Chapter 28
Desmon
After returning from checking the compass and finding that the needle still pointed toward the Hawaiian Islands, albeit a little bit farther west and in the ocean, I returned with the good news only to find Carly looking and smelling distraught, even though she tried not to show it and pretended nothing was wrong.
But I could still sense it on her. I hated it.
She immediately asked that we return to the resort, which was a bit of a blow. I’d thought she’d love my cave and would want to stay here for the night. This was not the reaction of a mate proud of my hoard.
I looked around the cave, wondering what could have spooked her so, and my eyes landed on the nearest rack of weapons. Some of those swords and axes had been taken right off knights who had tried to slay me. Perhaps they’d shown her the battles and that was what had given her a scare.
This wasn’t how I’d expected our first trip to my cave to end, but perhaps it would be best to return to the villa before any more of my treasures could frighten her. However, her mood didn’t improve when we returned to the Hawaiian Islands, although she did try very hard to hide the fact that she was upset.
At dinner, she didn’t have an appetite. I asked her about it, and she said she was just eager to find the artifact and be done. Then she encouraged me to go out and look for it. I could tell she was lying. I didn’t understand these human games, so I reacted the only way I knew how, by telling her I knew she was not being completely truthful with me.
“Something in my cave has upset you. Tell me what it is. I will get rid of it. I will get rid of all of it if I must and start over. Tell me what you wish to see removed from my…no… our cave of treasure. I can’t fix it if you don’t tell me.”
Instead of answering me plainly, she asked, “What do you think it is?”
“I don’t know!” I yelled. “Why the fuck would I ask you if I did?” I immediately regretted the outburst.
Carly’s face changed. “What if I don’t tell you? What are you going to do, burn me to a crisp?”
Where the fuck was this coming from?
“I don’t know which of those weapons gave you this idea but rest assured that if I won a weapon off someone, chances are good they were trying to kill me at the time. Of course weapons would be partial to their original owners.”
She made a noise that sounded like a cross between a bitter laugh and a huff. “Were those innocent women and children trying to kill you too? The ones in the village? The village you burned to the ground ?!”
Her words hit me like mortars, rattling me to my core.
I’d tried so hard to put that whole event behind me. I’d moved my life to this continent, uprooting everything, even abandoning much of my treasure to start over in the New World where the pain and guilt could not follow me. Not the guilt of destroying the village. The guilt that I had of not destroying it sooner.
I’d only allowed myself to keep a few keepsakes of the event. The chests! I’d pushed them behind some of my treasure, blocking them from view. Out of sight, out of mind. Carly must have found them.
What had they shown her?
“Whatever those items told you, it isn’t the whole story. Those villagers deserved what they got.”
She stared, looking at me like I’d sprouted another head. “How can you say that?” she yelled. “They were attacking you? Great. Roast the men who came to attack you. After several dozen, I’m sure they would’ve gotten the message and left you alone. It’s not like they had nuclear bombs! You massacred an entire village.”
I bristled at her inaccurate account of the event. The incident that had caused so much turmoil in my existence, that made me who I was today, boiled down to a pack of lies. I exhaled, and a wisp of smoke curled from my nose. “Don’t talk about things you don’t understand.”
“Don’t understand?” Her voice was shrill. “I heard them, Desmon. I heard the children screaming and the mothers crying.” She was shaking now, pure disgust in her eyes and anger in her voice. “I heard the begging. I smelled the burning—”
“You don’t know what they did!”
“Then please enlighten me!”
I opened my mouth to speak, but the words I’d never uttered before stuck in my throat, refusing to come out.
“Was it your treasure? Did they steal something from you?”
Did she really think I would do something like this over a mere gem or an artifact? Had she gotten to know me at all this past week? My dragon fumed so hard, he couldn’t even make words in my head. He paced, growling like a beast. I couldn’t stop the angry growl that escaped my throat.
Fear flashed in Carly’s eyes, and she backed away from me. That really stung. Did she think I’d hurt her?
Then I realized I was towering over her, smoke coming from my nostrils, my hands clenched into fists. I must have looked very threatening indeed.
Fuck! This was not the way to convince my mate to listen to me.
I needed air. I needed time and space to breathe and think things through. Things would only get worse if I stayed right now. I didn’t blame her. Who knew what one-sided, biased version of the events that had transpired she had been shown.
I turned and stomped towards the door, throwing it wide, and stepped outside. Once the tropical evening air hit my skin, I let my dragon fully take over. I spread my wings and launched into the sky, letting every beat of my wings put distance between me and the one I’d thought would finally help me heal after all these years.
I flew across the ocean and allowed the wind to soothe my rage.
After a long flight, scanning the Pacific Ocean for a magical salve to appear out of nowhere to heal my emotional wounds but finding none, I headed back to Maui. My mind was clearer now.
Mostly, I was angry that my old life had come back to haunt my new one like a ghost. I’d moved to the other side of the planet to be rid of it. And I was angry that I was still unable to say his name or even mention him after so long. How much longer would he torment me? I could barely even remember his face or the sound of his voice, yet it still hurt like a fresh wound.
But…did it really?
No. This is different. New. Painful.
My dragon was right. It wasn’t the same raw, festering grief that had tailed me for so long. What was causing the hurt was the disappointment in Carly’s eyes.
I had to go make things right with her. If she refused to listen to me, maybe she’d listen to the artifacts. She must have only touched the ones in the wooden chest. Of course those would tell her a biased tale.
“Desmon! There you are!” Liam blinked into existence in the air in front of me.
“What are you doing here, Liam?”
“You just flew off so fast. We were worried, so I followed you. Eamon stayed with Carly.”
I hadn’t specified that they should both stay with Carly, given how helpless she was on her own, so naturally, they’d split up to cover us both. No matter: we were almost back anyway.
As we approached the archipelago, a sense of unease settled in the pit of my stomach. Something was wrong. Then I caught the slightest whiff in the air of a cloying perfume combined with ash and smoke.
Gillisandra!