But that's when he noticed a cliff just ahead.
Ana had nowhere to go.
No, she's a fae. She has everywhere to go, he thought, and made up his mind, sending the blast out to hopefully shock her. Here's hoping she's not a storm fae.
Waiting for a verdict, he watched as the bolt hit Ana's lower back, successfully knocking her forward onto the ground. Guess not.
Finally catching up to her, he heard her groaning on a raspy voice with a strange timbre, “Ugh, feels like cramps.”
Dalris had no doubts the bolt would've caused her such pain, but he was still surprised—somehow, the thought of her discomfort bothered him, enough to cause him to stop in his approach.
Not that he was going to apologize, taking a deep breath before praising her for her speed.
“You're fast, fae, but I'm determined. Now return the artifacts you stole, and I'll happily leave you here.”
Ana pushed herself over, letting another groan of pain—and again, the sound bothered him. But Dalris truly had no wish to harm a fae, and his offer to allow her to leave once she'd handed over the artifacts was an honest one.
“Okay, okay!” she rushed out, holding up both hands in a clear display of surrender. “You win, just don't kill me or anything.”
Nodding, he promised, “I'm as good as my word once I've given it.”
“That's a relief,” she sighed, slowly pushing herself up as if wanting to make certain he knew she wasn't going to try anything funny—and even after everything she'd done, Dalris still didn't get the feeling she couldn't be trusted, listening as she mentioned, “It's in my pouch, so should I reach for it, or do you want to?”
He had to consider that before answering. If she was cursed to be toxic to the touch, she might try to remove a glove and kill him when he tried. Of course, the only exposed part of his body was his face, so he'd be able to protect himself if she made any sudden movements.
But he also had to question why she wasn't trying to stop him with the nature that now surrounded them. In fact, a fae could've prevented him from taking off after her from the start simply by using the roots of trees, or inciting nearby animals to attack.
So why hadn't she?
Dalris truly questioned it, and the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to reach over and snatch the mask from her face and learn what she looked like. Why is that so important to me?
Sadly, he never got the chance to find out. Just after she'd asked her question, and during his deliberation, the sound of a shriek flooded the clearing. Only seconds following it, a large, red wyvern swooped upward over the edge of the cliff behind Ana, then turned and came down toward them at a swift rate.
Like thunder, its legs hammered into the ground, wings spread with a loud roar—and Dalris couldn't help but admire the creature. It'd been ages since he'd seen a red wyvern—all were endangered, but the red were the rarest.
Yet he didn't take long to admire it, keeping his focus on Ana, who remained completely still despite the ferocious beast standing behind her now.
Still, no animal would attack a fae, not even a wyvern. So she had no reason to be afraid—and may even be considering asking it for help.
So Dalris mentioned, “If you're thinking about using that wyvern to stop me, don't bother. You know they won't hurt a draconian, no matter what House they hail from.”
“Oh, I wasn't planning on that, precisely.”
His brows narrowed, and just as he realized what she meant, Ana took off in a sprint toward the edge of the cliff—and jumped.
Dalris roared in anger, moving just after the wyvern turned and swooped down after her.
Coming to a stop at the ledge, he balled his fists and watched as the beast flew downwards, then turned at an arc to gain height. With its wings stretched, it continued away, now carrying Ana in its massive claws—and to his amazement, she blew him a kiss in farewell.
With several deep breaths and a furious growl, Dalris narrowed his electric gaze at her in return, making a serious promise.
“This isn't over, fae. I will find you.”
CHAPTER 2
Aboard the S.S. Malvos, South Mediterranean Sea
Approximately 30 Years Later
Present Day
“Are you sure you remember the code?”
“Come on, Karina, you know I do.”
“Okay, sorry,” she conceded. “I'd just like to get out of here as soon as possible.”
“That's why I memorized it. Our only problem will be if the code's changed since I learned the combination.”
“Ugh, don't jinx us!” Karina groaned, and while Jada couldn't blame her for hoping the worst didn't come to pass, she ignored her younger sister's pessimism to quietly pick the lock of the door to the captain's quarters.
Thankfully, there were no magical wards on the lock to circumvent—such precautions weren't often encountered in Terra—and she soon slipped inside, remarking upon spying the spacious chamber, “Well, well. Doesn't il capitano live in the lap of luxury.”
With a double bed, roomy work space, and numerous cabinets for storage, Karina quickly agreed. “I'll say. Our room looks like a closet compared to this.”
Jada nodded, then froze when her sister's furry tail slipped around her neck, quickly grabbing it to pull away while muttering, “Would you stop doing that? It tickles.”
“Sorry! It's got a mind of its own.”
She smirked, knowing fully well Karina wasn't used to parading around as a ring tailed lemur, and probably forgot she even had a tail to begin with. But her current animal form was necessary during their voyage to keep unwanted eyes from spotting them together.
So Jada didn't comment on it, and only mentioned, “Let's just find the safe and go. We're about to dock, and I don't want the captain coming back without warning.”
Karina wasted no time, hopping from her sister's shoulder and onto the nearby desk where she opened the drawers one by one while Jada checked the larger cabinets.
After they'd shuffled through several of the captain's personal items, Karina announced, “Oh, I think this is it!”
Turning from a closet full of clothing, Jada watched her sister tugging a small safe from a drawer beneath the computer, and walked over to inspect it.
“This is big enough to fit the piece inside of,” Karina remarked.
Jada agreed, looking over the lock. It consisted of a digital number pad to enter a code, and she started pressing the numbers one by one, remarking, “Let's try it and see.”
Yet sadly, the code ended before she'd entered the entire combination.
“Damn, this isn't the right one,” she muttered, hitting enter just to be certain, but nothing happened.
“Okay, let's just keep looking,” Karina suggested, and they resumed their search.
But after five minutes, neither could find any other locked boxes that might contain the treasure they sought.
“Damn it, I know he has it in here somewhere,” Jada muttered, scanning the room again.
“Did you check under the bed?”
“There is no under the bed,” she pointed out, lifting the sheets to show the wooden platform the mattress rested upon. “See?”
Karina groaned, then waved her hand at the only safe they'd managed to locate so far. “Maybe we should just take the whole thing.”
“No, I'm not leaving without knowing for certain I have the fragment,” Jada responded determinedly, then glanced at the bed again with an idea coming to mind. “Wait a second … .”
With that said, she reached down and hefted the mattress up, gazing down through the metal support rods at the floor beneath—and found precisely what she was looking for.
“Karina! That's it! Could you grab it?”
“On it,” her sister returned, hopping off of the desk to climb down under the rods and snatch a larger safe than the one they'd found in the drawer.
Despite her small size, she still possessed the strength of an elf, so moving the safe wa
sn't a problem, and as soon as the item was on the floor, Jada put the mattress back in place and leaned down to inspect the unit.
On the front was the same type of entry pad the smaller box possessed—but this one offered more space for a longer code.
“This is definitely it,” she remarked with a grin, entering each number into the pad while Karina watched.
“Please work, please work, please work,” her sister chanted with her fingers crossed—a sight made humorous by her current animal form.
Snickering, Jada entered the last digit and announced, “Okay, here goes nothing!”
With a strong sense of anticipation, she pressed enter, and the tiny red light on the left side of the pad turned green with the sound of a latch opening.
The safe was unlocked.
“Yes!” Karina exclaimed.
“Shush,” Jada reminded, grinning when her sister slapped her hands over her mouth.
But she was too excited to worry that Karina had been too loud, lifting the lid of the box to find a multitude of items; title documents, money, a set of doubloons, and the grand prize?
An old, worn down fragment of stone etched with an incomplete carving of a dragon's head.
Jada gently lifted it from the safe, showing a great amount of care. To her, the old, broken stone was more valuable than all the deeds and doubloons in the universe.
Karina hopped up onto her shoulder, remarking in awe, “It's the last piece!”
The two shared a huge grin, and Jada opened her pouch to store the stone inside, then closed the safe and replaced it beneath the bed with Karina's help.
“I can't believe we finally found it,” she remarked in the process. “Now it's just a matter of getting to the Spire so we can portal back to Ithelyon and finally put this thing together.”
Karina checked the clock on the wall, mentioning, “The ship will dock any minute, so we won't have to wait long.”
Nodding in readiness to pretend she was never on the S.S. Malvos to begin with, Jada quickly headed to the door to open it—only to hear the distinct sound of the captain's Italian accent coming from the hall outside the moment she pulled it to.
“We're about to dock, Mr. Rowden,” he stated. “Surely you can find what you need in Port Said and—”
Jada swiftly shut the door, giving Karina a wide eyed look.
“Use the pendant!” her sister exclaimed.
Quickly, she reached to a gold pendant hanging around her neck and clasped it in her hands, chanting the incantation that would activate its magic.
In the process, the necklace started glowing—just as the door opened.
The captain, an older man with long, stringy white hair and a bushy beard, stepped inside, holding the door for a middle aged brunette passenger following him.
“I know it's an inconvenience,” the human stated, “but Lydia's condition is delicate, and I can offer a higher payment.”
“It's going to take a much higher payment, Mr. Rowden,” the captain returned, never once spying the elf standing next to the open door because her pendant had rendered her invisible.
Sneaking out while the two men conversed, Jada moved down the hallway with relative ease, muttering on the way, “I was hoping I could save that pendant for later. It took you a week to make it.”
“Don't worry, I can make another one.”
“I know, but it's such a waste. We made ourselves invisible for several hours just to escape someone's view for three seconds.”
“True, but at least we got the last piece,” Karina pointed out on a softer tone because they'd just emerged on the upper deck—and it wasn't easy making sure no one bumped into them.
Because the humans around couldn't see her, they didn't know to change direction, causing Jada to side step and duck more than once before she climbed onto one of the large intermodel containers stacked on the deck to stay out of everyone's way.
At the top, she sat with her legs dangling over the edge, and looked out at the passing scenery of Port Said in thought.
Waste of a magic pendant or not, Karina was right—they finally had the last fragment needed, and it was a long time coming.
Thirty years ago, Jada acquired the first piece of a broken disc that had been in her grandfather's possession when his ship sank in the Antarctic. Now, she'd finally located the last, and could reassemble the pieces with magic to access a very special temple.
Rinora's.
Or at least, that's what Morwin's research suggested—and Jada had studied every piece of lore and literature she could find on the topic, though none more thoroughly than her grandfather's notes. His research on the fate of Rinora's House was in a class of its own, and he'd discovered more evidence to support his theories than anyone who'd come before him.
The only problem was that his findings weren't well received in Onoria.
Elven society was so mired in tradition that Morwin's radical ideas on the truth only served to get him banished—and Jada grumbled every time she thought about it. If he'd been allowed to stay, he never would've retreated to Terra to pursue other interests until clearer heads prevailed, only to be killed in a shipwreck a short while later as a consequence.
And that wreck was no accident. Jada couldn't be entirely certain who was behind it, but she believed the attack had been orchestrated by Onoria's monarchy, or possibly the clergy.
Why? Because his findings threatened to expose the truth that countless children have been separated from their families and sent to serve in convents for nothing.
Jada would've tried to confirm her suspicions as well, but uncovering a royal conspiracy was no simple task. So she'd put her time into something much more worthwhile—finishing her grandfather's work.
Thankfully, she'd recovered most of his possessions from the Antarctic. Yet, during her escape, she'd dropped the most important piece, and it was one Karina didn't hesitate to point out.
“So now comes the hardest part; getting Papa's tome from that draconian.”
“Don't remind me,” Jada groaned, reluctant to consider how hard it was going to be to convince Dalris Dra'Kai to hand the tome over after what happened so long ago.
When she'd escaped Dawlin Station, the draconian tackled her just before reaching the portal to Ithelyon, and Morwin's tome had fallen from her pouch as a result. Still, Jada hadn't worried at the time—not only was the tome magically encrypted, she'd believed her grandfather's scroll contained the necessary map marking the location of Rinora's temple ruin.
Yet she later learned it only contained probable locations of the key fragments.
So Jada sent someone to locate the tome, only to learn that Dalris Dra'Kai had questionably kept the item for himself, and placed it on display in the private gallery of his large estate outside a city called Atlanta.
It seemed strange that he'd do such a thing, but Karina speculated that he'd likely warded the display with magic in the hopes of trapping anyone who tried to steal it—namely Jada.
So she didn't bother trying. After all, a map to the temple ruin meant little if they didn't have a key to open the doors. So if the draconian was going to display Morwin's tome in his private gallery, she'd always know where to go to retrieve it, and focused on locating the broken key fragments first.
But now that she'd finally acquired them and the disc could be reassembled, she knew the time had finally come to pay a visit to Dalris Dra'Kai.
A groan escaped her throat at the thought. Despite her determination to see this through, Jada dreaded the prospect, and not just because of what happened in Antarctica, relating, “I can't go to him as Ana or he'll try to kick my ass, and if I go to him as myself … ”
“I know. You're afraid he's the one the shaman talked about.”
“Right.” She nodded even though Karina couldn't see it, replaying the events of her escape from Dalris in her mind again.
Whenever Jada traveled anywhere that might have draconians lurking about, she always wore a cloak to mask her ident
ity and prevent one from recognizing her as a mate. Sadly, draconians were resistant to most basic magics, meaning there was a chance they might see through her cloak and detect who she was anyway.
So the last thing she'd wanted to do in Antarctica was spend any more time with Dalris or his siblings than necessary, and kept a discreet distance. But that hadn't stopped the draconian from staring in her direction from time to time, and the way he did so always made her shiver—particularly that last look as she'd flown away.
After playfully blowing him a kiss, she noticed his expression darkening, as if to say explicitly I will find you.
Even now, the memory sent a shudder through Jada, and the biggest problem of all was that she couldn't tell if it was a shudder of dread, or … anticipation.
Karina's sigh drew her away from such thoughts, however. “Okay, so let's say Dalris is the one. If you can get inside this temple, and prove that the House of Rinora didn't go insane, maybe something could work out between the two of you.”
If Jada was visible, she would've sent a look that said stop talking out of your ass. But since Karina couldn't see it, Jada said it instead.
“Stop talking out of your ass, Karina. Draconians don't like elves. So if he found his mate in me, he'd probably go on the rampage.”
“Okay, so make a new pseudonym. I can craft another cloak for you. Oh! I can make you look like someone else altogether!”
Karina sounded excited by the prospect, but Jada groaned. It was hard enough to craft a plain cloak, let alone one that would make her appear to be someone else entirely, and she hated the thought of putting her sister to so much work.
But if she was going to seek the tome, could she actually reveal her identity to Dalris? Morwin's map was much too important to jeopardize its acquisition, and if Dalris did find his mate in her, one of two things would happen.
He'd either go on that rampage she mentioned, or—and more hopefully—he'd be more accommodating in allowing his mate to use it.
As she had the thought, Karina pointed out the very same thing.
Fated Fortunes Page 3
