Chapter 30
Desmon
“The village was there before I arrived,” I said, closing my eyes with the memory. “They didn’t know what I was at first, not with The Wall working its magic. I was just the wealthy traveler who’d settled in a castle atop the big hill. The village was never very well off: the villagers often had difficulty keeping themselves fed over the winter.
“After a particularly bad harvest one year, they came knocking at my castle gates, begging for help. Just a little bit of assistance to help them through the meager months.”
“What did you do?” Carly was listening raptly.
“It didn’t cost me much, and I found watching the village entertaining at times, so I agreed. I bought them enough grain to fill their silos and allowed them to hunt on my land in the winter months, with the clause that they couldn’t take any beasts larger than a dog, and any gold they found on the land was to be brought to me. I was very immersed in dragon affairs at the time and had no use for human sacrifices or any other silly rituals.”
Carly made a sound that was a cross between a scoff and a laugh at the mention of human sacrifices, but otherwise said nothing. So, I continued.
“Somewhere along the way, the villagers started bringing me offerings of thanks every autumn. Extra bushels of wheat, a dozen chickens. A cow. And as the village began to flourish under my protection, silver and gold coins.
“I got bored with dragon matters and started watching my people more closely. I envied them their families. My family consisted of a mother who had been slain, an unknown sire, and a brother who had managed to survive even though custom dictated that I destroy him before he was even hatched.”
Carly nodded, probably remembering her meeting with Emmett.
“This was when I made my first mistake. I contracted with a dragoness for an egg, making sure to have written in blood that the resulting dragonlet would be solely mine and not hers as well. I stayed with this egg, caring for it, watching over it, excited to be a father.”
“I felt that when I touched the shell. You read to it.”
“Yes. I wanted him to be able to live as both a dragon and a man. Unfortunately, it was also during this time that the villagers started to question what I was. It had been almost a century and I still looked the same, while their elders died and their children replaced them. These new villagers didn’t remember the time when every winter was a struggle. They didn’t know where the custom of leaving me an offering every fall came from.
“Several more years went by, and Dante—that was his name—became a young dragon boy. He was old enough now to understand that we could not be seen in our natural forms. The Wall only hid so much.”
I stared at the time-hardened ceiling of my cave. The next part was hard.
“I should never have let him play with the boys from the village. But I’d wanted him to be able to walk among men and hide amongst them in a way that I couldn’t. Maybe he had let it slip while they were playing, I don’t know. The villagers, terrified of things they didn’t understand, called in a knight who was renowned for slaying dragons and monsters.”
“And came after you and Dante?”
“I had been so engrossed in my own life that I hadn’t noticed until I heard his cries. As the villagers celebrated— celebrated !— his death, I flew over the village and razed it to the ground. I was so angry all I could see was fire and red and…”
Carly put a hand on my forearm, calming me, and I realized there was a steady stream of smoke coming out of my nostrils. I tried to force myself to breathe and relax, but the memories were too strong and painful. My dragon burst forth, although we were careful to keep our precious mate safe in our arms. I was glad I was already in the nest. This was the only room where I could shift without knocking everything over.
“It’s okay, Desmon. I’m still here.” Her eyes glistened with tears. “I don’t know what it says about me as a person, but I would’ve done the same. I’m sorry I didn’t let you explain before. I understand now, and I forgive you.”
That was the first time I’d ever told anyone about Dante, and I felt a heavy load lift from my chest. For centuries, I’d believed I’d never want to make life again. But I realized now that the hole in my heart had healed to the point that perhaps I would be ready again soon.
We can make life with our mate!
It was possible, even with non dragons. The magic would take over, altering her biology just enough to grow an egg in her womb. She’d give birth to the egg, which we would then hatch together.
The thought had me excited until I realized I wouldn’t be around to raise a child. Not for at least a hundred years.
“I am glad you forgive me, My Treasure. Sleeping a hundred years knowing my one and only mate hated me would be torture.”
Her brow furrowed. “What are you talking about? You haven’t lost the competition yet.”
“Not yet, no,” I agreed. “But it is just a matter of time. She will find this piece, and is cunning enough that she will steal one from me. Eamon and Liam could perhaps delay her, but not stop her entirely. I ordered them to not risk their lives.”
“Demons can die?” She looked shocked.
“Well, not die per se , since technically they aren’t fully alive, but they can be permanently terminated. I don’t want that to happen with either of these two. Liam makes Seth happy, and that’s important to me. And Eamon spent most of his existence bound to wizards; he deserves a good life now that he’s free.”
“Okay, so she gets her greedy claws on the final piece. But that would still make you two tied. She’d have three, and you’d have three. You could still steal one back from her as easily as she could steal one from you. You haven’t lost yet.”
I wanted to touch her face, trace every line of it until I learned them all by heart. I wanted to kiss her and commit her scent and taste to memory. But my dragon refused to let the man back in. All I could do was press my snout against her bosom and file away the feel of it so I could pull up the memory anytime I wanted in future centuries and remember every single nuance.
But I knew that was impossible. Time would eventually rifle through my mind, erasing everything.
“Maybe not. But Gillisandra knows you exist, and the second you are not in my protection, she will come for you. Then she will hold you over me and demand I trade one of the pieces for you like she did the compass. And I will do so without hesitation.”
She shook her head. “No. No, no, no ! That isn’t happening. I didn’t just go on a grand adventure, have my heart temporarily broken, get rescued, learn the most tragic thing ever about my dragon mate, and get ready to piece my heart back together, only to lose it all.
“That’s one hundred per cent not going to happen. You will protect me, Desmon. Promise you will fight to win this competition. Please. For me.”
She was asking the impossible, but she was my mate, so I was bound to do it, or die trying.
“I promise I will do my best. But I failed at protecting Dante. I cannot keep you locked up forever. This,”—he gestured to his cave of treasures— “is probably the only place you are truly safe from her. My estate is hard to get into but not impossible, not for other dragons. I have demons and wizards at my disposal, but so does she.”
I could keep her here, hide her away from the world, but eventually, she would see this as a prison and me as her jailer. I couldn’t do that to her. To us.
“I don’t care!” She was glowing now, as if my fire agreed with her and backed her. “If you give up on us, I will never, ever forgive you. How about that? You say you don’t want to sleep for a century with me angry at you, but if you dare take the easy route and trade a piece for me, then I will hate you—despise you!—for the rest of my life.”
I tightened my coils around her protectively. “But she will kill you!”
“ I don’t fucking care !“ She was yelling now, and I could see my flames dancing around her.
“I love you, Carly.” It came out with a roar, and a few stones fell from the ceiling and pinged on the floor. “It would destroy me completely to watch you die. Don’t make me face that again.”
“So you’re just going to give up? If you really love me, then you’ll go out there and win. Tell me you love me again after you’ve won. If you quit now, you might as well hand me over to Emmett before you give her the last piece. At least then I wouldn’t be with a fucking quitter.”
A corner of one of the down comforters we were lying on caught fire, and I beat it with my tail to put it out. Her eyes grew wide when she realized she’d done it and not me.
“How the hell?”
“As long as you are in contact with me, you have access to my fire,” I explained.
The thought of Emmett claiming her had me ready to spew fire too, but there was no point in setting everything ablaze.
It would be difficult, but she was right. I couldn’t just give up now after fighting to win for so many centuries.
“My estate will be safe enough for now. But I will increase security.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Take me home!” The way she said it, calling the estate home, felt good.
I tried to shift back, but my dragon resisted.
No. We stay here. Protect mate.
Carly must’ve noticed me fighting my dragon because she grabbed my snout in both hands and gave me a sweet kiss on the nose. “Please shift back. Then we can win this competition together.”
I closed my eyes and slowly shifted back to my human form. Then I murmured the words to open a portal to my home. Unlike the portals to my nest, which drew on magic from the enchanted ring, the portals to my estate drew on magic coming directly from Seth.
We stepped into my library, and it wasn’t long before Seth appeared too. He looked haggard, like he’d been overextending his energy. Strange. A single portal shouldn’t do that.
“What is wrong?” The words came out sounding sharper than I had meant them to be; it hid my worry.
“I’m holding Gillisandra at bay. I suggest bringing in Sybil to help. I don’t know how much longer I can hold her.”
“She is here already?” That was fast. I’d expected her to still be searching for the artifact, not already battering down my door.
“Not here. At the ocean surface.”
“So she doesn’t have the artifact!” Carly exclaimed, elated. “You can still get it!”
“That’s right,” Seth said. He raised a brow at me. “Why the hell are you here and not out there winning this competition?”
“That’s what I said,“ Carly huffed. “Wait. Is there any way for us to speak to each other while you’re out there?”
“Yes,” Seth answered. “Through a magical link. Like magical walkie-talkies. But they take energy, and I’m already at my limit.”
“We’ll call in allies and reinforcements,” I decided. “A portal would be much faster than flying there.”
I had Sybil in my library minutes later. The dark-haired witch had her familiars, two rats named Salt and Pepper, on her shoulder.
There were others I could call on as well, but none I trusted as well as Sybil, especially with my mate here.
I quickly recapped our situation. The witch opened a portal using Eamon as a location anchor. It seemed they’d met before: her great-grandmother Sylvana owned Auntie Syl’s Wards & Witchery, the security company that maintained the wards at the Redrock Protective Services office.
I pulled Carly into my arms and gave her a hard, bruising kiss. Then I stepped through the portal.