Chapter Twenty-nine
DOMINIC
Ben’s uncharacteristic attitude continued when he insisted we leave the room and go downstairs for a cuppa. Or a coffee, in my case. Tea was disgusting.
I’d thought earlier that Ben wouldn’t stop until he’d digitised the floorboards of the records room. Instead of which, he was standing at the door, urging me to “Get a move on, Dominic.”
“Have the body snatchers been while I wasn’t looking?” I asked him as we descended the stairs. Rhodri’s study door was still firmly closed, thank God.
“Haven’t you heard of taking a break?”
“Dominic!” At the sound of running feet, I looked across the hall to see Teddy heading in our direction at a rate of knots. Stepping down off the last stair, I bent to meet him and swung him in the air.
He was still giggling as I drew him in and tucked him against my hip.
“Where did you come from?” I asked.
“The village,” Teddy informed me, as if this explained everything.
Rae appeared carrying a stack of exercise books and looking faintly exhausted. She had the unenviable task of teaching the youngest dragonets. We weren’t permitted to mix with humans until we were eighteen, which meant we were all home-schooled. Which meant someone had to do the schooling.
“Lessons,” she confirmed. “And before you ask, no, you’re not keeping him.”
Teddy promptly wrapped himself around my neck like an octopus.
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t have an adventure, does it?” I said to Teddy, who gasped.
“Conkers!” he shouted.
“Inside voice, Teddy,” Rae said with an uneasy glance towards Rhodri’s door.
“Conkers, Dominic, please.” Teddy’s whisper was almost as loud as his shout.
I looked over at Ben, and he was watching us with what I could only describe as heart eyes.
“You up for Teddy’s Great Conker Hunt?” I asked him.
“Of course,” he said. “Do we get points for pine cones too?”
Rae choked. “You,” she said, pointing at Ben, “are a very bad influence.”
Ben looked remarkably unfazed by this criticism, so she turned her ire on me.
“You are not teaching him to throw them at people again,” she warned me.
“That happened one time.”
“Three times.”
“In fairness, the vicar started it.”
“The vicar absolutely did not start it.”
I grinned and shifted Teddy higher on my hip. “Come on then. We’ll need reinforcements.”
“Laura!” Teddy shouted instantly.
Which was how, fifteen minutes later, Ben and I found ourselves walking through the village, with Teddy charging several feet ahead.
A tiny, dark-haired girl in a yellow raincoat marched importantly beside us, carrying a stick taller than she was.
Apparently, she’d found it on a walk and now refused to go anywhere without it.
Ben looked around as we walked, and I realised this was the first time he’d been to the village. It was the first time he’d really been anywhere on our territory other than the records room, the castle, and my bedroom. I just hoped it wouldn’t be the last.
The village was larger than it first appeared, narrow roads leading away from the high street into a tangle of one-way lanes where houses appeared in unexpected places. Most belonged to our family, but enough humans lived here that we still had to be careful.
Laura stopped abruptly and pointed her stick at me. “Where’s the bag?”
I blinked at her imperiousness. “There was supposed to be planning involved?”
“We need a bag for the conkers,” she said patiently, in the tone of someone explaining basic concepts to a particularly stupid adult.
“Ah,” I said.
Before Ben could point out the flaws in my logistics and preparedness, I pulled my hoodie over my head and handed it to her.
“There,” I said. “Problem solved.”
Ben made a faint sound beside me. I looked over to find his gaze fixed very firmly on my t-shirt. Which was clinging rather closely to my chest.
“What?” I asked innocently.
“Nothing.” But it came out sounding strangled. I may have preened internally, just a little.
The children accepted the hoodie as an entirely reasonable storage solution and sprinted ahead towards the woods while Ben and I followed, hoping Laura didn’t put someone’s eye out with that stick.
“You realise,” he said, “most people would probably use an actual bag.”
“And deprive Teddy of the joy of ruining my clothing with muddy conkers? Never.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“You like me ridiculous.”
His mouth twitched reluctantly. “Unfortunately, yes.”
The woods beyond the village blazed gold and copper beneath the afternoon light, fallen leaves thick underfoot while Teddy and Laura charged through the undergrowth with all the restraint of small caffeinated bears.
And somewhere amongst the cold air and the occasional shouted declaration of conker superiority, I realised I could breathe again. As if, for a little while, I could almost forget what waited for me back at the house.
* * *
By the time supper approached, the knot of dread in my stomach had tightened enough to make eating feel like an impossible concept.
I changed clothes twice before settling on black trousers and a charcoal jumper that looked respectable without appearing as though I’d made an effort. Which was ridiculous. Nothing I wore was going to improve this situation.
Ben watched me from the bed, where he’d just finished buttoning his shirt.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
“No,” I said honestly.
He stood and crossed the room to me, his eyes worried. “You don’t have to go down if you don’t want to.”
I barked out a laugh before I could stop myself. “Oh, that’d help.”
His hand settled briefly against the back of my neck, thumb brushing warm against my skin. “Dominic—”
“If I hide in my room, I’m fairly sure Rhodri’ll actually kill me.”
He stayed close on our way downstairs, and as we walked into the dining room, my pulse was hammering. Conversations faltered and died. A few of the politer dragons looked away when I glanced towards them. Others were openly curious.
So news had already spread of the confrontation in the hall. Not a surprise. I wondered how much they knew.
Ben slowed very slightly beside me, as if checking whether I wanted to turn around and leave. I couldn’t. My pride wouldn’t allow me to run away. So I raised my chin and crossed towards my usual place. If Rhodri wanted to do this publicly, so be it.
Dafydd was already seated halfway down the table. His eyes flicked immediately towards me, sharp with question and something that looked like concern. And then, very deliberately, his gaze dropped towards my pocket.
Phone. Right. Shit. He’d sent me a text earlier. I’d checked to see if it was from Rhodri, then forgotten it entirely.
I gave the smallest possible shake of my head as I sat down. Not now. His expression tightened before he looked away.
The empty chair at the head of the table sat there like an executioner’s block. Every sound in the room seemed too loud, and underneath all of it, waiting.
Then the dining room door opened. Silence fell instantly as Rhodri entered. His gaze swept once around the room before settling briefly on me.
There was no anger apparent in his expression. His usual composure was unbroken, which somehow terrified me more. I felt suddenly, violently cold. Even my dragon, usually so close to the surface, was curled up tight deep inside, fearful of being removed from other dragons.
But Rhodri only took his seat and unfolded his napkin with precise calm.
“Good evening,” he said.
Conversation restarted cautiously around the table. And I sat waiting.
Waiting through soup. Then the main course. Through every agonising minute that passed without Rhodri acknowledging me directly at all.
At the end of the meal, he pushed his chair back and stood, and I was convinced this was it.
The moment when he’d declare me draco non grata to this family, meaning that I had to leave their territory forever.
That, as far as they were concerned, I no longer existed.
My head was pounding with it as I waited.
But without a word, he walked out.
Relief slammed into me. But then it was gone as if it had never been, and the dread wound even tighter. Because now I had no idea when the axe was going to fall.
BEN
I wasn’t sure Dominic had eaten enough to keep a sparrow alive.
I went to him the instant Rhodri had left and manoeuvred him out of the dining room, throwing a swift apology in Dafydd’s direction as I got us out of there.
Dafydd obviously wanted to talk to Dominic, but Dominic was too pale. Still not quite Dominic.
Unsure what to do for the best, I steered us to the records room.
It was the right decision, because once there, it became easy to fall back into our usual routines.
The rhythm of work took over and became oddly comforting.
And each time I spared a glance at Dominic, he looked less pale and more like himself.
Which meant that it didn’t take long before he abandoned all pretence of work.
I was halfway through photographing a Post Mortem Inquisition when he appeared beside me and leaned one hip against the table.
“You know,” he said thoughtfully, “I’m still not over your sudden descent into anti-history radicalism.”
I shook my head without looking up from my phone. “I’m not anti-history.”
“No?” He leaned closer, his voice low against my ear. “Because earlier you told me to fuck history.”
Heat curled low in my stomach. “You’re taking that quote slightly out of context.”
“Mm.” His fingers slid lazily beneath the hem of my shirt to trail along my spine. I just about managed not to shiver. “Care to elaborate on your position?”
There was something brighter in him now. It definitely wasn’t happiness. More like the reckless energy that came from surviving an ordeal, as if he didn’t know what to do with all the adrenaline left behind.
My pulse kicked harder as his fingers skimmed teasingly over my skin.
“I think,” I said carefully, “my position is that you’re trying to distract me.”
“Historian,” he murmured, stepping between my knees where I sat, “I would never.”
Liar. I barely had time to fumble my phone down before he kissed me.
My hands slid beneath his jumper, warm skin and hard muscle beneath my palms. Dominic made a soft sound into my mouth and pressed closer immediately, craving more contact the way he always did. Given what I now knew, that nearly broke my heart.
He pulled back just enough to rest his forehead briefly against mine.
“You’re thinking again,” he accused softly.
“I’m a historian. It’s my fatal flaw.”
“That’s not what you’re thinking about.”
No. For once, I wasn’t thinking about history. I looked at him. God, I loved him.
Apparently my face gave something away, because Dominic’s expression swiftly changed, becoming almost unbearably open for half a second. Then he kissed me again, harder this time, and my ability to think vanished entirely.
We made it along the landing to his room eventually, bumping into walls as we went because Dominic apparently found it impossible to navigate and kiss me at the same time.
By the time we collapsed into bed, there was only warm skin, breathless laughter, and Dominic under me, eyes dark and soft. I took my time with him, needing him to feel exactly how wanted he was. I made every touch deliberate, every kiss lingering.
Dominic, unsurprisingly, lasted perhaps three minutes before he lost patience with that approach and hauled me down into a bruising kiss.
“Less emotional eye contact,” he demanded breathlessly. “More action.”
I laughed against his mouth and obeyed.
Afterwards we lay tangled together beneath the covers while the old house creaked quietly around us. Dominic was sprawled half on top of me, relaxed and loose-limbed now in a way he hadn’t been all day. My fingers drifted lazily up and down his spine while his heartbeat slowed beneath my hand.
Eventually, he lifted his head. “You still want to go flying?”
“Yes,” I said immediately.
“Good,” he murmured. “Because I think if I stay inside this house much longer, I may actually start biting people.”
“Start?” I asked, tilting my head back to show him the mark he’d left on my neck.
Typical Dominic—he didn’t look in the least ashamed at being caught out. “People who aren’t you,” he clarified.
I kissed him once more before we finally forced ourselves out of bed.