Chapter 26
Meera
The door clicked shut behind Seth and Mateo, leaving me alone with Graham and the bomb he’d just dropped. The air between us was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It was suffocating. My hands shook from the mix of anger, frustration, and disappointment I was feeling.
"You knew!" The words exploded from my mouth before I could stop them. "You knew about what happened to Karim, and you didn’t tell me."
Graham’s wings twitched restlessly behind him. “I was going to, I—”
“But you didn’t.” My voice rose despite my efforts to control it. “Seth said he sent it to you yesterday. You had plenty of time to tell me.” I stepped closer, forcing him to meet my gaze. “Why keep me in the dark? Was it to make sure I stayed dependent on you?
Graham’s jaw tightened. “What? No, that’s not it.”
“Then why?” I demanded.
My mind raced, trying to piece together his reasoning.
I didn’t get it. This wasn’t just some trivial detail; this was important, this was my life .
I’d been with Karim for years. Sure, I’d found out that he was a real work of art and had been living some kind of double life, but if he’d died, I should be the first to know.
Whether he was dead or just gone, I deserved to know.
Hell, even if he was still alive, the fact that he’d run off to Mumbai was huge. It meant he wasn’t lurking in the shadows waiting to drag me back and punish me for ruining his plans. It meant I could stop looking over my shoulder.
And Graham had kept that from me. Why had he done it?
“You were swimming with Tansy and Lillian and having so much fun, I didn’t want to ruin the mood, so I thought I’d tell you after.”
“And afterward?” I demanded.
“I—” His gaze darted away, fixing on some point over my shoulder rather than meeting my eyes. “We were enjoying ourselves, and I forgot.” But there was something about the way he said it that told me there was something he wasn’t quite telling me, and it had my stomach twisting in knots.
What wouldn’t he tell me? With every second that passed without an answer, my betrayal morphed into anger.
“Why?” I demanded again, my voice a little harsher. “So you’d let me continue believing that he was still after me and I needed you to protect me from him?”
He pressed his lips into a firm line, his countenance stonier than the gray of his skin. I waited for his explanation, his admittance, his… something , anything! But the big, broody, overprotective gargoyle just stood there like a fucking statue.
“You like it that I’m reliant on you.” I shook my head. “Is that it? Is this some sort of hero complex? Were you trying to get me to stay at Redrock a little longer? Milk Desmon for a few more pennies? Or is it the easy sex?”
An angry growl exploded from my still statue. “Is that what you think of me? That I’m taking advantage of your situation to benefit myself? I’m not the one jonesing to meet a billionaire dragon.”
Where had this come from? This wasn’t the Graham I’d met and known this past week.
“What are you even talking about? There’s a spell, remember? And ghouls?”
“And I said I can protect you!” he roared.
Everything suddenly felt so surreal. I was with a gargoyle in a billionaire dragon shifter’s library, yelling at each other like a dysfunctional couple in need of therapy. What happened to my life?
“For how long?”
“Forever! And you want to know why I didn’t tell you about your ex?
I was jealous, okay? I didn’t want to see you cry over him.
Didn’t want to see the hurt in your eyes over the death of some other man who didn’t deserve you.
He was in your life for years and meant something to you, and I got fucking jealous alright?
I thought you were mine ! But I was wrong because you don’t need me anymore.
So fucking go play house with this dragon who’s promising you a world of riches! ”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Did he just accuse me of being a gold-digger?
Not that I thought there was anything wrong with gold-diggers—I mean, yeah girl, go get that bag—but it was the way he was saying it.
Did he really think I was just going to ditch everything and go play babysitter-slash-bed-warmer to a dragon just because he offered me riches?
Anger blazed red in my vision.
“You know what, Graham? I think I will. Now get out of my face!”
Was it my best moment? Hell. No. But I was angry and stressed, and I was only human.
Graham turned and stomped out of the room. He didn’t even try to fight for me. I guess I had my answer, even though I hadn’t even known I had a question. I was still fuming, his words washing over me, when the door clicked open.
Elana cleared her throat, her no-nonsense voice cutting through the tension like a hot knife.
“It’s okay, sweetie. I see the way he looks at you.
He’ll be back. It’s best if you both take some time to breathe and think first. Then when you’re both ready, you can hash it out.
You’ve got some things to work out, and so does he.
Mateo is heading over to Redrock’s to grab your stuff. You’re in the room next to Q-Tip.”
Before I knew it, I had a Q-Tip in my arms as Elana and Carly bustled around Q-Tip’s room, cleaning up old hay and setting out fresh food.
“Q-Tip’s a great listener. He has a lot of experience being my impromptu therapist. And if you need a friend that doesn’t just reply by flinging food at you, I’m always ready to lend an ear. I’m at the museum today until noon, but call me if you need to talk.”
“Thanks, Carly.”
I woke up fighting the sheets like I usually do, except this time Graham wasn’t there to comfort me. I’d had the exact same dream again.
Did that mean the dream wasn’t magically induced because I was at Desmon’s place? I highly doubted any magic could make it in here.
I reached over to the side table for a sip of water, urging my heart to calm. I was mid-sip when the door to my room burst open. Flame and Blaze floated in, looking like they were ready to lay a beatdown on an imaginary enemy.
“Where is he?” one of them demanded.
When Flame wasn’t flirting shamelessly with me, I still couldn’t tell the two ifrits apart.
“Let’s toast some wizard ass,” said the other one. He reached over and turned on the lights.
It was just them and me in the room. I placed my cup back on the nightstand.
“It was the dream.” I didn’t know what else to say.
“We had an alert for unauthorized offensive magic use in this room, and Seth’s detection grid is never wrong.” The first ifrit started moving around my room, sniffing the air like he was a hound after a scent.
The other ifrit came to me. “You are safe now, beautiful. If you are scared, I can stay here with you tonight. I am very talented at putting fears to rest.”
Aha! Flame located!
I placed my cup back on the nightstand. “Thank you, Flame, but I’m fine. The dreams never actually hurt me.”
“I can also stay for fun.” He waggled his brows.
The door slammed open for a second time, and Seth, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers with the words Hot Stuff written all over them, stomped in, looking less than happy about being woken up. There were several hickeys on him I’d rather unsee.
“What the fuck is going on?”
“I had the dream again, and these two detected magic use.”
“Technically,” Blaze said, “your system did. But by the time we got here, it was gone.”
“There ain’t no way magic got through my fucking wards. It has to already be on her.” Seth came in really close and sniffed me. “I don’t smell anything.”
“Good. Now let’s never do that again.” That was a little too close for comfort.
Feeling awkward that I was still lying in bed when everyone was standing, I grabbed the robe Elana had given me and got out of bed, grateful that I’d worn more than just a T-shirt to sleep.
Seth went around the same way Blaze had.
He stopped in front of my purse, which was sitting on a small table, and picked it up, a low hiss coming from his throat.
He upturned my purse and shook everything out onto the table.
Out came my wallet, lip balm, eyeliner, and compact. The simple cosmetics were all I’d picked up at the shops. The purse was empty, but Seth continued shaking it like it owed him lunch money. When nothing more came out, he looked inside and unzipped the internal zipper and stuck his hand in.
“The fuck is this?” He held up something bronze and shiny.
I gasped as recognition hit me. It wasn’t the only thing that hit me. Memory of the voice I’d heard in the ladies’ bathroom at the pub and finding the dragon scale came rushing back so hard it made my head hurt, and I grabbed it to try to stop the pounding.
“I remember now! I found it in the girls’ room at the pub.
Shelby and Emily were there. I heard a voice they didn’t hear, and I saw it on the counter.
I picked it up and put it in my purse. They asked if I was all right because I was staring off into space.
And when I tried to tell them there was nothing to tell. I forgot about it.”
“Not your fault. There’s a pretty strong forget spell on the scale.
It’s spent already, probably aimed only at you.
But the residue is there. We figured out how the dreams have been making it through Redrock’s protection.
Sneaky bastard.” Seth held the scale up to the light shining down from the ceiling.
“Looks familiar, actually. I’ll confirm with Desmon in the morning. But I think we have our dragon.”
Seth tossed the scale into the air and caught it as he walked out the door.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay for the night?” Flame asked with a hopeful look that had me wondering if he was just really lonely beneath the flirty exterior.
“Thank you, Flame, but I’m sure.”
Blaze gave me a curt nod and the two floated out of my room, closing the door behind them.