Betrayal Foretold: Descended of Dragons, Book 3 (14 page)

E
wan rolled
onto his stomach and propped onto his arms. “I’m starving. Is that food for us?”

“Yes,” I laughed and placed slices of prosciutto and pecorino on top of the crusty bread.

He grinned playfully back, but then his face darkened without warning. “I haven’t been eating well.” He ducked his head. “Or sleeping. I’ve been a wreck for weeks, Stella. I thought you were dead.”

I rolled to my side and touched his sweet, haggard face. “I’m so sorry. I tried to come back to you. Please believe me. I tried to convince Gaspare to at least get word to you I was alive. He wouldn’t. Said it put everyone here at risk. And he was right to an extent, but I never gave up. Not on you, and not on us.”

His eyes closed when he turned his head and pressed lips to my palm. “What do you mean everyone here? Who’s here?
Where
is here?”

* * *

I
slipped
on my shirt and poured the two of us glasses of red wine. I told Ewan everything—about Gaspare’s coordinated smuggling of so many endangered people to Pearl, about the other dragons, about Abia, about the history of interspecies children—everything.

“Damn,” he breathed when I finished the tale. “Do you know what this means?”
I shrugged. It meant a great many things.

“Boone and Timbra have a chance at a normal family. At a life together.”

I was less confident of their actual chances at such happiness. Besides the obvious fact that interspecies conception wasn’t possible anymore, there was extreme prejudice back in Thayer. If it were ever possible again, common sentiment would be strongly against it. Thousands of years’ worth of culture couldn’t be changed overnight.

One good thing about life in Thayer, though, was that time moved differently. Lives were long. Something impossible overnight may be workable over a couple of centuries. But who wanted to wait that long? Ewan and I nearly lost our minds being apart a few weeks.

Why does every single thing have to be so hard,
I wondered.
Does nothing come easily
?
“
Nothing good,
” Ewan answered my thought again. The depth of his emotions was plainly visible in his dark eyes. “
As evidenced by my difficulty in conquering you
.”

“‘Conquering?’” I asked, my voice raised in mock outrage. “I’ll show you ‘conquering.’”

I straddled Ewan’s lithe waist, still naked from our earlier love-making. When I looked down into the handsome face I loved so much, I couldn’t help feeling I would lose him again. The way Ewan held me told me he feared losing me, too.

I clasped him to me, kissing his face, his neck, and laying my head onto his thick chest. It was impossible to get close enough to him, but having him inside me helped.

* * *

I
lay
with my head on Ewan’s strong arm, circling his tiny pink nipple and smiling when it puckered.

“I forgive you for Emrynne,” I said. “We never talked about being exclusive, and I know you were lonely. And probably drunk.”

Ewan jerked and rose up, forcing me to sit back onto my knees in front of him. “What are you talking about? What about Emrynne?”

“I know you slept with her. I saw through Gaspare’s eyes when he checked in on you one night. She led you from Sabre Bar and upstairs.” The temperature dropped. I felt cold and found my skirt. “I admit it turned my stomach to hear her say she’d ‘make it all go away.’ It’s nearly killed me to think about you two together.” I twisted the skirt back into place once I’d finished with the zipper. “I guess what I’m saying is, I can get past it.”

I held my hand out to help him up, but he scoffed at it and stood abruptly.

“Oh, you forgive me, do you?” His bark of laughter held not even a hint of humor. “Sleeping with someone else is such a small thing you can forget it so easily.”

I had no idea what to say. I didn’t understand his reaction, his sudden anger.

I reached out to him. He let me take his hand but didn’t squeeze back. “It’s not a small thing,” I said slowly. “I didn’t mean that. I…well…you thought I was dead. I know you were in a pretty bad state. I’m saying…I’m saying I understand how you could be with someone else, how you might look for comfort.”

He pulled his hand from mine and crossed his arms. “I wasn’t. I wouldn’t. I
couldn’t
. Maybe it works that way for you, but not me.”

“But I saw…and I thought…”

“No.” His nostrils flared as he worked to contain his irritation.

“Okay.” I tried to accept ‘no’ and go on. I
did
. “And Emrynne’s ‘make it all go away’ and leading you upstairs?”

“Let’s just say I sobered up fast.”

“Ah. All right.” I didn’t say anything for a while. I ran through what I’d seen in Gaspare’s head and compared it with Ewan’s account that he didn’t go through with it. I could accept that. I believed it. Maybe because I wanted so desperately for it to be true.

We stood not moving or speaking again, though I couldn’t contain the smile that covered my face when it sunk in Ewan had not, in fact, screwed that ethereal ice princess.

“What?” he aimed for petulant but failed.

“This day is shaping up to be pret-ty fantastic.”

Ewan smiled crookedly and snagged more of the bread and cheese.

Wounded was gone and in its place was peace, pleasure, pride.

* * *

I
t was nearly
ten and the knot of nauseous dread in the pit of my stomach increased with each passing minute. I didn’t want to be separated from Ewan again. Ever. But that wasn’t the deal I’d made with Gaspare.

“It’s okay. We’ll see each other again very soon.” I had no idea if what I told Ewan was true or not. That possibility was dependent on Gaspare, which was supremely unfair, but at the moment, the only hope I had. “I’ll ask him if we can meet here each day. At least for a couple of hours. It’s going to be tough to convince him, though. I think he still believes we should cut our losses and break things off.”

Ewan’s menacing growl sent the hairs on the back of my neck straight up. The predatory threat rumbled through the dense tropical forest, which went eerily quiet.

I smacked his arm. “Well, that’s not going to win you any favors. Cut it out.”

Gaspare arrived right on time. I was on my best behavior, thankful for the opportunity and hopeful of another.

“Good-bye, Ewan.” I stood on my toes to brush a light kiss over his lips. But before I could back away, Ewan grabbed me around the waist and pulled me tightly to him. He pressed his lips to mine leisurely, his eyes on Gaspare in silent dare. He was laying his claim, showing just what he thought of Gaspare’s ‘cut your losses’ philosophy.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t flattered by his little display, no matter how ill conceived to take on the most powerful man in Thayer.

Gaspare’s mouth quirked as he tried to hide his smile. “All right, that’s enough. Let’s go, lover-boy.”

He laid a hand on Ewan’s back, and quick as a thought the two were gone.

* * *

I
traced back
to Gaspare’s cottage, and while I felt more alone than I had in my entire life, there was hope. My mother was gone for good, and I could at least find closure in that. Bay and Forster were settling in to their new life together, and Gaspare and Emelie had their own blissful thing going on. I missed Boone and Timbra, Layla, Mari. I even missed Raynor and Bex and The Root.

Most of all I missed Ewan. Already. I wanted nothing more than to have his warm body next to me in bed.

Sex with Ewan Bristol was everything I’d hoped it would be and, truthfully, everything I’d feared. It was love and love-making, carnal and sensual and scandalously, scalding hot. It was generous and emotional and moving. No hang-ups or insecurities, only love.

Love
. No wonder everyone made such a big fuss about it.

“
S
tella
?” Gaspare called from downstairs.

I was awake. I’d been lying in bed recalling the intricacies of the day before. I didn’t want to forget anything about my first time with Ewan, and went over each detail, committing them to memory. Some people don’t care for leftovers, but I’d always thought most food better the next day. While a memory couldn’t compare to the real thing, looking back on the previous day’s events gave me a whole new appreciation for it, for Ewan.

I descended the stairs with the singular intention of working out a deal with Gaspare to see Ewan again.

“There you are.” A crisp button-down shirt and dress pants were Gaspare’s uniform, and his Oxfords shined like new pennies. “I’ve been thinking,” he began and paced the small space of the kitchen.

I held up a coffee cup.

He nodded acceptance. “Hmm? Oh. Yes. Morning. As I said, I’ve been thinking.”

“Yes?”

“The damage has been done now. You might as well continue your relationship with this Bristol kid.”

“Will you quit calling him a kid? I know we’re young compared to you, but he’s a grown man.”

“Oh, all right. I do like him, by the way. Huge set on him, that kid…er, man. Huge set.”

I snorted, narrowly managing to swallow a mouthful of coffee. “What’s changed your mind? I thought you wanted us to break it off.”

“Your grandmother and my wife have convinced me I was a fool. They reminded me that two people who love each other can never really be kept apart. They also reminded me of my own inconvenient love. And Abia’s. And your parents’, I suppose.”

I raised my eyebrows at him and remained silent. I was learning not to let my big mouth get in the way of my own interests.
See, personal growth!

“Abia’s up to something else, though she won’t confirm what,” he went on. “She’s up in arms; has me bringing her historical records from the capitol. ‘Just general research,’ she says. ‘Humor an old lady,’ she says. Abia Pike is no old lady, don’t ever let her fool you.”

“Anything I can do to help?” I asked.

“Just keep an eye on her. I don’t know what she’s up to, but when she gets an idea in her head, it’s never simple. And could be dangerous.”

I nodded. I would not ask about Ewan. Would not ask. “Sooo, when can I see Ewan again?”

Gaspare smirked. “Any time. He can come and go to Topaz with no restrictions. I’ve warned him to keep his mouth shut or that can change. You, too.”

“Promise,” I said, jumping up and down only a little.

* * *

A
bia was
hard at work when I found her, but not at diving. She was inside the house poring over a huge, leather-bound book.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Historical records. Trying to establish a timeline.”

“A timeline for what?”

She didn’t want to tell me. Her mouth tightened into a line across the bottom of her face.

“Okay,” I muttered and fidgeted with something on the table.

She snapped her head from the book. “This could change everything. Do you see?
Everything
.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, but nodded encouragingly so she’d go on.

“I’m telling you because I need your help. I can’t tell Gaspare yet. If it’s not true, it’ll break his heart. He and his Emelie have waited so long. I’d have long abandoned the vow if it were me, but not Emelie. She’s so strong. Hard-headed, some might call it, but strong none the less.”

Abia looked around the room before speaking, as if someone might overhear. “I need you to have your friend bring someone back with him,” she said.

“Back from Thayer?”

“Yes. Here, to me.”

“Oooh. Gaspare’s not going to like that.”

“Well, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” she said imperially.

“Who do you want Ewan to bring, anyway?”

“Rowan Gresham.”

I had to work to breathe around the tongue I nearly swallowed. “What do you want with Gresham? What can he do?”

“I just need to ask him some questions is all,” she said, looking away.

“Huh-uh.” I shook my head. “If Gaspare found out, he’d forbid me from seeing Ewan again and that’s not worth the risk.” I sucked air in through my teeth. “Sorry.”

Abia was suddenly impassioned, one fist pressed into her hip and a finger shaking at my face. “‘Not worth the risk’! Child, it’s worth every risk. Any risk.”

“What is?”

At my question, she looked away. “I’d rather not say.”

“Well, there’s no way I’m asking Ewan to bring Rowan-Freaking-Gresham here without knowing why. And he might not do it anyway. There’s history between the three of us and Ewan and he aren’t on great terms.”

“History? Between you and Talbot Gresham’s son?”

“I told you about him. He’s the one that found me and brought me to The Root. For Gaspare, it turns out. But apparently, it was all some sort of double agented secret plan by Brandubh and Livia Miles. I’m sketchy on the details, but I’ll tell you what Gaspare told me. A long time ago, Livia had a vision another dragon existed—me. Of course Brandubh wanted any dragon—all dragons. One of her visions was of me with Rowan Gresham. For years she and Brandubh searched but couldn’t find me because I lived outside of Thayer and wasn’t of age to inherit my animal form. Knowing only that I had some involvement with Gresham, they put a plan into place. She killed Rowan Gresham’s wife and weaseled her way into his life. As her visions continued, she was able to help Gresham—and Brandubh—find me. Of course, neither of them really trusted or cared for her, which came back to bite her in the end.”

“It seems you’ve had your fair share of misfortune,” she said. “You’re stronger for it. That’s what I always say. I may be stuck here on this island, but I am comfortable with myself. And in the end, that’s how we die. Alone.”

“Jeez. Took a real turn for the morbid there, didn’t ya?”

“The sooner you figure out who you are and what you want from life, Stella, the faster you can work at getting it. If I’ve learned anything by being here all these years, it’s to isolate what is important to you and work every day to keep it, to make it better, to enjoy it more. You never know when it’ll be snatched away.”

“Yes ma’am.” There wasn’t much else to say.

“Now, will you ask your Ewan to bring Talbot Gresham’s son to Topaz with him?”

“No ma’am.”

The veins in her forehead bulged so far I worried she’d have an aneurysm. “You hard-headed child. Why do you think I persuaded Gaspare to bring your beau here? Why do you think I put myself on the line? Offered my island?”

“Well, I thought you had a sentimental side. I thought you saw some similarity between my situation and yours. I thought you wanted…me to be happy.”

“Bah,” she scoffed. “Of course I do. There’s that, too. But he has a role in discovering if my theory is right. I need him to bring back Rowan Gresham.”

This revelation of Abia’s self-serving motivation only convinced me further I wasn’t doing anything without knowing why, and I told her so.

After several tense moments and a very hard look at me, she conceded, “All right. I’ll tell you.”

Abia swore me to secrecy—from Gaspare and Emelie, especially. But I would never get Ewan to agree to the task without knowing how important it was, and she finally conceded that, too.

With that piece of business settled, we set to work.

* * *

“
K
nowing
how to protect yourself with wards could mean life or death, Stella. You must get this right, and fast. Try again.”

Abia Pike had little patience for failure, and none for excuses. She didn’t care that I was relatively new to the world and concepts of magic and wards and animal forms. I was here
now
. I knew magic and shifters existed
now
. I knew my ancestry and my potential. Those were the important things. “Adapt,” she had said. “And then excel.”

But wards were difficult. Like everything else in Thayer, they were a completely new concept for me, something I had first to discover and then learn to manipulate. I’d seen Emrynne create the one against Gresham in my room, of course. She’d made it look so effortless.

Isn’t it interesting how current feelings affect hindsight? Before, I’d found Emrynne to be sweet, harmless, and ethereally lovely. I thought her misunderstood and wanted to see her happy. Now, despite Ewan’s assurances he wasn’t intimate with her—which I believed wholeheartedly—I really wanted her sickly sweet ass to ferment and putrefy.

That’s unkind
.
You’re better than that
. I thought about it for a bit, and really tried to wish good things for her future. Really tried.
Yeah, gonna have to work on that one.

I stuck my head outside Abia’s door and listened. I could have sworn I’d heard someone calling my name. Nothing. Shrugging, I went back inside.

“
Stella? You here?
” Ewan called melodically through my mind.

“
Yes. Hi. Where are you
?”

“
I traced back to the waterfall. To the pool. To our tree
.”

His words sent my thoughts to the day before, and my mind straight to the gutter. I couldn’t get out of Abia’s house fast enough. To Ewan fast enough.

“
Hold on. I’m coming
.” His only reply was a soft “
Mmm
.”

I cleared my throat and as inconspicuously as possible turned to Abia. “A—”

She shook her head. “I know he’s here. Go on, then. Remember what I asked. Bring Rowan Gresham as soon as possible.”

* * *

“
H
i
,” I said, my mouth suddenly dry. The day before had been transformative for our relationship. After such an intimate encounter, we hadn’t wanted to part ways. I’d yearned for him through the night, and I suspected he’d missed me, too.

But the separation had put a strain on us. Seeing one another again in the light of day was different than parting as lovers. We’d crossed a threshold. We’d made love. And there was no going back. Feelings had been involved—deep feelings, and their physical manifestation had been more moving than I ever anticipated. There was so much on the line I didn’t know where to begin, and stood rigid and unable to move.

Luckily, Ewan took the lead. I could tell he felt the strange new dynamic, too, but was determined to work through it. He strode toward me, put his hands on either side of my face, and forced the awkwardness away. His kiss was soft, reverent, grateful. He ran a hand down my back and onto my butt, pressing me into him.

“I missed you,” he said and lightly nipped my lip.

“I wanted you in my bed so badly last night I lay awake for hours.”

“Not me,” Ewan said and laughed. “I was bathed and fed and happy, and fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed.”

“Good,” I pushed a mass of curls from his face. “You needed rest. You look better today.”

“I
feel
better,” he said and his eyes sparkled playfully. “Though I seem to have developed a problem that requires immediate attention.”

I laughed out loud and he squeezed me, laughing too.