Chapter 12
Emmett
They piled the plates high enough to feed an army.
Elana’s avocado toast looked like it belonged on a foodie’s social media account.
Each golden, crispy piece of toast was covered in butter, slathered with creamy avocado, topped with a poached egg, and then sprinkled generously with chili crisps.
The smell alone made my mouth water. I always did have a thing for spicy food.
And for some reason, my dragon was happy that Elana had similar tastes.
My own plate, steak and eggs, was impressive too. The meat was seared to perfection, the yolks super runny, just the way I liked them. But my focus was solely on the woman in front of me. Because watching Elana eat was turning out to be the best damn show in town.
At the first bite, her eyes fluttered closed. “Oh my god,” she moaned, and I damn near choked on my own tongue.
That sound went straight to my dick, and suddenly I was reconsidering my stance on public indecency. I shifted in my seat, trying to adjust myself without being obvious.
“Almost as good as the Starving Aardvark?” I asked.
She opened her eyes, considering. “Almost. But don’t tell them I said that.”
“I meant to visit last time I was in Darlington,” I admitted. “Never did get around to it.”
“Next time you’re there, then,” she said, taking another bite.
“Already planning date number two?”
She snorted. “I hate to remind you, but this is not a date.”
“Shopping on Main Street, brunch, a walk by the lake later… sounds very much like a date to me.” I dipped the tip of my knife into the egg yolk, then licked it off suggestively. “And I happen to know that you’re coming home with me later.” I waggled my brows.
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. I grinned, enjoying the way her cheeks flushed.
A flicker of movement caught my attention.
My head snapped toward the patio, my dragon senses immediately picking up what my human eyes had missed.
The two ifrits sat at an outdoor table, their red skin shimmering faintly in the sunlight.
They weren’t even trying to hide what they were, and yet they still managed to fit in without looking like guards at all.
In fact, several women a few tables from them were seriously crushing hard on the pair.
“I almost forgot they were following us around,” I admitted.
Elana followed my gaze, then sighed. “They’re very good at not seeming like my guards. I want to say they’re discreet, but there’s nothing really discreet about them. But they do keep me safe whenever I need to leave Desmon’s place without Seth or him.”
I turned back to her. “Why do you need guards? I thought Darlington was pretty safe.”
She hesitated, took a sip of water, then set her glass on the table. “It is. For most people. My ex-husband is a wizard. A pretty powerful one too.”
“I know the story in passing, but not all the nitty-gritty. It’s how Desmon ended up with Seth as his wizard. A highly valuable asset. But wasn’t that decades ago?”
“It was. But Samuel’s the type to hold a grudge. He’s in jail now, but his friends are still out there. You met one of them at the gala.”
“The wizard. I remember. They still bother you?”
She paused, her lips pursed in thought. “I don’t know, actually. Roland’s the only one who’s approached me. And he’s actually not so bad. But I’ve been hiding and running for so long that it’s hard to break the habit. I’m scared that the one time I let down my guard will be my downfall.”
I mulled that over. “That isn’t so different for me as a dragon. Let me tell you a secret. I’m envious of my brother and his trust in the ones who serve him.”
She frowned. “Don’t you trust your people?”
“I’m not sure.” And that was as honest as I’d been in a while.
“Leroy is with me because I pay well, and he was rejected by the WEC. His family just wasn’t rich or powerful enough with his level of magic.
Nak and his family are here because his wife’s goblin clan had promised her to another, and they ran off together.
Cassian the demon owes me a debt, as do many of the others working for me.
Many of them have nowhere else to go. If I weren’t the right mix of rich and powerful, I doubt many of them would stay. ”
I expected pity, but what I saw on her face was understanding.
I’d never had the situation come up to test their loyalty. Who would stay by my side and who would turn on me? I didn’t know.
“There was one. An old crone of a witch. Centuries old, if I had to guess. She is the one who built the wards around my home. Made them tamperproof. I trusted her, but she is gone. She would’ve known what to do with Melantha.”
“What happened to her?” Elana asked softly.
“She went into the woods for one of her rituals and never came back. Leroy and I found what was left of her inside her casting circle.” I didn’t elaborate or say what type of ritual, unsure how she’d react to using others’ life forces to live longer.
Elana nodded as she mopped up the yolk on her plate with a piece of the toast. “And of all the people in the world, you trusted only her.”
“In recent years, yes.” I turned my fork over in my hand. “More than I can say for most. For everyone else, loyalty given by one who has nowhere else to go isn’t the same as loyalty freely given, is it? I pay them. I shelter them. I have never had cause to learn what they’d do if that stopped.”
She looked pensive. “Maybe that’s the wrong way to look at it.
Desmon thought the same way once, but the people around him proved him wrong.
Loyalty isn’t something that’s just given; it’s earned and built brick by brick, year after year.
You don’t know if it’s there until it’s tested.
And by then, hopefully, you’ve laid enough bricks. ”
I stared at her. “That,” I said slowly, “is far too wise for someone who’s only lived a handful of decades.”
She laughed, and the heaviness lifted. “There you go, flattering me again.”
“That’s not flattery. You’ll know flattery when you see it.” I reached across the table and stole a forkful of her avocado toast before she could stop me.
“Hey—” She swatted at my hand, too late. I popped it into my mouth and made a show of savoring it.
“You’re right,” I said around the bite. “That is better than my steak.”
She made a show of covering her plate with her hands. “No more for you.”
“Cruel woman.” I grinned.
My phone buzzed against the table. It was Luella, with a one-line update: Melly is napping, my lord. I thumbed out a quick acknowledgment and set my phone back down.
Funny. A year ago, this budding town had been a bit of a thorn in my side. Now I found myself thinking about whether I could bring my daughter into town with me so she could enjoy it too.
“Everything okay?” Elana asked.
“Melly’s down for her nap.” I pocketed the phone. “Which means I have you to myself for at least a few more hours.”
“Lucky me,” she said dryly, but she was smiling.
When her plate was clean, I dropped enough cash on the table to cover the meal including a hefty tip for the waitress and stood, offering Elana my hand.
She looked at it for half a second, and I recognized the reflex of a woman who’d learned to weigh every offered hand for the price attached. Then she took it.
I grinned, feeling oddly victorious for such a small gesture.
We stepped out onto Main Street, the afternoon sun warm and the air thick with pine and the sweetness of fresh-baked bread from the bakery across the street. Flame and Blaze trailed behind us at a discreet distance.
“This way.” I steered her toward the path that wound down behind the shops, where the town thinned into evergreens and the lake glittered through the gaps. “Trust me.”
“I thought you hadn’t visited before,” she muttered, but she let me lead.
“I haven’t visited the town. But I know this lake from before the residents moved in.”
We hadn’t gone ten steps when I felt a prickle along the back of my neck, an old instinct that had kept me alive through centuries of humans with pitchforks and dragons with grudges.
I glanced back. I didn’t see anything at first, but after a moment, my eyes landed on a man standing across the street, half in the shadow of the hardware store awning.
He looked ordinary enough at first. Human, or at least wearing the shape of one. There was a magical aura to him, but nothing that demanded attention. But he wasn’t looking at the shops or the menus or the pretty mountain view.
He was looking at Elana.
The moment our eyes met, he turned and slunk into the hardware store.
I kept the moment to myself. There was no sense ruining her afternoon over a stranger’s stare. But I marked his face, filed it away, and made a note to ask Flame and Blaze what they’d seen later. We continued on, her hand in mine. And I told myself the chill crawling up my spine was nothing at all.
“You’re quiet all of a sudden,” Elana said.
“Just admiring the view.” I squeezed her hand and nodded toward the water ahead. “Come on. The lake’s worth it, I promise.”