“I’m here and I’m not so old that I’m deaf.” Fiona stood up. “And anyway, I know when it’s time to fight and time to hide. This amulet business worries me. Someone could come into the midst of us and use the amulet to ensnare us all and believe me, you do not want to be stuck in an invisible bubble with me.”
“I shudder at the thought,” Ruby said, giving Fiona a hug.
“Perhaps I should come with you,” Fiona suggested.
“No, let us go, but if we need you, we can call. You can be the rescue party. Although I’m certain we won’t need it.”
“This clan put dragons to sleep once, they could do so again,” Harlan warned.
“Which is why I’m going. The spell only works on dragons, right?” Thorn asked.
“We don’t know,” Harlan answered honestly. “They took Magnus’s memories, who knows how else they could mutate it.”
“That settles it. If you have room for one more, I’m coming, too,” George said.
“George, I don’t want to put you in danger,” Thorn told him.
“You are not putting me in danger. And anyway, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt alive. I’d like to do this.” George’s face was set firm, and no one argued with him. He’d earned himself a place amongst the dragon clan.
“Then we leave tonight.” Thorn’s announcement was met with unanimous agreement.
“Let’s get you kitted out.” Harlan rose from the table and assigned everyone tasks.
None of them knew what to expect when they reached the River Run Mountains so they packed food, water, and clothes, enough for a few days. It was left unsaid, but Emilia considered the food and water to be less for if they got lost in the mountains and more for if they got trapped behind another barrier.
“I need to go home and get a few things. I’ll drop George home, too, so he can get his gear,” Thorn said. “I’ll grab my satellite phone and if we run into trouble, I can call you, Harlan. I’m hoping you can organize backup if we need it.”
“Is there anything else you need us to do?” Harlan asked nervously, checking the packs containing their provisions.
“Let’s go and play with Harlan Jr. until Thorn returns,” Ruby suggested to her father. “Everything else is ready.”
Emilia watched Ruby interact with Harlan and felt a twinge of jealousy. “Are you all right?” Thorn asked as they headed out of the house to his truck. Emilia had chosen to go home with Thorn and help him pack. In reality, he didn’t need her help, but she needed his presence. He anchored her emotionally.
“I’m tired and disorientated. I cannot explain how I feel any other way.” She rubbed her face in an attempt to wake herself up. Tired and overwhelmed, she dug deep and drew on her inner strength before putting a bright smile on her face. “It’s not every day you wake up from a centuries-old sleep.”
“No, it’s not.” Thorn reached out to her, and she fell into his strong, safe arms. Inhaling his scent, he was home, the place she belonged.
“Come on, we should get moving or our plan will fail.” She reluctantly pulled away from him, but he drew her back to rest against his chest.
“If we don’t make time for moments like this, then what’s it all for?” he murmured as he kissed her lips. His body stirred and hardened, and her arousal matched his. She wanted to yell, to hell with it! Instead of going off on some crazy adventure to find these Stone Claws, she wanted to fall into bed with him and stay there for a week.
“Once this is over, we’ll make time for us.” He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, sending shivers down her spine. “We’ll fly into the mountains to a place where no one else knows and make love under the sun and the moon.”
“I like the idea of that,” Emilia told him. “We really should go.”
Thorn looked over at George, who was busy staring at the mountain peaks as he tried to avoid watching the two lovers. “Right, George, let’s get you home.”
“Okay, shall I drive back here in my car when I’m ready?” George asked as he climbed into the truck next to Emilia.
“I’ll pick you up. I don’t think the dragon family likes strangers turning up on their doorstep. And even though they know you now, I would hate for you to be eaten alive by Fiona.” Thorn looked sideways at Emilia. “What? That woman has a reputation. I’d heard of her before I even knew she was a dragon.”
“She protects what is hers. And if my mother’s fears were any indication, she probably has a good reason to.” Emilia looked out of the window at the trees passing by.
“I’m sorry.” Thorn reached for her hand and covered it with his. His touch was warm and inviting, sending tingling sensations through her body. Resisting her need to mate with Thorn might be the most demanding task on this adventure. But she understood his touch was one of comfort, not of seduction.
“The loss of my father was not unusual, dragons were often persecuted. They were fierce and hard to overcome on the battlefield. Many dragons were either mercenaries or marauders intent on increasing their wealth and treasure.”
“Fascinating,” George whispered. “This sheds so much new light on history. All the myths and legends involving dragons. They are true.”
“I cannot say all of them are true,” Emilia told him. “Like any historical events, they were often exaggerated.”
“I would love to hear you tell me of your life here in Bear Creek. Perhaps we could walk around the town and local area and you could tell me how things have changed. I can build up a true picture of what life was like when you lived here.” She liked George, she liked him a lot. When Thorn had brought him to the dragons’ house, she had been unsure. Not of George himself, but of allowing herself to trust again. With every new piece of evidence that pointed toward Perry as a bad guy, she lost confidence in her own judgment.
“I would enjoy that, George. To bring the past to life would be my gift to you, my way of saying thank you for your help.” Her eyes twinkled with merriment. “Unless you would like to take your pick from my treasure.”
George quickly held up his hand. “No, I have read enough about dragons to know they are very protective of their treasure. But thank you all the same. The knowledge in your head is the kind of treasure a man like me values.”
“Then it is all yours,” Emilia promised.
Chapter Fifteen – Thorn
“I thought knowledge was the only treasure you valued?” Thorn asked George as they stood in the cave surrounded by Emilia’s treasure.
“It is. It is.” George looked up sheepishly, his face illuminated by the lights Thorn had hung up around the cave. “But some of these coins have never been seen before.” He stood up from his crouched position and brushed his hands on his cotton pants. “It’s incredible and uniquely humbling. Thank you, Emilia, for letting me see this.”
“You are welcome.” She glanced up at Thorn, a fleeting expression of distrust settled on her face before it was gone. “I am happy for you to examine any of the coins, jewels or other artifacts but they must not be removed without my knowledge.”
George nodded and reassured her. “I understand this is precious to you and I am not a man to betray a confidence, particularly when it would put such magnificent creatures in danger.”
Thorn grinned, hoping to break the tension. “I don’t know what impressed you more, the treasure or the flight up here.”
George’s face flushed with enthusiasm. “The flight. To think I rode on the back of a dragon.” He shook his head. “I am beginning to think it is I who is asleep and in a dream.”
“A little hard work will soon make you see it’s real,” Thorn told him. “We need the amulet and any other clue that this was connected to the Stone Bear Clan.”
“What kind of clue?” Emilia asked.
Thorn shrugged. “We’ll know it when we see it.” He didn’t know if there was another clue. But before they visited the Stone Claws, he wanted further proof. A sketch of Chin Shan was too loose a connection. But if it was all they h
ad, Thorn was willing to go with his gut instinct. It had served him well up until now.
If he were honest, his gut instinct was what led him to Emilia. From the moment he saw Magnus in the museum, he’d been overwhelmed with the need to uncover the mystery of how a man could be alive after nearly four centuries. But something else pulled him on to figure out the mystery. He believed it was the mating bond, he believed it was fate. The same fate that was going to help them uncover the mystery once and for all.
His gut told him it was in the River Run Mountains.
While Thorn, Emilia, and George searched through Emilia’s treasure, Magnus and Ruby were searching in the other cave, sifting through Magnus’s treasure. Since he’d been put to sleep by the same person, the clue could be there. Or nowhere.
“All these jewels.” George held up a handful of jewelry then put them back in a carved wooden box as he spotted something else. “What’s this?”
Thorn let go of the handfuls of gold coins he’d been sifting through and went to George. “What have you found?”
“It’s a jade bear. The same one as in the painting?” He picked it up and placed it on the palm of his hand.
“Possibly.” Thorn took it from George and examined it closely. “I’ll compare the runes to those on the amulet.”
“I’ve never seen that before,” Emilia told them as she waded through a sea of gold to join them.
“Well, there’s a lot of treasure here, do you know every single piece?” Thorn asked and then reeled back as he read her expression. “How?”
“I’m a dragon.” She picked up a handful of gold coins and let them spill to the floor. “I’ve touched every piece of this gold. I know every jewel. But this jade bear and the amulet are not familiar to me.”
“Could it belong to Magnus?” George asked excitedly.
“It could, but my dragon is fairly familiar with his treasure, too.” She looked kind of sheepish. “When we first learned to shift, we used to come here often and sit on the treasure. Our mom didn’t want us to risk being seen, so we used to come up here and shift.”
Thorn chuckled as George took the jade bear from him and reexamined it. “Your dragons and treasure sound a lot like our bears with honey.”
“Oh, honey, yes. Now I get it.” George handed the jade bear to Emilia. “Here, why not ask Magnus?”
They followed Emilia out of her cave, along the low tunnel, and out into the bigger cave, where Ruby and Magnus were slowly pawing their way through his treasure. “Magnus, do you recognize this?”
She held out the jade bear and he picked it up, shaking his head as he held it in his hand. “No. I’ve never seen it before.” He turned it over and over, examining it from every angle before handing it back to Emilia. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your treasure now, too?”
“It’s not mine,” she asserted firmly.
“And you think it might belong to Chin Shan?” Ruby asked, taking a closer look. “Jade is often used to carve figures in China. Sapphi’s mother-in-law gave her a beautiful jade dragon as a wedding gift.”
“It’s a tenuous link. We saw it in a painting at the museum, it was in Perry’s house about the time Chin Shan was here. But there is no direct link to Chin Shan.” Thorn stared at the jade bear. “We should just go, we’re wasting time and wasting the night.” He pocketed the jade bear and the amulet, doing up the zipper so they couldn’t fall out.
“I agree. We could spend all night searching here. Let’s seal up the caves and get moving.” Magnus took one last look at his treasure and headed toward the cave entrance with Ruby behind him. After a moment’s hesitation, Thorn and the others followed.
Back out into the night air, they stood on the trail that was no more than a ledge and looked at the entrance. “Let’s push the boulders back across the entrance. We should perhaps add more to it, to keep people out.” Magnus’s comment was aimed at Thorn, who took it in good humor, whether Magnus meant it as a joke or not.
“Nosy locals, never minding their own business,” Thorn joked.
“I for one am glad you didn’t mind your own business. If you hadn’t followed my brother, I would still be asleep, instead of standing here with you all under a moonlit sky.” Emilia cast her gaze up to the stars that appeared one by one as the sun set deeper behind the mountains. Soon the darkness would be complete, and they could fly a direct route along the spine of the mountain without worrying about being seen.
The three dragons shifted, and Thorn climbed on Emilia’s back, while George gingerly climbed on Magnus’s back. They quickly covered up the mouth of the tunnel and then flew in formation up toward the highest peak, Ruby in front with Magnus and Emilia on either side, flanking her as they pushed their senses out, in a bid to locate anyone who might be on the mountain.
It was good practice since when they reached the area around Stone Claw, they would have to be on their guard. Thorn tightened his grip on Emilia and prayed they were not making a mistake. Usually, when he was on the hunt for a relic and didn’t know if he might be attacked by the locals, he felt a thrill of excitement. Today, he was filled with apprehension. He knew why.
Normally his missions were solitary. If something went wrong, he only had to think about himself. But tonight, he had four other people to think about, one of whom was his mate. Dearer to him than anything else in this world or the next.
The dragons flew on, leaving the mountain range that was their usual territory and flying over towns and villages. Their massive wings beat fast, eating up the miles until in the distance the River Run Mountain range loomed up out of a flat grassy plain. As one, the dragons sped up, intent on reaching their destination under cover of darkness.
Thorn pulled out his phone, which had GPS enabled, and looked for Stone Claw on the map. It was about twenty miles due west, and the dragons banked and climbed higher up the mountains as they headed for the place where answers were waiting to be uncovered. He sensed the thrill of excitement that threaded its way through Emilia’s veins. She’d never flown with dragons like this, her life before was one of hiding away.
She was free. Free and beautiful and brave. He swore a silent oath that he would never allow anyone to take that freedom from her. As they swept down like a hurricane over the forest, the downdraft from their wings bending the trees as they neared their destination, a cry rang out.
Thorn didn’t see what happened next, but Ruby shied to one side and something whistled past Emilia’s left flank, nearly grazing her. Rage filled him, they were under attack!
Cries from below were followed by another wooden spear aimed at the dragons. Thorn tightened his grip as Emilia rolled over, avoiding the weapon shot from below. He watched as Ruby and Magnus flew higher, and higher, trying to gain maximum height so the spears could not reach them.
Emilia meanwhile kept to the same altitude and with a zing and more shouts, another spear whistled through the air, heading straight for them. But Emilia was agile and moved out of reach easily. Why wasn't she climbing out of reach with the others?
Then Thorn understood. Emilia was a decoy while the other dragons flew high enough to be unseen from those below. Their role in this was obvious.
Another spear whistled toward them. Emilia curved her sinewy spine and twisted out of the way. Then Ruby and Magnus appeared, diving fast and furious, with fire spurting from their mouths as they set the weapons on fire. In a whoosh of fire, the wooden machines made to kill dragons burst into flames and the men fled, shouting to each other in panic.
As the dragons regrouped, Thorn pulled out his phone and checked his GPS. As he thought, they had not yet reached Stone Claw, instead, they were flying directly over the town of River Wolf. The mystery deepened, and there was only one way to figure it out. They had to land and question the people who had tried to attack the dragons.
One way or another, they needed answers, and when Emilia opened her mouth and flames filled the air, Thorn knew that she would do whatever it took to find those responsibl
e for this attack.
Chapter Sixteen – Emilia
The dragons landed in a tight circle, ready to fight whoever came their way.
Anger burned brightly in her mind and a primal need to tear someone to shreds and make them pay took over her. This was what her forefathers must have felt on the eve of battle, and she relished it. The spell cast upon her was now gone, she was fully awake and fully alive and fully ready to defend herself and her family. But most of all she was ready to defend her mate.
Any one of those spears might have injured him. Or worse.
At that thought she inhaled deeply, igniting her dragon breath which she unleashed on the surrounding area, charring the undergrowth.
“Hello!” A voice came from a long way off, strong but wary. “I come in peace.”
Emilia stamped her foot and the ground shook. Whoever approached had better be ready to die! She trembled with rage. Thorn placed his hand on her shoulder, soothing her, while Magnus’s dragon turned his head and snapped at her, warning her to keep calm.
She tensed, ready to strike, but reined in her fury as a man approached with his hands in the air. “Sorry about that.” His voice wavered with nerves as he approached the dragons. “My dad and my uncle, plus a few of the other old-timers have been practicing for this all their lives, just like their fathers and grandfathers before them.”
“Practicing for what?” Thorn called out.
The guy waved his hands at the dragons. “A dragon attack.”
“You’ve been anticipating a dragon attack?” This statement confused Thorn. “But everyone thinks dragons are a myth.”
“True. They do now, but my village has these stories handed down over the generations that tell of how dragons used to live in these mountains.” He paused before continuing. “And no offense, but they were not friendly, they took what they wanted when they wanted it.”
Thorn did the unthinkable, he slid his leg behind him and jumped down to the ground. Emilia’s dragon turned her head and warned him to stay back, to keep out of danger, but he simply stroked her snout and approached the guy.
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