He landed near his clothing, shifted back into his human form, and got dressed. Then he sat down on a nearby fallen tree, his head in his hands as he forced himself to wait.
And wait.
And wait.
The minutes slid by slowly, and it was all he could do to keep himself from hurrying to Autumn’s side, to make sure that she was all right, that the girls were all right, and that nothing terrible had happened to them during the time—however long that had been—that he was caught in his nightmares. But he couldn’t risk appearing just as the dragon that had to be dominating their conversation disappeared.
In the end, he only managed to wait twelve minutes before getting up, wandering further into the forest, and then circling back toward the spot where he had left them, entering from a different angle.
The sight of Autumn sitting there with her girls pressed to her sides, all three soaking wet, dirty, and exhausted made his heart both ache and soar at the same time. But nothing compared to what he felt when Autumn looked up and their eyes connected. Her mouth fell open, and she immediately scrambled to her feet, her hands lifting up to press against her heart.
“Eamon …”
He held his arms out for her, and she ran into them, her own arms around his neck as he clutched her close to his body. She was crying, and he was oddly choked up himself as one hand came up to cup the back of her head, his fingers tangling in her wet hair.
The kiss just happened, as natural as taking his next breath. His lips found hers, warm and soft and yielding, and he kissed her tenderly, stroking her face and whispering hushed words of comfort that promised her they were all okay now. They were far from out of danger, and he knew they both knew it, but it didn’t matter in that moment. All that mattered was that he was holding her and she was returning his kisses, her hands framing his face as he moved to kiss the tears from her cheeks and eyelids.
“Where have you been?” she asked, his forehead resting against hers and their breath mingling. “God, Eamon, I thought you were dead.”
“I have so much to tell you,” he said, his hands low on her back, keeping her close. “And I will. But …”
“Momma …” Rachel’s voice was hesitant, coming from right beside them. “Momma, I want to go home. Eamon, please take us home. I don’t like it here!”
Eamon and Autumn broke apart, their reunion cut short as they both turned toward the girls standing nearby, their little faces afraid and filthy, their clothing soaked. As Autumn held her hand out for Anna, Eamon picked up Rachel. Her legs wound around his waist and her small head ducked against his shoulder in such a trusting way that it made him ache inside.
He held the little girl, rubbing her back soothingly, and his eyes connected with Autumn’s as she held onto Anna.
“We’re going home,” he promised Rachel. “We’re going home right now. You’re going to be just fine.”
“I missed you,” Rachel said, settling herself closer to him. “I was scared without you.”
“I’m here now.”
Picking up her head, Rachel looked into his eyes for a long moment. Then, in a voice so quiet that nobody but Eamon could hear, she whispered, “Momma doesn’t know that you can fly. Thank you for saving us.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Autumn
They went straight to the airport, with no luggage, no change of clothes, and not one look back over their shoulder. While Autumn got the girls cleaned up in the bathroom, Eamon arranged for them to get on an earlier flight back to Boston, and the moment the plane took off, Autumn leaned back in her seat and said a prayer of thanks to the universe as a whole for allowing them to escape an island that held as much horror as it held beauty.
The plane had two seats per aisle, and Autumn and Eamon were sitting on opposite sides of the aisle, the girls in between them. But it didn’t take long for the girls to begin to droop, the turmoil of the last few days exhausting their small bodies. As Rachel started to doze, Autumn and Eamon transferred her to the window seat that Autumn had been sitting in, beside a sleeping Anna, and Autumn took Rachel’s seat beside Eamon, the low hum of the airplane a perfect cover for the conversation they were both dying to have.
“Where did you disappear to?” Autumn said, jumping in without preliminaries. “You have no idea what happened to us while you were gone.”
The story he told her was almost unbelievable, and had Autumn not experienced an imaginary wolf clawing at her neck before she killed him, a lake that spontaneously formed an enchanted vortex to lure her daughters into it, and a dragon that had come out of absolutely nowhere to save them from it, she wouldn’t have been able to comprehend Eamon’s recounting of the seductress witch determined to right the wrongs acted against the Salem witches in 1692 by initiating a magical sequence of events that would somehow destroy the town of Boston as it stood.
She certainly wouldn’t have been able to understand how Nova had kept Eamon in his seat without laying a finger on him, how she had lit the house on fire without burning anything up, or how she had dropped Eamon into darkness to suffer through his worst nightmares for more than twenty-four hours.
“And then you just woke up?” Autumn asked, frowning. “All of a sudden, you were just in the woods?”
Eamon nodded, but he wasn’t quite making eye contact with her. “Yes. I don’t know what happened. I just woke up.”
“And you had no idea where you were?”
“None.”
“But you found us,” Autumn said. “You found us, when we hadn’t even been sitting there that long. How is it possible that we just happened on each other like that?”
“I don’t know,” Eamon said. “But it’s your turn to tell me what’s been happening to you. You heard mine, up until I found you.”
Autumn considered that the coincidence of Eamon finding them was far from the strangest thing that had happened to her in the last week, and she decided not to dwell on it. Instead, she told him about the wolf in her room, how she had killed it, and the blood that had been left behind to prove to her that something real had happened, even when she couldn’t believe it. She showed him the marks on her neck, then told him of the agony of waiting hour after hour for him to return, only to be forced to keep waiting.
“I didn’t know where you were, but I knew that you would never just disappear like that voluntarily,” she said. “I tried to tell the girls that you were just out vacationing, enjoying the scenery, or caught up with some new friend at a bar somewhere. They didn’t buy it anymore than I did, and we were so afraid.”
“I’m sorry,” Eamon said, his hand closing tightly over hers. “I would never put you through that willingly.”
Autumn nodded. She didn’t doubt that for a moment. “But then we went out to look for you, and all of a sudden … the weather turned. And the lake, it began to move. To swirl. A vortex was open in the middle of it, and I felt so drawn to it. I longed to walk into the water and jump into the center of the vortex. I don’t know why, but I just … I longed to. I was able to stop myself, but the girls …”
She shuddered just from thinking back on what had almost happened.
“I couldn’t get to them. They ran toward the center, and I went after them, but the current around me changed, keeping me back from them.” Autumn looked up at Eamon, shaking her head. “It wasn’t natural, Eamon. It couldn’t have been.”
“It wasn’t.”
“And then—” She could barely get the words out fast enough, her nerves were so high. “Don’t think I’m crazy, because I swear I’m not, Eamon. I swear. A dragon—it was bright, bright white—appeared in the sky. It screeched at us, and we all three looked up, and then it came down out of the sky and it picked up the girls just as they were about to jump into the center of the lake. It picked both of them up and threw them on its back, and then it came for me.” Her words were falling out of her mouth, tripping over each other as she tried to explain to him. “I slid down its neck. I slid down a dragon’s neck, and th
en I was with the girls, and we were holding onto each other as it lifted into the air. I didn’t know if it was going to save us or hurt us, but it flew us over the trees, and then it just ducked down into them and tossed us onto the ground before lifting back into the air.”
As she spoke, she could hardly believe what she was saying. It was impossible—unimaginable—ludicrous! A dragon had saved her life. Her daughters’ lives.
She shook her head again. “And then, while we were sitting there recovering, there you were. You just showed up.”
Eamon had said nothing since she had begun telling him how they had escaped the lake, and she looked up at him now, her eyes searching his.
“Say something. Please don’t tell me that you think I’m crazy. You’ve believed me so far—believe me now.”
“I do.” He pressed her hand gently, though his face was still unreadable. “Of course I do. I’m just glad that he—it—was there. When you needed help.”
Autumn laced her fingers through his. “You really believe me?”
“Yes.”
It was such a relief that Autumn leaned her head down, resting her forehead against his shoulder. “Thank God. When you believe me, I can keep hoping that I haven’t gone crazy.”
He kissed her head softly. “Were you afraid of him?”
“Who?”
“The dragon.”
“Oh.” Autumn picked her head up, considering the question. “No. No, I guess I wasn’t. I mean, I didn’t know what he was going to do with us, but I wasn’t afraid. He seemed … kind.”
Eamon smiled. “A kind dragon?”
“Why shouldn’t dragons be kind?”
He didn’t respond to her question, but instead took her face in his hand and kissed her hard. They had kissed again and again in the forest in the aftermath of finding each other, and Autumn hadn’t questioned it, her relief too potent. But now he was kissing her for no reason at all, other than that he wanted to, and Autumn found that she still couldn’t question it. It was exactly what she wanted. Connection. Reassurance. Passion. Tenderness. And it was with Eamon, who she was beginning to care for—deeper than she could have imagined.
The last day without him had been misery, and not just because of her fears. Because he hadn’t been there, and she had been alone again. Autumn didn’t want to be alone anymore, and more importantly, she didn’t want to be without this strong, stoic, silent, sweet, sensual man, who was kissing his way along her jaw now, oblivious to the other passengers around them.
A soft moan escaped her and Autumn clamped a hand over her mouth. “Eamon …”
“Sorry,” he said, though he didn’t sound it. “Autumn, I’m crazy about you. You do know that, don’t you?”
“I was beginning to suspect.” She smiled for the first time in ages, looking up at him shyly. “I feel the same way.”
He groaned and kissed her lips one more time. “I know I’m being selfish. I know this is impossible.”
“Impossible?” Autumn’s smile disappeared, and she pulled back. “Why?”’
“For a lot of reasons.” Eamon sat back in his seat as well, visibly trying to regain control over himself. “I—we have to focus on what’s happening around us. Nova is not a lifeline. She’s at the heart of what’s happening, and what’s happening is going to destroy where we live. Apparently. I am very limited in my ability to fight against her. We need help, and we don’t have it right now, and I can’t stand the thought of you or the girls in anymore danger.”
Autumn tried not to get her feelings hurt. She knew what he was saying. They couldn’t focus on what was between them while all of this was going on and they were under constant threat. She knew he was right and that her only priority right now had to be to stay alive and keep her daughters alive.
He wasn’t saying that he didn’t want her or that it would always be impossible. It was just impossible right now.
At least, that’s what she hoped he was saying.
“I want you to send the girls away,” Eamon said, drawing her out of her thoughts. His face was serious, and he was no longer holding her hand. “Tell your parents to take them out of the state. Go with them if you want. You’ll be safer somewhere else. I’ll find you protection.”
“Eamon, I’m not leaving you to deal with this alone.” Autumn reached for his hand again, gripping it. “I agree that the girls need to go somewhere far away with my parents. But I’m not bailing on this. Whoever these people are, they’ve threatened my family and my life. I’m taking them down with you.”
His eyes were achingly sad as he stared at her. “I know how you feel, and I won’t tell you no. But you need to understand, Autumn. I’m not sure we can take them down. Right now, I don’t know how to.”
Her answer was fierce, even though she wasn’t free from doubt either. “We’ll figure it out. We don’t have a choice.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Eamon
“So she has no idea that the dragon that saved her and her daughters was me,” Eamon told Ronan, wrapping up the story of the last few chaotic days as he sat across from his boss and friend in his office. “All she knows is that a dragon swept out of nowhere and then disappeared, and her life is so insane right now that she’s just accepted that.”
Ronan was rubbing a hand along his stubbled jaw, his feet propped up on his desk for the last twenty minutes of the long story. “Why didn’t you just tell her it was you? Do you think that, given everything, it would have fazed her all that much?”
“If I tell her, then she’s trapped.”
“You think that if you tell her, then she’ll become part of this world, she won’t be able to extricate herself, and somehow she’ll be bound to you, just like Dhara with Kean and Grady with Moira.”
Eamon lifted a shoulder, needing no reply.
“Would that be such a bad thing?”
This time, Eamon just arched an eyebrow at his friend.
“Seriously,” Ronan said, putting his feet down on the ground and leaning forward, resting his elbows against the desk. “You’re the one, out of the five of us, that has had the hardest time adjusting to the idea of bringing people into our world. Of marrying outside of the clan. I know that you’re on board with it, and you’re happy for Kean and Moira. But you’re still struggling with it, and I think it’s because of your parents.”
Eamon looked out the window, but that didn’t deter Ronan.
“Marriage within the clan worked really, really well for your mom and dad,” Ronan said quietly. “Better than most. Somehow, they were soulmates, and when your dad died, your mom didn’t want to be on earth without him.”
Eamon’s jaw twitched, the memories, even after many years, still potent.
“They had something really good, and it was rooted in their connection to the clan and to the hand that destiny dealt them,” Ronan said. “That doesn’t mean that you have to follow their path, or that anyone else does to be happy.”
Glancing back at Ronan, Eamon nodded. “I know that.”
“But?”
“But I can’t do that to her.” Eamon got up from the chair, walking around the room. “I can’t drag her kids into more than they’ve already had to deal with. Even if I do feel different when I’m around her. Even if I do talk more without even thinking about it. Even if she makes me want …”
“More.”
Eamon pressed his lips together, staring out the window. “It’s not the right time to put that on her.”
“It sounds to me like it wouldn’t be a burden.”
The conversation could go around and around in circles without Eamon feeling anymore certain of what the right thing to do was, but the truth was, his feelings for Autumn weren’t the most pressing matter at hand. He was there to talk to Ronan about the situation they all found themselves in—the reality that there was a powerful coven of witches who had every intention of destroying the entire state and rebuilding it to their liking, and who wanted them dead as soon as the “balance�
�� was right.
“I need to get her through this,” Eamon said, sitting back down. “That’s what I have to think about first. I’ve told you everything that’s happened, and I’m admitting that I don’t know what the next step is. I don’t know how to combat these people.”
Ronan switched gears, dropping the subject of Eamon’s feelings for Autumn. “You need to talk to Siobhan. She’s been holed up in her office, doing research, pretty much since you left. The day you disappeared in the woods, she was shaken up—particularly when you said that you hadn’t been able to transition. That messes with her head.”
“I know how she feels,” Eamon muttered, wiping his palms on his jeans, his fingers digging in slightly as he remembered the powerless feeling he’d had when under Nova’s power. “Autumn is on her way back from dropping the kids off with her parents. They’re taking the girls to visit Autumn’s mother’s sister, who lives in Montana. I’d like to have some good news for her when she gets back.”
“Then talk to Siobhan,” Ronan repeated. “She’ll have something for you. And as for Nova, I’ll use the information you gave me about her whereabouts, call in a favor, and have eyes put on her. If she gets ready to come back over here, we know that whatever plan they have in place is ready to launch.”
Eamon nodded. “Thank you.”
“Whatever I can do,” Ronan said, standing up too and walking with Eamon to the door of the office. “And I’ll only say one more thing about Autumn—and that’s to let her make choices for herself. She’s an adult. She can handle it.”
Eamon clapped his friend on the shoulder, nodding once more. “See you around.”
Leaving Ronan behind, he hurried down the hall to Siobhan’s office and let himself in the door, not waiting to be invited before sitting down. “Ronan told me you’ve been investigating. Show me what you have.”
Celtic Dragons Page 63
