Chapter Forty-Three
Autumn
She couldn’t tell what was reality and what wasn’t. For days, Autumn was in and out of consciousness, slipping into terrifying dreams about wolves and drownings and fires that she couldn’t escape. Other times she would wake and realize she was in a hospital room, being closely monitored by people she knew well. They all thought that she’d had a nervous breakdown brought on by exhaustion and a failure to deal with the passing of her husband years ago. She would try to explain to them, only to be gently hushed by Eamon, who never left her side, whether she was in fitful nightmares or awake and lucid.
“Don’t tell them,” he would remind her gently, sitting beside her bed and holding her hand. “They can’t know.”
Every time, Autumn would nod, but then she would fall asleep again, and when she woke, she would have forgotten how important it was to keep the total destruction of her world a secret from everyone around her.
Eamon was her only comfort, and as she recuperated, he held her hand, talked to her, stroked her hair, and bent over backward to get her anything that he thought she might want. If she had ever doubted that he loved her—not that she had—this would have proven her wrong.
Slowly, Autumn began to piece it all together in a more concrete way in her mind. Eamon told her the story again and again, until it stuck with her.
Nova and Gayla had spent centuries storing magic in the altar and the artifacts that surrounded it, always planning to channel that power into Nova, who would rule a state of hapless robots with Gayla at her side. Their loyal followers and their army of mindless hooded figures would benefit under their rule and everyone else would be forced to do their bidding. It was supposed to be about vengeance, but for Nova, it had become more about power and her own desires for control than anything else. When Autumn had exposed that to Gayla, Gayla had decided to take the power for herself, but they had conquered her, and Nova, trapped over in the Azores, had tried to convince Autumn to release the power they had stored.
It was at this part of the story that Autumn always got confused; her memories of that day in the basement with Nova were very minimal.
Eamon explained it to her every time she asked. “We can only guess,” he would always tell her. “Because Nova hasn’t been seen or heard from since that day, and when Gayla woke up and found out what had happened, she took her own life. But Isabelle and Leah agree that Nova realized that she was losing control and that we were going to completely destroy her stores. If we had released the power instead of destroying it, then it would have created magical chaos that she could have harnessed, allowing her to keep some amount of what she had stored for herself. She wanted to get you to release it rather than risk you figuring out how to destroy it.”
He would always smile and kiss her at that part.
“But you were smart enough to figure out how to flip the whole source of her power off, and you ruined her.”
“It was Isabelle,” Autumn would always say. “She was talking to me in my head. I could hear her.”
“Still,” Eamon would always reply, holding her hand. “You were the one who found the power source. You were the one who absorbed all of the backlash that flipping that switch created. You were the one who could have died trying to save the whole city from Nova’s insanity.”
It was indisputable, but it still always made Autumn feel as though she was getting too much credit. “You were the one fighting off an army. You were the one who flew us out of the cavern and kept us safe.”
In the end, every time they talked about it, they always agreed that they had both saved each other too many times to count.
Three days into her stay, Autumn was finally able to retain more of the story, and she was feeling stronger all the time. “I want to go home,” she told Eamon, and not for the first time. “I want to see my girls. I miss them so much. I want my life back.”
“Okay,” he agreed, finally, surprising her. He smiled and kissed her palm. “I think you’re ready. Let’s get you home.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” Eamon said, nodding. “You have color in your face again. You’re my Autumn again. You’ve started talking a lot and making more jokes. You have no idea how scary it was those first few days when you were so pale and lifeless.”
She pressed his hand, knowing how terrified she would have been in the situation was reversed. “Eamon, I want you to come home with me.”
He smiled, stroking her fingers with his thumb. “Of course I’m going to take you home.”
“No, I mean, I want you to stay,” she said, biting her lip nervously. “I’m not saying you should move in. The kids need more time before that. But it’ll take them time to get here, and even if we tell them to start heading this way right now, they won’t get here until tomorrow. Stay with me tonight. Just you and me. At home. In my bed. A normal night. We’ve never had one.”
Eamon leaned down and kissed her tenderly, his large hand cupping her cheek. “Yes.”
“Do you still love me?” she whispered, though she knew the answer. “Now that the danger is over, am I still exciting?”
He chuckled, seeing in her eyes that she wasn’t seriously questioning him. “More than ever. Do you still love me?”
“More than ever,” she repeated. “There’s just one problem.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ll never know how to tell people how we met.”
He laughed, kissing her again. “We’ll make up a story.”
A knock at the door interrupted them, and Autumn scrunched her nose as she pulled away from Eamon. But when she saw Tamara standing there in the doorway with flowers, a huge smile spread over her face, she held her arms out, the older woman hurrying into them for a tight hug.
“It’s so good to see you,” Tamara said, squeezing Autumn. “I’ve heard the wildest things! I don’t know want to know how much of it is true. I just needed to see you and hug you and tell you how much I’ve missed you and those babies.”
“I’ve missed you too,” Autumn said, sincerely meaning it. “I’m so glad you came by.”
Tamara sat down on the edge of the bed, greeting Eamon belatedly with a nod and a blown kiss. “Just tell me—are you safe now?”
“I’m safe,” Autumn assured her, believing it for the first time in a long time. “I’m not just safe. I’m fantastic.”
And she was. Her life was starting over, and now that she’d faced the possibility of losing her life, she knew that she would never again take anything for granted. She was going to live her life to the fullest every day, and she was going to do it with the people whom she loved most.
Chapter Forty-Four
Eamon
Three weeks had passed since Autumn had gone home from the hospital, and they had been the best three weeks of Eamon’s life. With the perpetual threat lifted from them, they had developed a routine and a new way of life that felt more like home to Eamon than anything else had in a long time. Autumn had gone back to work at the ER, and she still worked long hours, but now Eamon was there to help with the kids while she was gone. Tamara still helped too, and between the three of them, the girls were never wanting for attention. When Autumn wasn’t working, Eamon made sure he wasn’t either, and they did things together like taking the girls on picnics—though never to Georges Island—and going for long runs—though never in the woods near Autumn’s house.
They were looking at houses to buy together, and Autumn’s own house was on the market. She felt like the girls needed a fresh start, and Eamon agreed. The girls had been through a lot too, even if they had been sheltered from the worst of it, and he wanted all four of them to begin again together.
His life had never been more complete, but there was still something nagging at the back of his mind, always there, keeping him from truly settling.
“Eamon, Eamon, Eamon!” Rachel had a habit of saying everything three times, and as she bounded up to him to show him her new drawing as he sat at
Autumn’s kitchen table, she was all smiles. “Look! It’s our family!”
And it was. All four of them were there—Eamon and Autumn standing together, with a girl on either side of them. Eamon smiled and hugged her close. “I love it. You’re a very good artist.”
“I know,” Rachel said happily, running off to show Anna too, having no problem with interrupting her sister in the middle of reading a book. “Anna, look!”
“Uh-huh,” Anna said, not looking away from the page she was on. “That’s cool, Rach.”
“You didn’t look!”
“Yes, I did!”
“No, you didn’t!”
Autumn looked up from the onions she was slicing in the kitchen. “Girls…no bickering, please. Anna, look at your sister’s hard work. Then, Rachel, let your sister read in peace.”
Both girls complied, and Eamon got to his feet, moving to stand behind Autumn. He bent his head and kissed the back of her neck softly. “Hi, you.”
“Hi,” she murmured, leaning back against him. As always, when they were close to each other, the same sparks flew between them. He placed more kisses along her neck, circling her with his arm and stroking his hand over her flat belly. They made love every day, and it still wasn’t enough. He would happily take her to the bedroom now, or if the girls were not at home, right there on the counter. She did things to him that no one ever had, and somehow every time with her was better than the last.
She must have felt the same way, because she pressed back against him, one hand sliding behind him to grip his firm ass and press him closer to her.
Eamon groaned low in her ear, nipping at the lobe. But his words cooled things off.
“I have to go out for a while.”
“You do?”
He nodded, sliding his hand up to brush the underside of her breast in a consoling promise. “Yeah. To the office. Not to work. But I need to talk to Ronan.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Absolutely,” he promised her, smiling down into her eyes as she looked back at him. She smiled too, and he kissed her deeply before grabbing his things, waving to the girls, and heading out to his car. It was only a twenty-five-minute drive into the office, and he used the time to cool his urges and gather his thoughts. He needed to know exactly what he was going to say to his friend when he got there.
When he walked into Ronan’s office, his friend was there at his desk, just as Eamon knew he would be. Ronan smiled in surprise, leaning back in his chair and motioning for Eamon to join him.
“I thought you’d be at home with the family.”
“That’s what I’m here to talk to you about,” Eamon said, sitting down. “It’s been almost four weeks since Nova and Gayla became non-threats. Autumn is back to herself. The girls are home and happy. We’re all doing really well together. I’m happier than I’ve ever been.”
Ronan nodded. “Good. But I’m sensing that’s not all you came here to say.”
“I need to know that this is the right thing to be doing. I can’t walk away from her now,” Eamon said, his voice thick with emotion that he wasn’t comfortable with. “If you’re going to decide, suddenly, that this isn’t the right direction for the clan—marrying and procreating with humans—then that’s going to force me to decide between her and you guys.”
“I won’t do that.”
“You can’t know that for sure without having the answers you need about whether we can continue to produce for the Dragon clan with human partners.”
Ronan leaned forward, resting his arms on his desk and looking Eamon in the eye. “You’re right that I don’t know how we can do that yet. But I’m not going to give up until I figure it out. This is the direction we’re going. Our ancestors found a way to get what they want, and I will do the same thing. It’s safe to love her, Eamon. You’re not going to have to choose. I wouldn’t do that to Kean or Moira, and I won’t do that to you.”
Though there was nothing concrete about what Ronan told him, Eamon did feel marginally better. “The girls. If Autumn and I do have a child and it is part of the clan—if it shifts, like we do. The girls will never be like their brother or sister.”
“Don’t borrow trouble.”
“But is that fair to them?”
“Don’t borrow trouble,” Ronan repeated, smiling slightly. “Eamon, you have always loved more deeply than any of us, and it’s no different now. Your heart beats more fiercely than anyone else’s. That’s good, until it drives you crazy thinking about all the ways that your loved ones could be hurt. Love those girls like your own, and if and when we get to that bridge, we’ll cross it.”
Eamon knew that Ronan was right, even if it was hard for him to let go of his worry. “I want to be a bigger part of the work that you’re doing. I want to help figure out the answer for how we’re going to make these new unions work. I have to believe, after feeling what I felt with Autumn from the beginning, that these pairings are some sort of destiny. I want to be a part of making destiny work.”
“Okay,” Ronan agreed, leaning back in his chair again and fixing Eamon with a serious gaze. “I’ll bring you in on what I’m doing, gladly. But promise me that you’ll just let yourself be happy and trust a little bit that what’s happening all around you is right.”
“I will,” Eamon promised, and he meant it. Having Autumn and her daughters in his life made him happier than he had ever been, and even though that was scary—even though it made him think of the pain his mother had felt when she lost his father—he wasn’t going to let that stop him from embracing Autumn and every moment they had together.
He was ready to be happy, and he was ready to be with her. Forever.
BOOK FOUR
Chapter One
Siobhan
Whack!
The sound vibrated up Siobhan’s arm, bringing a grin to her face as she stayed poised on the soles of her feet, watching the tennis ball sail over the net, bounce just at the edge of the court, and whiff right by her opponent’s racket.
“Yes!” Siobhan did a victory dance, as Kean groaned, his head falling back.
“I’m not playing with you anymore,” he complained, walking after the ball and swiping it up off the ground. “I don’t know how you hit it right there every time.”
“I don’t know how I can hit it there every time and you still aren’t there waiting for it,” Siobhan shot back, smirking. She thrived on competition, and even though Kean was a dear, dear friend and his girlfriend was there watching, she was really enjoying beating him. “Get with the program, O’Shea. I’m going to hit it to that corner, okay?”
He answered by hitting the ball back to her, and she lobbed it back toward him easily, sending it to the exact opposite corner from the one she’d indicated, laughing when Kean stood, waiting to return the ball, as far away from where it landed as possible. “Psyche!”
“Okay, that’s just rude,” he protested, though Siobhan knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t actually frustrated with her. “You’re so competitive!”
“For a supernatural dragon shifter, you’re really slow on your feet,” Siobhan retorted, walking over to where Dhara sat with a pitcher of hard lemonade, lounging in an Adirondack chair as the late-August sun beat down on her dark skin. “You should make him go to the gym more often,” Siobhan said, teasing the woman as she poured herself a glass of lemonade. “He’s losing his skills. Too much time cuddling on the couch.”
Dhara chuckled, taking a sip of her own drink. “Oh, I don’t know. We do plenty of working out together…”
“The bedroom doesn’t count,” Siobhan told her.
“Oh, we make it count,” Kean said, walking over and leaning over Dhara to kiss her soundly.
Siobhan turned away, giving the couple their private moment as she sipped her lemonade and stared out over the tennis court that backed directly up to Kean and Dhara’s new house. The couple had decided to get a place together, slightly out of downtown Boston, and Siobhan had visited them often ev
er since they had moved.
Life was different now than it had been a year ago. Three of Siobhan’s closest friends had found love and started whole new chapters of their lives. Kean and Dhara were setting up house; Moira and Grady were juggling their time between her investigative responsibilities and the new business they were starting together; and Eamon and Autumn lived out in the suburbs with her two children.
All of them were so happy, and Siobhan was thrilled for them. Thrilled that they had found love, and thrilled that Ronan, the leader of their Dragon clan generation, was working night and day to figure out a way to make sure that these couples could be together forever. In the past, Dragon clan members had been forced to breed only with other Dragon clan members. They couldn’t produce with humans at all, and that meant not only that the clan members were dwindling, but that clan members were faced with arranged marriages with people whom they might or might not love.
Now that was all changing, and the only thing that Kean and Dhara, Grady and Moira, and Eamon and Autumn were waiting for before they got engaged and then married was for Ronan to tell them, once and for all, that he had found a way for them to have children together.
Siobhan was on the edge of her seat as much as the rest of them, and she was ready for her turn—so, so, so ready to find the person who was meant to be her partner for life.
Nobody knew that about Siobhan, because she didn’t let it show, even to her closest friends. Certainly not to her parents. She was an adventure-seeking woman, always flying off—literally—here and there to see new things and visit new places. She loved white-water rafting and mountain climbing and sky-diving, and she had done all them numerous times. Although her long blonde hair, tanned skin, and slender but curvy body might tempt people who saw her on the street to think of her as a pampered Barbie doll, she was the furthest thing from it. There was nothing Siobhan loved more than action, adventure, and excitement, and her strong body could withstand just about anything she put it through, even in her human form.
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