DRAGON'S GAP: Set Includes Stories 1-3 Plus Love's Catalyst

by L M Lacee

  “Oh, I love unicorns too. Cara how wonderful. Yes, you must have unicorns.”

  Cara smiled with her whole body and nodded her head as she said. “Me unicon.”

  “Alright then!” Sage laughed and clapped her hands gleefully. “Pink and purple unicorns for Cara and flowers and hills with trees that have big branches with cougars and cats like lynx’s and tigers on them for Kelsey.”

  “Yea!” Kelsey yelled. “That is for my room.”

  “Yea!” the other girls cheered.

  Sage told Storm and Charlie. “Someone will be here to do them this afternoon.”

  Fascinated Charlie asked. “With magic?”

  Sage grinned as she said. “Yes with faerie magic.”

  Edith grinned at the amazed Charlie, knowing in a few weeks she would be as accepting as they all were of the magic flowing around Dragon’s Gap. She eyed Storm and said. “So I have been thinking about you and Lars.”

  Storm eyed her back. “You have huh?”

  “You betcha, so what do you think of an interactive weapons museum. Where people could come and see them and also where they could, under controlled circumstances, try them out. In like a gun range or rooms beneath the museum in a concrete basement. You could have separate rooms for different disciplines. You and Lars could house your weapons there. They would be safe and you could keep on collecting.”

  “We would have to find someone to curate and supervise the gun range.” Storm said thoughtfully.

  Claire asked. “Surely there are dragons like our Noah and Braxton that would like the chance to be employed and share their knowledge. Do you or Lars know any that are as knowledgeable about weapons as you two?”

  “That is a logical solution. We can have them cared for and let others enjoy what we have collected and to answer your question Claire. Yes, I can think of several former Hunters and Shields that would qualify. I like it, what of Lars?”

  Edith shrugged. “I just thought of it.”

  Claire said. “Why don’t you talk to him after your meeting? Which, if I am not mistaken you are both late for.”

  “Good idea.” Storm agreed.

  “Shit... Shit… Shit! Let’s go.” Charlie cried then she said to Claire an Edith. “Justice will wake in an hour, if I am not back. He will need his bottle. The girls need snacks, and shit we have to go. Will you be okay?” Charlie asked worriedly.

  Sage said. “I am off, see you all later.” She almost ran from the room before Ava or the girls realized she was gone. Edith and Claire laughed as they watched her go, then Claire said. “We have this, seriously you are not leaving for good, go while they are busy.”

  “This is the wise thing to do?” Storm a frown in his eyes asked them. Claire nodded. “Oh yes before the tears and guilt start, go while you can.”

  Storm looked shocked as he asked. “They will cry?” Edith said. “Nah not with us here, go your family is safe.”

  “We will talk after.” Said Storm. “We, my Charlie and I have questions about the young ones?”

  “Sure you do, but truthfully mama Verity and Grace are the best ones to ask. What they don’t know is not worth knowing!” Claire told them.

  Charlie said. “We will talk with them, we must go Storm.”

  Edith grinned and called out after the departing couple. “I will set it up for this afternoon.”

  Claire looked around as she placed her baby boy Kale, back in his carrier. “Nice place I will check the girls.” Edith nodded “I will get the coffee.”

  “Okay she is intense huh?”

  “Yep but very likable.”

  “Yeah, deadly, though.”

  “Aren’t we all in one way or another?”

  “Well yes.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN:

  Q ueen Scarlett and King Elijah plus their four guards sat around the same table from the night before in Reighn’s newly named conference room waiting for Charlie and Storm.

  Elijah smiled at Scarlett and said. “Do not fear my light, she is of your blood remember like calls to like.”

  “I know, but I worry what she will say. From what Sage has said she is sane and has mated to Reighn’s brother, and has young. This bodes ill for her to return to us.”

  “There is that.” He murmured. “We will have to see. She may disavow us all together, and that too is a possibility.”

  “You are not helping my Light.”

  “I am sorry. I was unaware I was meant too.” He grinned at her, and she gave him a small smile back. The door opened before she could answer and in walked the female from the night before with the dragon Storm. Already Scarlett and Elijah could see the bonds that tied them together.

  Charlie walked to the opposite side of the table from the faeries. “I apologize for being late, our young enjoyed flying on dragon back. Then Edith and Claire arrived with their young, it has been a full morning so far.”

  “You took all three of your young flying?” Asked an amazed Scarlett.

  Charlie smiled. “The baby Justice, I think enjoyed it the most, even though he is only seven weeks old.”

  Scarlett smiled as she said. “I am sure he did, to fly is freedom.”

  Charlie inclined her head. “There is truth in that, which our young ones found out this morning. It will, I fear not be the last time they beg to enjoy the skies. You know I am Charlie and my shadow is Storm?”

  Storm said nothing only watched the Faeries talk to his shadow he could feel her nerves. He had enjoyed the flight as much as his family, not as much as his dragon who was in bliss. All the faeries nodded to Storm, well aware of his reputation.

  “So!” Charlie said when the silence got on her nerves. “You are my mother’s sister?”

  “I am. My name is Scarlett, and this is my Light Elijah. If it is not too hard, could you tell me what happened to Junipa?”

  Charlie nodded to the male and said. “Hello, so that was her name, we only knew her as Juna.”

  Scarlett inclined her head. “She would not have said her full name as names have power as all ours do. As yours does!”

  Charlie with a crease between her eyes asked. “So Scarlett and Elijah are not your full names?”

  “They are, we have nothing to fear here.” Elijah answered. “Of course they are not the way they are said in the language of faerie.”

  Charlie smiled. “Of course, so you think my name has power?”

  Scarlett with a serious look said. “Yes.”

  Charlie shrugged, “My name is nothing extraordinary, and Charlie Dallas Easton are common names. No power in them.”

  “Oh, you are mistaken each name has an abundance of power attached to them.” Scarlett told her.

  A little bewildered Charlie asked. “Why?”

  “Each name holds a meaning, for example. Charlie in faerie is Charla, our name for justice. Dallas is dahlia after a revered aunt of your mothers and mine who was gifted with the gift of cleansing and persuasion!”

  Charlie shrugged. “Like cleansing rooms of my presence or persuading locks to unlock and my need to see justice done?” Scarlett smiled “Yes like that.”

  “Okay so what about Harper Elliot?”

  “Harper, in our language Haror. It is the word for seeker and can also be referred to as ghost and Elliot is Ellilo who was a revered uncle to us. He had the gift of finding the truth of something, seeing beneath the surface. Who is Harper Elliot?”

  “My sister, she was killed twelve years ago.”

  Scarlett let her anger and despair show when she asked. “By whom?”

  Charlie sighed and brushed her eyes. She hated thinking of that time and yet she found herself with Harper on her mind constantly since she started this whole journey. “Our step- mother.”

  “I see, where can I find this person?” Scarlett asked as her anger simmered beneath the surface of her skin. Charlie raised her eyebrows at the angry Queen. She said. “Six feet under, I took her life.”

  Elijah took Scarlett’s trembling hand in his and asked.
“Why did she kill your sister?”

  Charlie cleared her throat then said bluntly. “I was not home. I have pieced together some of how it happened.” She closed her eyes, then blew a breath out as she remembered back to a time of anguish, pain, fear and revenge disguised as justice. Clearing her throat, she said. “Apparently it went like this. One day a year or two maybe less after I left home. Harper killed our father, then our step-mother killed Harper.”

  There were several indrawn breaths and throats clearing. She could feel Storm stiffen next to her but kept her eyes on the table. Charlie said. “I have always believed she had a very good reason to do so. Unfortunately, my step-mother and her brothers who helped her take Harpers life would not tell me what it was. So I will tell you what they told me. Our step-mother told our father Harper did something and apparently it was enough to make him go after Harper. He would have been drunk, that is the only thing I believed about what they told me. He was always drunk, and it would have given him enough courage to try and kill her. Who knows?”

  She shrugged as Storm’s hand fisted on the table, she touched his hand saying. “All this was a long time ago.” He nodded once, she returned to her story. “He must have lost his mind because even at fifteen Harper was deadly, maybe he really was drunk. I don’t know. Anyway apparently he started hitting her. I do not know how that was possible. Juna assured us no one would be able to lift a hand to either of us. Which is why, in truth I allowed Harper to talk me into leaving home.

  We were wrong… Juna was wrong. It seems, after all, he was able to beat on her and Harper retaliated.” She softly to herself as she shook her head. “No one hit Harper, he should have remembered that.” Then she cleared her throat and said louder. “From what I was told, Harper killed him then she, the step-mother killed Harper and before you ask. Harper must have been hurt bad or blindsided. I cannot think how else it would have happened.”

  “Where is her body, we will wish it returned to the Grove.” Scarlett asked.

  Charlie sighed quietly. “She is ash after our step-mother took Harper’s life. She called her family they came and took both bodies and cremated them.”

  Elijah frowned and asked. “Why would they do that? It seems extraordinary for humans.” He looked at her. “They were human?”

  “As far as I know they were, they never felt like other and I think it was done out of fear and arrogance. They were always a law unto themselves, and I have come to believe they feared someone retaliating.”

  “What happened when you found out?” Storm asked her. Because he, like the others in the room knew something had happened. Charlie rubbed her heart. “The minute she died our bond was severed, completely. It was weak beforehand, but then it was just gone. I knew she was gone.” She whispered, and they could all hear the pain in her voice from that time. “When I could, I returned to their house. By that time, the step- mother and her family had moved on. It took me two years to find them all and deliver justice for my sister.”

  Scarlett held back a sob for the loss of her niece as she asked quietly. “Do you know where my sister is buried?” Because she knew that she must have been dead, she would never have allowed her young to be killed. Sadness swelled in her heart as Charlie bowed her head and said. “As per her instructions, which amazingly enough our father followed to the letter, she is entombed here.” She slid a piece of paper over to Scarlett, who took it and said with surprise and pleasure in her tones. “Thank you, you knew I would want it?”

  Charlie shook her head. “Not you directly. Juna told us that someone may come one day to ask, and we should tell you where she was. She said it was her right to go home.”

  Scarlett asked hesitantly. “Your mother never spoke of me?” Charlie wanted to lie, wanted to say she had talked of her sister all the time, but she did not. She shook her head. “I am sorry no.” At Scarlett’s sad look, she said. “I am sorry.”

  Elijah took her in his arms and held her as she let her sadness escape in a few tears. Charlie asked Elijah letting Scarlett have a moment. “So are there anymore family other than Scarlett?”

  “No, your parents and your grandparents have passed on, there was only Scarlett and her sister.

  Scarlett with effort pulled herself together as she eased away from her light and wiped her face with a cloth passed from the guard behind her. She asked. “Did she ever tell you why she left the Grove? Why she left me?”

  Charlie felt her pain and her loss. It felt like the one that laid heavily in her own heart. The Queen’s pain had depth, as it was coated in betrayal. Charlie shook her head. “No, all she said was her destiny was in myself and Harper. She would say no more. And I do not know why she never told me? She use to tell us we were half-faerie but until I came here, I never truly believed her. I think Harper did and probably knew more about us than I did. In all honesty my mother and I had a tumultuous relationship at least compared to hers and Harpers. They seemed to click together like pieces of the same puzzle. I did not, and unfortunately we cannot ask either of them.”

  Scarlett nodded sadly. “Yes, I am sorry for that. I would have like to have met her and Junipa again. I do not wish to go into the details of your whole life but if I may. Was it a good life? Was my sister happy?”

  Charlie did not smile, she looked like she was weighing her words as she slowly said. “I believe she was not unhappy, there was always a sadness that was like a shield around her, almost like a barrier between her and the world. We knew she loved us, and we loved her very much. I remember when we, Harper and I were little. Life was fun and our parents seemed happy. I was thirteen and Harper was almost eleven when Juna passed away. She had been ill for a long time. Unfortunately afterwards, life became difficult for Harper and me. Some of our father’s choices were not ones a father who loved his daughters should have made. He remarried a female within a year of Juna’s death, who hated both Harper and I. She was unable to have young of her own. She wanted to have the abundant lifestyle we had. She assumed after their marriage our father would give her what she wanted. Which was money and Harper and myself gone. She wanted us sent away, it made no difference to her where we went as long as we were away from our father and her. But in that our father would not be persuaded. I think he thought if he sent us away his riches would dry up, which they did anyway. What they and we did not know was our wealth was tied in with our mother’s life force. Once she left, so did the good life for our father and the step-mother. Money still found its way to our family without our father lifting a finger to get it but not like it was when Juna lived.”

  Scarlett nodded as she told them. “One of her gifts was abundance, which is what we assumed she was lured from the High Queen’s Grove for. To give and work for a male that took many Faeries with him when he rebelled. Now I am unsure this is true. If she called you and your sister her destiny maybe it was another gift that made her leave. Maybe it was foreseeing.”

  Charlie shrugged. “Harper may have been able to tell you. Anyway somehow together our father and his wife figured that without Juna they were not going to have the riches we had before. And because neither Harper nor I could provide for them the same wealth. They found different ways for us to pay for that inability. Which I really do not want to talk about.”

  She refused to look at anyone. Storm took her hand in his. “No one demands this of you my soul. Tell us what you do wish to speak of.”

  She squeezed his hand gratefully and carried on. “Okay, I thankfully remained with them for only a few years and as I said I managed to leave home. I won a scholarship for college when I was sixteen so I took it and left. Harper being younger was unable to leave, and I could not take her with me. So what life was like for her in those years I can only guess at? We could only communicate infrequently, we did have the bond between us and even that they took from me. I wish I could tell you more.”

  Storm asked. “How old were you when Harper was killed?”

  “Eighteen. Harper would have been sixteen, nearly sevente
en or just about.”

  Elijah asked. “How is it you are sane and not lost in the grey of the in-between?

  Charlie smiled. “Oh that! Well, that was Harper again. She took us from there.”

  Shocked all four faeries stared at her. “How?” Asked one of the other guards.

  Charlie shrugged. “After Juna left, we use to walk around in a sort of grey fog it covered our sight and thoughts.” She frowned as she tried to explain. “It is very hard to describe, the best I can say is, think of a thin blanket over your mind and body and then try operating through that.” She grimaced. “It was difficult we sort of lived there in that grey area. And every night we would go to sleep and then end up in this grey foggy place. Sometimes it was fun. There were other kids there, and we would play for hours and sometimes it was frightening. They were the nights no one talked or played, it was as though what was in the gloom was angry. I am sorry it is hard to explain.”

  She shook her head to clear the memories of those terrifying nights and said. “One night shortly before I left home, we had woken and were in the grey zone. That was what we called it. Harper was agitated like she expected something to happen. I remember she was not scared. Harper was very rarely scared. She seemed angry as though the mist was feeding her the anger or she was feeding it and the angrier she became the more I became angry. She told me that night, there was only two choices for us to make. We could die or fight. Choose sister? She said. I remember grinning and saying. Not dying, we fight.

  Then we were attacked, it was vicious, we punched and kicked and used the rocks and sticks on the ground. But they just kept coming. So many it was horrible they were just like grey skeletons or grey misty figures with claws. As hard as we fought, we were losing the battle. I was sure we were going to die but before that happened a light appeared and threw us out of the grey zone. I don’t know what happened. We just woke in our beds with scratches and bruises over our faces and bodies. We could not go to school or out, father and step- mother were furious. That I can tell you was not a happy time. Then two nights later we once again found ourselves in that place, but this time Harper was really angry…so very angry.”