“And what then?” Magnus asked as they walked along the narrow ledge.
“Then you can enlist the help of my family to bring it down off the mountain or leave it here. The choice is yours. But give yourself some time.” Ruby took hold of his arm and turned him toward her. “Everything will be okay.”
He looked down at her, then kissed her lips lightly. “I should be looking after you and showering you with gifts. Instead, I’m lost in this world. Nothing makes sense. Not my memories, not the contraptions that litter your world, most of which I don’t understand.”
“You’ll learn.” She stood on tiptoes and pressed her lips to his. “And really, the only thing you need to remember is how to love. What’s in your heart is more important than any amount of treasure.” Her brows pulled together. “Did I really say that?”
Her dragon turned away, totally disowning her.
Chapter Ten – Magnus
Did he want to remember? Would he rather stay forgotten?
Those were the questions he posed to himself as they walked along the trail, following behind Fara’s wolf, who seemed more than eager to get down out of the snow and bitterly cold wind that whipped at their heels, chasing them down off the mountain.
He took in a breath of the thin air. Ruby was right, only the most hardened hikers or climbers would come this way. His treasure was safe.
If it was his treasure.
He groaned inwardly and mentally beat his head with his hands, as if he could force the memories from their hiding place. But they were elusive, soft breaths against his mind, there, but not there.
“This is where we started the climb. I can shift into my dragon and fly home,” Ruby told him as they reached the place where the trail widened. Fara’s wolf stood waiting, looking longingly down the trail, before turning her wise eyes on Ruby. “We could walk further down if you prefer.”
The wolf didn’t wait to be asked again and trotted off along the trail. Magnus chuckled, Fara was a strange one. “I guess you got your answer.”
Ruby smiled wryly. “I knew the answer before I asked the question.”
“Given the choice, she’d walk all the way, wouldn’t she?” He slowed his pace and they walked side by side along the trail. It was wide enough for two, as long as they kept close together, and she had no argument with Magnus being as close as he liked.
“She would.” Ruby glanced sideways at him. “She’ll miss you when you leave.”
He tore his gaze from the wolf and focused on Ruby. “I’ll miss her. I’m assuming this means we will live together, at some point in the future.”
“At some point soon,” she corrected him. “And living in Wolf Valley with Fara is not an option.”
“I know.” He took a deep breath again and looked around, recalling the journey down off the mountain with Fara. “She’s a link to who I am. I don’t remember anything from before I met her. Why do you think that is?” He looked down at the ground and stopped, his feet planted hip-width apart.
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. He couldn’t expect Ruby to have all the answers, but he sure wished someone had just one answer.
“It’s like I walked through an invisible wall.” He dragged his foot along the snow, making an indent. “It’s as if when I was on this side, I was one person.” He stepped forward. “But on this side, I forgot it all and became another person.”
“You might not have remembered a thing when you woke up,” Ruby reminded him. “And it took until you got to here for your brain to start functioning again, which is why you remember Fara.”
His lifted his head and looked at the walls of rock around him and wanted to yell at the mountain. To ask it what it had seen that day. After all, the mountain had witnessed everything. The before, and the after. These rocks and stones had cradled a dragon as it slept, while the world below moved forward.
“Why was I asleep?” He drew the pendant from his pocket. “And who does this belong to?”
Ruby reached for his hand. “Why don’t we try Nadine’s idea?”
“You want me to paint?” he asked as she dragged him forward down the trail.
“Yes, it might relax your brain and allow your memories to come back. I’ve heard that stress can affect us in many ways. And waking up from a long sleep and stumbling out into the cold is about a stressful as it gets.”
“Unless it’s even more stressful for me to remember.”
She stopped in front of him and turned to face him. “Stop. Stop it now. You’re running around and around in your head like a headless chicken. Shove those thoughts to one side and enjoy the scenery. Think of the small things. Maybe that way the big things might take care of themselves.”
His mate made sense. “I will try.”
“Good.”
“And to distract me, you can tell me about yourself.”
She huffed at that, her hot breath a cloud of vapor as they dropped down into a rocky section of the trail. Fara, nimble in her wolf form, was fifty feet away, clambering over rocks and boulders with ease.
“There’s not a lot to tell. I have a sister, called Sapphi. Our mom died, and then a couple of years ago our dad did, too. Our mom was a dragon shifter, which is who we inherited the shifter gene from. We were lucky enough to be taken in and adopted by Fiona and Harlan, who are also dragon shifters. They have a son, Harlan Jr.”
“You love them very much.” She was right, talking about something else did help. The tension in his shoulders dissipated and he noticed small things about his surroundings, from the way the sun glistened on the snow, making it look like diamonds, to the way Ruby’s smile filled with love as she spoke about her family.
“I do. I can’t wait for them to meet you.” She stopped, they were near the end of the trail. “Unless you want to walk all the way down, I’m going to need to shift soon.” She pointed toward the hidden valley to their right. “I have to fly through there, any other way is too exposed.”
“Fara!” Magnus called out to the wolf. The wolf turned and studied him. “Time to fly.”
Reluctantly, the wolf came back toward them and with a resigned sigh, shifted back into human form. “I could walk.”
“You could. But then we’d have to walk with you,” Ruby told her.
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Fara protested. “I’ve spent my life on these mountains.”
“We know you can take care of yourself, but since we drove up in your truck, we’re stuck unless you come with us.” Ruby smiled sweetly.
“Okay,” Fara grumbled.
Ruby moved away from them, preparing to shift. The trail had opened out onto a wide ledge. Here, there was plenty of room for the dragon, and for the two passengers to climb on. Then she lifted off the ground and began the journey home. Ruby followed the same flight path, keeping low in the hope of avoiding being seen.
It was late evening, and the sun descended across the sky toward the mountain. Soon it would slide down behind the highest peak and cast this side of the mountain in deep shadow. Magnus had watched the sun on its journey across the sky every evening since he’d woken. He and Fara would sit side by side on her porch, leaning back on the wooden bench Sol had made for her.
The pride in her voice when she spoke about Sol and how he’d changed and grown into a fine young man had intrigued Magnus. The old woman might show the world a hardened exterior, but she cared deeply about the people around her.
When he moved the treasure down from the mountain, he would give a portion to Fara, so she never had to worry about money again. It was the least he could do to say thank you for everything she’d done for him.
Did that prove he was a good man?
Would an evil dragon part with any of his treasure?
He had no answer for that question. Instead, he ignored his thoughts and enjoyed the sensation of flight. Ruby’s dragon was no less magnificent as they glided down the mountain. She instinctively followed the air currents, letting thermals lift her, then angling the tip
s of her wings and breaking free to catch another one, always heading for the place they had left the truck.
A half an hour later, they were entering the clearing where their journey began. Ruby landed on the pine needle carpet that littered the forest floor and Magnus dismounted before helping Fara down. Once they were both on the ground and a safe distance away, Ruby shifted.
“I’m starving.” Her stomach gurgled in response. “All that flying works up an appetite.”
“Well, I can cook when we get back, or you can eat the rations we packed.” Fara stood, hands on hips, looking around the clearing. “I don’t care either way.”
“Let’s get back, I need to call my parents and let them know I’m alive.” Ruby cast a glance his way. “Are you okay? You look kinda thoughtful.”
“I’m okay.” That word still felt strange on his tongue. But he was beginning to pick up the subtle changes in language that had occurred over the centuries he’d been asleep. Magnus shuddered. The thought of being asleep in a cave for hundreds of years took some getting used to.
“Come on.” Ruby slapped Magnus on the shoulder. “You look as if you need a good, hot meal.”
“You sound like his mother,” Ruby commented.
“Well, until he remembers stuff, I’m okay with that.” Fara inserted her thumbs beneath the straps of her pack. “I carried all this gear for nothing.”
“It’s always good to be prepared,” Ruby said. “If we’d gotten stuck, or needed to climb around that landslide, we’d have needed it.”
Magnus turned around and stared back at the distant peak where they’d found the treasure. What if there was something beyond that landslide? He shook his head, he hadn’t found the answers he needed in the mountain and he needed to get over it. Ruby had other ideas of how he might get his memories back and he needed to trust in her.
“Food sounds good. Do you have any steaks?” Magnus asked.
“I have some chicken. If you want to eat steak every day you are gonna have to give me some of that treasure of yours,” Fara joked.
“I’m a growing man.” He flexed his arms, showing off his biceps.
“Yeah, if you keep growing you’re gonna need new clothes, too. The men I know are wolves, they are not built the same way as you.” Fara set off toward the truck, setting a good pace.
“Your stomach telling you it needs food, too?” Ruby asked as she fell in step with Fara.
“It sure is.” Fara reached into her pack and pulled out an energy bar and tore off the wrapper. “I’ll have to chew cardboard instead.”
“They aren’t that bad,” Ruby replied.
Fara offered her a bite. “Try it for yourself.”
Ruby took a bite, and chewed for a while, before swallowing. “Okay, you win. It is like cardboard.”
“Told ya. But if it’s that or starvation, I guess I’ll eat them. If you want one, help yourself.” Fara stopped while Ruby took out two bars and handed one to Magnus.
“Here, keep your strength up,” Ruby handed him a bar, and he looked at it suspiciously. “It’s not poison.”
“I am still getting used to food that comes pre-wrapped.” He tore the foil wrapper from it, and eyed it with disdain, before sniffing it. “Are you sure it’s edible?”
“Absolutely,” Ruby said.
“Only in emergencies,” Fara added, wrinkling her nose.
He took a bite, it was dry in his mouth and tasted sweet, a hint of strawberry perhaps. But not like the strawberries he used to eat as a child. His mother used to grow them in the backyard of the little house they lived in by the side of a stream. It was a simple life, but his mom did her best to raise him and his sister since their father had been slain in battle just after his sister was born.
The energy bar dropped out of his hand and he fell to his knees as he tried to hold onto the memory of his mother and sister. He wanted to expand them, and see their faces, instead of just the plump fruit, ripe and red in his fingers. He could remember the taste, sweet, like summer in one bite.
“Magnus.” Ruby placed a hand on his shoulder and his head jerked up. “Magnus, what’s wrong?”
“I remembered strawberries.” He gazed up at her like a child, all wide-eyed and innocent. “I remembered my mom. And my sister.”
Ruby dropped down to her knees in front of him and then pulled him into her arms as tears cascaded down his cheeks. He wiped them away, grown men didn’t cry, but in that moment he wasn’t a grown man, he was a child of seven, sitting on the grass at the height of summer, surrounded by the two most important people in his world.
Then he came back to reality. Surrounded by the two most important people in his world. The same, but different, separated by centuries, only the two women with him now were not his blood relatives. They were gone. Long since dead perhaps. No wonder he had chosen to sleep, to forget.
“Magnus, honey, you have to get up.” Ruby’s voice was distant, as if calling to him through time and space. She tapped his cheek, and he brought his eyes back into focus.
“I’m okay. It hit me hard. Like a blow to the head.” She stood up and then pulled him to his feet. Was this why he’d gone into a deep sleep, to avoid the pain of loss? It seemed a coward’s way out.
“Maybe I could stretch to a couple of steaks,” Fara said gently. She was looking at him with concern.
“Do I look that bad?” he asked, running a hand over his clammy face. His stomach lurched, the shock of his memory disorientating him, leaving him with the sensation of falling from the sky.
“You’ve looked better,” Ruby told him kindly.
“You’ve looked worse, too. On the day I found you, you were paler. Food soon returned the color to your cheeks, so let’s get going.” Fara’s voice was firm, but laced with concern. Which worried him more.
Dragging a foot under him, he pushed himself up to a standing position, thankful his legs supported his weight. He was a man, strong, not a sniveling child that cowered on the ground in front of women.
Ruby stood up, masking her concern. “Right, I think we’ve all had enough adventure for one day.”
“Really? You seem the adventurous type,” he told her evenly, forcing a smile on his face.
“I don’t mind adventure. But I also know when to quit for the day and that is now. We go back to Fara’s house, and you rest.”
“You sound like my…” He was going to say mother. The memory of her was there, just under the surface, if only he could scratch away the layers he might find her. And his sister. He had a sister.
Magnus thought of the love Ruby felt for her family. He’d experienced that same love. Now it was gone and the loss hit him in the solar plexus, but he breathed deeply and let it go. The truth was close, he could feel it, but he would only discover it if he trusted his inner strength.
Time to use it. He was ready to let his memories back in. He wouldn’t shy away from who he was. Good or bad, he wanted to remember his family.
In remembering his past, he would free himself to live in the present with his mate.
Chapter Eleven – Ruby
The ride back in Fara’s truck didn’t seem so bad. Or maybe it was because she had other things on her mind. Staring out the window, she gazed unseeing at the tall pine trees and distant views of Bear Creek. Meeting Magnus had turned her life upside down. She had always dealt with reality, no matter how difficult. Even in the aftermath of losing her mom and dad, never once had she lost sight of reality, never once had she figured it would be better to hide away from the sadness and grief.
Was that why Magnus was asleep in that cave? Had he chosen to hide from pain and sorrow?
We do not know his past. We are as much in the dark as he is, her dragon told her. There may be many reasons he was asleep.
But who would choose that? Ruby asked.
Someone with a broken heart. Her dragon was right, of course. Ruby could not judge him until she knew the truth. Her dragon chuckled.
What? Ruby asked sharply.
Ruby didn’t respond, her dragon was right, she often jumped to conclusions. With a sigh, she turned her attention to Magnus. “Rest tonight, and tomorrow we can go into Bear Creek and look through any old records that date from the period Fiona remembers.”
“Good idea,” he answered on autopilot.
“Magnus, is there anything else you remember? Anything at all?” Ruby asked. “You don’t have to hide or hold back from me.”
“I know.” He half turned, gazing at her with soft eyes that crackled with flecks of gold. “But there is nothing. I don’t even recall their faces. Just a sense of them being there.”
“Names? Any names at all?” Ruby asked.
He shook his head. “Only the taste of the strawberry, the warm grass beneath me, and the sound of water. A stream perhaps.”
“Or a creek. What if it was Bear Creek?” Ruby asked excitedly. “There are houses built next to the water.”
His eyes opened wider. “Perhaps we could explore the area together.”
She smiled, a sense of relief sweeping over her. “Yes. I’d like that a lot.”
Fara turned onto the dirt track leading to her farmhouse and stopped next to Ruby’s car. “Time to eat.”
“Not for me,” Ruby replied, not sure if she actually had been invited. “I need to call my parents and then get home.”
“I thought you would stay,” Magnus said, his disappointment obvious.
“It’s getting late and I want to go and pick my mom’s brains before she goes to bed. She’s working tomorrow, so this is the only chance I have before we go to town.” She jumped out of the truck, her boots scrunching on the gravel.
“Then I will see you tomorrow.” Magnus watched as Fara walked toward the house.
“I’ll get those steaks on,” she called over her shoulder.
“She is being tactful and giving us privacy.”
Ruby placed her hand on his cheek. “I know.” Standing on tiptoe, she kissed him on the lips.
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