How to Date a Dragon (Paranormal Dragon Romance Book 1)
Page 16
“Open, the chest, open it,” he said weakly, not wanting to fall into a deep sleep. His eyes began to close, and then he collapsed completely.
CHAPTER 14
“He’s coming to,” a male voice said.
William blearily looked up, trying to focus his vision on something that wasn’t moving constantly. It sharpened after a few minutes. Kelsey was by his side, as was Brother Arthur, who had taken the liberty to dress his healing wounds. The room was dark and sparse, typical abbey fare, lit entirely by candles, and giving the place a disconsolate feel.
“Will?” Kelsey whispered, holding onto his hand.
“I will leave you two,” Brother Arthur murmured. “Please call me if you need help.”
Kelsey thanked him, and then she looked back at William’s face. “You didn’t wake me up.”
“You had to rest,” he mumbled. And then he realized he had seen something underneath, buried for centuries. The chest! “Where’s the chest?”
“It’s here. I opened it…” Kelsey said. “There were a few bits of parchment in it, in Latin, I think.”
Latin. Of course. It was a blessing that his father had forced him to learn Latin when he had been barely eight. “Where is it?” he asked weakly, sitting up. Then he felt the stabbing pain on his side. He looked down to see bandages all over his chest.
Kelsey gave him the parchments. “Careful. I can’t read Latin. I tried.”
“It’s fine. I think I can,” he grunted, sitting straight, grimacing through the pain. “Can you memorize what I’m about to translate?”
She nodded.
He read through the faded parchment, the thought of him holding onto eight-hundred-year-old scrolls, finally sinking in. His hands shook, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the pain, or because of the nervousness- that this was probably the answer to his suffering, and hers.
A new era will have come and gone,
A way for this curse to be undone.
A sacrifice must be made- a heart for a heart,
For only in death can one truly depart.
A dagger, a string, where two hearts beat as one,
A task to be fulfilled with the rising sun.
She blinked, looking at him. “What else does it say?”
“These are all scribbles,” he said, holding the parchment up. “They don’t mean anything.” Frustration wracked him once more. He could take everything literally, or take it the other way, and there were so many possibilities for it…
Kelsey took it from his hands. His shaking had probably gotten worse, he thought. She walked close to a large candle.
“These aren’t just scribbles,” her voice was quiet, contemplating. “These are drawings, as best as he could. He died here, right? Old and senile? I think he was trying to tell a story… See here? This means he’s about to die, and he’s regretted certain things in life. There’s a small drawing of a flame here. And two people…”
William stood up. “It’s about us. It’s a prophecy about us.”
“How do you know?” she said, “There’s no mention-”
“I’m the new era of the Drakes. We’re here, together. It’s about us,” he said stubbornly.
“Does that mean we kill each other, or what? Because that doesn’t sound promising at all…”
“No, no. Heartstrings…” he murmured.
“Heartstrings?” she was clearly confused.
“Our hearts are larger than human hearts if we shift. Our family’s always kept a heartstring from every male Drake that’s passed,” he said, “it’s a strange and macabre way to remember them by, but we’ve been doing that for centuries. I want you to cut open my heart, I need to give you a heartstring.”
“How is that even possible? I-”
“Please, just do it. It’s the only way we can save you and the baby.”
She looked at her for a long time, and then she nodded. “Courtyard?”
“Yes. The abbey has a centuries old silver dagger in the library, remember that?”
“Yes.”
“We use that.”
“Isn’t that a relic?”
“It’s here for a reason, and that reason is us,” he told her. “We have to go, now.”
His heart hammered against his chest, and he knew that what they were about to do was a matter of life and death. He could kill her while she took out a heartstring, and she could kill him if everything went wrong. There was nothing else he could think of. They were now tied together, with a child, bound by the love he had for her-
“It’ll be easy. You’ll see it right away. My heart glows, like my ancestors’ had. I’ll be
The skies rumbled in the distance, and what little light remained disappeared altogether. This would mark the first time in his life that he had shifted twice in a span of 24 hours. He took off the spare pants he had with him, disregarding the bandages, knowing he would burn them. He looked at Kelsey, standing across him, her chest heaving up and down, her face a mixture of concern, fear, and confusion. Without warning, she ran to him, holding his face with her palms, kissing him.
“I hope that wasn’t a goodbye kiss,” he said as she pulled away.
She shook her head, fighting back tears.
“You can do this, you know. We can do this.”
Kelsey nodded, stepping away again. Saliva in his mouth thickened, and he felt his bones break apart again, he felt fire coursing through his body, and he let out a roar as scales began to cover him, as his body began to expand, and he felt his claws break out of his nails. He huffed, shaking his head, as if to get rid of the stupor, and he looked at Kelsey and blinked, signaling her to move forward. He heaved his body to the ground, ready for his heart to be cut open. And then he felt the dagger’s edge, slicing through him, and he roared, but fought against the flames forming in his mouth. Do it for Kelsey, he told himself again and again, it’s for Kelsey, all of this…
*
Three days later…
Kelsey found herself in bed, the sun streaming down her body from a window. She sniffed, blinked, and when she slowly sat up, she felt that unbearable pain all over her body. She knew she was still alive because of that kind of earthly agony. She looked down and saw a thin scar running down her chest. Shouldn’t I have bled to death? How-? A headache came just as quickly, and she took deep breaths in an effort to calm herself down, as well as her thoughts.
She suddenly gasped. The baby! She looked down, not knowing if she had lost it. How long had she been asleep? She saw a glass of water on her bedside, and she drank from it, not expecting that she would feel so much thirst. Where was William? She took a step out of the bed, surprised at how cold the floor was. She was in a small room, and it looked like it still belonged to the abbey…
Opening the door, she found the halls empty, and she walked and walked, until she reached a library. She heard a noise, and then she found William there, staring outside of the window, arms folded and leaning against a wall. He turned to see her, and for a moment, she thought she was still in a dream. He looked different, at peace, without pain or burden. She took a breath, and he spun around.
“Kelsey? What are you doing out here? You should be in bed, resting.”
“What are you doing here?” she asked him. “Shouldn’t you be resting, too?” she eyed him, saw fading bruises on his face, on his arms- it seemed like he had been injured all over. She eyed his shirt and saw that he had the same thin scar running down his chest.
“Looking at the courtyard,” he replied, “I think I may have done irreparable damage to the stones used. This’ll be so disappointing for historians.”
“Did I lose the baby?” she asked him, her voice cracking. She couldn’t keep it in herself any longer. To lose the baby would mean all of that was for nothing.
He shook his head. “The baby’s alive,” he breathed out.
She gave a sob of relief, collapsing on a chair. He walked for her, kneeling on the floor, holding her hands.
“We’
re fine now,” he said.
“How-?”
“You don’t remember much, either?” he looked surprised. “I just recall you tore my chest apart, grabbed a heartstring, and I opened your chest with my claw… too graphic, I know. But we’re here, and we’re alive, and I think that’s all that matters for now.”
“How did you know the baby’s okay?”
“I went to see you, after I’d woken up. It wasn’t such a pleasant healing process.”
“You tore open my chest, but I’m barely bleeding now. How long has it been?”
“Three days, I think. Brother Arthur said I was out for a day.” He paused, looking at that thin, shiny scar peeking out of her sweater. “You already have a part of me. Maybe you can heal faster than most humans now…”
She nodded, the events of that night still muddled in her head. She now had the heartstring of a dragon, they shared one, and they were now bound to each other- for as long as possible. “I’m not immortal, now am I?”
He shook his head. “I really don’t know, but we’ll have some time to figure it out.” He stood up, and grabbed a chair to sit across her, holding her hands once more.
“I still can’t believe all this happened…” she admitted. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think something like this would-” she stopped, trying to digest everything that had occurred. It had been a roller coaster ride with him, she hadn’t expected to fall in love with someone like him, never expected to become a mother, never expected that she’d be dating someone who was a dragon. She now had part of a dragon’s heart in her.
“Neither did I,” he admitted. “It’s been overwhelming. All these emotions, these fears I didn’t think even existed. Listen, Kells, I just want to… I just want to apologize for everything that’s happened. You didn’t deserve to go through this; you deserved better.”
“I have something better already,” she told him, squeezing his hand. “The baby’s alive. I feel like I’m in a good place.”
“Listen, when we get back,” he breathed out. “I want you to be as comfortable as possible. I’d like to provide you with-”
She held up her hand. “We’ve broke up remember? We don’t need to do this for the kid.”
“I already said I loved you,” he reminded her. “I intended to act on it. But I won’t force you if you don’t feel the same way.”
“But I do.”
His eyes widened for a moment, surprised at what she had said.
“You, you do?”
She nodded. “It wasn’t easy, but I still loved you, even if you had broken up with me. At least I now know there was a reason for it. A noble reason, if you set aside the fact that you were such a jerk.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, laughing a bit. “I was a dick.” Then he sighed and looked at her once more.
“What now?” she asked him.
“We go home,” he told her. “You’re going to get that degree, and you’ll be a great mom while doing that.”
She nodded, knowing she could do that. She had gone through hell three nights ago, a testament of what she could do for the people that she meant something to her.
“You agree to living with me, right?”
“I still like my apartment, actually. Your place is too big.”
“I can move out, we find a decent sized apartment,” he quickly said.
“You’re really serious about the whole moving in with me thing, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “Of course, I am. It’s not every day I share my heart with someone else, let alone a bed this time, too.”
She nodded and smiled, looking down for a moment. “You won’t be annoying about anything?”
“I think you’ve had enough annoyance from me to last you a lifetime, I’ll do my best to not do that anymore.”
“I’d like that,” she said with a laugh. Then she looked down. “So, this s highly likely going to be a little William, huh? Is the name going to continue as William Anthony?”
William paused, realizing something. “He’ll be the seventh one to carry that name.”
Kelsey was quiet and thoughtful. “Let’s continue that tradition then.”
“You just don’t want my lineage to stop, huh?”
“If we figured out a way for me to survive, I’m sure the next generations can manage. In the meantime, Will? I’m getting really hungry.”
William laughed aloud. “Yes, we best get something to eat. You need it more than I do.”
They stood up, holding hands this time, walking out of the abbey, and into the warm sun. His hand held the kind of warmth that didn’t burn her anymore, and that warmth felt like home.
THANKS FOR READING!
Message From The Author:
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