by Hati Bell
“Just try to stay out of trouble.”
“Always am.”
“Never go to the Fire Mountain again by yourself. If I find your pretty tail in hostile territory one more time, I’ll tell Bryan so he can keep you on a leash.”
She was appalled by his threat, even more so because that was probably exactly what would happen. “You can’t do that!”
“Watch me. Drake has his own reason to keep you safe and sound. His interest in you is simply as old as Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit. The deal was to keep you safe. You running around like a headless chicken threatens to screw up our part of the deal. I can’t allow that.”
If it were possible, she would have spat fire at him. That was how enraged she was. Her fingers clutched onto the door handle, trying not to slam it shut in his face.
Logan’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you dare slam that door. I just put on new paint.”
Amber took a deep breath, counting to ten, telling herself she was a better person. She was above this. Counting to calm yourself appeared to be a myth. “You’re just awful,” she spat, climbing out of the car. “Good thing there’s this little thing called karma, so you’d better watch out. One day it might bite you in the tail.”
As always, Logan had a snappy comeback. “If karma is a man he will reward me for my insight. If it’s a pretty woman, she can bite me wherever she wants, as long as I can bite back,” he finished with a wink.
She closed the door, gave him her back and walked inside her home. She tried to ignore the little voice in her head, telling her Logan was right. She was about to walk upstairs when her phone made a sound. It was a message from Meg.
I’m sorry how things turned out. I gave up my gift to save you. A huge sacrifice, I might add. Something William could have spared me if he had paid off your debt with his secret stash of money. I know about your vision and the fire. I’m looking for a way to stop it. Perhaps you can talk your father into giving me money. He’s not doing anyone any favors by ignoring my calls. I was the one who pulled you out from under the burning family cottage. I’ll be the one doing this again, if given the chance. He knows where to find me.
Amber started shaking in anger. Claiming to have saved her when her mother had died was just one lie too many.
She went into the backyard and ran into the woods. There she followed the familiar trail that ended up at a spacious place with a low waterfall and the ruins of their former family cabin. According to her father this had been the place where her mother liked to have family picnics and barbecues. The rickety table she sat on was the only thing left of those days. She was probably the only one ever visiting this place anymore. It was as if time stood still here. Nothing ever changed. Maybe that was why she liked it here so much. She felt comfortable here, safe.
She put on some music and started singing to “It’s a kind of magic.” Freddie’s voice always cheered her up. She’d almost closed her eyes when a shadow fell over her face.
THIRTEEN
Amber braced herself, remembering the last time a shadow had clouded her and she’d ended up with Jade wanting to pummel her. However, it was Drake standing next to her. She turned off the music and pulled the earplugs from her ears.
Drake’s leather jacket and sneakers didn’t look as chill-proof as her wool coat and boots, but then again his hot dragon blood was probably kind of like having a furnace inside. The grass cracked under his feet when he came closer and sat next to her.
“Logan called. He said you had a run-in with Jade.”
“Your girlfriend threatened to stab my eyes out.” She tried to sound casual, as is they were talking about the weather instead of how powerless she had felt.
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Then what is she? A crazed fan?”
“Something like that. Though calling her obsessive over me is a bit overkill. She’s far too self-conscious for that.”
“Sure,” she scoffed. “Why are you here? Is it because of the forbidden fruit thing?”
“You’ve been talking to Logan,” he said, a dangerous glint in his eyes.
“He was so kind as to prevent me from getting beaten up,” she said, sounding more accusatory than she had meant.
A pained look overtook his face. “I would never allow anyone to hurt you. I sent Logan to keep an eye on you. Something Armand Dubois insisted on, though he didn’t need to ask.”
And that was another thing. It seemed these days as if she had more eyes on her than a living room in George Orwell’s masterpiece. She even had several Big Brothers. “Armand?” she asked, surprised he was working for Meg again.
“He helped arrange the money to pay off Meg’s debt to Zacharias.”
“I didn’t know that.” She figured that her father had somehow found a way. “Meg didn’t mention him in her message.”
“So Meg contacted you.” He looked curious but didn’t push. His eyes told her that she could trust him. Even more, that he wanted her to trust him.
She turned her gaze to the ruins of what once had been her family’s cottage-an image of charred wall, glassless windows, and piles of broken bricks the wind was howling through. “Meg claims that my father is keeping something from me. I know that she’s lying, yet I can’t let go of this nagging feeling inside of me.”
“You feel guilty for doubting if perhaps she is telling you the truth,” Drake guessed.
Amber groaned. “It sounds even worse when you say it out loud.”
“It’s only words. Words can’t hurt you.”
“Words are important,” she disagreed. “They tell you how someone thinks and feels. If I confront my father with Meg’s words, he will think that I doubt him. That would hurt him.” She wished he would come closer to keep her warm, like he did some nights. Sadly she lacked the courage to take the first step. He might get the wrong idea. Oh, who was she kidding? He might get the right idea.
“If you don’t ask him, the seed of doubt inside you will only grow and Meg will win.”
That actually made sense, but she no longer wanted to talk about Meg. “I found out why dragons and dryads hate each other,” she said, changing the subject. “It’s actually quite a romantic story.”
“The Mathilda version?” he guessed, sounding skeptical.
Amber nodded. “She couldn’t make a choice and look at the consequences.” She paused a second, carefully contemplating her next few words. “You have to make a choice, Drake. This, here, it’s not enough. If you’re planning to continue your nightly visits to my room, only to ignore me the next day, I’d rather you don’t come anymore. Don’t get me wrong; I am grateful. Without your help the past couple of weeks, I would have turned into a wreck.”
“But it’s not enough,” he repeated.
The stretch of silence between them was heavy, but she wasn’t planning to back out. “No, it isn’t. If you’re gonna sleep over, we should at least become friends. My father has a strict policy against inviting a stranger over for a pajama party.”
“Friends.” He sounded as if she’d spoken a foreign word. “I never really had a female friend before.” A fire lit up in his eyes when they roamed over her face. “Not sure if I just wanna be your friend, either,” he confessed, staring at her lips.
“Are you telling me Fiona Claw was right after all?” she asked, desperately trying to ignore the last part. If she went to dwell on that she’d be lost. Already her heart was beating overtime.
He scooted closer and held out a hand. “Not anymore, friend.”
The heat of his skin radiated right through her gloves when she shook his hand. She smiled, pretending she wanted to be friends while in fact she no more saw him as just a friend than he did her. She wanted more, so much more.
She cleared her throat and pulled her hand away. “Meg told me the nightmares have a special meaning. It basically announces the death of a supe. Something big, and really bad, is about to happen. Which is probably also the reason why you’re here,” she guessed.
“It’s one of the reasons,” he admitted, but he didn’t elaborate.
She felt the other reason wasn’t up for discussion. She could live with that. For now. There were other, more pressing, matters she had to focus on. “I’ve been counting. The nightmares come more and more frequent. I’m afraid to end up like my crazy great-grandmother. Her condition got so bad she had a nightmare every single night and even during the day. In the end she couldn’t tell the difference between a dream and reality.” Insane. Oh God, she could end up insane.
“That’s not going to happen to you,” he nearly growled.
“You have no idea how much I want to believe that, but evidence proves otherwise. My great-grandmother eventually just went catatonic after her visions. Nobody knew what caused them. The same is happening to me. It’s the first time I’ve had this many and they were this bad.” She was sick and tired of dreaming about death, blood, and mayhem.
Drake ran his hand through his hair, leaving it tousled. “Actually, I do know their cause. There’s an underground turf war going on to dethrone Kincaid. You’re probably seeing the victims on both sides.”
“How do you know this?” she asked, trying to keep suspicion out of her voice. She knew he couldn’t stand his grandfather, but Drake wouldn’t betray his own flesh and blood. Then she remembered his reaction to Meg’s betrayal. Blood didn’t mean the same thing to him as it did to her.
“Armand told me a few weeks ago. Zacharias is one of the pieces on the chess board in the battle for Kincaid’s throne. It is said he’s a henchman for a goblin leader from London.”
She couldn’t believe it. The thought of the shit load that was coming their way, and the effects it would have on her made her sick. She hardly even felt the snowflakes falling down on her face. “What did Kincaid say when you told him this? I assume the Council is taking measures against it.”
“I told him squat,” Drake said and slid from the table. “It’s snowing. You should go home.”
Amber furiously swept snowflakes from her lashes. “I’m not going anywhere! You just told me there’s a coup planned against your family and you’re just going to stand by, let it happen. You can’t distract me with bad weather forecasts. I have the right to know what’s going on. This turf war affects me as much as you, perhaps even more.”
Drake seemed to ponder that for a moment. “I guess you’re right.” He sat back on the table, which was covered with a powdery layer of snow. He gently grabbed her legs and pulled them over his lap.
She snuggled against him, basking in the heat his body was radiating. “I’m listening.”
“Family is the people you can count on. The ones you share your ups and downs with. The woman who gave birth to me isn’t my mother. She left the minute she discovered that Kincaid would never accept her. My father was left behind, stuck with a baby only a day old. I suppose he tried. He just wasn’t raised to be a single parent, let alone one without his daddy’s millions to support him. Or the network of his former so-called friends who turned their backs on him once they discovered Kincaid had disowned him.”
“You didn’t grow up in Seven Hill.” Things were starting to make sense now.
“After Kincaid banished him, my father never returned. His privileged Seven Hill buddies turned their backs on him and my dad ended up in a downward spiral. He started drinking and couldn’t keep a job. It wasn’t the poverty that bothered me. It was the fact that he just gave up without really even trying. One day, when I was eleven, I found him on the floor in a pool of his own vomit. I thought he was dead. Part of me wished he was. The neighbors called for help. An ambulance and social worker arrived shortly after. I was up on Seven Hill, in Kincaid’s dining room, within an hour.”
Amber was fascinated by his story. “How did it make you feel, discovering Alec Kincaid was your grandfather?”
He smiled a lopsided smile she was becoming familiar with. “It wasn’t a surprise. I always knew who he was. My father took me to the Dome when I was ten, hoping to reconcile with Kincaid. We weren’t even allowed to pass the front gate. But this time I did get in. I was mesmerized and so impressed when I was finally allowed inside the Dome. The huge gardens, the cars in the driveway, the plush Turkish carpets, everything exuded wealth. I was used to cracked floors and walls affected by mold. I couldn’t imagine anyone giving all this up. That day was the first time I saw Kincaid. He was having dinner worthy of kings, his queen by his side. When my grandmother got up, Kincaid dropped his fork and she sat back down. I’ll never forget the smell of that steak that made my mouth water. I actually rejoiced, thought I was saved, but Kincaid didn’t even spare me a glance.”
“Don’t tell me he sent you away,” Amber said, outraged on his behalf.
Drake shrugged like the encounter had meant nothing to him, but she could see that it had hurt him, and to some extent, it probably still did. “He continued eating and assured the social worker that he wasn’t going to raise another weakling. Then he told her what would happen to her career if she ever came back with me again. I never saw her again after that day. Gregor took me to the hospital to see my dad. He gave me some coins to go to the cafeteria and told me to wait there. I don’t know what kind of talk he had with my father, but when he was discharged from the hospital, he sobered up. During one of his AA meetings he met Logan’s mom. Moving in with her was the only good thing he ever did for me. Gaby Stark may not be perfect, but she’s never treated me any differently than her own son.”
Amber wasn’t surprised to hear Logan was his stepbrother. Not only did the two look nothing alike–they were as day and night–but they also didn’t share a last name.
“Gaby and Logan–they are my family. Logan accepted me the way I am. Maybe because his own experience with his dad was far worse than mine. I got in contact with other kids from the neighborhood like Benn, started making money with cage fights to support Gaby after my dad passed away. Things got better after that. Without meaning to, Kincaid has saved me from becoming a Seven Hill-yup like my cousin Henry. But it’s important that you know he is dangerous. Kincaid will use anything and anyone as he sees fit. Including people I care about. I can’t afford any weaknesses.”
“You want Kincaid to lose,” she surmised. This explained a lot. There was just one thing missing from his story. “Jimmy told me you live in the Dome.”
Drake gently pushed her legs away and got up. “For now. I’ll tell you what you want to know, but first, let’s get you inside before you’re covered in snow.”
They walked back home hand in hand. The lights in the living room were on and a puff of smoke left their chimney. Obviously her father was home. He was the only one who got the fireplace properly working. She was afraid Drake would use this as an excuse to take off. Not ready to let him go just yet, she turned to him. “Will you-?”
“I’m not leaving,” he assured her, before she could finish her sentence.
She wanted to invite him inside, but wasn’t sure about her father’s reaction. Also, as long as he didn’t know about their unconventional friendship, he couldn’t disapprove of it.
It was as if he sensed her dilemma. “I’ll see you upstairs,” he said. He was gone before she could utter another word.
She brushed the snow from her jeans and hurried inside. Her father looked relieved when he saw her. “I was at the cabin,” she explained.
He walked into the kitchen and returned with a cup of tea that must have been simmering on the stove. “I’m going to have to ask you not to go up there by yourself anymore,” he said, handing her the cup.
“Why not? I though the goblin issue was resolved.”
“There are things… Council business I’m not at liberty to discuss yet. It’s not quite safe yet. Promise me you won’t go there again by yourself.”
She suspected that he was referring to the gathering forces trying to take Kincaid out. However, she couldn’t tell him that without breaking Drake’s trust. But she could promise not to go there alo
ne, so she did.
She gathered her courage and looked straight at his face. “Meg sent me a message. She wants you to lend her money.”
He snorted. “What else is new?”
“Actually there is something new. Meg said… that she was the one who pulled me from underneath the debris, when Mum died. I know this can’t be true, because Mum was alone when she died,” she quickly added, not wanting him to think for a moment she was doubting him.
Her father cleared his throat. “It’s not a lie. You were there when your mother died. Meg was indeed the one who saved you.”
It seemed to be a day full of confessions. She wasn’t sure how to feel about it. “Why haven’t you told me this before?”
He rubbed his forehead as if to massage the pain away. “It’s not a period in my life I like to think about. You wouldn’t even have been at the cabin that night, but your mother and I had a fight about…” He sighed. “I’m ashamed to admit that back then I wasn’t the man that I am now. When I heard that your mother was a dryad, not entirely human, I found this difficult to accept. It caused a wedge between us, until we even lived apart for a year. Had I accepted your mother as she was, she would have never left for the cabin to get some air or to just get away from me. I was told she lay under a beam, protecting you with her body. Meg was able to save you. I put both your lives in danger that day. Something for which I will never forgive myself.”
And the confessions continued. She wasn’t sure how to deal with them, let alone how to give her dad comfort. “Why is Meg dredging up the past? What is she hoping to achieve?”
Her father stared at her mother’s picture above the fire place. “She’s trying to show me that she’s still capable of opening up old wounds, should I not give her the money she wants. I won’t allow her to come between us. You’re my little girl and I love you.”