by A. W. Exley
Lowestoft. A week later.
They stayed long enough to see London bask in a much belated spring. The snow disappeared, trees erupted in a riot of verdant growth, and flowers sported crazy colours. Then, they closed up the Mayfair mansion and relocated to Nate’s ancestral home, where the strange box now resided deep in the earth. Another puzzle for Cara to unlock, although now she had Amy to help.
They stood on the edge of the cliff, the surf crashed far below their feet. Cara rested her head on Nate’s shoulder, his arms wrapped around her waist as she watched Kirill play amongst the clouds.
He kissed her hair, and whispered the words that lingered in her heart. “You could have resurrected your mother.”
“I know.” She closed her eyes and willed back the tears. “So many nights I imagined it. Bringing her back. Hearing her voice, having her arms around me, talking of all those things mothers share with daughters.” A ragged sigh escaped her body. Lord, it hurt, dwelling on what might have been.
“But?”
Another sigh. “What would I tell her about Lucas? I would have a few moments of the joy of our reunion before I would destroy her world by telling her that the only bright point of my childhood was visiting Leicester. By relating how my father changed into an obsessed shell that sold me to my rapist. What could be gained by burdening her with things beyond her control?”
Her heart tightened. She could never cause that much pain to someone she loved. “Fraser failed to destroy you in my eyes, but what if he succeeded? I never knew the Lucas she knew. Could I resurrect her to tell her the man she loved with all her heart became a monster?” She wiped away a tear. “As much as I long to know her, I would rather she rest in peace than shatter her love for him.”
He kissed the top of her head and held her in silence for several minutes. The birds circled Kirill, who broke free to dive below again. “What did you do with it?”
“I offered to restore Rachel’s arm, but she is already drawing pictures of the mechanical one she wants you to commission.” She shook her head, such a serious child, old beyond her years.
Nate laughed. “Whatever she wants, she shall have.”
A smile played over Cara’s lips. “It’s not too late for Inspector Fraser, he can still turn back from his path. So, I gave him a chance to start over. Let’s just say I restored his faith.”
The arm around her tightened. “I find your interest in him unsettling.”
The two men were more similar than either could ever admit. “Someone very wise once taught me the value of favours, and Hamish now owes me a rather enormous one.”
“Come here, you clever woman,” he growled and turned her in his arms for a lingering kiss.
Out over the sea, Kirill swooped, and soared, and terrified the seagulls. He sent them scattering only to watch them reform in clusters that he dove through again. Then he stopped and back-winged, hovering before them, then plunged beneath the churning waves to reappear long moments later with a silver fish in his mouth. The gulls knotted around him as he rose, hoping for the meal to drop.
A particularly loud squawk drew Cara’s attention, and she laughed as a rather bold seagull thought to challenge the ugly bird for a fish.
“I wanted to protect him. What do we do now, with a dragon living in Lowestoft?” With his existence confirmed, her companion would be hunted. Treasure seekers the world over would descend on their little corner of England. He could be captured and either chained in a tower somewhere or killed, his head displayed in a dining room while nobles walked over his tanned skin. At least Nate had dealt with Victoria, spinning a web of half-truths about the dragon being fatally ill and needing proximity to a certain artifact to survive. He just omitted that the artifact was her. Although as a consequence of their actions, they were banished from society for the rest of the year. Not that that’s any great loss.
Nate kissed her neck. “We will protect them.”
She smiled. He was so sure of himself, but the how worried her.
“The world is expanding, long-range airships are spreading over unexplored territory. We could not hide them forever. Besides, I have McToon working on a plan.”
“Oh?” She glanced up at her husband. The canny lawyer snatched Nate from Fraser’s hands and ensured the finances of the Lyons empire ran smoothly. Apparently, there was no end to his talents.
“He is putting together an international treaty to protect them. Victoria has declared dragons British, since Kirill dwells here and she is claiming credit for discovering them. No country will be allowed to traffic in dragons without facing stiff penalties,” Nate said.
She snorted. “Would a piece of paper have stopped you from stealing their eggs?”
He laughed, and a tingle ran over her skin. “This is different, they are our dragons now. The world will acknowledge they belong here, plus, we have quite an arsenal under the estate to add to their defence. There are artifacts we can use to establish a safe perimeter.”
Malachi finally returned from his holiday in Spain, where an interlude with a flamenco dancer made him forget his promised translation. To make it up to Cara, he found an interesting tale in an ancient Chinese text. They discovered that loose in the world was a foundation stone prised from the Great Wall of China. Legends said it enabled a person to set up an invisible perimeter that no one could cross if they had intentions to harm anyone within. They just had to find the stone, steal it, and figure how to make it work.
And discover what Csenger had locked in the obsidian chest that held the key to all his plans once reborn. Plans they scuttled with the help of the Rookery men.
She watched the growing dragon play and frolic. “Sergei says the females will be here this week, they will not stay in Siberia without Kirill. Lucky the cliffs are full of caves for them.”
Every few minutes, his head swung in her direction. He either checked she still watched or checked she hadn’t leapt off the cliff.
“He is very protective of you,” Nate said.
“Jealous?” The two males were still working out their relationship. It would take time, but they had plenty of that now.
“Relieved he is too big for you to have him sleeping on our bed. But curious why his protective streak seems to be growing.”
Cara smiled to herself, a few things made sense over the last week. She laid her hands over the top of Nate’s, and moved them lower down to her abdomen. “Yes, he is very protective for some reason, isn’t he?”
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Books and writing have always been an enormous part of Anita’s life. She survived school by hiding out in the library, with several thousand fictional characters for company. At university, she overcame the boredom of studying accountancy by squeezing in Egyptology papers and learning to read hieroglyphics.
Today, Anita writes steampunk novels with a sexy edge and an Egyptian twist. She lives in rural New Zealand surrounded by an assortment of weird and wonderful equines, felines, canine and homicidal chickens.
You can find Anita on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AWExley
Obsidian Eyes, by A.W. Exley
(http://bit.ly/1chG59s)
OBSIDIAN EYES is historical fantasy novel with a light steampunk twist.
1836, a world of light and dark, noble and guild. The two spheres intersect when seventeen-year-old Allie Donovan is placed at the aristocratic St Matthews Academy. More at ease with a blade than a needle, she finds herself ostracised by the girls and stalked by a Scottish lord intent on learning why she is among them.
Used to relying on herself, Allie must cross the guild-noble divide to keep her friend safe when she discovers he is working on a top secret military project, deep under the school.
>
A Curse of Ash & Iron, by Christine Norris
(http://bit.ly/1IxI9pf)
Eleanor Banneker is under a spell, bewitched and enslaved by her evil stepmother. Her long-lost childhood friend, Benjamin Grimm, is the only person immune to the magic that binds her. Even if he doesn’t believe in real magic, he cannot abandon her to her fate and must find a way to breach the spell - but time is running short. If he doesn’t succeed before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, Ellie will be bound forever…
Automatic Woman, by Nathan L. Yocum
(http://j.mp/1hoIlLa)
The London of 1888, the London of steam engines, Victorian intrigue, and horseless carriages is not a safe place nor simple place…but it’s his place. Jolly is a thief catcher, a door-crashing thug for the prestigious Bow Street Firm, assigned to track down a life sized automatic ballerina.
But when theft turns to murder and murder turns to conspiracy, can Jolly keep his head above water? Can a thief catcher catch a killer?
The Judas Reflections: Murder in Whitechapel, by Aiden James & Michelle Wright
(http://bit.ly/1yJLIIb)
Emmanuel Ortiz holds an ancient and dark secret: his real name is Judas Iscariot. Forced to walk the earth as a cursed immortal, Judas’ disguise as Emmanuel does little to ease his eternal loneliness.
But when the brutal murders ascribed to Jack the Ripper in poverty-stricken Whitechapel, London in 1888, he recognizes the bloody signature of killing that speaks to the unholy talents of a fellow immortal… an enemy from long ago.
Treasure Darkly, by Jordan Elizabeth
(http://bit.ly/1yk5x6t)
Seventeen-year-old Clark Treasure assumes the drink he stole off the captain is absinthe…until the chemicals in the liquid give him the ability to awaken the dead. Clark turns to his estranged tycoon father for help. The Treasures welcome Clark with open arms, so he jumps at the chance to help them protect their ranch against Senator Horan, a man who hates anyone more powerful than he. His new-found sister, Amethyst, thinks that’s rather dashing, until Horan kidnaps her, and all she gets is a bullet through her heart. When Clark brings her back to life, she realizes he’s more than just street-smart - and he’s not really a Treasure. Amethyst’s boring summer at home has turned into an adventure on the run, chock full of intrigue, danger, love, and a mysterious boy named Clark.
Viola Doyle or an Unconventional Gift, by Amy Lynn Spitzley
(http://bit.ly/1ic10Ja)
Viola Doyle, a carefree Victorian girl, is far more interested in riding her bicycle and hearing about her grandmama’s adventures than in making a good marriage, much to her mother’s dismay. However, when she acquires a magical pin and bumps into a handsome historian, things get more interesting than even Viola had planned.
And then, of course, there is the dragon…
Appetizer:
Book Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Main Course:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Dessert:
Closing
About the Author
Copyright & Publisher
More from Curiosity Quills Press
Table of Contents
Publisher & Copyright
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Thank You for Reading
About the Author
More Books from Curiosity Quills Press
Table of Contents
