Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
Ella
I shoved the stack of cards under the pillow of the couch as Anna came bursting through the door unexpectedly.
“What’s going on?” I asked, hoping she hadn’t noticed my cover-up.
She hadn’t. “They’re coming back.”
I sat up straight at the news and then forced myself to stay sitting and calm the sudden racing of my heart. “They are?”
“Yeah,” Anna said, drawing the word out with a sly smile while playfully twisting her reddish-brown hair around a finger. “I just thought, maybe, you might want to know.”
Then she sauntered from the room. “By the way, I saw you hide those cards. Now get out here. Let’s go see them.”
I sighed.
She was impossible. They all were. I’d done my best to hide the mounting distress with each day Dirk had been gone. I was sure they hadn’t noticed the longing I felt in every breath, every step. It hadn’t been that bad. Not on the outside. Had it?
If it was anything like the churning maelstrom of my innards, maybe I hadn’t been as sneaky as I thought.
Getting up, I left the common area. I purposefully did not retrieve the cards, just in case she was bluffing.
Anna was waiting right outside the door, a huge I-knew-it grin on her face.
“Oh, shut up,” I said, unable to stop myself from smiling. “I’m just coming to make sure he’s okay.”
If anything, Anna’s grin stretched her round face even broader, and her eyes glowed with violet energy.
She dropped her head back and gave it a little whip, shaking her pin-straight hair.
“Oh, Dirk. It is good to see that you have nary a scratch on you. I was not worried, yet here I am anyway. I simply had to see visual evidence that you have returned unmaimed and with all limbs intact. A shame about the brain though, but I suppose that was a lost cause before I met you.”
I cackled, giving her a friendly shove. She didn’t budge.
“Damn your dragon strength,” I cursed, still smiling. “I’m serious about just making sure he’s okay.”
“Of course.”
I rolled my eyes and followed her down the hall. She paused after several steps and shook herself.
“What was that?”
“Caught a shiver, I guess. I’m good now,” she said with a reassuring smile.
“You sure?”
“As good as you will be when you see Dirk.”
“All right,” I groaned, caving. “Sure. I did miss seeing him around. Maybe his smile too. I won’t deny that. Okay? But I also have to wake up every morning and go to bed every night wearing his marks. Questioning it all.”
“What questions?” Anna said, losing the humor. “Whether you want to move forward right now or not, it’s pretty obvious what fate has intended for you two.”
“Not to me,” I said, earning a questioning glance.
“There are so many unknowns. First off, and the biggest question I have, is why did it take so long for anything to happen? You and Caz knew immediately. Before you even saw each other. You said you smelled him and knew right then, in the cage with us.”
“Ugh,” Anna said, shuddering. “So embarrassing. But you’re not wrong, I guess.”
“Okay. So why not me and Dirk? It’s not like him returning was the first time we’d seen one another. Not at all. Why did nothing happen before?”
Anna was silent and thoughtful as we exited the private wing, Durion falling in behind us as the guard on duty. A further four guards joined us as we entered the main hallways of the citadel, though only Durion walked near.
“Maybe it was because you were hurt and weak?” Anna said, offering up the suggestion. “Could the slave collar Yarl put on you have messed things up? Or the removal? Maybe both interfered with your dragon and his perception of you. When we came back right before the attack, you were all better.”
“Maybe,” I said, nodding slowly, not sure I believed it.
“You are all better. Aren’t you?” she asked softly.
“Physically, yeah, I’m fine,” I whispered back.
“But …”
“But at night, sometimes, sometimes the nightmares come back,” I said, hesitating over telling her. “I wake up in a sweat, screaming. I’m surprised you don’t hear it.”
Anna shrugged. “The walls are thick, and so are the doors. For that reason.”
“Maybe it’s for the best. I was scaring Milly for a bit back at the chalet.”
“It wasn’t as bad as you think,” Durion interjected. “Sorry. I just thought you should know.”
“Thanks,” I said awkwardly, not sure what else to say to that. “I’m sure it hasn’t helped Milly be comfortable enough to have hers off yet, having to listen to me shriek like that.”
“It’ll take time,” Anna said.
I think she was trying to sound encouraging, but it came off more helpless than anything.
“I’m not asking you for a solution,” I said, taking her arm and squeezing it.
“I just need you to know why I’m moving slowly with Dirk.
Until I can figure out what happened to my dragon, I don’t know what to do.
He doesn’t have any mate marks. Why not?
Why did my dragon not like him enough to return the favor? ”
“I don’t know,” Anna said. “Ours started coming in when we kissed, and there was more each time things got a little more, uh, intense. But I’m not really an expert on any of this. I’m making it up as I go.”
I laughed. “You’re doing a great job of it. And I appreciate your patience while I work through … me.”
“You’re my friend, El. I’ll always be there for you,” she said as we exited the citadel doors to the landing field.
It was abuzz with activity. The stones that made up the giant square were fitted together with perfect precision, creating a mosaic that showed a huge image of a dragon head when viewed from the sky.
Right now the stones were covered with dragons.
Some were guards, patrolling the perimeter in pairs, while nearby other dragons swooped in and landed, disgorging groups of men, women, and children dressed in rags, clutching precious few possessions to their bodies as they were hurried out of the way by yet more guardsmen.
Behind them came yet more ice dragons, and the pattern was repeated.
“What’s going on?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at Durion.
“If I had to guess, I would say refugees. People displaced by the Reds. Looks like Casimir has ordered them back to the citadel so they can be taken care of.”
That made sense. Where was Dirk?
I looked to the skies, shielding my eyes with one hand against the brilliant midday orblight.
Beside me, Anna hissed.
“What?”
“They’ve taken casualties. There are three missing that I can count. Holes in the formation. Maybe more among those already landed. I don’t know.”
The bottom of my stomach dropped out. Casualties? I scanned the sky more frantically, trying to find a certain brilliant white dragon, larger than the rest of them.
Dirk wouldn’t be one of the dead. He couldn’t be. I would have known. Right? If my mate died, I would have sensed it.
Motion caught my eye, and I squinted as out of the orblit sky, a dragon slid into view, the familiar lines of his scales easily identifiable as he came in for a landing.
The dragon’s snout swung left and right as he scanned the landing field until the blue-white eyes and their vertical slitted pupils landed on me and stuck fast.
I tried to stifle the gasp and the rising bubbling in my stomach as my organs tied themselves into knots and other parts of me came alive, gorging themselves on the blood my heart was frantically pushing through my arteries as fast as it could.
It was him. My Dirk. He was back, and he was okay.
And I couldn’t tear my eyes free.
As soon as the passengers had disembarked down his wings, Dirk started walking across the parade ground.
As he walked, he shifted, never breaking stride in a display of power and coordination that would have been impressive if I wasn’t busy staring at the body of a god, glistening under the orblight, muscles corded and swollen.
His eyes were almost white with the presence of his dragon as he walked up to me, never blinking, never looking away. I couldn’t move, though the weight of his gaze threatened to drop me to my knees.
Was this what it was like to feel … something?
A guard hurried over to press pants into Dirk’s hands. He put them on, only breaking eye contact when he swayed to catch his balance. I stepped forward, placing my hands on his bare skin and holding him still so he could dress.
Beside us, Anna ran forward and threw herself into Caz’s arms before he could put pants on, kissing him deeply.
Dirk’s face twitched, and I noticed a sort of wistfulness cross his features as he saw the display of affection. He did a credible job of burying it, but it was clear. The wish of “one day” was plainly written.
When he realized I was watching him, not my best friend, he blinked every emotion away. “Don’t worry. I don’t expect that from you.”
“No,” I said, staring up at him, shocked to realize how happy I was to see him, how good it felt to touch him, even if it was just a helping hand. “But you want it.”
“I want you,” he growled in a deep tone. “I don’t want it from just anyone.”
“And I’m not sure I can,” I said, preparing myself to ask him for more time. “I’m sorry, Dirk, I—”
He pressed a finger to my lips, hushing me. “We have time, Ella. I can be plenty happy knowing you enjoyed my flowers and that maybe you missed me a bit. That would be enough for me.”
I smiled up at him, not bothering to hold back. “I can definitely say I enjoyed the flowers and your notes. I was overwhelmed at first, but I’ve reread them every day since you left. It was very cute.”
“You did? You have?” his face burst into a boyish grin, the likes of which I hadn’t seen before. “That’s great.”
“And,” I said, licking my lips as the breeze picked up across the parade ground. “I did miss you, Dirk. More than I thought I would, if I …”
I broke off as the wind brought with it a wave of freshly cleaned flannel, a scent so delicious that it stole my voice.
I inhaled deeply. Only one person smelled that good, and I hadn’t been graced with their scent since the mountains.
It was warm and inviting, a surefire call to relax that I couldn’t get enough of.
“Ella, are you okay? I, ungh.”
My eyes refocused abruptly as Dirk hissed in pain. I stared as his face scrunched up and he grabbed at his chest.
“Dirk!” I cried, only to watch his face abruptly relax. His eyes rolled up and his mouth dropped open as he groaned.
Happily.
“What the …”
He dropped his hand away at my question, and we both stared at his chest. Covering his pec were a thousand tiny swirls, each one earthen brown shot through with brilliant gold.
A mate mark.
My mate mark.
“Oh, my,” Dirk said, looking up at me with a smile that was quickly turning devilish.
I clapped my hands to my mouth, at a loss for words even as the deep woody notes of teakwood reached me, luring me forward with the soft musk and hint of spice.
“That’s a mate mark,” he growled happily. “Your mate mark.”
Struggling to keep my breathing under control, my body alive and on fire with the need for his touch, I could only nod. It was my mate mark.
“Ella,” Dirk said, his voice the rumble of a distant waterfall. “I would very much like to take you somewhere pretty and kiss you. If you could be up for that.”
Kiss? Him? Me?
All at once I was back on the mountainside. In his arms. His lips on mine, lighting up parts of my brain I didn’t know could be lit. Did I want that again? With him?
“Yes,” I gasped, barely able to get the word out. “Yes. Yes. Yes. Take me there. Kiss me, Dirk.”
Dirk stepped forward, scooping me into his arms, and ran from the landing field.
So much for asking for more time.