Chapter 23
Sienna felt like a spy in a suspense movie.
Earpiece in and a tracker in her shoe of all places.
Marcus had guards stationed around the campus well before the meeting, and also had someone scope out the building and meeting room ahead of time.
If her brothers had their way, she would be wrapped in Bubble Wrap made out of Kevlar.
Ryan walked next to her, and she wanted to laugh at his “college outfit” of retro band T-shirt and jeans, except her stomach was doing somersaults and she was too busy deep breathing.
“We’re heading inside now,” Ryan said.
“Roger that,” Marcus said.
Veronica started humming the Mission Impossible theme song, and Sienna told her to shut up or she threatened to play nothing but soft rock on the way home in the car.
V hated soft rock. They walked down the hall and quickly found the classroom.
Jamie, one of the dragon guards, sat on a bench down the hall with a large cup of coffee, pretending to study.
Ryan opened the door to the room and looked around before Sienna entered. The classroom sloped down to a podium at the front. A few moments later the door at the front of the room opened, and Mia stepped inside and walked over to the podium.
“Come down about halfway, Sienna, and take a seat.”
Sienna did as she was told. Ryan came to stand a few feet away. His body angled so that he could see the front and back of the room.
Mia clicked on her smartwatch and Ryan tensed. “Stay calm, Mr. Bodyguard. I’m setting a timer. We have fifteen minutes and then we leave.” Mia focused on Sienna. “You found the second storybook?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?” Mia demanded.
Sienna took a shallow breath. This could blow up spectacularly in her face. “I found the book. I didn’t say I would bring it with me.”
Mia scowled. “I thought you said you don’t like to play games.”
Sienna stood her ground. “This isn’t a game. This is about the well-being of my family and clan. You asked for proof of my sincerity. I would ask the same of you.”
Mia crossed her arms. “I’m the one who gave Adam the first book to begin with and told him about the oracle and the curse.”
“Yes, you did. But why? Why show Adam anything?”
Mia studied Sienna. If Mia thought she would win in a stare down, she had another thing coming.
“I’m not going to give you any information, Mia. Not until I understand what you plan to do with it. Why reach out to Adam?”
“Because after I read the book, I realized it was written by an oracle and that the children represented you, Eric, and Adam.”
“Where did you get the book?” Sienna asked.
Mia sighed. “Your mother.”
“What?” Sienna gasped, her chest tightening.
“Your mother had always believed that some sort of curse or spell had damaged your dragons, especially given the books she had inherited from your great-grandmother. When she had you three children, she realized you were the ones who would possibly save your clan and bring back your dragons. She had been reaching out to others to help in her search and was tricked into bringing the book to a meeting. It was taken from her. But she was smart enough not to bring all of the books, so we were only able to locate the one. We assumed that another storybook or two was passed down to you.”
“The ‘we’ you keep talking about are the Templars?”
A moment of pain flashed on Mia’s face before she schooled it again. “A Templar tricked your mother into believing he would help her. I was given it years later to study.”
“That’s why you were so adamant that we had another book.” Sienna clenched her fists in her lap under the desk. “Why wouldn’t she have told us the truth?”
Mia shrugged. “Adam said that your mother told you part of the story at bedtime. She must have thought she had more time to tell you before she died.”
Sienna’s stomach cramped, and she swallowed back the bile in her throat. “Did you have something to do with her accident?”
Ryan tensed again. His body poised to strike like a snake.
“No,” Mia answered immediately. “I wasn’t a part of this when your mother died.”
“What about your Templar buddies?”
“No.”
“How can you be so sure?” Sienna pushed.
“Because the Templars wouldn’t have hurt your mother. She was still an asset that they could use to gain more information.”
Sienna swallowed again. “How practical of them. And once she was dead, they weren’t worried about her children saving our dragons?”
“They observed the three of you. Eric was the only one who thought that there was something more than biology going on with dragons slowly losing their powers, but when Adam banned him from the clan, Eric never found anything concrete to go by, and he wasn’t considered a threat.”
“Then why didn’t you approach Eric? Why reach out to Adam? Were you trying to trick him like you did my mother?”
Mia hesitated before finally answering. “Yes. That had been my original plan.”
What. The. Actual. Fuck. Veronica hissed.
Sienna shot to her feet, and Ryan took a step closer to her.
Mia held up her hands. “Don’t leave yet. Hear me out.”
Sienna clamped her mouth shut to keep in Veronica’s suggested response.
“The original plan was to meet with Adam and convince him to work with me to get the rest of the storybooks and the Death of Magic painting. A twofer, if you will.”
“What changed?” Sienna asked.
Mia shook her head. “Not what, who.”
Chills rolled down Sienna’s spine. “Lily.”
“Yes. Let’s just say my eyes were opened when I met her.
And then my mission to trick Adam became a mission to help him break the curse.
Adam made the most sense to reach out to since the storybook talked about the oldest boy having the dragon sentry shield.
From all my research over the years, I believe that the sentries are one of the keys to breaking the curse. ”
“Except Templars took care of them. St. George and his battle with the dragon, the Crusades. You cast us as the evil ones.”
Mia nodded. “I see that Megan has been hard at work. And you’re smart enough to know that history is written by the victors.”
“Regardless of the twisted history, the sentries are gone.”
“The oracles were thought to be gone as well.”
Sienna’s heart tap danced in her chest. “Are you saying you think that sentries will be born to the dragon clans?” They didn’t have decades to wait for their children to grow into warriors.
“I’m not saying that. But the sentry shield in the first storybook has to mean something. But without the rest of the story—”
“We don’t know for sure. And you hoped Adam had the rest of the story, but then we all thought he’d died.”
“At that point I was on my own.”
“Except he didn’t die,” Sienna pushed. “The witch you worked with blasted him with a spell that took his memories.”
Mia scowled. “That witch was working with the Wallace clan, not me.”
“How did you get involved in all this, Mia? Why destroy what you spent your life preserving and teaching?”
“Perspective is everything, isn’t it? How your truth is built to send you down a certain path.”
Sienna clenched her fists again. “Enough with the cryptic answers, Mia! Are you really trying to break the curse or not?”
“This version of Mia is trying to break the curse.”
Sienna crossed her arms. “Should I be worried about another version of you taking over?”
Mia’s lips actually turned up into a ghost of a smile. “No. This one is here to stay. Will you work with me?”
“Can I trust you?” Sienna countered.
“And if I say yes, would you believe me?” Mia rested her hands on the podium as if she were teaching a class. “You’re asking the wrong question.”
Sienna’s head started throbbing. “What did Lily do to open your eyes?”
Mia smiled. “Right question. She showed me the truth about the Templars.”
“Then why are you still working with them?”
The alarm beeped on Mia’s arm. “Time’s up.” She backed toward the door. “If there’s any reference to the dragon sentry symbol in the second story, start there. I’ll be in touch soon.”
Sienna took a step forward. “Wait!”
But Mia walked out the door, and it shut with a thump.
Ryan rested his hand on her arm and led her to the back door.
What was all that? She felt like she’d been talking to the Riddler, or the Mad Hatter depending on the moment.
Sienna needed more information. She wanted to trust Mia.
And since Mia kept talking about truth as she knew it, there was a lot that made Sienna nervous.
A hell of a lot, Veronica chimed in.
One thing she did agree with Mia on was the importance of the dragon sentries and what that meant for the story. And since the story distinctly mentioned that the little sister would be the one to find the shield for her brother, Sienna had her job cut out for her.