Chapter 7
Glaring at my concussed Mate, I wasn’t sure if I should kiss him or strangle him. Then I thought, is he really taking Barney’s side? And I was madder than a wet hen…
So, I glared harder as he lay there, blinking those brilliant blue eyes and looking at me through impossibly long, dark lashes. The man certainly knew how to get to me. Then he said, “Are you gonna stop yellin’ anytime soon?”
“Are you gonna stop gettin’ kidnapped anytime soon?
“I fell through the floor.”
“Same difference,” I sniffed, rolling my eyes for added effect.
“No, Martha, it is not.”
“YES. It is.”
Trying to push up on his elbow, Kai yelped, “Oooooowwwwwwwww! Damn! That hurt!”
“Stop moving,” Maeve snapped. “I’m back here tryin’ to clean this head wound to keep you from getting sepsis.”
Dropping back to the makeshift cot Theresa had made, Kai sighed as his eyes rolled shut.
Reaching forward to run the back of my hand down his cheek, I was just about to touch the most handsome man I’d ever seen in my life and tell him I was sorry when his eyes opened just enough for me to see the tiniest bit of crystal blue before he huffed.
“No, it is not.”
Pulling back as if I’d been burnt, I snarled, “Yes. It. Is…”
“I swear by all that's holy, if you two don't stop arguing, I'm gonna sedate both of you,” my sister declared.
“Maeve!” I yelled at the exact same time that Chewy chimed in with, “Can I have their tacos?”
I really was going to have to get my little guy some tacos when this whole mess was over. I feared that if I didn’t, one day I would wake up with poop in one shoe, pee-pee in the other, and my favorite purse torn to shreds.
Yeah, Chewy knew how to make a point.
Thankfully, Zelda was nearby, trying to decipher some weird carvings she swore had something to do with blood prophecies…
whatever the hell that was. No, I was not as attentive as I should have been in Wisdom of the Ages Class, and let’s face it, that was five hundred and forty some years ago.
I’d forgotten it more times than I’d made Maisie’s special coffee– a Matcha-Mire, an emerald-green matcha latte with vanilla syrup and sprinkles topped with whipped cream and sparkling edible glitter…
And my baby sister loved her matcha. So you do the math.
Anyway, Zelda handled Chewy with a promise of tacos, burritos, enchiladas, queso, and chips. At that point, the little guy was prancing around, telling everyone he was having a Taco Party with the Next Baba Yaga, and that if they did not tell him how wonderful he was, they would not be invited.
Whatever floats his boat, I guess. All I knew for sure was that my bestie most definitely saved me from having poop squished between my toes, a pee-pee-wet foot, and a shredded purse on the floor of the closet.
Swinging my attention back to my sister, the one who threatened to sedate me…
Yeah, her. Well, I was just about to tell her, in no uncertain terms, exactly what she could do with her suggestion when Kai calmly and carefully said, “Martha, my love, can you please just listen?” Exhaling harshly, his face lined with pain, he stuttered, “Th-Then you can d-decide if y-you believe me.”
“It’s not you. I don’t believe it’s Barney.”
“Yeah, I know.” Tangling his fingers with mine, he gave me a little love squeeze and added, “It’s Barney… Please just listen… for me.”
How could I resist that? The guy I loved with all my heart was pulling at every single one of my heartstrings.
With an exasperated sigh, I nodded. “Okay. Go for it. But make it the Reader’s Digest version. If I remember correctly, Barney had a serious gift for the gab.”
“You got it.” Kai’s eyes brightened, and he started to tell Barney’s tale.
“So, when y’all were kids, a month or so before the incident in the meadow that landed his ass in prison…”
“When he tried to incinerate his own brothers and me?” I seethed, trying to control my temper.
“Yes, but there’s an explanation for that, and I’m getting there.”
“Well, make it a short trip,” I snapped. Instantly feeling horrible for being a Grade A beyotch, I made a mental note to make my man his favorite ambrosia salad as soon as we got home.
“It will go a lot quicker if you stop interrupting.”
Clamping my lips shut, I mimed zipping my lips and throwing away the key, and gave him a single sharp nod.
Of course, because Maeve is… well… Maeve… She had to mumble, “If only that were a real lock without a key…,” under her breath.
Choosing to ignore my sister, I motioned for Kai to continue.
“Okay, where was I? Oh! Yeah! So, you see, before that whole kerfuffle, Barney’s grandma had called for him in the middle of the night. She knew she was about to pass and needed to tell him something important.”
Holding up the index finger of his right hand just when I was about to ask a question, he added, “I have no idea why she told him and not his brothers. I didn’t ask, and he didn’t offer.”
Okay, so my man did know me as well as he knew himself. Ain’t love grand?
“Anyway,” Kai continued. “While Barney was there, his grandma told him that he had to protect you at all costs. That day in the meadow, he was trying to talk to you. He wanted to tell you what he knew and warn you about what was to come, but his brothers were following him.”
“And why was that a big deal?” Maeva asked as she dumped peroxide on his wound for at least the twelfth time. “They’re family.”
“His grandma said that he could only tell Martha- absolutely no one else. So, when Geoff and Wilbur showed up, they fought, and…”
“And he thought it was better to set his brothers on fire than abort his plan and come back another day?” Theresa asked, right after she appeared on the other side of Kai.
“I asked the same thing. Barney said everything just got really heated really fast, and he overreacted.”
“Yeah, I’ll say,” I huffed, abandoning my ‘zipped-up lips’ in favor of speeding things along.
Spearing me with a look, Kai arched his right eyebrow, a sure sign that he was feeling well enough to be irritated, and went on with the story. “Barney was told to protect you, my love, at all costs because you are the key to everything.”
“Then she told him about this chamber and all the tunnels. She said he had to get right down here and memorize everything. Thus, he came here every day and wrote down everything on every wall in his journal. He took great pride in telling me that he took that book to jail to continue to study.”
“When he figured everything out, he tried to tell the Warden, the Chaplain, and a bunch of other people– but no one believed him. They even punished him in some horrible ways for continuing to talk about it.”
Pausing, Kai took a deep breath. I could see what it cost him to recount Barney’s story, and it broke my heart. I was done being mad. I just wanted to take my Mate home and nurse him back to health.
Taking hold of his hand, I cooed, “It’s okay. We can talk about it…”
“No.” He was adamant. “You have to hear this.” Another deep breath, and the words just flew from his lips.
“Barney said that somewhere on these walls, there is a prophecy that says if you fully awaken… If the coronation happens… You will destroy Dragoon Bootay, the entire population, and the whole Bibbidi Bobbidi Bubble.”
“Wait a minute, Bub.” Theresa jumped in. “The Wyvern Shifter who spent forty years in jail for trying to incinerate Martha and his brothers escaped from prison because his grandmother told him to?”
“That sounds hereditary,” Maeve commented, applying a pain reliever to Kai’s head wound. “Some mental illnesses are passed from generation to…”
“No.” That single word, coming from the second most powerful Witch in all the world, had us all shutting our mouths and turning to look at her. “That sounds like a Seer,” she finally added with a finality that made goosebumps start dancing up and down my arms.
A million thoughts and questions were battling for supremacy in my brain, and my Arthur was quick enough to express one of them. “Grandmas are usually right.”
“Mine ate crayons,” Chewy shrugged.
“Mine bit a mailman,” Otis chuckled.
“Mine taught me how to make biscuits,” I added.
“Focus, people,” Kai interjected. “This is getting us…”
“Martha…” Aideen fretted. The sound of her voice in my head opened a floodgate of fear.
My Dragon Queen was terrified. There was no sass, no witty repartee, no snark or sarcasm. Just a trepidation that made me cold, even though the temperature in the bowels of the Hoopingarner House had to be somewhere between ninety and Lucifer’s sauna.
“Yes?”
The long pause that ensued made shivers boogie up and down my spine. I wondered if she was going to answer.
Then, she finally shuddered, “I-I know that cor-coronation.”
When everyone, including the dogs, froze in place, I realized that the Dragon Queen with whom I shared my soul was broadcasting our conversation. Seeing and feeling their instant attention and concern, I immediately asked, “Excuse me?”
“I know that coronation… but not from my memories…” She exhaled sharply. “From hers.”
“Whose?” I was getting snappy. “Who are you talkin’ about?”
“The Queen before me.”
Kneeling beside me, Zelda asked us both, “Can Dragon Queens inherit memories?”
“Apparently,” Aideen replied at the same time that I said, “Nope.”
“Yes,” she countered with more oomph.
“No,” I sharply countered, giving her a pointed look in my mind’s eyes.
“Girl.” Sassy Aideen was back! “You are literally standing in an underground chamber beneath a haunted mansion, talking to dogs. You lost the right to say no the day Arthur said, “Hey, Mom,” and you responded, “Hey, baby.”
“That’s not fair. Arthur is my baby.”
“True,” she agreed. “He’s also a magical canine with the ability to speak right along with the other two.”
“Three,”Arthur interjected.
“She’s right, Mom,” Otis concurred.
“Yep. Aideen usually is,” Chewy agreed.
“See?” My Dragon Queen harrumphed. “The boys…”
“Boof! Boof!”
“Sorry, Mona,” she sweetly apologized. “Welcome to the family.”
“The circus.”