“First, where did the blade go?” Lauren tensed. “And my gift from Emily?”
Sven straightened. “You still have the globe, then?”
“Of course,” Lauren responded. “I have kept it with me the whole time...or should I say Tait has.”
“I have both,” Tait said, right on cue as he held out the keychain to her. “What do you make of it now?”
All that was inside the globe was a little wooden carving of a wolf.
“I have no idea what that means,” Lauren said.
“I can speculate,” Sven said softly. “That is the carving I made for Emily before I left the twenty-first century.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Samantha said as she looked between Sven and the keychain. “Why is it in there now?”
Sven shrugged. “I gave the carving to Emily to lend her strength so perhaps the globe brought you to where you would find the most strength. Where you needed to go to continue the fight.”
“That is sound thinking, Son,” Bjorn said.
“So Emily’s globe controlled us getting here not you, Sam?” Lauren said. “That is strange, right?”
Samantha nodded, unsettled. “It is considering I’m getting pretty powerful yet a kid’s trinket can override me.”
“She is no average kid,” Sven said with pride. “Not our little Emily.”
“Yeah, I’m getting that.” Samantha sighed. “Not that I’m complaining, but I can’t say I’m crazy about you being on a journey controlled by a keychain, Lauren.”
Lauren released a small sound that Tait swore might be a chuckle before she responded. “Considering how I spent my life after I first shifted, a little snow globe on a keychain is proving to be quite…freeing.”
Sam’s eyes met hers, and a small smile met her lips. “I bet it is.” She shook her head. “Who knew?”
Lauren smirked and shrugged. “Not me.”
“Might we get back to why you called me Sister Dragon?” Kadlin said, her eyes still locked curiously on Lauren. “And why the enemy called you the same thing.”
“Of course.” Lauren nodded, her tone remarkably calm considering everything she began to share. “You and Tait were siblings in another life.” Her voice wavered slightly, and her eyes flickered to his then back to Kadlin before she murmured, “That is why I called you Sister Dragon.”
Tait’s eyes met Kadlin’s. They had been siblings more than once?
“Okay.” Sam’s eyes went between Lauren and Tait. “Should we assume then that you were Tait and Kadlin’s sister in another life then, Lauren?”
“No. I was not.” Lauren swallowed, her eyes not meeting Tait’s. “He and I were mates which made Kadlin my dragon sister.”
A sense of rightness blew through him that he wasn’t prepared for. Yes, she clearly meant more and more to him, but this news seemed rather binding. Even more binding than giving up a piece of his soul to save her.
Kadlin’s dragon flared in her eyes as she lowered to a crouching position and continued eying Lauren. “Go on.”
“I am only beginning to understand everything as I unite with my dragon,” Lauren said softly. “But I will tell you what I know so far.” Her eyes grew distant as she recounted the same tale Cybil had told. The vision she experienced the first time she went to Mt. Galdhøpiggen’s peak except somehow she had experienced it beneath the ash tree in Vermont. She spoke of the old man, Eluf and the pregnant woman in the shadows.
“She was my sister. The woman who fled to America and started a life there. Our ancestor.” Lauren’s eyes remained distant. “For some reason her memory became mine. I assume because we were family. Dragons who shared the same blood.” Her eyes went to Samantha. “Eluf told me that I was the one who reignited our dragon blood. I can only assume it happened when I shifted for the first time years ago.”
“So Eluf helped your sister disappear?” Kol said. “He helped hide your lineage?”
Lauren nodded. “She was sought by the other two dragon lineages. The enemy’s and the Sigdir’s. Bard and Einar.”
“And the baby your sister was carrying?” Bjorn said. “Who fathered it?”
“Bard,” Lauren confirmed, an unsettled expression on her face. “Which means, ironically enough, that we’re distantly related to the enemy.”
“Better than being related to the Sigdir’s,” Samantha pointed out.
“True,” Lauren agreed, shifting on Tait’s lap just enough to remind him how grateful he was they weren’t related…even if distantly. Because with dragon blood, that could have made their lineages more closely connected than if they were merely humans with over a thousand years separating them.
“You mean Bard’s lineage fathered the baby,” Kol corrected. “Not Bard himself because that would be impossible. He was the first of one of three dragon lines on Midgard.”
“No, it was Bard himself.” Lauren cocked her head. “Did you not know that the original dragons lived longer lives? Hundreds of years? And they didn’t age much beyond their early thirties until they were close to death.”
“No, none of us knew that,” Sam said softly. “And I’m sure we’re all eager to learn more about how you do.”
“We are.” Amber eyed Lauren curiously. “So Bard and Einar both fell for one of Bjark’s daughters?”
“One of his great-granddaughters to be exact,” Lauren said. “An exceptional woman and dragon.”
“Evidently,” Amber murmured, contemplative.
“Yet the woman who tried to possess me didn’t seem all that pleasant,” Sam reminded. “In fact, I was told she was as rotten as Hallstein.”
“As far as I could tell, I loved my sister fiercely.” Lauren shook her head. “I did not get the impression she was evil.”
“Hmm, what gives then?” Sam pondered. “Maybe having the enemy’s evil lineage growing inside her tainted her soul somehow.”
“Which would mean we have evil in us too,” Lauren reminded. “Because we have that man’s blood in us.” Her eyes grew deeply troubled. “That horrible man who caused so much pain.”
A frown settled on Samantha’s face. “You’re right,” she murmured before something occurred to her. “Yet a horrible man that you seemed to know pretty well.” Her brow shot up. “So what happened back there, Sis? Back in the Forest of Memories? You went all Amazon warrior on us, and I still don’t entirely understand why.”
“Which leads us back to Kadlin’s question,” Lauren said. “Hallstein called me Sister Dragon because he knew exactly who I was.” Her eyes held Sam’s. “He knew that I was Maeva’s sister in another life.”
“That cannot be good,” Bjorn muttered.
“But it is good that we are getting a better insight into the enemy,” Kol said, his eyes on Lauren. “So we are to assume that he is perhaps the reincarnate of Bard himself?”
“That is the impression I get,” Lauren confirmed. “And Maeva, my sister in another life, carried her unborn child to the future to escape him.” Her eyes swept around the room before they met Sam’s. “And she did it to deny him a brand new lineage that was likely more powerful than his and the Sigdir’s combined.”
“Ours,” Sam whispered before she shook her head. “But what about Bjark’s other offspring? We only descend from his great-granddaughter. What about the others born of him? Our distant relatives who stayed in Scandinavia?”
“Slaughtered,” Lauren said, her voice laced with deep-seated anger. “When Eluf helped Maeva escape, Bard brought down the wrath of the gods on us and destroyed everyone. Even me.” She clenched her jaw. “Especially me.”
“What you just showed us in the Forest of Memories…what you became,” Sam said, searching Lauren’s eyes. “That was Maeva’s sister. How fierce she was.” There was no missing the pride in her voice. “Still is, apparently.”
Lauren, for whatever reason, decided to remove herself from his lap after hearing that. Almost as if Sam’s statement reminded her of how different she had become. How different she was acting r
ight now. So he wasn’t all that surprised when she sat beside him, set aside her mug, resumed her normal stiff posture and nodded.
Thankfully, however, while she might be acting like her old self, he soon realized it was just a means to put things in perspective. To regain some of who she had been so she could better explain who she was becoming.
“I am still trying to understand everything that happened,” Lauren said studiously. “So I can better understand what is at the heart of me.” Her lips turned down slightly. “All I know thus far is that I harbored a great deal of anger at Hallstein in another life and he clearly felt the same.” Her eyes met Tait’s. “And you are somehow tied into it as well. I fear he might have recognized you based on your actions.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
She shook her head and met his frown. “I wish I knew. I could not quite grasp how the three of us were interconnected.” Her pupils flared. “All I know is that you were part of it. Part of the violence.” Her voice lowered. “Part of something very bad.”
Tait held her eyes and remembered how he had acted. “That’s why I held the blade to your throat, is it not?” He tried to grasp onto something, a memory, but it slipped away. “Somehow it seemed like the only course of action.” His voice dropped, deepened. “I had the strangest feeling that even if I took your life, I would get it back. That we were that connected.”
“You were confident,” she murmured. “Maybe too confident.”
“That’s why you did what you did, isn’t it Lauren?” Sam interjected. “While you knew Hallstein was wary, for some reason you didn’t want Tait to hold the Gungnir blade to your neck.” Her eyes narrowed. “I heard what happened after we lost you and the others. How Tait saved your life. I didn’t realize he did it at the expense of part of his soul, but that’s for a later conversation.” She tilted her head in question. “Why did you confront Hallstein like that? Was it because of the blade or because of Tait?”
Lauren shook her head, her eyes suddenly taking on a haunted edge, the tone of her voice soft and strained. “All I knew was that I did not want history to repeat itself.”
Chapter Ten
LAUREN STARED AIMLESSLY at the fire as everyone ate and drank. Matthew and Kodran returned hours ago only for Kodran to leave again. Kol decided it was best not to have his immediate kin all in one location and wanted his ailing brother better protected, so he sent his youngest son to help defend the Fortress. When Matthew reminded their uncle that Kodran may not be who they thought he was, Kol shook his head. He remained confident that Kodran was without question his son. His dragon would know if he was not.
Meanwhile, Bjorn and Svala’s older sister, Meyla had joined them. As foretold, she had suffered grievously at Hallstein’s hand. She lost an arm and bore a deep scar that zig-zagged down her throat and chest. Nonetheless, there was no missing how strong she was. In her early forties, Meyla was not only beautiful but clearly a warrior who seemed to be adjusting to her condition without complaint. According to Sam, Meyla had slept with the infamous Adlin MacLomain and bore the child who started the direct lineage to the time traveling Scottish MacLomains.
Yet it was Meyla’s husband, Valan, Lauren thought about as her eyes lingered on the fire. How he remained in a trance trying to reach out to their long-lost daughter. How separated Meyla must feel from him as he desperately sought out their child. She could relate to that sense of separation but not because of a child. No, because of something else entirely.
A man.
Tait.
And she could not pinpoint why.
When he held the Gungnir to her throat, something changed. Something she still did not completely understand but gave her a clear and heart-wrenching sense of loss…of desperation. Whatever that feeling was, it was connected to her gut reaction that history was about to repeat itself and she had explained as much to everyone.
As the story went, the Gungnir blade was created by Näv and her alternate self to help Bjorn’s and Sam’s dragon’s come together. Nothing more. It wasn’t made by Loki for Odin and held no ominous meaning in the end. Yet here it was a part of something again. The very blade Eluf handed her sister in another life. One that had found its way back to Lauren. How was that possible? Nobody had an answer. Sam had summoned Näv hoping for a better explanation, but that didn’t mean the seer would come right away.
So the conversation had moved on. Yet she had trouble following anything but the wayward confusion of her thoughts. The need to better understand something she suspected her dragon already knew.
Only when Tait’s hand slid into hers, and he murmured, “We should try to get some rest,” did she realize everyone had already left.
“Yes, of course,” she agreed and followed him, still lost in thought until they entered a large cave several hundred feet off the main one. The feeling of familiarity she had when she walked in was so strong that she stopped short and put a hand over her mouth.
Tait looked at her in alarm. “What is it, Lauren?”
She shook her head and tried to understand the images flickering through her mind.
This cave.
A black dragon.
Tragedy yet protection all at once.
“Lauren.” Suddenly Tait was there, cupping her cheeks, worried. “What it is?” His thumb ran along her chin so gently it sent shivers through her. “What do you remember now?”
“I do not know,” she whispered because she truly didn’t. Whatever it was flickered away the second her eyes met his. She tried to speak but couldn’t. All she could focus on now was remembering their kiss. How aggressive she had been.
How unfaithful.
As if he knew exactly what she was thinking, Tait brushed a chaste kiss on her forehead then stepped away. “If you are not comfortable here, we can find another place.”
“No,” she said, determined to push past whatever this was. She was about to say more, but the words died on her lips as she looked at the cave again. This time she did not see just one dragon but two.
One was black.
One was sage green and barely half its size.
“Tait,” she whispered, staring at the dragons curled up together on the shore that made up the well-protected seaside entrance. “Do you see them?”
He glanced at the shore then back at her, his expression unreadable as he took her hand and murmured, “Only within your mind.”
By the time she glanced at him then back again, they were gone. Yet she knew who they had been. Her and Tait in another lifetime. “We were here before.” Her eyes met his. “We were in this cave together before, Tait.” She looked around. “Why are we here now?”
“Because it’s mine, Lauren.” He urged her to sit on a rock and handed her a skin as he chanted and a fire sprang to life. “This is my dragon lair.”
Not interested in alcohol, she set it aside as her eyes wandered. “I noticed a bed in another cave we passed, but there isn’t one here.” Her eyes went to him. “Where do you sleep?”
“Usually on the shore,” he said. “In dragon form.”
“Why?”
“I’ve just always preferred it.” He shrugged and sat beside her. “And there is no bed because I never bring women here. This has always been…”
When he trailed off, she said, “Always been what?”
He eyed her for a moment before he gave a loose shrug and looked at the ocean. “I don’t come here often. It’s too lonely, I suppose.”
“Lonely,” she whispered, remembering the hallways in her mind. More so, one in particular. “I understand.”
“How so?”
She did not intend to respond because it was far too personal but something about the look in his eyes made her continue. “I know what it’s like to feel lonely in the one place you truly belong.”
Tait’s eyes held hers again for a long moment before he murmured, “You never belonged there, Lauren. You never belonged where you were.”
“But I did,” she whispered
, remembering the brownstone she shared with Charles. “I had to in order to find balance, did I not? To find stability.”
“And your mate helped you find stability?” Tait sounded unconvinced. “Control?”
“In a way, yes.” Her eyes went to the ocean. “I had to…embrace a part of myself that allowed me not only to deal with him but repress my dragon.” She swallowed. “Repress the truth about so many things.” Her eyes returned to him. “I thought I was strong, but I suspect now that I was just foolish. Living in denial.”
“You did what you thought you had to,” he responded. “That does not make you foolish but a survivor. You might have shifted and then repressed your dragon, but some part of you knew it was there. Something that was not supposed to exist. I think you and your sisters had every right to cope with it in your own ways. The best way you could.”
“I suppose,” she murmured. “Which seems for the most part forming relationships with unfortunate men.”
“Yes,” Tait agreed, his voice growing deeper, rougher. “Though I do not like your former mate for his cruelty, I can only be grateful that you did not truly love him. That you are able to move on.”
There was no mistaking his meaning as their eyes held. The interest he had in her.
“You prefer to be with many women,” she reminded him softly.
“I did,” he said just as softly. “Before—”
She put a finger to his lips and shook her head. “I might have learned a lot, and my beliefs likely mean nothing in all this, but I am still married.” She pulled her finger away. “That means I was wrong to kiss you and nothing can happen between us.” Though tempted to look away, she didn’t. “Do you understand?”
He nodded and though she knew he was tempted to take her hand or touch her cheek, he didn’t. Instead, he surprised her. “I do.” His eyes returned to the shore where their dragons had been. “You were…are…one of the most courageous women I have ever met.” When his eyes returned to hers, both lust and something far deeper, far more respectful lay within. “We will rest, not lust, yes?”
Soul of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 3) Page 14
