Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rowan backed away from the window and fought the hot currents of fear rushing through him. “My brother’s turned.”
“I saw him disappear.” AJ was on her feet, her eyes wide.
“You said he turned? Exactly what does that mean? And his eyes…” She swallowed and wrapped her arms around her waist as her voice shook.
“Who are you people? My father used to tell me tall tales about the people he dealt with in Seattle’s underground, but I dismissed them because he was overworked. ”
Morgan placed an arm around AJ’s shoulders and eased her down into a chair. “We have a logical explanation.”
Rowan arched an eyebrow. “This I’ve got to hear.”
Morgan shot him an exasperated glance. “Not helping.”
AJ shrugged away from Morgan. “What’s going on?”
Rowan removed his glasses and wiped a nonexistent smudge from the lens. “Nothing much. My people are dying by a substance that was supposed to be contained eons ago. Fear is driving monsters into the open. There’s a war coming.”
AJ cleared her throat. “I’m having a nightmare, and when I wake up, I’m going to do as my father suggested and go back to school.”
“I’ll tell your father the good news. My advice, choose a university that’s located on Mars, because Earth is not safe.” Rowan shoved his glasses back in place.
“Rowan! This is not the time for sarcasm.”
He looked at Morgan over the rim of his glasses. “I was being serious. In case you hadn’t noticed, my brother disappeared in plain sight, which confirms my suspicions. He’s a shapeshifting dragon.”
AJ clamped her hand over her mouth, her eyes widening into twin orbs of fear.
“We have to trust that we will get through this,” Morgan said.
Rowan leaned against the window, searching the street below. His laugh was hollow. “Trust is the reason we’re in this mess.”
Morgan reached for AJ’s hands. She glanced at Rowan over her shoulders and glared at him.
“Let me handle this.” She drew AJ over to the sofa and motioned for the young woman to sit beside her.
“Everything your father told you was true. Rowan is being dramatic, but it might be best if you and your father left Seattle for a while. We are trying to find a way to avert it, but we believe there is a war coming between the magical community and those humans who want to eliminate people like us who have certain…abilities.”
AJ rubbed her temples as though struggling to understand the unexplainable. “Like the ability to shapeshift into a dragon.”
“Precisely. Although until just minutes ago, none of us believed that was still possible. We believed dragons were extinct.”
Rowan focused on the view from the window, watching a ferryboat pull out into the open water on its journey to one of the islands in the San Juans.
Dragons were the least of his worries. The clues had been right in front of him the whole time.
The fact a Wizard’s eyes were removed, why female Wizards had felt the urgency to run, taking the Wizardlings with them, all played on his guilt.
Then there was the ease with which the poison had killed the Wizards at the restaurant.
Some detective he’d turned out to be. If he had been doing his job, his brother might still be a Wizard instead of something in between.
“If you tell anyone what you’ve just witnessed, you will be killed. ”
“Rowan, stop it. You’re frightening her.
” Morgan smoothed the hair off AJ’s forehead.
“What Mr. Tact is trying to say is that what you’ve seen and what we’re talking about is very serious.
The knowledge might put you in danger. The old saying ‘Ignorance is bliss’ applies.
We can call your father, and you can go about your day. ”
AJ shook her head, leaning forward. “No, I want to know all of it. You said there are humans involved who are trying to hurt your kind. Let my father and me be the humans who are helping you.”
Rowan narrowed his gaze. “You’re like your father.
You don’t back down from a fight. No wonder he was worried about you.
Well, the first thing a Wizard learns is that Oculist stones from Atlantis can kill us.
There is no known antidote. What happened to Stryker is something else.
Dragons are immune to the Oculist stones’ fatal blue powder.
I still don’t understand why he shapeshifted, but I am grateful he did.
His connection to dragons probably saved his life. ”
He took a deep breath, tamping down a growing fear of his own.
He and his brother had used whatever spare time they had exploring old dragon caves.
Partly because it was a fun pastime, but mostly because they’d overheard their father say their mother was descended from dragons.
Did that mean he might end up like his brother? A man but caught between two worlds?
AJ took the cup of coffee Morgan offered and gave her a nod of thanks. “Remember my saying that my friend thought her sister Daffeny and her sister’s boyfriend were murdered? She believed there was a connection to a warehouse on the wharf.”
“We were going to check it out, but haven’t had time yet,” Rowan said. “Didn’t you mention that you took a job there to investigate if your friend was correct about the murders? Your father was really steamed.”
She took another sip of coffee. “Yes, and yes. The stones you describe look like the ones at the warehouse. Just saying.”
Rowan pushed away from the window. This was the first good news he’d had in days. “How soon can you get me into your boss’s warehouse?”