by J. L. Weil
“We have five months left to figure it out,” Issik reminded him, not that any of them could forget about the sand quickly slipping through the hourglass.
“And five months to keep Olivia alive,” Jase added. A cloud of foreboding lingered in the air.
“How hard can that be?” Kieran asked, in an attempt to lighten the bleakness that had settled in the room.
“Tianna’s curse is complex, as we’ve learned. The closer we get, the more danger she will be in,” Dimples explained.
“We can handle it,” Zade reassured, sounding determined and confident.
“But can she?” Jase interceded.
“I think she can.” Issik spoke up. “She’s tougher than she looks.”
Hell yes, I was, and I loved him for sticking up for me. We had shared a sincere moment last night, and it was nice to feel as if someone believed in me, even a little bit.
“With us by her side, we can take on whatever Tianna throws at us,” Zade vowed with fervor.
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t be more careful. Mistakes cost lives,” Jase reminded them, lowering his tone.
“I don’t like this,” Issik said, and I felt his eyes move over my pretending-to-sleep form.
“None of us do, but this is the only way. Enough is enough. We must end this curse no matter what,” Zade retorted.
“I agree,” Kieran’s voice was determined. “But I’m not willing to risk Olivia’s life for my own. We’ve lived more than a hundred years. She’s only had seventeen.”
“Even if it means it is the end of dragons?” Jase asked.
“The world already thinks we’re fiction…” Issik let his thought dangle.
“Then we all agree?” Jase asked, waiting for someone to speak up.
I was dying to open my eyes just to take a quick peek to see what was going on. Were they nodding in agreement, shaking hands, or something else entirely? How would I know if they would forsake their lives for mine if I couldn’t see them? And did I want them to?
I wasn’t sure.
I had plunged into a lake from several feet up in the air to save one of them.
“How long have you been listening, Cupcake?” Jase asked.
Gulp.
Chapter Fifteen
Wrinkles spread over my nose, as I pried one eye open. “Not long.” Sighing, I gave up the pretense of sleep. “Just something about the curse, less kissing, and blah, blah, blah.”
Jase’s lips twitched. “So everything.”
I shrugged. “Maybe. What happened before Issik said he didn’t sleep with me?”
A scowl settled on Issik’s eyes, while the other three tried to maintain their unaffected postures. I don’t know why they pretended with me. I could see right through each of them. They weren’t as tough as they appeared.
Jase leaned against the far wall, faking an expression of consideration. “I think we were talking about how much trouble you are.”
Grabbing a pillow from the bed, I chucked it across the room, not caring which dragon I hit, as long as I hit one of them. “You brought me here. Don’t forget that part.”
“She has a point,” Zade agreed.
Of course I did. The pillow thumped to the floor, not hitting a single one of them. Wow. Pitiful.
A hint of a smile danced on Issik’s lips as he sat at the end of the bed. “I guess there is no need to catch you up, little warrior.”
Slowly, I sat up, keeping the blanket in my lap. “Next time, try not talking about me when I’m in the room, sleeping or awake.”
Jase gave a quick nod. “Noted.”
My eyes narrowed, making the rounds to each one. “Is there going to be a next time?”
“That we talk about you? Definitely.” Kieran grinned.
Humor shone Zade’s eyes as he stared at me from his spot in the corner. He was sitting in the only chair, his long legs stretching out in front of him. “You’re stuck with us. We’re not leaving your side.”
That shouldn’t have made me crazy happy, but it did.
“I think we need to hug it out,” Kieran offered. A mischievous gleam that was ever present in his eyes glimmered.
My arms spread wide, letting a grin cross my own lips. “Group hug,” I announced, singing it in a high-pitched tone.
The four shifters only wasted a single heartbeat before bombarding me on the bed, even Issik, the coldest dragon of them all, and I suddenly found myself engulfed in the world’s sexiest hug as they all tried to wrap their arms around me. The bed groaned under the additional weight, and I thought for sure it would collapse.
In that moment, surrounded by the descendants, I didn’t care what anyone else thought. They were mine.
“What happened to your face?” Zade demanded, seeing the red mark courteous of Harlow.
My eyes moved to meet Issik’s and I swallowed. I had a feeling lots of roaring would be echoing in the castle.
When they had said they weren’t leaving my side, I shouldn’t have taken it literally, because in the next few days, they vanished—all four of them.
Again.
The descendants were proving to be the worst protectors in history. Every time one of them took off, they had a million reasons why I couldn’t tag along. It was pathetic. I understood they were worried I would get hurt, but being trapped inside the castle day in and day out wasn’t good for my mental health, which was just as important. I couldn’t possibly help them break the curse if I had mush for brains.
I hated being left alone. I hated being apart from them. I hated feeling sorry for myself, which was exactly what I was doing.
Pity party for one, please.
My foot connected with the innocent rock and I watched it skip over the dirt path of the courtyard. It was a good thing cell phones didn’t work in the Veil, or I’d be blowing up theirs.
I avoided every part of the keep Harlow could possibly be in, and that really limited me to my room. Since our little hair pulling, nail scratching spat, we’d both been steering clear of each other like a plate of brussels sprouts. Neither of us had apologized, and I was definitely not going to make the first move. She had it coming. I wasn’t sorry for my actions.
The grounds were fairly quiet today, everyone taking care of their daily responsibilities. I waved at Eve, the gardener, who was tirelessly trying to maintain the overgrown hedges surrounding the castle. The flowers and plants in the Veil seemed to grow at an alarming rate. Everything was bigger here, kind of like Texas. Raven, a sweet, shy elderly lady, gathered a bouquet of flowers for inside the dining hall, as usual. She didn’t live in the castle, but in a small home on the edge of the woods bordering Wakeland. She had been one of the chosen girls many, many years ago and stayed, making a life here in the Veil Isles.
Continuing to stroll along the path that circled the keep, I enjoyed the sun on my face. A lazy cat wound its way in between my legs as I walked, keeping me company. Petra, I thought her name was—one of a few strays that hung around the kitchen waiting for Milly, the cook, to toss them scraps, which she did each day.
There was a routine to life in the Veil that I found comforting, yet mundane, and the existence I’d had before the kidnapping began to feel like it had happened to a different person. They were separate; one didn’t bleed into the other, and I wanted to keep it that way. The girl from before, she didn’t exist here.
Dropping down off the dock onto a small section of sand, I kicked off my shoes and sunk my feet into the tiny grains warmed by the sun’s rays. A tender breeze blew in from off the sea, flirting with the hem of my dress.
My eyes were drawn to the sky, hoping to catch sight of the dark outline of a dragon. I don’t know how long I stood in there, staring into the vast turquoise sky. Too long. Eventually, I sat down at the water’s edge and hugged my knees up to my chest.
“Olivia Campbell…” someone whispered my name.
My gaze went to the aqua waters. I don’t know what I expected to see, but there was nothing, only the gentle
waves, a few fish, and lots of seaweed.
Am I hearing things?
To be safe, I scanned the area to make sure I was truly alone and Harlow wasn’t screwing with me. There was no one around, and yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched as an inkling of unease snaked down my spine.
It was strange. Today the sea lacked its usual fogginess. The color of the endless sky reflected in the waves, allowing me to see into its depths. At home, Mom and I used to go to the beach every weekend during the summer, and sitting here now on the edge of the water, feet dangling just under the surface, I thought of her, of how much I missed her.
What would she think of my life now?
Would she approve of the descendants? Of dragon shifters?
The idea brought a tiny smile to my lips.
I highly doubted that when Mom thought of my future, she would have envisioned me entangled with four guys. And I know for a fact she wouldn’t have believed in dragons.
Speaking of missing someone, it was awfully silent with the four of them gone. I hated it. I knew they had responsibilities and a curse to break, but I would have gladly helped, and it would have been much preferred to doing nothing.
My reflection stared back at me over the placid waters. My long, honey-colored hair fell over my shoulders, and as I leaned closer, the ends dipped into the sea. At first glance, I didn’t recognize myself. My aqua eyes lacked the fear I’d gotten used to seeing in them when I was alone. My lips seemed naturally pinker and my cheeks peachier. I attributed it to the lighting, the glow of the sun giving my skin a dewy quality.
Have I changed that much since I’ve been here?
It wasn’t solely my physical appearance, but also how I felt inside. I was different… older and wiser; that sounded so cliché, yet it didn’t make it any less true.
“Olivia.” The soft voice of a woman sounded again.
What the fuckity-fuck?
Okay, this time I wasn’t imagining voices. Someone was trying to get my attention, and after the second eerie call, I was all ears. Problem was, I had no idea where it came from.
And then I saw something in the water.
It wasn’t something I saw in the water, but someone, a woman rising from the bottom of the sea. I blinked and blinked again, convinced the sun and the reflection of the water was playing tricks on me.
Zade’s warning about the sea and the creatures that lived in its depths echoed in my head. Sirens. Loch Ness monster. Things I probably couldn’t imagine. Surely, what I was seeing was a mermaid, but her body was more fluid than solid.
She stayed under the surface, staring at me with white eyes that glowed like an oracle’s. I found them freaky and struggled to look at them. Her vibrant red hair floated around her heart-shaped face in a tangle of waves.
“Olivia,” she whispered my name again, but her mouth never moved. Her eyes fixated on mine. Her words transported into my mind. “Let me help you.”
I couldn’t believe I was talking to a woman of the water. “How?” I asked, unwilling to blindly accept some strange woman’s aid. She could be dead for all I knew, or a siren trying to trick me.
“I have what you seek.”
I shifted up onto my legs, my knees tucked beneath me. “What is it you think I’m looking for?”
She laughed, a melodic and airy sound like spring showers. “What everyone on this island wants, to break the curse.”
“What do I need?” My heart quickened in my chest.
“I must show you,” she insisted.
Did I look stupid? Were the letters s-u-c-k-e-r written across my forehead? “Let me guess. I need to swim in there,” I said dryly, pointing to the sea.
Her head nodded up and down, causing her hair to float out behind her. “It’s the only way.”
Said every crazy person ever. My eyes roamed over the water, contemplating if I was insane enough to jump in. I already knew the answer because I had leaped in to save Jase, but now there was no one around to save me. “Why should I trust you?”
“Do you have any other options?”
Point taken. But that didn’t mean I liked it. “Who are you?”
“My identity isn’t important. What matters is you have something none of the others had.”
“What do I have?” I asked.
Her eyes grew frantic. “You must hurry. The sun is setting, and without the light, we will lose our opportunity.”
She was evading my questions, but I wasn’t sure it really mattered who, or what she was. If there was even the slimmest of chances I could break the spell, or find something to help us, didn’t I have to take it? Would Jase, Kieran, Zade, or Issik do the same?
They would without hesitation.
I had to do it.
“I’m so going to regret this,” I muttered as I glanced down and grimaced. The mysterious woman had faded back into the dark parts of the sea, leaving the decision up to me whether I followed or not. I nibbled on my lip. The sun shone at my face, hitting the water, and that was when I saw it—the spark of something shiny.
What is that?
There was definitely something down there other than the mermaid, and it wanted me to find it. I don’t know how I knew that; I just did.
I felt torn between taking a swim—I’d been warned to stay out of the water—or returning to the keep, and forgetting about the shiny object and the woman. There were so many reasons to not go after it. What if I drowned? I was a decent swimmer, but still, I didn’t know how deep the water was. What if I was attacked? There were things in the lake I never wanted to come face to face with.
Shit.
Quickly scanning the grounds to make sure no one was around, I grabbed the hem of the slim dress I wore and lifted it over my head, leaving me in just my undergarments. I dipped my toes in and shimmied toward a set of rocks, dividing my attention between my own stability and glaring into the water.
It was dark, but not so dark that I couldn’t distinguish between the grayish water and the gritty sand on the bottom.
You’re fine. You can do this. Just swim down. Grab the pretty item. And get out. Easy peasy. You lived on the streets. How much scarier can a body of water be than that?
With all that nonsense chattering in my head, I held my breath and plucked up my courage, plunging into the sea. Water rushed over my head, gliding smoothly along my skin. I opened my eyes, giving myself a second to adjust, and kicking my feet, I dove onward toward the glittering object. My movements were jerky and graceless.
When something brushed the side of my leg, I tried to keep my cool but I couldn’t repress the shudder. Don’t think about it. Just focus on reaching the bottom. Get in and get out.
Pursing my lips, I stretched out my hand, ignoring the burning in my lungs, and the ache in my legs. I was so close. Just another few inches. The water around me rolled, and I realized with a jolt of panic that I wasn’t alone in there anymore.
Please, don’t let me get eaten.
I didn’t let myself think about the dark shadow approaching me, and kept my focus on the object. A hum vibrated in my ears, and just as my fingertips touched the smooth surface of the translucent stone, another set of fingers brushed over mine.
My eyes glanced up.
Jase? What was he doing in the water?
All rational thoughts went out the window.
A thousand pinpricks sank into my body as a burst of colored lights haloed through the water like a disco ball. It came from the stone. Jase’s hand clasped over mine, securing the rock between our joined fingers.
I gasped, inhaling a stream of water, and Jase reacted, wrapping his arms around my waist and launching us to the surface three times as fast as I could. Breaking through the water, I coughed, sputtering seawater from my nose and mouth.
A fresh wave slammed up against me, but before I could go under again, Jase lifted me out of the ocean and onto the dock. Coughing up the last bit of water, I collapsed on my back, eternally grateful to be back on land.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Jase yelled, barely giving me a second to catch my breath. “I told you to stay out of the sea.”
He was beginning to sound like a broken record, which wasn’t wholly his fault. I pushed myself upright, meeting his unhappy gaze. “That I could do something other than sitting around on my ass.”
He drew in a ragged breath. “And swimming was the first thing that came to mind?”
“No.”
“What were you doing then? You could have drowned.”
Thank you, captain obvious. It was then I remembered the stone in my hand. My eyes traveled to my palm, staring at the glittering glass stone. It was smooth, serene, and lightweight. “I went to get this,” I said, holding up the crystal that was purple in color, just like his eyes.
“A rock? Now I know you are nuts.”
“I don’t think it’s just any stone,” I said, unable to take my eyes off it. A pulsing rhythm thudded where it touched my skin as if it had a heartbeat. This was what the mysterious water woman had wanted me to find. She had led me to it.
“Let me see it.” Jase’s hand reached for the crystal, and that was when shit got psychedelic.
I swore the world stopped as a prism of light shimmered violet, dancing behind my eyes. The vibrant blend of blue and purple burst, threading around Jase and me, encircling us in a bubble of moonbeams. Our hands were connected with the stone between them.
My eyes immediately sought out his, and I gasped. I recognized his dragon, seeing the fierce creature that lived within him staring back at me. A surge of energy pierced my heart, and I braced myself for the searing hot pain I was sure would follow. But there was only pure stillness. It bloomed in the center of my chest, spreading to every point in my body—every muscle, every bone, every hair follicle. It wasn’t just a feeling of tranquility; it was as if I was tranquility.
The swirling colors intensified to the point I worried about going blind. It built and built until… boom. They burst like a grenade blowing up a rainbow. Jase’s eyes widened in horror as my name exploded in a roar from his lips, but it narrowly registered in my brain until his arms wrapped around me, shielding me from the flash. My face was plastered to his bare chest, and I thought, I am going to die. At least it would be in Jase’s arms.
