Chapter 19
Dreagan
Eurwen couldn’t stop thinking about when Vaughn had told her the story of his stillborn child. His pain had been there for all to see. He no longer hid it. Unfortunately, Darius and Sophie either chose to ignore that or didn’t recognize it for what it was.
“Are you the only two attempting to have a child?” Eurwen asked the couple.
Sophie looked at Darius and smiled. “We’ve not spoken to anyone else about this.”
“At least you spared V and Claire that,” Vaughn said.
Darius’s gaze cut to Vaughn. “Would you really have all of us live forever without children?”
“I would spare you the agony of losing another one,” Vaughn snapped. He sighed, visibly distressed. “I would expect you, of anyone, to understand what it means to lose a child.”
Darius’s nostrils flared in anger. “I’ll never forget that pain. Ever.”
“Then why?” Vaughn demanded in exasperation. “Why would you put yourself and Sophie in such a position?”
Eurwen looked between the two, suddenly realizing what Vaughn was saying. Darius had also lost a child. Now she understood why Vaughn was so distraught about Darius’s and Sophie’s seemingly flippant decision.
Darius drew in a deep breath and turned his head to Sophie.
His lips softened as he gazed into her eyes, his love evident.
“I can’t change the past. Nor do I wish to.
The love I share with Sophie is more than I ever thought I would have.
She’s helped to heal the broken pieces of my heart.
I didn’t spare any details of what I went through.
We’ve had numerous discussions about the odds and what could happen.
It isn’t an easy decision. But it’s something we both want. ”
Sophie smiled, her eyes glittering with unshed tears.
Eurwen’s heart was torn. She saw the affection between Darius and Sophie and why they wished to attempt to have a child.
Eurwen’s gaze slid back to Vaughn, and her heart broke all over again for the pain reflected in his eyes.
This kind of decision was one that would have to be made by each couple once they knew the facts of both sides.
Eurwen realized this conversation wasn’t going anywhere. It was time she stopped it. She caught Sophie’s attention. “You think I’m different because I was born on Death’s realm and have lived for some time on Zora, right?”
“I do,” Sophie said as she turned her attention to Eurwen. “I gather you don’t?”
Eurwen shook her head. “You know my parents.”
“And that in itself is something to consider,” Darius said.
Vaughn pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.
“Darius, you’re my brother. We’ve stood together for countless millennia.
Sophie, I hold you in high regard for your ability as a doctor.
You’ve done great work. I understand why you want to study Eurwen, but as she told you, she’s no different than Melisse. ”
“I’d like the opportunity to find out,” Sophie stated.
Eurwen shook her head. “No.”
“What are you hiding?” Darius asked.
Eurwen raised her brows, surprised at the vehemence in his words. “Nothing.”
“Then it won’t hurt for me to examine you. Take some x-rays as well as blood,” Sophie said.
Vaughn moved closer to Eurwen. “She’s given her answer. Perhaps you should start gathering data from Melisse or us first.”
Darius said nothing as he took Sophie’s hand, and the couple exited the library.
Once they were gone, Eurwen turned to Vaughn. “Are you all right?”
“It’s like they couldna hear me.”
“It isn’t that they couldn’t. It’s that they didn’t want to.”
Vaughn shook his head as his Persian blue eyes met hers. “If you had been here for the last nine months of Claire’s pregnancy, you would understand how shocked I am.”
“I might not have been here, but I heard your and my parents’ words about the couple.
I also saw V and Claire for myself. Why do you think I agreed to let Claire go to Zora?
If there’s a chance the child could be born alive, I want them to have it.
It’s the least they deserve after what Usaeil did to them. ”
Vaughn walked to the sofa and sank onto the edge of a cushion as he rested his forearms on his knees. “Please doona think I doona want my brethren to have children.”
“I don’t think that,” she told him. “I know why you hold that opinion.”
He turned his head to her. “If Claire and V’s bairn is born alive, more Kings and their mates will start trying for their own.”
“Maybe that’s what is supposed to happen.”
“Eurwen, I lost a child with a woman who wasna my mate and it nearly broke me. Magnify that a hundred times, and that might come close to what it would feel like between a King and his mate.”
She sat beside him, wanting to comfort him in any way she could. “They will lean on each other.”
“Some will. Some willna. That kind of loss can destroy once-strong bonds.”
Now it made sense to her. “Dragons mate for life, but humans and Fae don’t.”
Vaughn slowly nodded his head. “Con has long feared how mortals might respond mentally to being immortal. It isna in their DNA to live that long. Though that wasna his only concern. At one point, he actively tried to dissuade the Kings from taking mortals as mates.”
“How did that turn out?”
“As you’d expect. Once a dragon finds his mate, there is no one else for him. Con knew that. He understood it. But he looked to the future, as he always does.”
Eurwen scooted to the cushions on the sofa to support her back. “There is no divorce for dragon mates.”
“Dragons know this. Con tried to explain it to the mates, but all of them swore their love for their King. I believed them. We all did. Even Con.”
“But that doesn’t stop him from worrying that something might eventually tear one or more couples apart,” she guessed.
Vaughn slowly sat back as he sighed. “When I first became King of Teals, I remember looking at Con and thinking it couldna be that difficult to be King of Kings. I’ve learned from watching him over the eons that I had no idea what I was thinking.
Con shoulders a great responsibility. He’s put his happiness to the side for ours, time and again.
He’s always thinking about our continued survival and how we can find fulfillment and love while remaining hidden from the humans. ”
“If any of the mates leave their King, it would mean death for both of them. A dragon can’t survive without its mate.”
“And the mates are tied to the King through the ceremony.” Vaughn’s lips twisted. “Every King here would like to have a child. But at what cost?”
“That’s what irritates you with Darius and Sophie, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “We all resigned ourselves to never having children. We expected to live out eternity alone. Then the unexpected happened, and some of us began finding mates.”
“Perhaps more change is coming. Brandr and I were born. Granted, not of a human but rather a Fae.”
Vaughn’s gaze was focused on a spot before him, though he absently nodded.
Eurwen knew he was most likely entering a dark place with memories of his lost child. She put her hand atop his to get his attention. “Take me to your mountain.”
“What?” he asked as he turned to look at her.
“Your mountain. Take me to it.”
His face softened. “All right.”
She got to her feet and pulled him up by a hand. “Let’s go.”
“Now?”
“Why not?” she asked.
He smiled and linked his fingers with hers. “Why no’, indeed.”
When Vaughn turned her toward the door, she tugged on his arm to stop him. Then she shook her head. “I’ve another way.”
In the next breath, she teleported them to the back of Dreagan Mountain.
“It’s still too light for us to fly,” he told her. “We’ll have to walk.”
“Which direction?”
Vaughn pointed to the west.
Eurwen focused on one of the mountaintops as far as she knew she could teleport and jumped them there.
One mountain at a time, she teleported with Vaughn directing her until they finally reached his.
She watched as the tension from the manor fell away from him.
He took her hand and led her down one side of the rockface until they reached a boulder that hid an entrance to the mountain.
“I never wanted to be caught and no’ be able to get into my mountain,” Vaughn explained. “There’s an entrance at the base, one I use in my true form, and this one.”
Eurwen had always wanted to go into one of the mountains on Dreagan. Neither she nor Brandr had ever used one for themselves, but other dragons on Zora did. She often wondered if her Fae blood made it so she didn’t yearn for a mountain.
The instant she entered Vaughn’s mountain behind him, something moved through her. The sensation was one of comfort and solace. The deeper she went into the tunnel, the darker it became. Her dragon sight took over, allowing her to see easily.
Her hand was still linked with Vaughn’s. He led her through the tunnel that wound slightly downward. She spotted a couple of forks in the passageway but decided to ask about those later. Just as in Dreagan Mountain, carvings of dragons were prevalent all through the tunnel.
“Did you do these?” she asked.
Vaughn glanced at her over his shoulder. “I did.”
They were impressive. Some were lone dragons. Others clustered together. Some stood while more were in flight. Some were done as closeups, and still more were carved as if seen from a great distance. But they were all Teals.
The tunnel widened, emptying into a cavern. Eurwen paused to take it all in when Vaughn released her hand and walked ahead of her. A moment later, a ball of light emerged from his hand. It began rising into the air, growing larger and brighter until it touched the ceiling above.
Eurwen looked from one end of the cavern to the other.
The floor was smooth and bare except for the occasional boulder.
It almost looked as if someone had rolled them out of the middle.
The arched ceiling that came to a point was high enough that a dragon could stand without hitting its head.
The curved walls were absent of dragon carvings, but what stood out were the scorch marks made from dragon fire. And the scratches from Vaughn’s claws.
“This is where I slept away many centuries,” Vaughn said.
She made her way to one of the scorch marks and lightly ran her fingers over the burnt rock. “You did more than sleep.”
“I had to release my anger somehow. Allowing it to fester would’ve only made things worse.”
Eurwen turned her head to him. “And you couldn’t take it out on those you felt responsible.”
“Humans.” He shot her a lopsided grin. “That I couldna.”
“Why did you choose this mountain?”
He seemed to think about that for a moment and then shrugged.
“I can no’ answer that. After the dragons were gone, Con brought us here.
He urged us to find a mountain and sleep.
I remember flying this way, but I doona have any memories of choosing a particular mountain.
I was weary and outraged. I knew I had to sleep.
I think I took the first mountain I came across. ”
Eurwen watched how he gently touched the rock as he walked. She didn’t believe anything had been done carelessly. He might not have chosen this mountain, but it had chosen him.
“Con came to us every ten years and updated us on things as we slept,” Vaughn continued.
“Then, one day, I woke. I wasna yet ready to leave the mountain, but I was done sleeping. I walked every inch of this place. When I couldna go farther, I made tunnels. It wasna long after that I started the art. I had no concept of time. I didna leave, didna even look outside. I would get restless and sleep, only to wake sometime later and begin the process all over again.”
Eurwen studied Vaughn, the way he smiled when he talked about the mountain, how he stroked the rock. “Do you return here?”
“Aye.” He met her gaze and smiled. “We each have chambers at the manor, and they’re somewhat private. However, it’s hard to get real privacy in such a place with so many people. When I need to center myself, I come here. I can block out the world and feel the magic.”
“Sounds perfect.”
“Do you have such a place?”
She glanced around the cavern. “Nothing like this. When Brandr and I first arrived on Zora, we were intent on calming the dragons. It wasn’t long after that we created Cairnkeep. While it might not be as grand as Dreagan, it’s our home.”
His brows shot up in his forehead. “That place is spectacular. The views alone are sublime. You sit atop a mountain. I would say it is grand.”
“We don’t have a manor.”
He gave her a dry look. “We both know if that’s what you wanted, you would have it. Dreagan and Cairnkeep might be different, but each is beautiful in its own right.”
His words warmed her heart. “I like it here. There’s something very calming about your mountain.”
“I always thought so. I feel it each time I come here.”
“I felt it,” she told him in amazement.
His lips turned up in a smile. “Somehow, that doesna surprise.”
“It does me. I’ve never been drawn to mountains. Not like you and the other Kings.”
Vaughn shrugged nonchalantly. “That doesna make you any less of a dragon. It only means you need something different.”
“Why did I feel something when I walked in here?”
“I wish I knew.”
“Does every King feel something when they enter their mountains?” she asked.
Vaughn’s smile widened. “I’ve never asked any of the others.”
“Really? I would’ve thought you would.”
“We might be as close as brothers, but we must have our privacy. You know that. Otherwise, you and Brandr would share a house.”
Eurwen nodded in agreement. She walked to the middle of the cavern and spun with her arms outstretched. She lifted her head and saw the scorch marks above her. Halting, she stared at them, trying to imagine the pain Vaughn suffered.
“Trying times,” he said from behind her.
She whirled around and met his gaze. “You had a realm all to yourself. Then you welcomed new beings that changed everything.”
“We expected them to treat us with the same respect we did them.”
“Instead, you lost everything. Locked on a magical land but unwilling to take back your world. You remained here, furious and hurting, with no way to do anything about it.”
His shoulders dropped. “I can forget what the humans have done. It’s just a wee moment. Then I remember everything once more. We’re living in Hell. One we created, but Hell nonetheless.”
Eurwen placed her hand on his cheek. “How do you survive?”
“I searched for you.”
Her heart skipped a beat at his words.
Then he yanked her against him, his mouth ravaging hers.