Chapter 17 #2
He puts his hand on my knee, giving it a light squeeze.
My hands tremble slightly, the remembered panic all too real even now.
‘She was fourteen. She’d left school as normal that day but never made it home.
Milo and I flew back to Wales immediately.
Our entire dragon flight organised a search for her.
We started locally, thinking maybe she’d just gone somewhere and had gotten into some sort of trouble, but within days we were scouring the length and breadth of the UK, searching for any trace of her.
‘Our flight were insistent that we could find her ourselves, but Mum was beside herself with worry. She’s a water dragon so can’t fly, and Dad wouldn’t let Milo or I carry her, insisting she stay home as a central point of contact.
She’s usually the calmest person in a crisis, but this just broke her.
I couldn’t stand seeing her like that, and was freaking out that Zara had been missing for four days at that point, so I did the one thing our flight should have done from the beginning. I contacted the local BSG task force.’
My hands clench into fists as I pause so I can calm down enough to finish the story. He waits patiently, his hand a firm, steady weight, his eyes full of concern.
‘The BSG Counter-Terrorism Unit contacted me within hours. They’d been watching a location in the Scottish Highlands that they suspected of being a fae military training camp, and a new recruit had been brought in a few days previously that they thought might be Zara.’
‘What the fuck?’ He signs abruptly, his eyes hard.
‘Exactly my reaction. They’d been gathering intelligence to track whether there was a wider network than just that single location, so had no immediate plans to shut the camp down yet.
Of course, the kidnapping of a minor was enough of a reason to change their minds.
I asked if they wanted a couple of dragons as backup, and they agreed.
‘Milo was the only one I told. I knew the rest of the flight wouldn’t approve of what I’d done, and would insist I stay behind while the senior members of the flight took over, so Milo and I flew to Scotland without telling anyone.’
Raj’s hand movements are firm. ‘I don’t blame you, although I’m amazed the CTU agreed to let you go along. Government organisations aren’t known for enlisting the help of civilians.’
I shrug. ‘In this case, they had to scramble a team at short notice, only had immediate access to one helicopter, and had no dragon officers available. They didn’t want the fae flying away to escape capture, so they chose to let us help.’
I found out later that the agent who’d made that decision got into a heap of trouble for it. They broke a lot of protocols, letting my brother and I join them.
‘What happened when you got there?’ Raj asks, eyes riveted on me.
‘The team insisted that we stay out of the mountain camp. Our job was to capture any fae who tried to fly away. We’d both have preferred to storm in and find Zara, but since they’d done us a huge favour by letting us tag along, we agreed.
‘As soon as they breached the ward, it descended into chaos.
The fae took to the skies, some attacking the team while others tried to escape.
We captured as many as we could. I ended up chasing one particular fae around the other side of the mountain and spotted Lance dragging Zara out of a hidden cave.
She had a magical collar around her neck to prevent her from shifting, shifter-grade handcuffs, and a chain attaching the handcuffs to the collar. She looked utterly terrified.
‘Lance started firing spells at me, sandstorms and the like, while trying to drag her into his arms so he could fly away with her. She was already resisting, so as soon as she saw me she started kicking him until she managed to break free. Lance lifted into the air, and I could see a huge spell building in his wings.’
‘Wait, the magic was in his wings? I thought fae cast using their hands.’
‘A fae’s magic is contained in their wings. Their hands are just the conduit to control the direction of the spell.’
He blinks. ‘I didn’t know that. Sorry, continue.’
‘There’s not much more to the story. I snatched him out of the air and crushed his wings.’
He frowns. ‘Is that what put him in a coma?’
‘No, their wings aren’t quite that vital.
We were able to get Zara out of the collar and chains, but she was trembling and kept shooting these panicked looks at Lance.
’ I’ll never forget the feeling of holding my terrified sister in my arms when we’d all begun to fear she might have already been killed.
‘She admitted she’d met a boy online and had been chatting to him.
We didn’t know it at the time, but she’d been getting bullied at school and one day she’d had enough.
Instead of flying to her brothers in Birchester, she flew to the address this boy had given her. ’
His eyes harden and his hand movements turn choppy. ‘It was Lance?’
I give a sharp nod. ‘It was Lance. She had no idea she’d been talking to an adult fae. Within minutes of arriving he’d put the collar and handcuffs on her and within an hour she was on a private jet to Inverness.
‘Anyway, the BSG teams were having trouble with transporting so many prisoners at once, so we offered to help. When we delivered them to the BSG base near Aberdeen, Lance…might have slipped out of my grasp a little too high up.’
He raises his eyebrows. ‘How high up?’
I smirk. ‘High enough that I got to watch him bounce.’
If there’s a certain amount of glee in my hand movements, I think that’s understandable. It put Lance in a coma and me in prison, and the memory of his broken body got me through some tough nights in my cell.
Raj runs a hand over his stubbled head, his expression troubled. ‘Honestly? I don’t blame you.’
I eye him. ‘Really?’
His lips quirk up on one side. ‘Just because we have to uphold the law, doesn’t mean we’re not aware that justice comes in many forms. Life in the SAS was very different to what we do now.’
I suppose it would be. I kept the details from him until now partly to protect Zara, but mostly because when my flight found out what happened, they were furious.
I bore the brunt of their anger because I’d enlisted the help of outsiders, hadn’t informed them once I had a location, and ended up getting charged with assault.
I was kicked out for bringing shame on the flight.
Although Harley knows what happened and has always agreed with my actions, I assumed other people would react like my flight did.
I’ve learnt that Raj and his pack are different but even so, it’s a relief that he’s taking this so well.
He frowns. ‘So Lance kidnapped her, for what purpose? To train as a soldier?’
‘Exactly that. Well, part soldier, part weapon. They wanted a young, impressionable dragon to train over several years.’
‘Shit. Was their organisation dismantled?’
I nod. “The CTU confirmed it during Lance’s trial.’
His chest rises and falls. ‘Well that’s something, I suppose. How on earth did Lance avoid prison? He should have been locked away for years, regardless of what you did to him.’
I scrub a hand over my face, a tight feeling in my chest. Getting Zara back alive and relatively unharmed was obviously what really mattered, but knowing Lance escaped true justice while I spent years in a cell with my dragon side locked away, is still painful.
‘His lawyer claimed that Zara was the equivalent recruitment age for the fae military, and pointed out that she’d gone willingly to Lance that day.
Apparently, trickery is part of the fae military recruitment strategy and is a valid tactic in the fae realm.
The fae judge urged the jury to respect cultural differences when making their decision, pointing out that Lance never had any intention of harming her.
Between that and what the jury were being paid under the table, Lance ended up with a one-year suspended sentence.
He walked out of the court room a free man, and at the end of my trial I was convicted of assault. ’
His chest rises and falls rapidly, his eyes flashing amber.
He gets to his feet and encourages me to stand as well before enveloping me in the best kind of full body hug.
His firm muscles are pressed against me, his deceptively strong arms wrapped around me.
He’s shaking—or maybe that’s me. The stress of retelling this right after finding my hoard is catching up with me.
He pulls back just far enough to sign, his hands snapping.
‘I absolutely hate that you’ve had to go through all that.
I know I can’t change what happened to you, but I’ve been putting together a proposal to review and potentially overhaul the justice system in Birchester.
Due to this investigation taking priority it’s not ready to submit to the BSG yet, but I’ll make sure it gets taken seriously.
I’ll do whatever I can to make sure people are tried and sentenced fairly in future. ’
There’s something reassuring about the determination in his eyes to effect real change. He’s not just on my side, but on the side of others who might find themselves at the mercy of a biased legal system.
‘It’s probably long overdue,’ I sign.
‘Will you let me seek legal advice on whether there’s enough evidence to appeal your conviction? One of Ayo’s vampire uncles is the best criminal defence solicitor in the city.’
‘There’s no point, treasure. I’ve already served my time.’ He looks like he wants to argue, so I kiss him softly instead. ‘At this point I just want to move on.’
That’s mostly true. I still want to support him and his pack in stopping Lance and his cronies, but at the moment I have no idea what more I can do.
At least making a new life for myself is something I can pour my energy into. I’d certainly rather spend time working on my new business and keeping my sexy tiger boyfriend satisfied than dwell on my conviction.
Some of the tension leaves him. ‘I understand. Let me know if you ever change your mind.’
‘I won’t.’ I angle my head towards the bed. ‘Ready to get some sleep, treasure?’
‘Definitely.’ He cups my cheek and presses a firm kiss to my lips, then reaches for the zip on my black BSG coveralls, slowly dragging it down to my waist. There’s a touch of heat in his eyes as he strips me.
I unclasp the leather cord around my neck and leave the black tourmaline pendant on the bedside table before doing the same with his.
He’s used to this by now, because I’ve explained how the magic leaves a distracting blue shimmer over the wearer’s entire body, and it’s a little creepy when he glows in the dark.
I unwrap my tiger then we fall into bed, pulling up the covers and coming together in a kiss that’s full of love and reassurance.
He doesn’t need to sign the words for me to know that’s how he’s feeling.
It’s there in his eyes, in the reverent way he touches my skin and kisses his way across the flame tattoo on my chest.
No matter what happens in the outside world, nothing is going to separate us. This treasure is mine.