Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
CONNOR
O nce I finally get Fiona dried off and back in my bed, I curl around her, exhausted. There’s nothing I’d enjoy more than celebrating our mating all night long, but it’s been weeks since I had a full night’s sleep due to the mating sickness. Tomorrow will be better. Now that I’ve claimed Fiona as my mate, I’ll never have to suffer the effects of mating sickness again. My mind immediately jumps to the Oracle. I’ll have to ask her to bless our union so that I can bring Fiona to Cardinal Island.
I frown. I angered the Oracle when I took Fiona. I pray to the creator that when she sees how this has all worked out, she’ll forgive me. Mason’s ascension is next week. I’ll see her then and plead my case.
“There’s something I don’t understand,” Fiona says.
“Hmm?”
“You know how you told me over dinner that one of the Zodiac Brotherhood’s warriors sacrificed himself fifty years ago in exchange for the peace accord?”
“Yeah?” I’m barely awake, but I’ll do what I must to answer my new mate’s questions.
“If he suffers from mating sickness like you, wouldn’t he have died by now? He must have been twenty or so?—”
“Eighteen. Donovan was young for a warrior. He’ll be sixty-nine this fall.”
“Donovan? Donovan is the dragon who sacrificed himself?” She laughs. “I met him.”
My eyes open more fully. “You met Donovan in person? How is he?”
She looks flabbergasted. “Fine. More than fine. He goes everywhere with Stefan. They’re never apart. Actually, I assumed they were a couple at first because of the way they’d stand together, almost touching. Roman told me they were close friends.”
I balk at that information. “Are you saying you met Donovan at a social event? One unrelated to the Order?”
“Um, yeah. We had a casual family dinner with them.”
My mouth slackens. “How did he seem?”
Her shoulder lifts toward her ear. “Not like a prisoner. He smiled and laughed with us all evening. Ate and drank at our table. Looked fondly at Stefan often.” She licks her lips. “Honestly, I’m baffled right now to learn he’s almost seventy years old and their prisoner. He only looked about fifty.”
“Dragons don’t age like humans. We remain relatively young until the day we die. ”
“But wouldn’t he be close to death from the sickness? You were terribly ill, and you’re thirty-eight.”
“Donovan is a powerful warrior. He’ll fight the sickness as long as possible. He likely has another thirty years.”
“But eventually… You said unmated dragons live to be around a hundred. What happens to the accord after he goes up in flames?”
“The accord is written to extend beyond his lifetime. That was part of the deal.”
She stares up at the ceiling. “So weird. I would have never guessed he was a prisoner.”
She snuggles into my side, warm and sleepy. I kiss her temple. But as I lay my head back on the pillow, I wonder why Donovan hasn’t responded to our urgent messages if he indeed enjoys the kind of freedom she described. And I also wonder what it means that no one from the Order has come for Fiona.