I start opening doors at random until I find a corridor that leads me closer to his room. A corridor that’s dimly lit, instead of pitch black, with electricity, not torches on the wall. Oh, thank heavens. I’m back in the renovated part of the castle. Picking up my pace, I hurry to Rhys’ bedroom and bang on his door. “Rhys? You awake?”
In mere seconds, the door swings open, and Rhys stands there, his eyes sleepy, his long hair in a tousle around his shoulders. “Aria?” he says, and then takes a look at my face. “What’s wrong?”
“Something happened,” I reply, my teeth chattering. “Something weird.”
He immediately puts his arms around me, drawing me into his chest. He’s so warm. My own personal space heater. “You’re freezing, love.”
“I got lost,” I admit, allowing him to pull me into the room. He guides me to a comfortably-overstuffed chair next to the fireplace, tucks a blanket around my shoulders, and throws another log on the fire. Delicious heat washes over me. “You take such good care of me,” I murmur. This is a side of Rhys I haven’t seen before.
His lips lift in a small, sidelong grin. “Join me in bed, and I’ll take even better care of you,” he quips.
Yeah. That’s the side I have seen. Rhys Griffith is an irrepressible flirt, and he can certainly back it up. The man eats pussy like a champion.
One of these days, I’ll get to knock on Rhys’ door in the middle of the night just because I want him, but today is not that day. My life is too tumultuous, and all five of my mates will need to hear about Maija’s revelation.
His expression turns serious. “You want to talk to all of us? I’ll call the others.”
“Thank you, Rhys.”
In less than five minutes, all four dragons crowd into Rhys’ bedroom. “Something happened,” I tell them. I’m looking at Bastian’s face as I speak. “I had a visit from Maija Essen.”
Bastian’s expression turns blank with shock. Casius and Mateo exchange looks, and then Casius clears his throat. “Aria,” he says gently, “She’s dead.”
“I know.” I sound a little crazy. I’m having visions of long-dead dragons. “She said she was a memory from the past, sent to the future to talk to me.”
“A vision from the past.” Erik directs his question at Mateo. “Is this possible with magic?”
Mateo shrugs his shoulders. “She was the most powerful mage of all time.” He turns to me. “Are you sure it wasn’t a dream, tesoro?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” I insist. “It was real. She was in dragon form. Her scales were red, and her eyes were green. She was in a large underground room, and she called herself the Silver Mage. I didn’t dream any of it.”
Bastian swallows. “What did she tell you?” he asks quietly.
I tell them the whole story. Being summoned by a voice in my head. Heading down an endless flight of stairs to the underground chamber Seeing the dragon, wearing the ring on my finger, being pulled into a vision from the past. Seeing Maija Essen and Halla Northridottir in the mage’s chamber, and finally, Maija Essen breaking off a piece of the Bloodstone and pushing it inside Halla’s stomach.
There’s perfect silence when I finish. “The Bloodstone is part of me,” I say out loud. “That’s why I can do magic, even though I’m Norm.” I look around at my five dragons. “I didn’t dream that. I’m not crazy.”
“Erik?” Mateo says, his voice strained. “Do you have the gem?”
Erik nods. He lifts the chain from around his neck and hands it to Mateo, who surveys the golden dragon thoughtfully. I can feel the threads of magic around him start to swirl, gathering in strength as he directs his power at the stone. “It’s resisting me,” he grinds out. “The dragon can’t be removed from the ruby.”
I have a sudden premonition about this. A feeling that Mateo’s trying to approach this all wrong. “Not by you.” The golden dragon is protecting the Bloodstone, and the more Mateo strains to remove it, the more it resists.
I hold out my hand. “May I?”
Mateo nods slightly and places the Bloodstone in my palm. The moment I touch it, a sense of rightness sweeps over me.
I’ve been dreaming about the stone for weeks, but I’ve never held it before. When my fingers close around it, I feel recognition. Awareness. I feel complete.
“Hey there,” I whisper to the golden dragon that’s curled around the gemstone. “Wake up, little guy. Will you show the others what you hide?” I unfurl my fingers and stroke the miniature carving on its back, and because I’m watching for it, I sense the exact second the magic around me thickens.
It wakes, as if from a long sleep. Its wings slowly unfurl. Its eyes open, and its head lifts up. Its claws fall away from the ruby it protects.
“It’s chipped,” Casius says hoarsely. “It’s supposed to be a perfect teardrop but look at the side. It’s as if someone gouged a wedge out of it.”
“Not someone,” Bastian replies grimly. “My mother. But why?”
“She said that I hold the last bit of untainted magic in the universe. Maybe I’m supposed to be a seed or something?” I feel like I’m still groping in the dark.
An expression of disquiet flickers across Casius’ face, but it’s gone so quickly that I’m sure I imagined it.
“Whatever it means, one thing is clear,” Erik says flatly. “You’ll need to be protected, and not just by Bastian’s guards. We’ll need to train you to face anything.” He looks at the other dragons. “Mateo will teach you magic. Rhys and I will teach you to fight. Casius will teach you about our history, and Bastian can give you a crash course on magical politics.”
I wonder if he’s thinking about his dead mate. A tendril of jealousy winds around my heart, and I banish it ruthlessly. I’m not going to be one of those women that are catty about their mates’ exes. It’s too ridiculously cliched.
Besides, Erik’s right. I’m a thief. I know the importance of preparation and hard work. I had some training in the week leading up to Bastian’s birthday, but that’s not nearly enough. We’ll eventually figure out how to break the curse, and when that time comes, I will need to be ready. I’ve got to buckle down and get to work.
Everyone lapses into silence. We’re all lost in our own thoughts. For a few minutes, the only sound in the room is the hiss, pop, and crackle of the fireplace. Rhys finally breaks the quiet. “Look,” he says reasonably. “It’s three in the bloody morning. The curse has been on us for five hundred years. I think it’ll keep for another five hours. We can get to work in the morning, but for now, let’s get some sleep.”
Bastian takes a deep breath and gets to his feet. “Sounds good.”
I don’t want to go back to my room. “Can I stay here?” I ask.
Rhys flashes me a sympathetic smile and follows it with a wink. “Of course, love. I know you just can’t get enough of me.”
Erik rolls his eyes, and I start to laugh. Right now, Rhys’ cheerful, uncomplicated company is exactly what I need.
2
Casius
Maybe I’m supposed to be a seed or something.
Those words fill me with unease for one simple reason. A new plant sprouts out of a seed. The seed itself is split apart, no longer needed once it’s given life to a plant. It’s destroyed in the service of creating something more important.
Aria’s my mate. Call me selfish, but I don’t want that to happen to her. Above all else, I want her to be safe, unharmed and happy.
If magic is waning from the world, then so be it. Maybe it’s time for us to wither and die, and for the Norms to be ascendant.
I understand magic, but because I have none of my own, I don’t know it. Among us, Mateo’s the one who’s spent the most time in the Silver Mage’s library, reading her diaries, poring over her notes. If there’s anyone of us who might understand Maija Essen’s true intent with Aria, it’ll be him.
As we leave Rhys’ room, I put a hand on his shoulder. “Can I chat with you for a minute?”
I don’t want to raise my suspicions to the others. Not yet, not while it’s just an intuition. Erik’s already lost one mate. It would destroy Bastian to know that his mother’s machinations might cause Aria harm.
And Rhys? If we knew that something bad was going to happen to Aria, even Rhys is not a good enough actor to pretend that all is well.
“Sure.”