Chapter 20
Elana
The moat was a graveyard of debris.
I stood at the edge, the damp stone cool beneath my boots, and dragged the long-handled net through the murky water. The goblins had turned Kai’s sacred domain into a dumping ground—shattered barrels, splintered furniture, even a few rusted crossbows floated just beneath the surface.
The asshole goblins had catapulted anything and everything they could find at the castle. Broken chairs, shattered pottery, even a few half-rotted vegetables. It was as if they’d raided a garbage heap for their ammo.
The water itself was thick with silt and a dark, stinky sludge that made my stomach twist. It would take days for the filter to make a dent.
Poor Kai.
I could see him now, knee-deep in the shallows in his human form, as he carefully transferred his beloved pets into temporary saltwater tanks. His face was pinched with worry, his hands moving frantically. The moat had been his pride, his sanctuary, and now it was a wreck.
I leaned over the edge, my net dipping into the water, and hauled up another clump of debris. This one was a tattered blanket, waterlogged and heavy, the fabric horribly stained. I shook it loose, sending a spray of droplets onto the stone path, and tossed it onto the growing pile of refuse.
The attackers had all scattered, leaving behind their weapons of moat destruction, the moment Emmett had shown up in dragon form. That explained the toasted trees at the turn in of the long drive leading up to the castle, right by the front gate.
Too bad I was inside trying to fight off a goblin of my own. I would’ve loved to see him flying in his dragon form and breathing fire. I bet he was formidable. I’d seen him for a few seconds as a dragon, curled around me on the bed, but that was different.
I sighed, wiping my forehead with the back of my hand. The sun was high, the air thick with humidity, and my arms ached from the effort. But I couldn’t stop. Not yet.
I dipped the net back into the water, my muscles straining as I dragged it through the muddy depths. Something heavy caught in the mesh, and I grunted as I hauled it up. A broken wooden crate, its planks splintered and waterlogged. I tossed it onto the pile and kept going.
The sound of Kai’s muttered curses carried across the water. I watched as he lifted a fish from the murky depths, its scales glinting in the sunlight. It looked sluggish as Kai carefully placed it into the tank with others of its kind.
Inky, his octopus, looked on from one of the other tanks with too much interest.
“No, Inky. You can’t eat him. Remember what I said? We only eat pre-killed fish here.”
Inky squirted water at him.
Kai sighed. “No, you can’t pre-kill him either. If you do, I won’t order you any more caviar.”
I bit my lip. Kai had his hands full.
I should go check on Dizzi and make sure she was okay.
The attackers had been from her old clan.
She’d been putting on a brave face for her kids, but I’d seen the way her hands trembled when she thought no one was looking.
She was now with her two children and Melly in the conservatory, trying to distract them with plants and sunlight.
But first, I scooped up one last clump of debris—a soggy, unidentifiable mass—and tossed it onto the pile. My arms burned, my back ached, and my clothes were damp with sweat. But the moat was mostly clear now of the big pieces.
I shook the last of the debris from my net and tossed it onto the growing pile before wiping my sweat-slicked hands on my trousers.
The sun had climbed higher while I worked, turning the courtyard into a furnace.
My shirt clung to my back with perspiration, and my hair stuck to my neck in damp tendrils.
Time to check on Dizzi and enjoy a few minutes of air-conditioned bliss.
I left the net leaning against the stone wall and crossed the drawbridge into the courtyard. I could cut across to the side where the jasmine plants were blooming and go straight into the conservatory through the side door. But that would bypass the air-conditioned parts of the castle completely.
The other option was to go through the castle. It was the longer way around, but I’d be able to cool down and maybe give Emmett a visit in his office. I decided on the latter and headed toward the main doors.
The heavy wooden doors groaned as I pushed them open, and I stepped into the blessedly cool interior. The blast of air-conditioning instantly soothed my overheated skin. I paused just inside the doorway, letting the artificial breeze dry the sweat on my neck and arms. It was bliss.
The familiar scent of stone and lemon polish filled the air as I moved down the hallway.
Cassian must’ve been through recently. Last I saw him, he was drenching the hallway where the portal had opened with more lemon Pledge than I could shake a stick at.
Said he didn’t like the stench of ghouls and unwashed goblin males.
I didn’t blame him; they’d reeked. But I also wondered if he was doing that to cover any possible lingering traces of my magic.
I slowed as I neared Emmett’s office. The door was slightly ajar, and voices drifted into the hallway.
“...Sena is long gone, and her residual magic will not hold,” Leroy’s voice carried clearly through the gap.
“I told you we need to transfer the system to me and find us a new source of magic. What about that witch who has been staying with us? Her magical aura looks weak, but she could be hiding her magic like you said.”
I froze, mid-step. I couldn’t hear the first part of Emmett’s reply, but I heard the second sentence loud and clear. It made my stomach drop.
“I’m working on it.”
My world slowed to a standstill. My stomach twisted, nausea rising in my throat.
Luella’s warning echoed in my mind: He thought you would be a good source for my father to draw from. He just wants your magic.
I took a step back, my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my fingertips. The hallway stretched before me, long and empty, but all I could hear was Emmett’s voice, replaying in my head.
He was working on it. He was talking about me. He was working on me. He hadn’t been using romance to get me to help with Melly. He wanted me for my magic, just like every goddamn man I’d ever met.
I turned away and forced my legs to move. I went back down the hallway and into the foyer, then right out into the courtyard again. I cut across, aiming for the row of potted jasmines that lined the well-tended water feature. Past it was the footbridge that led to the side door to the conservatory.
I reached for the handle. My body moved on autopilot, and my palm was slick with sweat as I pushed it open. Humid, earth-scented air greeted me. Numbly, I made my way down the walkway to the open area at the center.
Dizzi sat on a curved stone bench, her hands resting lightly in her lap. She looked composed on the outside, but the filtered sunlight caught the tension in her shoulders. Her two children, Dak and Nizzi, played some made-up game with Melly, taking turns chasing each other.
Dizzi looked up as I approached. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I forced a smile. “Just tired,” I lied. “The moat was a mess. It’s been a tough day. Are you okay?”
She nodded, her gaze flickering to the children before settling back on me. “Yes. Thanks for asking.”
I swallowed hard, my throat tight. “Of course.”
Then I had a thought. Leroy hadn’t seen me since coming back.
I hadn’t even known when he’d arrived. But I did know for certain that he was interested in me for my magic.
I had to hide it. Sure, Emmett already knew, but if the wizard himself saw it with his own eyes, it would make me an even better target.
“Can I have your help?” I asked quietly. There were cameras in here, and I didn’t know who had access to the footage. But I had to trust that not every single piece of footage was being monitored at all times.
Dizzi’s eyes narrowed at me. “I knew something was wrong. What is it?”
I leaned close and whispered, “I need your help hiding my magic again. Leroy is back.”
Her eyes darted up momentarily to where the cameras were. “Come over to my place. We can have some tea and talk.” She hopped off the bench, quite literally since she was only four feet tall or so, and the bench was half her height.
Now that I thought about it, she was able to handle Melly now because she was still a baby, and Dizzi could rely on her magic if need be. But as Melly grew, she’d quickly become unmanageable by the goblin woman, especially in dragon form.
I followed her through the castle’s winding corridors to the goblin family’s quarters.
To my surprise, they had a whole cozy suite of interconnected rooms. The main room featured a low table surrounded by large—by goblin standard, normal by mine—floor cushions in deep emerald and sapphire hues.
The walls were lined with shelves holding an eclectic collection of smooth river stones, mismatched teacups, and bundles of dried herbs.
A small wood-burning stove stood in the corner.
Melly, having already been here before, made herself comfortable on one of the floor cushions.
Dizzy dug through a drawer and retrieved a foil packet. I recognized it immediately as a “canned” spell, premade and ready to use. She tore it open, and magic filled the room.
“Make yourself comfortable. I’ll put the kettle on. It’s safe to talk now; the spell is from Sena herself. It’ll last an hour.”
Thirty minutes later, we were hanging up with Tansy and initiating my escape plan from Dragon Manor. Until we knew for sure, the consensus was that I had to get out of here and stay somewhere safe and out of Leroy’s reach.
And the worst part of going through all of this was that I couldn’t stop thinking about how betrayed I felt. How stupid I’d been to trust Emmett. What a consummate actor. Luella had warned me about it, and somehow, I’d still fallen for it.
It had felt so real, how he’d cared for me when I was weak. And then there were the moments with him in town, and the trips out to town with Melly. They’d all felt so real.
And I was a stupid, stupid woman to have believed any of it.
Dizzi hadn’t been remotely surprised by my words. In fact, she’d leaned forward, her dark eyes sharp with understanding. “I’ve been wondering if Leroy was behind the attack,” she confessed, her voice low. “Sending my old clan in would be something he’d do. It makes him look innocent.”
Apparently, Dizzi was a goblin princess in the same way that a mobster’s daughter was a mob princess.
That was to say that she was the goblin king’s daughter.
Though every tribe thought their leader was the “real” king.
She was supposed to marry some horrible, brutal prince from another clan, but she’d fallen in love with Nak, the one the prince had sent with his messages, instead.
Dizzi missed Sena and had wondered whether Leroy had a hand in her death. She was afraid to say anything. “It’s all just suspicion. Call it female intuition. I brought it up with Nak once, and he almost flipped his lid. Told me not to say anything to anyone else.”
“I wonder if he’s afraid of the wizard.”
“I don’t know. Probably. I never did find any proof, but I still don’t trust him, proof or not. I just didn’t expect Emmett to go along with it. Did you know, Leroy once suggested using my magic as a source? But Emmett turned it down.”
At the end, it was decided that it was safest for me to get out of dodge completely and stay safe.
No amount of hiding my magic would help me if Leroy really wanted to get his hands on me, not when I couldn’t access the magic consistently myself.
Just because I’d used it once to protect my friends didn’t mean I could do it again, especially since any and all attempts to use my magic to help with the cleanup effort had failed.
“Do you have anyone you can trust?” Dizzi had asked.
And so, we’d called Tansy. And now the plan was simple: get out past Leroy’s ring of magic, and have Tansy open up a portal to my location.
I cuddled Melly in my arms, hating that I had to leave her.
“I wish I could take you along, but that would be dragon-napping.”
“I’ll take care of her. Emmett wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. I’ve seen the way he looks at her.” Then she paused, frowning. “But then, I’ve also seen the way he looks at you. Are you sure you heard what you heard?”
“I am. I can still hear his words.” But her doubts were rubbing off on me. “Maybe I misinterpreted them?”
“Maybe. I’ll do some digging for you. But until we know for sure, it’s better for you to get somewhere safe. You can always come back when we clear things up.”
I nodded. It was the best option. I’d dealt with men like Leroy before and knew that one ounce of prevention was always better than a pound of cure. It would be infinitely easier to stay out of his grasp than it would be to get out once he’d sunk his nails in.
If I moved fast and got out while everyone was busy cleaning up and resetting the wards, no one would notice until I was gone.
The goal was to make sure Leroy never saw my magic unhidden in all its glory.
Resolve strong, I gave Melly one more big hug and all the kisses she could handle, then started toward my room to pack.