“If my legs are going to heal, when will we know?” I asked, already formulating my plan to get home.
“By morning. Why?” Marek asked.
“Because I’d like to go back to Shadow Veil. Our being here isn’t helping anything. Yes, JayLeigh has beat my body into submission and I can kick a lot more ass now, but if my dragon hasn’t come out yet, then I don’t think it matters whether I’m here or not. Unless you have ideas I’m not aware of?”
Marek glanced between me and JayLeigh, then Enzo. He walked over to Enzo and pressed his palm to Enzo’s forehead before turning to JayLeigh.
“I’d like to have some time with Raegan. You’re off duty for the rest of the night.”
Her brows furrowed. “Are you sure, King Marek?”
He nodded. “I don’t need your services here.” He put emphasis on “here,” and I assumed JayLeigh was supposed to read between the lines.
“Ah. Yes, I understand. Well, you three have a good night and I’ll report back in the morning.” JayLeigh mock saluted us and disappeared out the door of the room we were in.
“I’m assuming we’re in your quarters, just in a different room I haven’t seen?” I asked.
“Yes, I didn’t believe it would be safe for you in the infirmary. I really am sorry this happened to you on my watch.”
“You’re not my par—” I stopped, realizing he was technically my parent, so I tried to be sympathetic to his sense of responsibility. “It’s okay. I’m choosing to believe I’ll be up and walking around for breakfast tomorrow.”
He grinned. “Yes, I hope so. There are other things I need to speak with you about before you leave, though. I will support your decision to go, but I hope once you’re able to sort out whatever you need to, that you’ll come back.”
“As long as people aren’t still trying to kill me, I would love that,” I replied.
“Do you need anything? Would you like me to let you rest?” he asked, seeming nervous about whatever he wanted to talk about.
“Nope, I’m good.” I grinned, enjoying the apprehension coming off him. It made him seem more genuine when he wasn’t so in control and acting like a king.
He took a seat and rubbed his palms on his linen pants. “I can’t prove this, but Raegan, I need you to know that I’m pretty sure I am your father.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, I think we already established that.”
“No, you don’t understand. I was bonded to Malina before I left Earth.”
Air stuck in my throat as I tried to process his words. If he had been with Malina and thinks he’s my real father, then she could really be my… I couldn’t even think the word.
“How would you know? You left way before I was born.” I was going to find any reason to prove his theories wrong.
“You’re right, I did, and I know I didn’t get her pregnant in the typical sense. I would have known almost immediately if I had, but she had more than one opportunity to take what she needed from me to create a child.”
“So, you think I was still created, but you were the main ingredient?”
He laughed. “Yes, to put it not-so-eloquently. Considering you are struggling to connect fully with any side of you, I believe you were first only a dragon shifter, but Malina snuffed your dragon out when she forcibly made you more than what you were meant to be.”
His words triggered the memory of my conversation with Ophelia. When she told me I was meant to be a dragon, I had thought it was Enzo holding me back, but maybe I needed to give up the other supernatural parts of me to become what I always should have been.
“Can you take the other parts of me out? Is there a way to strip the elf and witch side of me?” I asked.
“There is, but it’s not something I’m capable of. You’ll need a powerful sorcerer to complete the task for you. So, I agree with your decision to leave, but I want you to come back. Just for a few days at a time, so you’re not missing too much of Shadow Veil, enough that you can learn about your dragon.”
I had an idea, and I wasn’t sure he’d agree, but I knew one person who might. “What about if I promise to come back every other month if JayLeigh is allowed to come to Shadow Veil on the opposite months?”
He leaned back in his chair, considering the idea. “I’ll speak with her, but I don’t think that’s a bad idea. I’d feel better if JayLeigh spent most of her time on Earth with you until Malina is found, but I don’t know if that’s such a good idea for multiple reasons.”
Putting on my best pout face, I let water collect in my eyes to really sell my pleading as I stared at him. “You could come instead this time.”
His face softened, telling me I had gotten to him, but he still shook his head. “You don’t understand. I can’t leave Drakken, or I will damn us all.”
“That makes no sense, and if you don’t want me to hate you for not helping protect my other family, then you’ll need to explain.” Yep, guilt trip. I had no problem going there if begging didn’t work.
He sighed. “Fine, but then you need to leave it alone. Agreed?” I nodded and he continued, “Drakken is home to the last seer.”
“Oh, yeah. I met her earlier, before I was almost dragon food.”
His eyes bulged. “What did she say to you? She hasn’t spoken to anyone that I know of in almost two decades.”
I shrugged. “She basically told me I was meant to be a dragon and I needed to let go of something to become who I was supposed to be. I assumed she meant my bond with Enzo.”
He shook his head. “Ophelia speaks in riddles. Don’t begin pushing people away just yet. I think you need to see Alistair before you make any decisions. Tell him what we’ve discussed, and he’ll know what to look for. Did she say anything else?”
“Just that I had a path to stay on and I needed to conquer my obstacles in order to move forward. Then, she basically forced us to go away, and that’s when we were attacked. Pretty sure if she was a good seer, then she would have known it wasn’t safe for us to go back into the forest.”
He smirked. “Or maybe it was an obstacle you needed to face in order to move forward.”
I rolled my eyes, seeing where he was coming from but not liking it. “Anyway, back to your story. Why can’t you come with me?” I wasn’t going to let him off the hook from explaining that tidbit.
“Right. Ophelia came to me when I arrived back in Drakken after I left Malina. She told me war was coming and that our walls would fall just like Elora’s. Basically, what I took from it was if I left Drakken again, everything would crumble.
“I haven’t considered leaving since, and we’ve been training an army for the day someone comes for us, just in case I misunderstood the prophecy. I thought it would be Malina, but then she was captured and we loosened up on things. Now that she’s back, I don’t know what to think, but I won’t risk going back to Earth and letting Ophelia’s vision come true. Drakken means too much to the dragons here.”
Damn, crazy seer. That was probably why she stopped telling her visions. My DDD had taken his interpretation of her words and freaked the rest of the population out. No wonder most of the dragons hated me and Enzo. We could have been a Trojan horse, only in Drakken, to begin the war they were preparing for.
“I understand your concerns, but have you ever considered that if you don’t come back to stop her, then she’ll come for you anyway? You have what she wants. You told me yourself that Malina’s purpose had been to restore Elora. Well, Drakken is the next best thing. If she wants a world to run and nobody can stop her, she will come for this place.”
“That would be true if she knew Drakken existed, but nobody on Earth was aware of it before I had JayLeigh bring you here. Would I be wrong to assume those who know where you are kept your whereabouts a secret?”
“No, but it doesn’t mean you’re safe here,” I countered, but his expression remained the same. There was no budging his decision.
Pain raced up my leg, effectively ending that part of our co
nversation. Without thinking it through, I let my reflexes take over and stuck my hands right into the flames that still flicked over my skin. “Holy shit, that hurts even worse,” I screeched.
When I pulled my hand away, blisters bubbled in several places. “I thought these flames were supposed to be making me better?”
He pushed me back, so I was out of his way before he started moving his fingers through the fire again. “You have to know how to control the magic before you can touch it.” He continued doing his thing, moving from one wound to another before settling back down.
“It’s working, and you’re actually healing faster than I thought, which is why you felt the discomfort. The quicker you heal, the more I need to power the flames to keep you mostly out of pain.”
I nodded toward Enzo. “What about him? Can he wake up now?”
“He could if I wanted him to, but I wanted you to be able to speak freely without worrying about what you say in front of him,” Marek stated.
“Haven’t you learned I typically speak freely, regardless of who is around?” I grinned.
“While I am well aware of that fact, I’m also fairly certain your heart feels a different way. Enzo is your mate and, no matter how hard you fight it, you still care about him and what he thinks. You may not realize it, but every decision you’ve made since you’ve been here has been with him in mind. I’ve watched the two of you, and when he moves, so do you. Without even realizing it, the two of you are in sync.”
That wasn’t at all what I expected to hear. If anything, I felt I’d been keeping my distance from Enzo, especially since the morning I had practically forced myself on him. Though, the more I thought about it, I had needed Enzo. Needed him in a way I’d never felt before, and it scared me more than I had wanted to admit.
He made me vulnerable, and I didn’t like it. Not one damn bit.
“He screwed up pretty big,” I said.
Marek nodded. “Haven’t we all?”
Sure, I’d made mistakes in life, but I’d never lied like him. I’d never kept something from someone I loved that could put their life in danger. Regardless, I knew I’d already forgiven him. I accepted what had been done and let the anger go, but I wasn’t sure yet if I was ready to move forward as if none of it had happened. To fully open my heart to him again.
“Let me ask you this, do you still love Enzo?” Marek asked.
“I do,” I replied without hesitation.
“And you believe he is remorseful for what he did?”
“He wouldn’t be alive if I didn’t.” Okay, that might have been an exaggeration, but it was close.
“Then, ask yourself this: which might give you more regrets? Giving him a second chance and possibly experiencing great love, or protecting your heart and maybe never knowing true love?”
My gut choice would be to take the chance at great love, but self-preservation was always there, reminding me of how much it would hurt if he screwed up again.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.
He moved around the bed I was on and went back to Enzo. “When you figure that out, everything else will fall into place.” His palm pressed against Enzo’s head again, and a groan left his lips.
“I’ll be back to check on the healing flames shortly. Whatever you do, don’t move from that bed or you’ll regret it, but make sure you talk to him. Tomorrow, you head back to Shadow Veil, and you don’t want to make love wait. It can disappear before you know it.”
There was a sadness in his voice that told me Malina hadn’t been the only love he’d experienced, and I felt for him. But, I couldn’t ponder it for too long, because within seconds of the door closing, Enzo rolled over in bed with fury in his eyes.
Chapter 15
A rumble began deep in his chest as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, eyes no longer meeting mine but staring daggers at the flames covering my lower extremities.
“I’m going to kill them,” he snarled.
“Calm down. I know it sounds like a great idea now, but not if you expect to live long. These assholes have been preparing for a war for decades.”
“What happened?” His voice was clipped with barely contained ferocity.
“Well, you got knocked out, and then I was almost dragon food. My dragon still didn’t come out to save me, so JayLeigh did. She took us back here, and Marek is healing my legs. I should be up and walking in the morning.” I tried to remain positive with my tone. He didn’t need any added aggression in his current state.
“How do you feel?” I asked when he didn’t move from the bed.
“I’d rather not answer that right now.”
“Enzo, I’m fine. We’re fine. Just take a deep breath.” Marek had made the right call keeping him unconscious for as long as he had. If I couldn’t get Enzo to calm down soon, I considered asking Marek to come back and knock him out again.
Enzo finally stood. “No.”
“Huh?” I asked confused.
“Nothing is fine. Being here isn’t right. I’m not okay with putting your life on the line in hopes your dragon side will come out. You don’t need that part of you to be the best version of yourself. You’re perfect as you are, and these people are only going to get you killed trying to change you.”
I reached a hand out to him. “Come here.”
Taking a step from his bed, he didn’t need to be told twice. Warm arms wrapped around me, and I sighed when his heart beat rapidly against my cheek.
We held on to each other for several moments until I felt like he had calmed down enough to continue the conversation without blowing up.
“Enzo, we’re going back to Shadow Veil Academy tomorrow.” I paused as his eyes lit up, then fell.
“Why do I feel like there is a ‘but’ coming?” he groaned.
“Because there is.” I laughed. “But I have every intention of coming back. DDD thinks Headmaster Stone can help me with what comes next.”
“And what’s that?”
He was either going to love the answer or hate it. “I’m going to ask him to strip my elf and witch sides, so there is nothing hindering my dragon from releasing.”
He didn’t say anything, so I added something I hoped would make things not sound so bad. “I was going to ask someone to break our bond, because I first thought that was what continued to hold me back, but after speaking with Marek, I think he’s on to something.”
His fingers stroked the tiny point on my ear as his other hand tightened around me, almost painfully. “I can’t lose you.”
The agony in his voice was real, and it broke my heart. I had kept him at arm’s length long enough and decided it was time to put us both out of our misery. We’d each been through enough since his secrets were revealed. I wasn’t just hurting him by fighting what I secretly always knew even when I hated him.
“I know and you’re not going to, so long as you support my decision to embrace my dragon side. Would you still love me without my elf counterpart?”
He lowered himself, so our eyes were even. “Raegan, I’d love you even if you had horns sticking out the sides of your head. You’re mine. You have been since the day I first met you. It just took me a while to figure it out.”
When I didn’t say anything, he pressed his lips to mine, gentle, yet so full of love.
“Can you forgive me for all of the wrongs I did?” he whispered, before kissing me again.
“I already have.” This time, I pushed closer to him before realizing I couldn’t get far when I had zero use of my legs.
Holding me fervently, Enzo moved in as close as he could without getting on the bed and disturbing my legs. He whispered words of love and passion between kisses, making me wish I had waited longer to officially forgive him.
Before things could get too heated, Marek knocked on the door to warn us of his arrival, which I appreciated. As Enzo pulled back, I tried to calm my racing heart, but it was no use. Marek glowered when he walked over to check on me.
He pointed at me. “You are still bed-bound until sunrise.” Then, he moved his intense glare to Enzo. “She needs her space to rest, so if I catch you preventing that from happening, I’ll have no choice but to kick you out.”
I so badly wanted to joke and say, “Yes, Dad”, but that might have been taking things too far. Marek was trying, and I did give him credit for that, but I doubted I’d be calling him Dad in the affectionate sense anytime soon. Though, knowing he cared so much meant more to me than I realized it would.
I made a mental note to one day tell him about my parents who raised me. They’d given me a good life, and I hadn’t ever needed for anything. Not all kids who were taken from their birth families were so lucky, but I certainly had been until they passed away.
“Yes, sir. I won’t do anything to postpone us leaving tomorrow,” Enzo replied, even though he didn’t separate the distance from us. He might not get halfway in my bed again, but he wasn’t leaving my side anytime soon.
Marek raised a brow at me. “Did you tell him you promised to come back?”
I nodded. “He’ll support my decision to embrace my dragon side.”
Enzo’s chest rumbled next to me, but Marek raised a hand. “Before you lose your cool, I think that once people can see she’s a fully transformed dragon, then they will accept her. Those who don’t will be punished. We’ve already found the two who attacked you earlier.”
“What about Onyx?” I asked.
“That is a lot harder situation. He is my second-in-command. I can’t move against him until he physically does something to you or puts the other residents of Drakken at risk by his actions. We may not live like humans, but we did adopt some of their government practices, and Onyx has near equal power to me.”
Shit. I had hoped DDD could just kick him out before we came back, but it sounded like an impeachment of sorts would need to happen first before the asshole could be knocked down a few pegs.
“What about you coming with us?” Enzo asked. “We still need your help to stop Malina.”
Deadly Declaration (Shadow Veil Academy Book 2) Page 13
