“Can I help you?” Mr. Gu emerged from one of the offices that lined the south wall. “I hope you are enjoying your stay with us. This meditation has already begun, but there will be another beginning in an hour.”
“Actually, we’re here about my brother Alexander,” Rowan said. “He’s missing.”
Mr. Gu smiled. “I never knew he had a sister, but then Alexander is a man of few words.”
Rowan extended her hand. “I’m Rowan and this is Nick.” Mr. Gu shook her hand with a firm, confident grip.
“It’s a pleasure.”
“Thank you. But please, do you have any idea where my brother might have gone?”
Mr. Gu frowned. “Your brother has been in need of healing for as long as I have known him. I’ve tried to help, but his soul is damaged in ways only he can fix.”
Rowan nodded. “I know. We’re trying to help him.”
“There are places in Sedona called vortexes, swirling, concentrated energy that calls to those like Alexander who desperately need its healing power. I have noticed when your brother’s aura has become exceptionally dark, he has, in the past, mentioned visiting a local place called Shaman’s Cave.”
Hope bloomed in Rowan’s chest, and she squeezed Nick’s hand excitedly. “How do we get there?”
“I have a map. Take water. It’s a two-hour hike from the parking area at Coconino National Forest. Be aware that the trail is unmarked in places and can be hard to follow.” Mr. Gu handed them a trifold guide. “May peace find you.”
“Oh, thank you. I appreciate this so much.” Tugging Nick’s hand, Rowan turned to leave.
“Yours is nice.”
“Huh?”
“Your aura. The two of you have the same hue. A beautiful rose color. Nick’s is darker than yours, but they go together perfectly.”
Rowan grinned. “Thank you. That’s very sweet.” She followed Nick out the door.
“Good to know our auras are a matched set,” Nick said lightly. “I’d hate to have to color mine to match. Even when the results are good, the upkeep is a nightmare!” He gave her an exaggerated scoff.
Rowan giggled. “Was there ever any doubt?” She held up the map, her expression growing serious. “Let’s pray this is the place.”
A dragon’s ability to hide its treasure was unparalleled. Rowan expected Alexander’s cave to be unreachable by humans and magically warded against supernatural beings. If they had any hope of finding Alexander, Rowan and Nick would have to work together.
As a supernatural, Rowan could find the cave but not enter it without Alexander’s permission. Nick could enter it, but Alexander would have chosen a location inaccessible to humans. If Alexander had cloaked the entrance in invisibility, neither of them would be able to see it. Luckily for Rowan, she had the best of both worlds and knew her brother better than anyone.
After making the hike to Shaman’s Cave, Rowan sensed they were close. The metallic tang of magic hung in the air. She smiled. If it had been her, she would have chosen this area as well. “Are you game for a ride?” she asked Nick. “I need your help.”
He clucked his tongue. “Always, baby.”
Sweeping Nick into her arms, she unfurled her wings and cruised around the red crags, searching for Alexander’s hiding place.
“But if it’s invisible,” Nick asked, “what are we looking for?”
“Tell me if you see any irregularities in the stone. It’s here. I can smell my brother’s magic; I just can’t pinpoint it.”
“There!” Nick pointed to a place where the reddish hues were broken and incongruent as if someone had folded the rock in half. She flew toward the side of the mountain and broke through Alexander’s invisibility charm. Landing on a projection of stone, she could feel the buzz of his protective ward coming from the dark opening of a cave, but she couldn’t see inside.
“It’s homey,” Nick said.
“You can see in?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Do you see Alexander?”
“No.”
“I can’t go any farther. His cave is warded,” she said to Nick. “If I call to him, he might run from me.”
“You want me to find him and try to convince him to talk to you?”
She grinned and spread her hands. “He’s a softy for humans.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Nick kissed her on the mouth and moved past the magical barrier, disappearing into the darkness.
Alexander’s voice boomed a moment later. “Come in, Rowan. By the Mountain, you’re a pain in the ass.”
She tentatively stepped forward and felt the protective ward bend around her, then give way. Alexander strode from a side room that, from what she could see through the door, appeared to contain a notable amount of treasure along with more traditional bedroom furniture. He wrapped a silky black robe tighter around himself and tied the belt.
Nick flashed her a self-satisfied grin.
“I was in my dragon form, Rowan. For Mountain’s sake, you’re lucky I didn’t burn him to a crisp or worse, eat him alive,” Alexander said.
“Give me a little credit,” Nick said. “It’s not like you’re the first dragon I’ve met. You’re not even the scariest.”
“How did you find me?”
“Master Gu. Plus that is your motorcycle in the Coconino parking lot.”
He looked up at the ceiling. “Gu. That guy has an uncanny ability to annoy the hell out of me, even from afar.”
“Hmm. He had only nice things to say about you.” Rowan rested her hands on her hips and looked around. The cave had been seriously enhanced to the point of being far nicer than his apartment. Extra was the word that came to mind. There was a full living room, complete with a fireplace that housed a crackling fire. To the right and behind the sofa grouping was a nicely appointed kitchen. Rowan could see more rooms down a hall behind the kitchen. And, of course, the treasure room to the left. “Nice place you got here.”
“It’s been a labor of love.”
“I thought you were practically destitute! You told me your paintings weren’t selling. And given the state of your apartment, I thought you’d completely stopped taking care of yourself.” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder in the general direction of New Horizons. “All this time, you’ve had this?”
“To be honest, I’m not very good with money. But the proceeds of all those paintings you bought had to go somewhere. Plus you collect things over the years.” He glanced at his treasure room.
She nodded slowly, then stared at him for a long breath. None of this was what she’d expected. This cave was well cared for, and far from being distraught, Alexander looked better than yesterday. “So… why did you take off like that?”
He scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “I’m sick of Gabriel’s bullshit. I’m not going to New Orleans. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I love you, Alexander, but you’re being a pill. Why not come back with us? You need help. You’re obviously hurting. It’s not like it will be forever. Gabriel will figure this thing out with Mom, and you’ll be back here in no time.”
“I’m not going.”
“You can bring the bird.” Rowan wasn’t sure how Nyx would do with Raven’s cat, but she was sure Gabriel wouldn’t bitch about her offer if it was what pushed Alexander to come with them.
He looked at the hawk and scoffed. “If you can figure out a way for me to leave her behind, let me know. Even if I tried, she’d catch up with me.”
For a minute she stared at her brother, wondering what to do next. Eventually she simply walked to the sofa and sat down, propping her feet up on the coffee table. Nick fell in next to her.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Alexander said with a note of annoyance in his voice.
“Nope.” She tipped her head back to look at him. “I was wondering what you did about the monster you said was following Maiara?”
“The wendigo…” He took a seat in the chair beside the fireplace. “It’s not an ea
sy story to tell.”
“I’ve got time.”
Chapter Fifteen
1699
Colony of New Jersey
He woke beside her, the sunlight coming through the slats in the window. Alexander hadn’t intended on sleeping with Maiara, only to watch over her, but he’d rested his head in the wee hours of the morning and drifted under.
Anyway, the bed was large and he was an honorable dragon. He’d remained fully dressed and didn’t cross the centerline of the bed. Still, in her sleep, she’d sought him out, moving to him and curling into his side. In his slumber, he must have embraced her because when he woke, she was wrapped in his arms, her head on his heart and the scent of spring in his nose.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured into her hair when he felt her wake. He never saw her eyes open, just sensed a change in her breathing. “I should have asked permission to sleep beside you.”
She lifted her torso until she hovered over him, her hair cascading from one shoulder like a sheet of dark silk. One of her hands came to rest on his chest. “This is your room.”
Looking into her eyes, his jaw tightened. “Last evening, I did my best to make it clear to you my invitation did not come with additional expectations. There are no requirements of you, Maiara. I simply wanted you out of the cold.”
With a deliberate grace, she folded her hands on his sternum and lowered her chin to his chest. “Do you find my nearness unpleasant?”
“No.”
“Does it bother you that I touch you?”
“No.”
“Good. I like to be near you. You are warm like sunlight on my skin.” Her full lips smiled softly.
Alexander’s dragon rolled under his skin, excited by the idea that Maiara longed for his nearness. His heart pounded and his mouth turned dry as a stone. Was it possible that by some miracle Maiara felt the same inexplicable attraction to him as he felt to her?
Languorously he trailed his fingers along the bones of her spine. Their eyes locked and held. She did not move away. She floated above him like a dark angel from some otherworld, and he basked in her breath-of-life beauty.
“Alexander.” His name sounded strange on her lips, broken in odd syllables.
“What is it?”
“As I told you last night, the monster who killed my people is here. If you hadn’t come for me, I—”
“I won’t let the wendigo hurt you.”
She nodded. “I thought I’d outrun it. I thought it would never come this close to the land of white men. I was wrong. It’s here, and it is tracking me. And now the trees are dead for the winter and I can no longer use them to hide.”
“You have my protection now,” he said. “Last night, I used my invisibility to bring you here. I can do it again. I will keep you safe.”
She blinked slowly and made a sound low in her throat. “You can become invisible?”
Demonstrating, he blinked out of sight and she scrambled back, taking the blanket with her. He appeared again, reaching out to her. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Her face turned serious, and she ran her fingers over his sketch of the dragon on the nightstand. Dragons had a heart of stone, one that glowed from behind the scales of its chest. It had been difficult to capture this glow, using only charcoal pencil. If he’d had paint and canvas, he could better do it justice. But her focus landed on the pale shading he’d depicted, and he could tell she understood. “You have fire in your heart.”
“Yes, more or less. All dragons can breathe fire. It’s part of what we are.”
“The wendigo won’t stop with me. It won’t stop until every Algonquian is dead.”
He studied her face. She was on the edge of something, an idea, and the fortitude he saw in her eyes made his heart swell with respect. To have a woman like her… Deep inside, his dragon twisted again.
Her fingers toyed with the corner of the blanket wrapped around her, reminding him she was naked beneath it. Desire took root and branched through him. He tried to tamp it down, to rein in his inner dragon. He failed. Every inch of his skin came alive at the thought of tasting her, being inside her, marking her as his own. A fierce, overwhelming need burned within him, hot enough to raise the temperature in the room.
The moment she felt it, her gaze locked with his. But she did not address the heat. Instead, she broached something else entirely. “What remains of my people live west of here. They call themselves the keepers of the fire. With your help, your fire, we could defend them against the wendigo and the rest of the Iroquois.”
He understood now what she was trying to ask him. Now that she knew what he was, she wanted his protection, not only for herself but also for her people. His answer came immediately. “Then we go there.”
She blinked at him in surprise. “It will not be easy. It is a long distance, straight through the territory of my enemy. The way will be dangerous, and there will be more snow.”
He cupped her face. “We will go to these keepers of the fire. I will take you there. We will leave today.”
“What about your sister?”
“We can’t be more than a day’s ride from New York.”
“A day’s ride. Yes.”
“Rowan will go alone. She is dragon as well and stronger than she looks. You will draw her a map, and she will make her own way.”
“I cannot repay you for this,” she said, her voice cracking.
He sat up, bringing his face close to hers and spread his wings behind him. “You won’t have to.”
By the time they’d dressed and descended for breakfast, Gabriel and the others were already seated. Alexander joined his siblings at a long wooden table in the Lion’s Head Inn where they were partaking of a breakfast of sausages and porridge. While he’d hoped not to call attention to the fact Maiara had spent the night in his bed, however innocently, Gabriel noticed her position by his side immediately, put down his fork, and raised an eyebrow in his direction.
“We need to talk.” Alexander forced back the familiar anxiety that came from facing his brother. Maiara was counting on him. He decided the best course of action was to share the least amount of information. Knowing Gabriel, the dragon would abandon Maiara if he thought she endangered their passage in any way, an unacceptable scenario.
Tobias and Rowan stopped eating and looked up.
“About what?” Gabriel eyed Alexander as if he didn’t like where this was going.
“The storm last night was just the beginning. More snow will come. We must move west now or stay in New York for the winter. If we wait or go farther north, Maiara says the way may be impossible to traverse.”
A barmaid with an overlong jaw and buckteeth brought Alexander tea but conspicuously ignored Maiara. Alexander handed his mug to their guide, then made a show of the fact he’d not been served. The horse-faced woman reluctantly brought another.
Gabriel grunted. “We’ve agreed to take Rowan to New York. Besides, you know as well as I do that we can handle any weather this land delivers to us.”
“We can. Maiara can’t.” Alexander’s dragon rose to the surface, this time out of anger. He wouldn’t allow Gabriel to plow over him this time. Maiara and her people were too important. And although the promise he’d made to her was not something he was ready to share, he refused to back down. “Rowan can advance to New York on her own. We must start west today.”
Rowan and Tobias froze as if he’d just revealed he’d grown a third arm overnight. He’d never spoken to Gabriel in that tone before. Outwardly, he steeled his spine. Inwardly, Alexander prepared himself for the inevitable backlash that came at anyone who threatened Gabriel’s role as leader.
Gabriel’s hands fisted on the table, but the pounding never came. He simply frowned and perused Maiara like she were a rare specimen of plant or animal he’d not encountered before.
“Agreed,” he said. “The weather here is unpredictable, and these people are fragile. If Maiara wishes to go now, we go now.”
Rowan squeale
d.
“So happy to continue on your own, sister?” Gabriel shot Rowan a disapproving glare.
Immune to his judgment, she smiled wickedly and stood from the table. She was wearing breeches again and a man’s shirt, although the delicate bones of her rouged cheeks could not be mistaken for a man’s. She swept her long black hair off her shoulder before answering. “Oh yes, brother. Being on my own is something I’ve waited for a long, long time. Give me my cut, and I’ll be on my way.”
Gabriel sneered, reached inside his satchel, and produced a small purse. But when she attempted to take it, he clutched her fingers in his own. “Despite your haste to leave us”—his face grew serious—“you will be missed. Brutally, desperately missed. I love you dearly.”
They stared at each other for a moment, hand in hand, and Alexander was sure he saw tears brim in both sets of eyes. And then she embraced him. Tobias was next to take her in his arms. At last Alexander had his chance to say goodbye, holding his dear sister and friend longer than the rest.
“Once you are settled, send word. Find me when it’s safe,” she whispered in his ear.
He nodded. They had to stay apart. They did not have to forget each other. “I will. I promise.” She took one last look at all of them and then rushed from the Lion’s Head before the tears Alexander saw welling could spill over the dam of her lower lids.
The table grew quiet, the group reeling from the loss of yet another of their kin. This was why they were here, but it was harder than any of them expected. Beneath the table, he felt Maiara’s hand come to rest on his own, and the touch of her comforting fingers traveled straight to his soul.
Chapter Sixteen
An hour later, Alexander found himself on his horse again with the dull morning light at his back. Although the snow had melted, a thick, cold fog had settled among the trees, concealing patches of ice that occasionally caused the horses to trip along the slick trail.
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