9. Chapter 9
Sienna pulled in a deep breath before knocking on the bedroom door.
It only took a few moments before it opened and John stared back at her.
He’d cleaned up except for the serious scruff that was taking shape on his face.
It would soon be a beard if he left it alone.
It was giving him serious lumberjack vibes.
Thankfully he was starting to get color back in his face, which meant he was feeling better.
Which also meant she was running out of time.
“Glad to see you’re up.”
His brows lifted. “I would think you would rather have me in bed.”
“What…” Sienna’s outer voice came to a stutter stop. Even though her inner voice had no issue with voicing, Yes, please, before she shut it down.
He frowned. “Because you don’t want me to leave, I mean.”
Did his ears just turn red? “Not at the expense of your health. Besides, you already said you’re leaving tomorrow, right? So I was wondering if you felt up to sitting in on a meeting.”
“What kind of meeting?” he asked, his eyes taking on the look of a cornered animal.
“Nothing surprising. Before you leave, we want to talk through everything you know about the curse so we can keep working to break it and protect Bella and Lily.”
“Who would be in this meeting?” he countered.
“Me, Adam, Eric, Tessa, and Megan. I would have Marcus there too, and Ryan, who helps me run the clan.”
His frown changed to a scowl the more people she named.
“I know you aren’t a people person.” (Un-der-state-ment, her inner voice announced.) “But I would like all hands on deck so that we can talk through our next steps once you leave.”
He stared for a drawn-out moment. “Fine.”
Except his tone was anything but fine, and she chose to ignore it. “Great. I thought you might be more comfortable if we met here. Is that all right?”
“I don’t see why not. It’s big enough,” he grumbled.
She chuckled. “It is. Father felt that bigger was always better and built the house to show that.”
He watched her. “You don’t like it?”
She thought for a second before answering. “I like that my family is here, but I don’t need all of this to be happy.”
“Did it make your father happy?”
She laughed again, but this time the sound was harsh to her own ears. “Nothing made him happy.” She blinked. “So, I’m going to go gather everyone, and we’ll be back in a few minutes if that works?”
He nodded, and she left before she said anything else silly, her heart thumping. Why had she brought up Father? John wasn’t her shrink. He wasn’t even her friend. Why had he asked her about her father, and why had she answered truthfully? She didn’t have time to think about that now.
Everyone was gathered down in the office, waiting for word from her.
She could have simply called downstairs and had them come up, but she needed to get away from John for a moment and collect herself.
There was something about him. Like he was a mystery that needed solved.
The idea of being around all the people unnerved him.
Not because he wasn’t confident. Hell, he was arrogantly sure of himself, but his hermit persona did seem to fit him.
Although the more time she spent with John, the more she wondered if being on his own wasn’t because he didn’t like people, but more because he didn’t want to get close to them.
Especially after listening to Tessa and Megan’s recount of his time with the girls, aka the really big guns.
Could he walk away from helping now that he met them?
Saw their little faces? Sienna would have given anything to be in the room when Bella called him Unka Gumpy.
Where had that even come from? Both Megan and Tessa swore they didn’t coach her to say that.
But if they could convince John to stay, she would call him King of the World if that’s what he wanted.
Sienna jogged down the stairs and headed to the office. Everyone turned to her when she opened the door. “He’s agreed to meet with us.”
“Good,” Adam said.
“I wouldn’t have taken no for an answer anyway,” Tessa added.
Adam reached for his wife and kissed her on the head. “As much as I would have liked to see a smackdown between you and John, I think it’s better this way.”
Sienna glanced around the room. “Where are Megan and Marcus?”
“Megan is putting Bella down for her nap,” Eric said. “She’ll join us in a few minutes.”
“Marcus is checking in with the guards,” Ryan answered before picking up a small recorder and a notepad. “Not sure that John will be willing to let us record the discussion, so I’ll take notes if need be.”
Sienna nodded. “He’s antsy about being around a group of people.” She turned to Tessa. “Let’s keep the antagonizing to a minimum.”
“Why are you looking at me?” Tessa said before laughing. “Okay, even I couldn’t keep a straight face. I’ll behave.”
They all stared at her for a moment. “I’ll try to behave. Jeez. That’s the best I can do.”
“Have you removed anything that can be used as a weapon from the room?” Eric asked with a smirk.
Tessa squared off with Eric. “If you had been honest with Megan in the beginning, I wouldn’t have threatened you with a golf club.”
“And a lamp,” Eric added.
“Technically I didn’t just threaten you with the lamp. It was for all of you. But you can’t exactly blame me. I had just found out you were dragons.”
Sienna held up her hands. “Okay. Time to focus. Are you all ready?”
They agreed and filed out of the room and up the stairs.
Sienna knocked on the door, and John called for them to come in.
She stepped in first. John stood over by the seating area.
His tight expression told her he wanted to be anywhere but here.
The corner chair where his backpack had been was now empty.
She didn’t want to read too much into that.
“John, this is Ryan. He’s my right hand where the clan is concerned.”
John gave Ryan a long stare, moving from his face to his hands. Ryan held up the recorder. “Would you be willing to let us record the discussion?”
“No.”
Sienna cringed internally. This was not starting well.
“No problem. I can take notes. Here.” Ryan held out the recorder to John, whose eyebrows rose in question. “You can hold on to it so that you know it’s off.”
“You can set it on the table.”
Adam interrupted the awkwardness. “Glad you’re feeling better.”
John nodded. “I’ll be on my way tomorrow.”
Sienna’s heart sank. “Why don’t we get started? Megan and Marcus will join us when they can.”
Tessa walked over and sat on the couch, followed by Adam, who sat next to her. Eric joined them on the couch as well.
“I’ll just grab the corner chair,” Ryan announced before dragging it closer to the group.
Sienna motioned to one of the chairs for John, and she took the other.
They were all seated, but no one was relaxed.
She decided to kick things off. “Thank you for being willing to meet with us, John. Before you leave, we want to make sure we go through everything we have regarding the curse so we can protect Bella and Lily.”
The door opened and Megan walked inside carrying a stack of books with a baby monitor sitting on top. “Sorry, Bella was being fussy and wouldn’t settle down for her nap. She usually goes right to sleep.”
Eric frowned. “Is she feeling okay?”
“I think so,” she said as she made her way over to sit next to Eric on the couch. “What did I miss?”
“You’re actually right on time,” Sienna said. “We were going to review what we have on the curse, so why don’t you start.”
Megan set the books on the coffee table and the monitor beside them.
“We know the Death of Magic painting was created to memorialize the fight between the witches and the dragons.” She turned to John.
“After John’s parents were killed during the fight, your witch grandmother created the curse to destroy dragons.
” She paused before continuing. “I’ve never asked you before, but do you remember what happened that day, John? ”
He looked down for a moment, and Sienna didn’t think he was going to answer.
“I remember flashes of things. Screams, fire, blood.” He opened his clenched fist and stared at his palm.
“My grandmother sliced my palm open and let the blood drop into a bowl on top of purple flowers—lavender, I think. She mumbled something that I couldn’t understand.
It must have been the curse.” When he looked up, his face devoid of emotion.
“After that, I went to live with my dragon grandfather.”
There was a lot more to the story he was leaving out, but Sienna wasn’t going to push him. She was surprised he’d offered what he had in front of the group.
Megan swallowed. “Okay. So we know the first paragraph of the scroll we found hidden in the painting’s frame is the curse. But what about the second paragraph added?” She closed her eyes and recited it.
An oracle born
Templars united
Blood will be shed
Forgiveness and Sacrifice
Magic restored
Tessa leaned forward. “Why would your grandmother include this? It’s the way to break the curse, right?”
John nodded. “It definitely appears that way. But I’m not sure she had a choice.”
“What do you mean?” Eric asked.
“Even though I’m half witch, I was raised as dragon when my grandmother and the rest of my mother’s family disowned me.
But that doesn’t mean I didn’t learn some things over the years.
Magic is all about balance. The bigger the magic, the more safeguards are put in place.
Many spells are harmless or cast for good.
But a curse is something that very few witches would dare cast because of the repercussions.
And the curse my grandmother cast was the worst kind, filled with destruction and hate.
When she penned the curse on the scroll, she wouldn’t have written a way to reverse it.
But maybe another witch did, or maybe the universe did to let us know how to break the curse before all magic is lost.”
“I don’t like that the first line talks about oracles,” Adam growled.