Chapter 12
Spencer continued to wander, walking up stoney paths that looked out over the sea before it dropped, gently taking him back down to the sea line.
The path ended at large bolder that, to most, would seem a dead end, but spencer wasn’t normal.
It took moments to find the hidden path behind the bolder and soon the path opened up to a hidden beach.
It was a secluded stretch of beach, tucked away from the rest of the bay as if the world had simply…
forgotten it existed. The sand was pale, untouched except for the tide’s slow reach.
The sea here was quieter, the waves softer as they rolled in and out like a secret shared between the shore and the deep.
It was, in short, beautiful.
Spencer stopped the moment his feet hit the sands. Not because of the view, because of the figure standing at the water’s edge. He shifted instinctively, stepping behind a large rock without thinking, his body going still, controlled, silent.
He watched. She stood with her back to him, her arms folded across her chest and her feet planted firmly in the sand as she faced the sea like she was daring it to say something back.
Her hair was the first thing that caught his attention. It was long, all the way to her backside. But it was the colour that truly caught his eye.
Purple. It spilled down her back, catching the wind as it moved, strands lifting and twisting in the morning air like something alive.
Spencer’s gaze narrowed slightly.
“Well… interesting,” he murmured under his breath.
Dressed simply in shorts and a tank top, for anyone else just an unassuming female but for some reason, it was that simplicity that called to Spencer.
The wind shifted and, with it, her scent reached him. Spencer stilled because that scent caused his heart to race and the hairs on the backs of his arms to raise. Deep magic and something deeper… ancient. Dragon.
This wasn’t just a random woman on a beach. Spencer noted the evidence. Purple hair, a trait from the clan. Dragon scent and hidden magic. A paranormal town that was known for being out of the way and rarely visited, as well as guarded by mythical beasts.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he murmured. Nothing about this felt accidental.
He studied her more carefully now, attention shifting from the obvious to the subtle.
The tension in her shoulders. The way her stance wasn’t relaxed, it was braced, like she was waiting for a strike.
Spencer frowned. If this was the missing heir, that, right there, didn’t match the brief.
This woman did not look unstable, violent, or even dangerous.
She looked concerned, fearful and very very wary.
His jaw tightened because he’d seen that before, he recognised it from people who had been running too long. The wind picked up again, tugging at her hair, carrying that scent stronger this time. Spencer inhaled slowly.
“This isn’t simple,” he said quietly. Of course it wasn’t, it shouldn’t be. His instincts stirred again. Something closer to recognition, not of her specifically but of what she was, her predicament.
It brushed against that same restless pull in his chest, the one he’d been trying to ignore.
The one he wasn’t about to examine right now. Spencer shifted slightly behind the rock, careful not to make a sound.
He could approach her and reveal himself, test her reaction. See if he could confirm his theory, or he could wait and observe, and make sure she was who he thought she was. There would be no joy taking in the wrong female.
Spencer chose the latter, because rushing got people killed.
Something about this and her told him one wrong move could be messy.
He continued to watch. She didn’t move, didn’t even turn.
Didn’t give any sign she knew she was being watched, but Spencer didn’t assume that meant anything.
Because people who stayed hidden this long did not do so by being unaware they were being watched.
His gaze lingered on her for a moment longer, on the line of her shoulders, on the way her fingers pressed slightly into her arms. On the tension she hadn’t released.
“If you are who I think you are,” he murmured, barely audible over the sea, “this just got complicated.”
And not for the first time since taking the job, Spencer wasn’t entirely sure he wanted the answer.