Midnight Magic, page 104
Well, that narrows it down to several thousand families. Luckily, dragons are meticulous record keepers. If he was from our clan, we’ll find him; it’s simply a matter of time.
The next morning, I am giddy with excitement. I shower and shave my legs, spending a little extra time on the lady bits, and then I sit in front of my mirror to put on my makeup. I can’t look at myself for too long; the silver in my eyes raises butterflies in my belly. I can’t think about that. I need to focus on the task of the day.
We’re handling the last of the paperwork for the town folks, scheduling the announcement for the lift of the dragon ban, and making arrangements for the festival of dragons, which takes place at the new moon after Thanksgiving.
Then we’re free. Morland and I have the entire day to spend together. I can’t wait to get my hands on him. I can’t wait to tell him about the youngling.
MORLAND
I arrive at the meeting early and end up waiting. I don’t mind, because when she arrives, the mere sight of her brings an awareness to me that strikes a chord down my spine. Every detail of her feels like it is imprinted on my brain. The length of her hair as it slinks over her shoulder. The strange color of her eyes, and the way the silver in them seems to dance in the light. The exact curve of her hips. The angle of her chin. The tip of her nose. There is no detail too small.
Romeo takes the seat at the head of the table and hands out some papers to everyone in the room. Aside from Sera, me, and Romeo, we are with the mayor, the rest of the council, and two secretaries, one dragon, and one from Diablo Falls—who happens to be a vampire—both of whom are here to witness and notarize all the treaty documents.
I look across the table at Sera and catch her staring at me. She’s got the tip of her pen in her mouth and her tongue rolls over the end, slowly…
I feel my cock twitch and I have to look away. I sense Sera’s smile when I do. I need to focus on unsexy things. It won’t do to sport a raging boner in the middle of a meeting.
The quicker this is over the faster I’ll be out of here, so I focus on the meeting and do my part to speed up the signing of everything, my mind on the curtains and the wallpaper.
“Well done, Harris. You’ve helped us a great deal by sealing this treaty. The dragons are eager to come back to Diablo Falls.” The elder dragon winks at me and offers his hand.
“We’re looking forward to having you all back. It’s been far too long.”
“Yes, and as the young ones say these days, the dragon festival is going to be epic.”
“Can’t wait, sir. Welcome home.”
Sera steps around the table and waits by my side. We watch her grandfather, and the others leave without saying a word. We wait for the heavy wooden door to close on its own before we move a muscle.
As soon as the door clicks shut, her hands are in my hair and her mouth is on mine and we’re writhing on our feet, fighting gravity and clothing in our quest to get as close to each other as possible.
She comes up for air first. “I could barely sit through that meeting without touching you. That was awful.”
“You feel like a drug to me, Sera. I am helpless for you.” I am shocked at how serious I am. I mean every word. I am both thrilled and scared by our connection. I press against her, pressing my cock against her as she grinds into me.
She pulls away and bites my lip. “Later. Don’t worry. We have all day, remember?”
My hands move over her hips like I’ve known her forever. It’s impossible to explain and undeniable at the same time. She’s… mine. I belong to her, and she is mine.
Sera lays her hand on my chest and takes a step back. “You’re never going to believe what happened the other night with the egg claw. We found him!”
“What? Found who?”
She shakes her head when she realizes I don’t understand. “Sorry. I’ll back up. I forget you don’t know about it.” She runs a hand through her hair and paces the floor. “Dragons are magic, right? When a dragon dies, their bones are kept by the clan because the bones hold their essence and their magic. It’s something that the clan draws from; it becomes part of the fabric of our telepathy.”
“All right…” I follow the words she’s saying but I don’t see what that has to do with me.
“That same magical energy is present in all the parts of the dragon. And when an infant hatchling drops its egg claw…”
“Ah! I get it. There’s magic in the claw I gave you?”
“That’s right. And we were able to connect it to the dragon who dropped it. He was… lost to the clan since his birth. When a dragon birth is not tended by dragons, the newborn imprints on whoever is there. And if that isn’t one of us, we lose our connection to them.”
“That’s terrible.”
She nods. “Yes, but we found him. Through the claw! My grandfather was able to connect to his energy. Now we just have to pinpoint his location and bring him home.” The tears in her eyes are happy and hopeful.
“Wow. That’s really amazing, Sera. I am happy for you. And I am sure you’re going to love this…” I reach under the table and pull out a lidded cardboard box. “I found these in the archive. After you left, I remembered I’d seen another claw before. I cleaned out the space; spent all day yesterday. But I found this, and I think you should have them.”
She takes the box and lifts the lid, her gaze locked on the contents. I’d spent most of the day looking for a second claw and ended up finding a box with more than a dozen of them inside. I couldn’t believe my luck.
When I see her face, I can tell something is very, very wrong. “Sera? What is it?”
SERAPHINE
When he hands me the box, my body is in such a jumble, I chalk it up to all the sensations that come from being so near him. But when I look inside the box, I am overcome with emotion.
I am holding a box full of egg claws. More than a dozen of them. And as I clutch them to my chest, I begin to sense the dread and fear, the shock and terror that these poor little hatchlings experienced in their first moments of life outside their shell.
There are too many.
“Sera? What is it?” Morland seems oblivious to what’s going on, but that doesn’t seem to matter to the seething rage that rises in me.
“These were in your storage room?” I can feel my dragon waking. She wants to tear him apart. It doesn’t matter that he’s the messenger. He’s here, and he’s the son and grandson of the men who did this… this… atrocity.
He nods, his face a mask of confusion. “Yes. Is something wrong?”
“Is something wrong?!” My voice rises, hot and angry like the fire blazing inside me. I feel my dragon threaten to burst forth. I take a breath and calm her. There’s no reason to destroy this perfectly acceptable boardroom by shifting into my dragon. I’d tear the walls out and kill Morland in the process. “Is something wrong?!” I shout this time, unable to find the words I need to explain and part of me unwilling to educate him, satisfy his curiosity.
“You told me they were archeologists. That they found the claw.”
Morland is taken aback. “They did. That’s what they told me. Sera, please help me understand what I’ve done wrong here.”
“Dragon hatching events are sacred. The births don’t ever happen unattended. And when a dragon baby emerges from their egg, they shed their claw within hours. That claw is collected and preserved forever in our crypts. There is a maid who tends the hatching whose only job is to collect the egg claw.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It means the only person who could possibly have this many egg claws in his possession is someone who is at many dragon hatchings. And the only time a non-dragon would ever be present at a hatching is when they have stolen the egg and plan to kidnap the youngling.”
“No.”
“Yes. Don’t play dumb, Morland. Everyone knows there is a black market for paranormal beings. Dragons are no exception.”
“But what you’re saying can’t be right. You’re saying that my father and grandfather were…”
“Hunters and thieves, kidnappers who sold dragons into the trade.”
Morland steps back as if I had slapped him. He reaches for my hand, and I pull back, reflexively. I don’t want him to touch me.
“Sera, can we talk about this?”
“We can’t do anything.”
“What? What are you saying?”
“I have to go.”
“Sera, don’t.” He grabs my arm.
I whip around and feel my dragon flare. I don’t shift but it takes everything in me to hold it together. “Don’t you touch me.” I spit the words at him and watch them take hold.
He lets go of my arm and looks at the air around me. I know that he’s seeing my dragon essence and it scares him.
Between my anger and all the energy coming off the claws in the box, I fear I may lose control. I have to get out of here.
I grab the lid and cover the box, clutching it to me as I hurry toward the door. I don’t have to look at Morland to feel the anguish in his heart because on top of everything else, I feel it too.
MORLAND
I watch Sera storm out of the board room in a puff of smoke. What the fuck just happened here? After her excitement over the first claw, I thought I was doing a good thing bringing her the rest of them.
Now it seems like that was the worst thing I could have done.
I try to digest what she said… Can it be that the archaeology background my father and grandfather wore was a ruse? Can they have been stealing dragon eggs?
I drop into a chair and bend over, fighting to catch my breath. Her anger sits in my heart like a stone. I don’t understand any of this. I barely know her and yet I feel like letting her go will break my heart.
Why do I feel so… so… bereft?
TWO WEEKS LATER
SERAPHINE
* * *
“Come now. You need to think about this rationally, Sera.” My grandfather has taken the box of egg claws to the elders and explained everything to them. After days of deliberation they came back and told us they don’t hold Morland personally responsible for anything except returning what is rightfully ours.
It’s been two weeks now and the anger roiling inside me is visceral—it is larger than I am, and I don’t know if I can overcome it. As dragons, we identify as a member of a clan. Our people are who we are. We’re one group facing the world. Our morality and integrity are ingrained in our desire to honor our family name.
Morland’s family betrayed us. Two generations of Harris men took part in kidnapping and trafficking in dragon young, how can we know if there were more before them? What if his father and grandfather were simply carrying on their family tradition? If his father had lived, would Morland have become a hunter of our younglings? I try to imagine it and the fury inside me blooms. It’s all too much.
“I am so angry.” I shake my head and clench my hands into fists for the thousandth time since arriving back home.
My grandfather’s voice fills my head. “The emotions you’re feeling, they are not entirely your own. It’s the energy from the new claws we have received, and it’s the memory you now hold from our summoning of the first dragon the other night. Remember what I said when we channeled the first youngling? How their fear and pain would stay with you forever? You’re not strong enough to channel them alone, and by the same token, you are unable to handle so many stolen claws at once. It’s why these tasks are only performed by the elders. It’s why you won’t be permitted into the sacred crypts for another hundred years, at the very least. Their pain is just too powerful for someone as young in their magic as you, my love.”
“But Morland… how could he not know?”
My grandfather shrugs. “Who can say? Perhaps he was shielded from that part of his reality. Perhaps they truly were historians in their own right, as well as being traffickers. It isn’t unheard of for someone to be surprised to learn unsavory things about their own family. Give yourself some distance from all of this. Let your emotions settle. You’ll see what I mean.”
“But, what if I can’t look at him again?”
“Oh, my darling dear. I can see your eyes. We all do. The silver is shifting.” His voice is soft and kind; he knows how difficult this is for me and is trying not to force my hand.
My eyes. Damn it all. “I know.”
“Then you know that he’s your fated one. And there is nothing that can break that bond.”
“I can’t bear it. This is horrible.”
“Surely you’re not suggesting that he be blamed for the sins of his forebears?”
“The irony of this situation is not lost on me, grandfather. But this is not the same as my brother running off and trying to marry someone else’s mate. The Harris ancestors aren’t some random group of criminals. They are the criminals. The ones we have been searching for since the first Diablo Falls egg was stolen in nineteen sixty-three. We knew then that traffickers had come here and targeted us. All this time, we let the humans believe we gave up the fight for our territory here after the fires. That we let the ban happen without a fight due to the tensions going on. You know as well as I that it’s the stolen children we were hoping to put an end to. We thought the townspeople didn’t know.”
“Well done, you know your history. Now let go of what you know and let your heart tell you another story.”
I jam my fists into my hips and snarl at him. “What do you suggest I do, oh wise one?”
“Go to him.”
So simple. “I can’t. I might kill him.” I realize the truth of it the moment the words leave my lips. I might kill him, and I don’t want him to die.
“I doubt it. The anger you are channeling is strong magic, yes? Well, allow me to assure you the bond of the fated ones is stronger, unbreakable.”
A door on the far side of the room opens and one of my grandfather’s guards, Alyncia, comes into the room. She bows to Romeo and then eyes me uncertainly. “So your side piece is outside shouting at the mountain.” She arches a brow at me.
“My what?”
“Oh come on now, silver eyes. You going to deny it?”
I gape at her.
“That’s right. He’s here. And he’s making a terrible racket.”
Grandfather turns to me. “The bond is so strong, even a human can sense it. Go to him.” There is a gentleness in his voice that calms me.
“If I see him, I can’t be responsible for what I’ll do.”
The great Valfensys shrugs. “Doesn’t a condemned man deserve a chance to have his last words?”
MORLAND
The bullhorn makes my voice sound tinny and small, but I don’t care. I have no choice and I need to reach her somehow. I am desperate. “Seraphine Valfensys! It’s Morland. I need to speak to you!”
I’m standing at the base of this mountain for the past hour, pleading for her. It took two hours to hike to this spot using the old maps. I think I have the right place. Romeo mentioned they were moving back into their old home, but these maps are old and none of them say which actual mountain I should be knocking on. I am still not even sure I am yelling in the right direction.
I raise the bullhorn to my mouth. “I have more information for you. About the eggs.”
Part of me feels like a fool, and part of me refuses to let this woman go without a fight. Whatever happened when I gave her those claws, it made her so angry—angrier than I have ever seen another person in my life. I expected her to be excited by the find. I don’t know how I got everything so wrong.
I’ve resigned myself to do what I can to make this right, even if I never win her back. It’s the only thing left.
“Sera!”
“Put down the bullhorn, Morland.” Her voice comes from behind me.
I startle and turn and come face-to-face with Sera. Her eyes are rimmed red and it’s clear she’s still angry with me, but I am so relieved I could weep.
“It’s so good to see you,” I say, my words come out breathy and small. I have only this chance to convey my purpose, to show her that I am here for her. I shrug out of my backpack and pull out the books I brought for her. “You need to see these.”
I hand her a journal and a ledger, one of several I found in the storage room. “It seems they had a little enterprise going on with the baby dragons. But it isn’t only dragons.” I open the stiff cover and run a hand over one of the pages, showing her the lines of text, each one outlining a sale. “Here is a wolf, and this one says tiger—though I am not aware of any tiger shifters in Diablo Falls.”
She flips through the ledger, and I watch her eyes turn from silver to black. She glares at me. “I knew it. This is a family legacy, isn’t it? Your father and grandfather were only the latest in your line. Are there more of these record books?”
I nod. “Dozens. Sera, you can’t think I had anything to do with this, that I could have…” Just the thought of it makes my skin crawl. “My god. Never. Never. I have never knowingly harmed another living thing. I couldn’t live with myself if I had a hand in this.” I touch the ledger. “Please, Seraphine. I am begging you. Hear the truth in what I am saying.”
She turns her back to me and walks into the woods. “Follow me.”
We’re inside the mountain, and I am sitting on a couch across from Romeo and Sera. The old man is inspecting the ledger and the journal, his monocle pressed to his eye. Sera sits with her hands in her lap, pumping her fists and glaring at me with her dark eyes. It feels wrong but watching her like this makes me want her even more.
