“She has a point,” Kellan said. His disappointment was palpable.
She squeezed the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. “Look. Why don’t one of you fly in and the other drive?”
“Because I’m no’ leaving you,” Kellan said. He paused for half a second, and her heart missed a beat. Then he said tightly, “And I doona know how to drive.”
“I do,” she stated.
Rhys began to nod. “I like it. I can go in and take a look around before you two arrive. It’ll also let me know if they have anything watching from the skies.”
“It’s settled then,” Denae said.
“Nay, it’s no’.” Kellan’s pale green eyes were narrowed in thought.
Rhys’s grin was wide as he said, “You know it’s the right thing to do.”
Kellan faced forward without a word. Rhys chuckled and exited the vehicle. The back passenger door was opened by Rhys, who waited for her to get out before he closed it.
“Where are we going?”
“The Isle of Raasay. Go west toward Skye. The ferry will take you to the isle. I’ll be overhead.”
Denae glanced at the sky. “Out of sight, I presume.”
“Of course.”
Rhys then took off his shirt and shoes and tossed them into the back of the Mercedes. When he reached for the waist of his jeans, Denae hastily got into the driver’s seat and adjusted everything to her.
As soon as the back hatch closed, Kellan said, “We can leave now.”
Denae pushed the start button and the engine roared to life. She pulled out onto the road and started driving. In the time she had known Kellan, they had been alone for very little. Now, she had hours with him.
She glanced at him to see one hand fisted on his thigh and his gaze on the sky. “You would rather be up there flying, wouldn’t you?”
“Aye.”
Denae was a little surprised he answered so honestly. “Rhys could drive me, you know.”
“I gave my word I would see you safe.”
“You would be, just from a different vantage point.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw him staring at her.
“I’ll take to the skies soon.”
“When was the last time you flew?”
His sigh was long. “Nearly thirteen centuries ago.”
Denae was so shocked she swerved on the road as she looked at him. She straightened the SUV and blinked. “Are you kidding?”
“Nay.”
They drove for two miles as she waited for him to elaborate. When he didn’t, she asked, “Will you tell me why it’s been so long?”
“I was asleep.”
She really needed to stop being surprised at everything that came out of his mouth. There were supernatural beings on Earth, sharing their world with humans. Who knew what kind of code they lived by, or even how they lived?
“You must have been really tired.” Was it her imagination, or had there been a ghost of a smile on his lips?
Kellan shifted in his seat. “When you’re immortal, time stretches endlessly before you. Sometimes we grow weary of it all, but we have responsibilities as Dragon Kings. We either stay awake and get through each day, or we sleep.”
“In dragon form, I suppose?”
“Of course. It’s our natural form.”
She smiled softly at him. “So you slept for thirteen hundred years. What sent you into the mountain?”
“The one I killed, because even after what he did, we are supposed to protect humans.”
He cut his eyes to her, but she kept driving. She knew he disliked her kind, but his voice had fairly dripped with loathing.
“It wasn’t just that one mortal. I had grown tired of them and their ways. I had never stopped hating them for what they did to my dragons. I was supposed to defend the mortals, and yet I wanted to wipe them from this realm.”
She was silent, taking it all in.
“It was Con’s right to end my life after I killed that human. He opted not to, and I chose to sleep rather than see another human.”
“And then Matt and I showed up,” she said and glanced at him. “I can’t begin to know what it’s like to lose dragons, but I do understand loss. I don’t think I’d have blamed you had you let me die in your cave.”
“I honestly doona know why I didna. Maybe it was the way you fought Matt.”
The windshield wipers came on as rain began to drizzle upon them. Denae knew she shouldn’t prod into Kellan’s past, but she was curious about him.
She licked her lips, suddenly nervous to pry. “You mentioned being the Keeper of the History. What did you mean by that?”
“I was in charge of the history of the dragons,” he said and tapped the window beside him as a bubble of rain ran down the side. “I wrote down every birth, every death, every disagreement, every battle. It plays in my mind, allowing me to write details without having to witness anything. I kept numbers of each dragon clan. Some events I was part of. Like when we discovered Ulrik’s woman had betrayed him and we hunted her down.”