“What’s going on?” he asked as the others filed around him. He noticed Leena at the edge of the crowd of dragons, near Dianthe. He always noticed Leena. His inner dragon seemed to have become a compass that pointed toward her rather than north. He forced himself not to look at her and instead focused on Raven as Gabriel lifted Charlie from her arms.
“Last night, when we spoke about how Aborella died and what she shared in her last moments, it’s possible some vital information was overlooked,” Raven said.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dianthe fidget with her hair, her eyes darting toward the sky as if this wasn’t exactly news to her. He narrowed his eyes on Raven. “What kind of information?”
Avery cleared her throat. “Aborella seemed to think that part of the tanglewood tree remains somewhere in our parents’ bar—the Three Sisters—in the Earth realm.”
“Do you mean to tell me that, where you are from, your parents own a tavern called the Three Sisters?” Sylas grimaced, a low growl rumbling from his chest. “Prophetic, wouldn’t you say? Why didn’t you mention this last night? We were under the impression we’d have to find a way to do this without the book. Why would you hide something like this?”
“Easy, Sylas.” Colin placed a hand on his twin’s chest, although he could understand his brother’s unease. When Sylas and his mate had returned from their journey to find the orbs and Dianthe and Avery had shared how Aborella had died at Avery’s hand, they were all led to believe that all hope of translating the scroll was likely lost, burned with the tanglewood tree. This news meant that someone was holding back information during their debrief—information that could change everything.
“I needed time to process what she told me. It didn’t exactly make sense,” Avery said defensively.
Sidling up to her sister, Clarissa shot Sylas a look hard enough to have been a physical push. “Let’s not get our hopes up, okay? Aborella wasn’t always honest, and even if what she said is true, if any part of the tree is there, it will be complicated for us to find.”
“What’s so complicated about it?” Colin had a bad feeling about this.
“We know for sure that most of the tree was used as fuel to burn my ancestor, Circe—Medea’s sister—at the stake,” Raven said. “Aborella wasn’t specific about what she saw. If any part of the tree survived, it’s been hidden for over three hundred years. For all we know, it could be sealed into a wall or rotting under the floorboards. It won’t be easy to find, and it means returning to New Orleans, where we’re vulnerable. The entire reason we came here to Aeaea was to escape the possibility that Hera or Eleanor was tracking us. She did once with Scoria. She can do it again.”
Gabriel’s eyes blazed red with his suspicion. “Could be a trap. Aborella was bound to Eleanor. This all might be a ploy to lure us off the island.”
Avery dug her toe in the sand. “I don’t think it was a ploy. I can’t prove it, but if you were there—”
“I agree with Avery,” Dianthe said. “I think Aborella was telling the truth.”
Colin bristled. His siblings and their mates had fled Earth for good reason. Eleanor could track them if they left Aeaea where Circe’s celestial protection shielded them from Eleanor’s blood magic. Eleanor wanted Charlie dead. The prophecy said that the child would be her undoing and the end of Paragon as they knew it. The empress had broken through Nathaniel’s strongest wards to try to murder the babe. If it weren’t for Aborella’s warning, the child might not have made it out alive.
“Ye won’t be goin’ alone, that’s fir sure,” Xavier said, crossing his arms over his bare chest and staring at Avery as if willing her to fight him on that point.
Nathaniel seemed equally peeved by the idea. He reached a hand toward his hip, most likely reaching for his pipe, then seemed to realize he wasn’t wearing his usual suit and crossed his arms, echoing Xavier’s stance. “Definitely not going alone,” he said, his British accent growing stronger with his anger. “You’ll need my magic to travel safely to New Orleans. Public transportation would be suicide.”
Gabriel grunted. “Our home in New Orleans has the strongest blood ward I’ve ever encountered, thanks to Raven. We’ll be safe, at least while we are within its walls.”
Contemplating the news, Colin ran a hand along his scarred arm, hating that there wasn’t a better alternative. As the leader of the Defenders of the Goddess, he knew the others were waiting for his blessing, but it was risky sending the three sisters back into the earthly realm. Strategically, the resistance needed their magic if they were to have any hope of defeating Eleanor, and personally, he would never forgive himself if something happened to one of his siblings or their mates. But the promise of the grimoire was enough bait to get him to bite. It was their best and truest hope of salvation.
“If there’s a chance the key to finding the grimoire is on Earth, we have to try,” he said. “Raven, Avery, Clarissa, Gabriel, Xavier, and Nathaniel will go. Between the six of you, you should be strong enough to keep one another safe.”
“Seven,” Raven said. “We’re not going anywhere without Charlie.”
Colin growled. “It isn’t safe—”
Raven’s eyes flared, and the ground rumbled beneath his feet. “She’s safe where her mother and father are.”
He wasn’t going to fight with that. Coming between a witch and her daughter was far beyond his pay grade. A quick glance at Gabriel confirmed he didn’t have a problem with it. If his brother thought the best course of action was taking the child, Colin wouldn’t force the issue. “Fine. The seven of you will go, find the piece of the tree, and return here.”
A murmur passed through the others.
Raven gave him a curt nod. “We’ll try our best to be quick about it.”
“Excellent.” Colin knew he was being hopelessly optimistic, but he felt good about this move. “With any luck, you’ll find the tree and we’ll have the enchantment on that scroll cracked before things heat up any more on Ouros. We need to know the content of Medea’s message.”
The group dispersed, and Colin allowed himself the pleasure of glancing in Leena’s direction, but she wasn’t there. He caught the back of her dark copper braid as she disappeared into the jungle in the direction of her tent. Odd. Almost like she was running away.
Chapter Three
Leena hadn’t come to dinner, and Colin was tempted to go find her.
Funny thing, temptation. As the youngest heir to the throne of Paragon, Colin had plenty of experience with it and the disappointment that followed when acting on that temptation led to disaster.
When he was seven, he’d been tempted to skip lessons and play in the garden with the cook’s son. How he loved their games. It was the most fun he’d ever had until they were caught.
That was his first lesson that having a royal title wouldn’t buy him an ounce of sympathy. They’d both been returned to the palace, where he was whipped by his father, Killian. Dragons were immortal and healed quickly, but a switch against one’s backside hurt, nonetheless. The sting was permanently branded on his memory.
Worse, he’d had to watch as his friend received the same from the cook. There was no mercy in those blows, and Colin had witnessed the twinkle of something innocent and pure extinguish from his playmate’s eyes with every strike. The punishment was enough to permanently end their young kinship. The cook, after all, must have feared that his son would cost him his job in the palace. Colin rarely saw the boy after that.
When Colin was fourteen, during one of the family’s many royal balls, he’d been tempted to lead a Highborn’s daughter out into the same garden for a different sort of play. Perhaps it was a testament to how hormonally distracted he was that he thought things had changed, that being last in the birth order would allow him more freedom to do as he pleased. After all, he never expected to be king. At any rate, his choice of destination could only be chalked up to youthful senselessness. It was arguably the worst hiding spot in the palace.
Sur
prisingly, when Colin was caught with his hand up her dress, Killian didn’t punish him. Instead, he was given a long lecture on the realities of his royal responsibilities. Although the girl might be a temporary distraction, she was not marriage material, and therefore he must be careful not to attach himself. No political gains could be had by the match, after all.
Later, Colin noticed the girl’s eyes refused to meet his, and his heart broke at the loss of something—he wasn’t sure what—that never had a chance to become.
At twenty and as a fully grown dragon, Colin was tempted to pummel Marius in the pits. All his life, he’d been warned that the younger heirs must never win against their eldest brother. As the one destined to take the throne opposite his sister, Rowan, Marius must always be presented as the strongest and the smartest of the royal clan. Truthfully, Colin thought he was nothing but the haughtiest. But the night Colin gave in to temptation and knocked him on his pompous ass, he was disqualified, accused of cheating, and banned from the pits for an entire season.
And finally, three hundred years ago, a new temptation caught his fancy. It happened after Colin witnessed his uncle Brynhoff murder Marius in the Great Mountain Hall of the Obsidian Palace. Everything changed after that. Scattered to the winds, he and his siblings were suddenly free of any whim other than their own. Oh, he’d followed Nathaniel for a time and then settled in Romania for a few decades, but when temptation struck again, he disobeyed his mother’s warnings and returned to Paragon.
That was when he’d learned what she’d done. That was when he’d been tempted to destroy her and his wicked uncle too. It took centuries to build a solid network of resistors across the five kingdoms, and when he caught up with Sylas on the island of Aeaea, he allowed himself to give in to temptation once more and dream of vengeance. He vowed to bring their mother and uncle to justice.
If history was any sort of teacher, he should expect to fail at this too. He was prepared to fail. Prepared for disappointment. But he’d never give up on the Defenders of the Goddess. Not until either he or Eleanor was dead.
After all that, he should be an expert at dealing with temptation. But he found himself experiencing a different sort than he’d ever experienced before. His dragon wanted Leena. Wanted her like he’d never wanted anyone, like a bird longs for the sky. Unfortunately, his feelings for her were doomed to be unrequited.
Leena was a scribe, part of a religious order that took a vow to devote their lives to chronicling the history of Ouros. He’d been lucky even to have these weeks alone with her. Normally the scribes never left the temple. Leena might have spent her entire life gazing into a pool of tears and chronicling what she saw in its reflection if he hadn’t ended up at the temple library and employed her help in researching ways to stop Eleanor.
But she was here now, on Aeaea, at least until the three sisters translated Medea’s scroll. She’d been assigned to protect it, and he knew she’d guard it with her life until it was safely returned to the temple library.
So when she didn’t come to dinner, he simply had to know why, and although on some level he understood she must want to be alone, he couldn’t resist the temptation to seek her out. He found her on the beach, watching the suns set over the horizon, the sky painted with turquoise and amethyst in a fantastic display of color that was unique to Aeaea.
“Good news about the three sisters.” He cleared his throat and watched her dark copper braid slide off her shoulder as she turned her head to look at him. Her violet eyes sparked as if they were ignited by the sunset behind her. Fragments of the same color purple that streaked the sky flecked her irises, almost as if the heavens had leaked into her. It left him breathless.
“Colin! You startled me. I thought you were at supper?”
“I was. You weren’t. I was worried.” He searched her face. “The sisters and their mates send their goodbyes. They left right after the meal.”
Leena adjusted the neck of her robe and stepped closer to him. Mountain help him, a whisper of blackcurrants and wild primrose wafted through his senses, sending his inner dragon into a frenzy. He schooled his features and tried not to breathe.
“I wasn’t hungry.” She toyed with her collar again. “I was thinking about what Raven said. If they find the tree, they’ll translate the scroll.”
“Exactly what we’ve been waiting for. This could be the break we need.”
The corners of her mouth lifted into a shallow smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She turned her attention to a shell in the sand. “It is great news. How long do you think it will take?”
He sighed. “Days. Weeks. Who knows? This island was created to be a prison for Circe. That means the only way off is by ship to Crete. They can’t simply open a portal between realms as they could if they were in Paragon. Once on Crete, Nathaniel can help them travel by magic, but I’m not sure how far or how fast. And once they’re there, they’ll have to find the tree—what’s left of it anyway. Even if I could estimate how long all that would take, time flows differently on Earth. Makes it impossible to guess when they’ll return.”
She sighed and turned away from him, back toward the sea, looking almost saddened. It didn’t make sense. She should have been ecstatic. She’d repeatedly mentioned her desire to return to Rogos. “Are you disappointed it won’t happen faster?”
Her brows knit as she answered him. “Not exactly.”
“Then what is it?”
“I shouldn’t have come here. I shouldn’t have left the temple.”
“What are you talking about? Do you even realize how much you’ve helped us?” Perhaps it was ill-advised to move closer to her, but he took her by the shoulders, wanting to make her believe that every word he spoke was true. “I would have never found the first orb without your help… or the scroll. You are the reason we have a fighting chance against Eleanor. We needed you, Leena. We still need you.”
A low, feeble sound came from deep in her throat, and she shook her head. “You don’t understand, Colin. I took an oath to devote myself to the goddess. Being here has distracted me from my calling.”
Was that a tear in the corner of her eye? Colin frowned. Why was this affecting her so strongly? “Leena,” he said softly, “we are called the Defenders of the Goddess for a reason. We’ve learned that Eleanor’s ultimate goal is to kill the goddess and take her place. While I have my reservations about whether that’s possible, she’s a threat to everything the goddess created and a threat to Ouros. How is it that you believe you’re not devoting yourself to the goddess when everything you’ve done these past weeks has helped us take a giant leap forward in defending her and the traditions she set in place?”
“It’s not that what you’re doing isn’t important. I know I’ve helped, and I know… You’re going to change the world, Colin.” She lifted her gaze to his, and her tears made the violet color of her eyes go electric with inner light. “It’s just… It’s just…”
He lowered his voice to a soothing whisper and swept his thumb under her eye. It came away wet. His chest sank with a deep protective instinct. What was hurting her? How could he stop it? “You can tell me anything, Leena. I’m on your side. Are you homesick? Are you afraid you’re missing something in Rogos?”
“No.” The word pinched off in her throat, her gaze darting sideways as if she couldn’t bear to look directly at him. “I… I fear that I have enjoyed my time here a bit too much.”
He had to consciously stop his fingers from digging into her shoulders as his dragon rushed to the underside of his skin. Had he heard her correctly? Was he reading too much into her words to think she was talking about him… Them? He swallowed the thickness in his throat, aching for her to elaborate. “I’ve enjoyed having you here too.”
“I… I never thought I’d feel like this, like I’ve tasted the corner of life and suddenly want to consume the whole thing.” She backed away from him, and he let her go. “My whole life, I’ve watched the world go by in a pool of the goddess’s tears. I’ve s
een our world from every angle. Every kingdom. I thought I had everything. I thought I knew Ouros better than anyone. But… but…”
“But life is more than a reflection of someone else’s experiences.” He finished her sentence using the softest voice he could muster, but she flinched anyway and looked at him as if he’d injured her. “I’m sorry. I take it back. That was rude of me. I didn’t mean to put words in your mouth.”
“No. You’re right.” She wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I never realized how much I was missing. The food here. The freedom.” Her gaze met his and held it. “The people.”
His skin tingled with the need to touch her, but he kept his hands by his side. They were in uncharted territory. On his end, he felt himself drawn to her by some sort of magnetism or gravity. It almost hurt to deny it. And in her eyes, he thought he saw a similar sentiment. But he reminded himself that she was an innocent, an inexperienced scribe. She couldn’t know what it did to him for her to hold his stare. She couldn’t know how much he wanted her.
“Dianthe made me realize today that this may be my last and only opportunity to… sample life before I return to the temple for good. I’m on a path to becoming Quanling—”
He cleared his throat. “If there’s anything you’d like to try before you go back, I’ll make it happen.” He shifted his gaze to the sea to break the tension. “Then, when you go back to the temple, you’ll have the memories of your time here. It will make your descriptions in the scrolls even more vivid and give you enough memories to last a lifetime.” How painful it was to think about her going back. How he wished there was a chance he could make her his. But he wasn’t a predator. No matter how much he wanted her, there would be no honor in trying to seduce a scribe.
He was surprised when her hand landed on the bare skin of his arm. Her fingers were long and tapered. Elves in general were shaped narrower and leaner than dragons. Lithe would be the word for the people of Rogos. Leena radiated grace and beauty.
The Dragons of Paragon Page 2