27. Chapter 27 #2
Sienna ran her sweaty hands down her jeans.
She would not be sitting on the bed. Ryan had already pulled the comforter off the bed to check it over, which was just as well since it would be weird for them to leave the room with the bed still made.
They were supposed to be getting busy, not having a secret meeting with an ancient organization trying to destroy magic.
“A woman is approaching your room,” Marcus said, causing Sienna to flinch. She blew out a breath to calm down.
A knock at the door had Ryan checking around the curtain. “It’s her.” He unlocked the door and Mia walked in. Today she had on a wig of long dark hair. She checked Sienna over. “Nice outfit.”
“Thought I might stand out if I came here with my business clothes on.”
“Probably right. Although people make a point of not paying attention around here.”
Ryan nodded. “The clerk didn’t even glance up at me when I rented the room. Could have been dressed like the Easter Bunny and he wouldn’t have blinked.”
“Good.” Mia looked at her watch. “I’m going to set a timer for twenty-eight minutes as a warning. We shouldn’t stay longer than half an hour.” She tapped her smartwatch. “Okay. Let’s jump right into things, shall we? Did you bring the storybook for me?”
Sienna was not letting Mia run this meeting. “Before we get to that, I want to know if you have Templars watching the clan house?”
Mia shook her head. “No. But I’m not surprised they’re watching you.”
“Did you have them follow us and try to run us off the road.”
“When did this happen?” Mia frowned. “Today?”
“No. Two days ago.”
“Suped-up gray pickup truck. Couldn’t make out the plates,” Ryan added.
“Unlike their ancestors, the Templars rarely do their own dirty work anymore. Their numbers are very small now, and their paranoia keeps them from recruiting others. Instead they use their money to get what they want, like hiring muscle. I’m not sure why they would have engaged with you. What were you doing at the time?”
Sienna’s heart started thumping. Huh. She hadn’t really thought this through, but if Mia investigated, she would find out where they had been. “We were coming from a private vault facility. My mother had left a box for me.”
Mia’s gaze tightened. “And what did you find?”
She hesitated for a moment, trying to decide what she wanted to share. “A ring with the dragon sentry symbol.”
Mia tapped her fingers against her leg. “I’m sure whoever was following you figured you had picked up something important if it was locked in a vault.”
Ryan crossed his arms. “How did they know where to find us? And for that matter, how did you know how to find Sienna that day at the restaurant? We checked for trackers on our cars and didn’t find any.”
“There are a variety of ways to track you. Even with safeguards in place, phones are never one hundred percent safe. I would leave your phones at home and start switching out to burners when you’re on the move. Now. Can I have a look at the second storybook?”
Sienna reached into her tote bag and pulled out the book, holding it close. “I’ll show it to you, but you’re not taking it with you.”
Mia agreed and reached for the book. She opened the cover and looked at the name and handwriting.
“Same author.” She spent a couple minutes reading the beginning of the book and then flipped to the last pages and read those before handing it back to Sienna.
“It will be quicker if you summarize the story.”
Sienna told her about the forest of fog that the oldest brother fought through and the younger brother reuniting with him to fight the trolls with the help of the scholar and the mage.
Mia smirked. “Hits close to home, doesn’t it? I assume you’ve come to the conclusion that the fog represents Adam’s amnesia, and Megan and Tessa are part of the merry band of dragons now.”
Sienna blew out a breath. “Yes.”
“The last few pages talk about the brothers returning to the village and Evie giving her brother a shield. And you brought home a ring to your brother. The story is proving itself time and again.” Mia sighed. “There obviously is another book we don’t have that tells Evie’s story.”
Sienna tried not to react. “I think that’s a possibility. Now it’s your turn.”
Mia’s eyebrows rose. “My turn for what? You already grilled me.”
“And I’m not done yet. The clock is ticking. No time for games,” Sienna said. “I want to know why the Templars are trying to destroy us.”
Mia checked her watch again. “That’s a longer story than we have time for today.”
“You can skip the history lesson and give me the highlights.”
Mia gave Sienna a long look. “The Knights Templars believe that anything supernatural is evil.”
“Like witches and dragons,” Ryan said.
“Yes. And when the Templars tried to destroy evil as they saw it, they faced off with the dragon sentries. The keepers of peace and balance where magic was concerned. Once the sentries were destroyed, the Templars underestimated the strength of magic. They assumed it would fade away. And when it didn’t, they instead worked at further causing a divide between witches and dragons.
If they couldn’t destroy magic themselves, then they hoped that you would destroy each other instead. ”
Sienna’s stomach dropped. “And it worked.”
Mia nodded. “Yes. Without the sentries as the peacemakers, the magical world split and fought with each other over the centuries, culminating in the curse.”
She bit back a growl of frustration. “And what? The Templars sat back and watched?”
Mia rocked on her heels. “Exactly. And as I mentioned earlier, their numbers dropped off until there was a small watch group to ensure that the curse did the job it was supposed to. They call themselves the Templar Ten. And until twenty years ago, they stayed behind the scenes, but rumblings of a mythical curse started gaining leverage in the dragon clans, and then more recently, when Adam attempted to break it.”
“Because of proof you gave him while you were trying to trick him and then, what? Had a crisis of conscience? Why are you a Templar?” Sienna’s voice ratcheted higher with each question.
Mia hesitated. “I’m not an actual Templar. I’m just one of their lackeys.”
“Were you recruited?” Sienna pushed. “Is it just for the money? Did they help pay for school?”
Mia crossed her arms. “You have been busy. It was never about the money. At least not in the way you think. I was given a grant for my schooling from an organization interested in art history. At the time there were no strings attached. And other than me providing them with different research they asked for regarding dragon mythology, it was all harmless for years. Until they approached me and told me that dragons and witches were real.”
“What did you think?” Sienna asked.
“That they were eccentric people with money who wanted fantasy to be reality. They kept asking me for more and more research. Pushing me to come work for them full-time instead of working as a professor. By that point I was married and quite happy with my position at Vanderbilt.” She stopped for a moment and looked away.
“After my husband Paul’s death, I lost my way, and they made it impossible to say no. ”
“Until Lily?”