The Last Dragon, page 22
“By the Mountain.” Harlow understood that people weren’t black or white but shades of gray. His childhood had both been difficult and formed him into the perfect person he was today. His parents, just like hers, were capable of goodness and equally capable of evil. And wasn’t that how all of them were? Every day was about doing your best to keep the darkness at bay.
“When I was resurrected, I felt sorry for myself. I missed all that I’d lost. And even though I knew I shouldn’t challenge Gabriel for the throne, inside, I felt wronged, robbed of my destiny. Not because Raven and Gabriel ruled, but because I’d died. I’d missed three centuries. I wasn’t special any longer. I wasn’t preordained for greatness. And with all that gone—my looks, my position, my future—I didn’t think I had anything left. I was useless, purposeless.”
“That’s not true.”
He brushed her hair from front to back and fanned it out across her shoulders. “You saved me, Harlow. Even before we were mated. The moment you suggested I could try. The moment you saw in me what could be and not what was, was the moment I had hope for myself.” His voice had grown soft. “So, no. I never expected to mate, especially not with someone like you.”
She turned in his arms, took the brush from his hand, and set it on the counter. “Someone like me?”
“Goddess, woman, you have to be blind and deaf not to know that every man in the kingdom thinks you’re an incomparable beauty. I’ll never be worthy of you. I was never good enough. I got lucky that by some precious twist of fate, you fell in love with me.”
She grabbed his face, touched her forehead to his. “Marius, only you would think it was lucky that a girl from the Swilton district, with a blacklisted family and barely two spencies to her name, would be his mate.”
“Let’s settle on we’re both lucky. Come. I’m starving.” He turned her by the shoulders and guided her from the bathroom.
“I should probably go. I’m supposed to work at the Silver Sunset tonight.” She reached for her dress.
“I’m glad Roosevelt followed through.”
“Hmm?” She looked at him, confused. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, that’s right. I never had a chance to tell you… Roosevelt told me that it was Adradys who blacklisted you and your family. Said he’d make it difficult for anyone who associated with you. The doormaker’s rich. No one wanted to piss him off, but apparently a little pressure from the palace was enough to make Roosevelt think again.”
“That bastard!” Harlow had known Marius had helped get her the job, but she had no idea Adradys was behind their difficulty finding work. She’d thought it was simply loyalty to the crown.
“I was surprised how far Adradys was willing to go out of jealousy.”
She scoffed. “He’s not a man used to taking no for an answer.” She pulled the dress over her head and had to catch her breath when Marius growled.
With a hard tug, Marius pulled her chest-to-chest with him. He was hard again and looking at her like he wanted to fuck the memory of Adradys right out of her. She wasn’t opposed to the idea.
“Thank you for helping me find work and for being the best mate a woman could want.” She brushed her lips against his.
“There’s one thing you can do to show me how grateful you are.”
“What?”
He cradled her jaw in his palm, dusted his thumb across her lip. “Marry me, Harlow. Show the world you’re mine.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Later that day, Harlow burst into her family home, her inner fire glowing bright. She’d never felt more alive or more optimistic about the future. Not even when they were rich and living in Firedrake. Back then, she had her needs met, she hadn’t wanted for anything, but she wasn’t happy. Not like this. Before, she wouldn’t have been able to visualize the contentment she felt at this moment.
Her father rushed into the room and stopped short. “Oh, thank the Mountain.” He rounded the table and pulled her into his arms. “Your mother and I worried something had happened to you. We haven’t seen you in days.”
Lemetria appeared from the kitchen. “Praise the Mountain. I hoped you were with…” She eyed Darium as if she wanted badly to tell him what she knew. “That man we spoke about, but I wasn’t sure! I’ve been so worried.”
“It’s okay, Mom. We can tell Dad now. It is done.”
“Tell Dad what?” Darium looked between them.
“I am mated,” Harlow said. “And engaged.”
“Finally!” her mother said.
“To whom?” her father added.
“To Marius.” She beamed and pressed her hands over her heart. “I love him, Daddy. More than anything.”
“Marius from…?” He gestured vaguely in the direction of the palace.
Lemetria was practically jumping up and down with excitement beside him.
Harlow grinned. “That’s the one. He asked me to marry him this morning. We’re going to have a royal wedding.”
Darium frowned. “Will we be invited? Does he know who we are?”
Harlow laughed. “Yes, he knows. And yes, you’ll be invited. I had a long talk with the queen. She harbors no ill will against you.”
“But the blacklist—” He darted a glance toward Lemetria.
“Was not her doing.” Harlow glared. “It was Adradys. He did it after I refused his proposal.”
“That bastard,” her parents said in unison.
“Yes, but it ends now. I won’t use Marius’s position to make things easy for us, but I can’t help but think this wedding will improve our reputation.”
Lemetria laughed. “It certainly will. I will enjoy seeing our old Firedrake friends eat crow over how they treated us.”
Her father grew quiet. “There’s something you both should know.” He pointed at the table, looking serious. They both sat down.
“Why do I think I’m not going to like this?” Harlow asked. “Father, what have you done?”
“I beg your pardon!” He placed a hand on his chest. “I have done nothing!” He cleared his throat. “But I do know something, and considering the royals are to be family, I think they should know too.”
Harlow had a bad feeling about this. Her father had that look in his eye, the one he always got when he was up to something shady.
“I started betting in the pits,” he began, “just as you taught me, Harlow. It was all I could do, considering I couldn’t find work.”
Harlow nodded. “Did you win?”
“With your strategy, dear, I did. But my winning attracted the attention of Adradys, and he sat beside me one day. He told me that during the championship, I should place my bets on Dax. Then he said I’d be wise to value his ongoing friendship, considering your behavior, because soon things were going to change, and when that happened, I’d be glad I’d made the right sort of friends.”
Harlow frowned. “You know, he said something similar to me. Something about that I’d be sorry when things changed.”
Her father nodded. “After we had that conversation, he stood up and this was on the bench beside me.” He reached into his vest and withdrew a folded piece of parchment.
“Is that a flyer about the New Order? Someone’s been leaving them in the Silver Sunset.” Harlow took the parchment, hands shaking with her building rage.
“There can be no question where it came from, Harlow. Adradys left it there for me to find. All that talk at dinner about working to make things how they used to be. He’s behind this New Order. Mark my words.”
Harlow frowned. “It makes far too much sense. Do you know what he said when I refused his proposal? He said I’d be sorry when things went back to the way they used to be and I was brought to heel.”
“He did not say that!” Lemetria looked aghast on her behalf.
“He did. He also laid hands on me. I rather liked handing him his ass.”
That made her mother smile.
“So what do we do?” her father asked. “I left him with the impression I might be interested.”
“Daddy!”
“I’m not, darling, but you know me. I choose my words carefully and always keep my options open. It’s how I’ve survived these many years.”
Harlow read the flyer in her hands carefully. “By the Mountain! This one is different. He’s left you a date and time for their meeting. It’s tonight!”
Her father toyed with the neck of his shirt. “I suppose he trusts me. What reason would I have for favoring Raven and Gabriel?”
“As long as he doesn’t know about my mating to Marius, there is no reason. Mother, you haven’t told anyone, have you?”
“Not a soul.”
“Keep it that way.”
“But surely there will be a royal announcement!” Lemetria seemed visibly pained to have to keep the secret any longer.
“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.” Adradys had seen her with Marius. He knew they had a connection. But considering he had entrusted her father with this, he must have assumed it was a fleeting fancy. She planned to keep it that way.
“But why, Harlow?” Lemetria tangled her fingers in her lap, totally put out.
“Because Dad is going to go to this meeting tonight.” She waved the flyer between them. “He’s going to find out the names of every supporter of the New Order, and he’s going to report back their plans to the king and queen.”
Her father gasped. “I’m to be a spy, Lemetria!” He preened a bit.
“I will let the king and queen know what you’re doing. We are going to take this bastard and his entire entourage down.”
That made her father smile in a way she hadn’t seen since before the war.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Marius sat across from Raven at the dining room table, so thankful to be back home he could hardly contain his joy or his hunger. He shoved another piece of bread between his teeth. He’d already eaten enough for a small army, but between his journey into the underworld and the demands of his mate that afternoon, he was ravenous. Now, with the suns having set over Paragon, it seemed he was making up for lost calories while he’d been in the underworld.
“I’ve asked Gabriel to take Charlie on a picnic on the grounds for dinner to give us time alone to talk.” Raven glanced over at him.
“Sounds serious.” Marius gave her his full attention. Up until that point, she’d been rather quiet, and he’d wondered when she’d get around to asking him the questions that must be on her mind.
“Thank you again for what you did. You must know that Gabriel and I understand that you are the reason our daughter is with us today.”
“I can’t take all the credit. Charlie is more powerful than you know. She played a large part in helping us make it through to the temple.”
Raven frowned. “About that. She won’t tell me any details. Something happened near the temple—you mentioned it when you first came out—but she won’t talk to me. It’s almost as if she’s ashamed.”
Marius chewed pensively. The last thing Charlie should have been was ashamed. He didn’t particularly care to break the girl’s confidence, but this truth needed to be shared. Shame was a cancer he would not allow to infect his niece.
“When we reached the temple, there were beings guarding it. She’s ashamed because those guardians were deadly and evil. They tried to kill us. And there wasn’t anything human or dragon about them. They didn’t seem to think or feel, they just killed.”
“I don’t understand. Why would she be ashamed about that?”
“Because the temple guardians looked just like her, Raven. Exactly like her, just larger. And they had her powers. Amped up a thousand times but still the same sort of abilities. Her power is celestial in nature. I’m sure of it. She shielded me from a blast that would have killed anyone who wasn’t a god, goddess, or other celestial being. She shielded against at least four of them.”
“Celestial.” Raven released a deep breath. “Tell me what they looked like exactly.”
“Seven feet tall. Platinum waves. White fluffy wings that dragged on the ground. Glowing white robes. They glowed like she does. It produces a halo of light above their heads.”
“Charlie glows?”
Marius chuckled. “Like a light bulb. She can turn it on and off.”
“What else?”
“The only thing different about Charlie and these guardians was the eyes. Their eyes had no whites. They were black as night but intense, electric, like the blackness gave off its own energy. I’ve never seen anything like it on Ouros. Charlie said she could feel them in her blood and that they were like her but bad. I don’t know how she could tell.”
Raven wiped a hand over her face. “Thank you for being so forthcoming.”
He shrugged. “That little girl deserves better than to think she’s related to those things even if there are physical and mystical similarities.”
The queen held a hand to her forehead for a moment. Marius stopped eating. If anything, she looked more concerned than before.
“Why do I feel like this isn’t good news for you?”
Raven smoothed her fingers along the edge of the table. “We have a name on Earth for celestial guardians. They’re called angels, and until now, I didn’t think they were real.”
“Angels. By the tone of your voice, I’m guessing this isn’t a label you want for your daughter.”
“It’s not about the label.” She stood and started pacing the dining room. Marius thought she must walk several miles a day just in her pacing. He’d watched the queen pace like this all too often these past weeks. “When she was born, I thought she looked like an angel. Everyone did. But I knew she was Gabriel’s and mine. She is half dragon and half witch. A hybrid.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” Marius said.
“Thing is, when I was researching your symbols, I came across some ancient texts, and I was able to put some things together with Penelope’s help. You see, she gave me access to some of Darnuith’s sacred texts.”
“What sorts of things?”
“Charlie isn’t the first of her kind. Witches and dragons have mated and reproduced before, and their progeny are what we on Earth call angels. You’ve confirmed for me what I’ve suspected. Charlie is not witch or dragon. She will never shift. She will never cast spells like her mother. Her powers are celestial, of the gods. Zeus’s lightning flows through her blood.”
“She is extremely powerful.” Marius paused, his brows knitting. “Wait, if there have been ones like her before, where are they now?”
Raven folded her arms as if he’d just now caught up with where she’d been the entire time. “It appears they are guarding temples in the underworld and likely those on Olympus as well. I only know as much from you, though. Their existence disappears from the books some hundred thousand years ago. It seems my daughter’s existence in the here and now is unique.”
Marius leaned back in his chair and studied the queen. He wasn’t the type of man to tell someone how they should feel. In general, he lived by the law of live and let live. He’d been a selfish little prick during his first life, and then he’d been nothing, and now he was a mated warrior. These immortal lives they led wove together. They bent and braided into one another in ways none of them would suspect. Not even Dianthe with her second sight had seen his resurrection.
“So what?” he mumbled.
“Excuse me?” Raven’s eyebrows rose.
“Charlie is one of a kind. She’s an angel. So what?”
The queen’s mouth dropped open. “I would think it was obvious, Marius! How am I supposed to raise her when I don’t know anything about what she is? How fast will she age? How tall will she grow? Will she ever have children of her own? Will someone come and try to take her someday to wherever the rest of the angels went?”
Marius crossed his arms. “So. What.” He shook his head slowly. “All of us travel the road of life blind to some extent. This mountain, this family, we like to think we have a preordained future because of our roles here, but I’m living proof that everything we know to be true can change in an instant. Immortal we may be, but we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. We wake up and study the road. We think we can see all its twists and turns, but once we start moving, they change. Every decision, every relationship, changes the path. Charlie is one of a kind. You’ll have to take things day by day with her. How is that different from where we’ve all been before in this family?”
“I wanted it to be different!” Raven tossed her hands up and then covered her face with them. When she lowered them again, her eyes were red. “Ever since the day I met Gabriel, I’ve been navigating a sea of uncertainty. Would Crimson kill me? Would the baby in my womb survive? Would she be a monster? Would Eleanor kill us all? I wanted better for Charlie. I wanted her to have a more peaceful life.”
“She does have a peaceful life because she’s loved. She knows she’s loved. That’s more than a lot of people can say. What she doesn’t have is a life without challenges. Then again, one could argue that a life without challenges is hardly a life.”
The two stared at each other as the night stretched on between them. He continued eating.
Finally, Raven huffed out a deep breath. “Mating agrees with you, Marius. My goddess, you’ve become wise. I’m glad we had this talk. You’ve given me something to think about.”
He finished what was in his mouth and bowed his head. “Happy to be of service.”
A knock came on the door. “Who could that be this late?” Raven called out for the person to enter.
A guard ushered in Harlow and her parents, Darium and Lemetria.
“Harlow,” Marius said, “I didn’t think your parents would be joining us. I would have waited to eat if—”
Harlow raised her hand and turned toward Raven. “My father has learned more about the New Order.”
Her father nodded vigorously beside her. “I’ve learned who’s involved and where they’re going to strike,” Darium said. “And the best part is, we can stop them. Only, we’ll have to act fast.”
