Before any of the shifters could start stripping down to their underwear, heavy footsteps hurried up the path, gravel crackling underfoot.
“I apologize for the interruption, sir,” Cedric announced as he appeared on the scene, nodding in deference to James, who gave the slightest nod in response. “But a messenger has arrived from the Sanctius clan. He requests a moment with Darius Thomas.”
“Did he say anything that might suggest the kind of news he’s carrying?” Darius asked as he strode toward Cedric. Quinn followed a few steps behind with a frown. The bald shifter shook his head, wearing the same distant, unreadable expression as he always did. I crossed my arms and hoped that it was just word from Hayden that he and the others had arrived safely.
“Right.” Darius looked to his brother. “Stay. Have some fun. I’ll b
e back shortly.”
He turned away as Quinn started to protest, then shot me a quick glance before following Cedric back down the path. My gut told me to go with him, but my heart whispered to let him be. We might have been attached at the hip most of the time, but if it was private clan business he needed to hear, I didn’t want to crowd him. So, I turned back to the group with a smile, hoping to distract Quinn from the steadily deepening frown dragging down his features.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” I said. “Come on… Catriona and I came here to see some dragons!”
My best friend giggled, looping her arm around mine again, and just like that, the darkness eased out of Quinn’s features.
“Maybe you’ll join us sometime, Kaye,” Leda insisted as she dragged her shirt over her head. “There’s nothing like flying with your kin. It’s the best high in the world.”
“I can attest to that,” Quinn added, wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. He neatly folded his clothes and placed them in a pile off to the side. I caught Catriona casting a shy glance over his body, which rippled with a subtle strength, tauter and leaner than Darius’s muscular frame.
“Now, now,” James sighed, then leaned over and pressed a chaste, barely there kiss to my cheek, “there’s no pressure. If you are meant to shift, it’ll happen when it happens.”
I ran a hand through my loose hair, which caught in each gust of wind, making me wish I’d tied it back. “Thanks.”
He shot me a wink as Leda pouted. Hudson rolled his eyes at his sister, then grinned when our gazes met. Clearly, he shared his father’s patience. I didn’t take Leda’s enthusiasm for impatience, by any means. I took it for what it was: excitement. A willingness, a desire, to connect with me as shifters were meant to.
Once the four were stripped down to their underwear, with Catriona and I looking everywhere, but their semi-naked figures, they moved to the edge of our peaceful plateau—and jumped. My heart leaped up into my throat as I watched them fall, and Catriona gave a little frightened squeal and rushed to the edge, dragging me along with her. Seconds later, the rush of an enormous white dragon raced by, shooting up into the air, sending us tumbling onto our backsides. Three more figures followed, trailing after the much larger leader of the group, their cries a symphony that made my heart sing.
Magic Burn: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Shifting Magic Book 2) Page 15