Chapter Twenty-Four
Tor
The box of discs finally ran empty. After venting my initial outpouring of anger, Ty had taken a turn as I threw some for him.
Eventually, it became a bit of a competition, seeing how far we could let them go and still hit the tiny spinning discs.
My worries didn’t vanish, but their weight was eased at least, letting me think a bit more clearly.
“She must have a plan,” I muttered as the storm built above us. By then, it had enough momentum of its own, and my lessening ire did nothing to dissipate the black clouds. The storm would blow through.
“You’re talking about Rica.”
I nodded. “Yes. She’s insane but not entirely unhinged. She acts with thought behind her actions. Or she did when she was a child, at least. But I doubt she’d have revealed her return if she wasn’t planning something.”
“Some way to kill you.”
“That still wouldn’t put her on the throne, though,” I pointed out. “The law states that the male line inherits. So it would never end up with her.”
“Unless she eliminates the entire male line,” Ty said.
“She’s not strong enough for that.”
Silence reigned supreme.
“What if she is?” Ty said.
“Then there’s no point in debating this because I’ll be dead soon enough, and you will too, probably.”
“Gosh, you’re such a beacon of positivity,” Ty drawled.
The first droplet of rain splattered on the roof. Others were starting to fall as well.
“I’m serious. If she has the power to take out everyone in her way until no male heirs remain, brothers, cousins, etc.
, then we’re dead anyway. But I don’t believe she does.
Otherwise, she would have killed us already.
She definitely wouldn’t have left after I struck her with lightning. So today was a warning.”
“Yeah, but will she do next?”
“No idea. But I’ll be extra careful,” I said.
At that moment, the door to the roof banged open.
I spun, thinking that Mia had somehow found her way up there, which would have meant entering the section of the house I’d told her to stay out of. It wasn’t her, however, and though my spirits fell slightly, seeing who it was made me grin.
“It’s here,” I said excitedly to Ty, scrambling over the roof to greet the newcomer. “Hello, Tempest.”
“Tor,” he said with a nod.
“It’s here?”
Tempest had been about to say something. He closed his mouth, then opened it, before nodding. “Yes. The mirror is in your room. But—”
“Great, thank you!” I said, slapping him on the shoulder and taking off past him, ignoring whatever else he had to say.
Right then, the only thing that was important to me was finally catching a glimpse of my mate.
I had waited too long. I should have done it before even leaving Storm Keep and the dragon realm.
Now I had a chance to atone for that mistake and finally have someone to take my mind off Mia.
I vaulted down the stairs, out into the hallway, then down to my room. The door opened easily, and I paused.
There, propped up against the far wall, was the Watching Mirror.
Each of the four dragon clans had its own.
It was designed to help keep an eye on the various parts of the realms and to communicate with dragons.
Nobody had ever used it to find their mate, as far as I could tell, until Ember of the fire clan.
Now I and the other heirs were all using it for that reason.
“At last,” I said, eyeing the mirror. It was five feet tall, set into a dark gray frame made from iron, making it unusually heavy for a mirror. The surface showed nothing but the rest of the room, and wouldn’t, until I stood in front of it.
Behind me, I heard Ty and Tempest coming into the room.
“Tor,” Tempest said, but I raised a hand.
“Not now, T. I have to do this first.”
“But …”
“Not. Now.” I barked the order.
Tempest fell silent as I stalked the mirror, approaching from an oblique angle.
It was time. The moment I saw the woman I would spend the rest of my life with.
It was odd, in a way. I knew what I would see and what it would mean.
But the woman on the other end, I would have to approach her, talk to her, win her over, all while knowing what she was to me.
That brought up a dilemma. Did I tell her? How soon should I tell her? What was that balance point between too soon and too late? How would I know when it was upon me?
The mirror beckoned, and I realized I’d been stalling. Delaying, dragging out this most important moment.
Steeling myself with a deep breath, I stepped in front of the mirror, staring at myself in the reflection.
“Show me … my mate,” I whispered, sending my command to the magical mirror.
It shimmered and darkened until it was nearly completely black.
Behind me, Ty and Tempest came closer, each eager to see what it would reveal, though neither of them waited as impatiently as me.
The questions in my mind were endless. What would she look like?
Tall? Short? Curvy and deliciously thick, fit and muscular, thin and lithe?
What about her hair? Her eyes? What would her smile do to me when I saw it for the first time?
And her skin? What color would it be? I couldn’t wait to see her finally!
All those thoughts and more zipped through my brain as the image in the mirror slowly resolved itself into a dim room. A cubicle, by the looks of it. Three walls of dark metal. The faint outline of a door on one of the walls. The image slowly rotated.
“What the hell?” I muttered as the image focused on a woman in black lying on her side, facing away from me. She had her head curled down into her body and her knees up toward her, obscuring her features. “What is this? Show me my mate!”
The image didn’t change. The woman lay on a metal slab that doubled as a bed. It reminded me vaguely of …
“Prison?” I said. “My mate is a thief?”
Beside me, Tempest hissed.
I looked over my shoulder at him. “What is it?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, Tor,” he said. “I know this woman.”
“What? How? How could you possibly have met any humans already? Were you sneaking into Earth when you shouldn’t be?”
“No,” Tempest said. “I know her because I put her into that cell. Maybe ten minutes ago.”
“You … put her in there?” Abruptly, I realized why the room looked familiar. They were the prison cells below Fulmen Manerium. Designed to house dragons if necessary.
“Yes,” Tempest said. “I did.”
“But if you put her in there, that means …”
The woman in the mirror rolled over, her big brown eyes staring past the image at something only she could see. Straw-blonde hair fell slightly across her face, forcing her to lift a hand from her thigh to push it out of the way.
“Mia?” I gasped in a choked-off cry. “What the fuck is she doing in a prison cell?”
Tempest backed off as my shock turned to fury at him for laying a hand on my mate.
“What else would you have done in my place?” he said. “She opened the door to the Rift room just as Del came through. She saw it all.”
“She saw the Rift?”
“Yes. And someone coming through it. She started going on about aliens. Then she tried to run away. How was I supposed to know she was your mate?” he challenged, standing his ground.
I got up in his face, but my anger was already fading. I patted him on the chest. “You weren’t. You did the right thing. God-King, this just keeps getting more messed up. She saw you? You’re absolutely positive?”
“Yes,” he said, not flinching from my question.
“Okay,” I said, dazed. “I guess I have to go to her, then, don’t I?”
“Probably,” Ty said, stepping up and clapping me on the shoulder. “But think, Tor. If she was going off about aliens …”
“Yes?”
The other dragon sighed. “Then she probably thinks you’re an alien, too. She has no idea what we really are. She’s not going to trust you right now, either. She’ll think you’re the lead alien. She’s going to freak out.”
“You’re right,” I said, acknowledging his points.
“Exactly. So let’s give it some time. Let her calm down, at least. Then we can figure out something to say.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “We’re not going to do that. I’m not going to do that.”
“We’re not?” Ty asked, looking at Tempest.
“No.” I sighed, taking a second to breathe. All that time, and it turned out Mia was my mate. I’d labeled her little more than a human with distracting hips. I’d hired my mate as a cleaning lady!
It was bad, very, very bad. I could think of one way only to begin solving this mess. But none of the others would like it.
“Tor …” Ty said suspiciously. “What are you thinking? I know that look. You’re going to do something without thinking it through.”
I looked at him and squeezed his shoulder again, doing my best to reassure him. “If she’s going to freak out, then she may as well freak out for the right reasons.”
“Right reasons?” Ty echoed. “What do you mean?”
I met his gaze. “I’m going to show her what we really are, Ty. It’s time for my mate to know the truth. I’m going to show her my dragon.”