The beast beneath us shuddered in pain. But with my friends on his back, and Verin distracted by the queen, it was our only time to escape.
“We must go, Desmire. We will come back for her, and I will make all this right,” I vowed, and hesitating, he spread his wings and took off. The farther we got from the palace, the more pain I sensed in my dragon’s heart. He and the queen loved each other, which confirmed some suspicions I had.
“The librarian said you needed to see this.” Rune tapped my shoulder and handed me a book.
The wind was merciless against the pages, though I managed to block most of the heavy gusts behind Desmire’s neck. It had a purple cover and a tassel wrapped on a hook with a little white gem in the middle. I gasped. It was the queen’s journal, one she had written before she married Verin and had the princess.
He made me feel so safe and cherished. He didn’t want me for my power or title as queen. He wanted me for me.
I wasn’t in love with his brother. That man was cold and deceiving, only working toward his own personal agenda in courting me. One man I had to be with for the courts to hold peace between our people.
Why I couldn’t do the same thing with his brother was absurd, but their father knew Lachan would be a more wicked king than my love. My mate.
I despised the sneaking around with the warrior, who’s eyes of smoke consumed me. It was the only way to be together.
For I was not willing to let him go, to give up love for power.
My mate was power, my match in every way.
For what would better suit a core of diamond than that of a dragon and an onyx core, beating in one body.
My mate. My Desmire.
Chapter Forty-Nine
The portal to the human realm in the red tree would not be able to handle the size of a dragon. Thankfully Dris knew of another way, flying for half an hour to the sea, then we’d turn back toward the middle of the continent.
This time, I saw what a Fae portal looked like . . . shimmery, like a heavy rain falling.
We stopped just after the crossing through the cave that led to the ocean, collecting our bearings. Rune and Emrys went through the bag of armor and weapons, while Desmire sat near the cliff overlooking the water and the slowly descending sun.
With the queen’s journal in my hand, I walked up to Dris and hugged her tightly.
“Did you show them the journal entry you marked for me?” I whispered, hoping it was low enough to be just between us.
“No,” she replied and the tension in my shoulders released.
Desmire and the queen had been in love—mates. My dragon friend was the Desmire.
Dris and I knew who the onyx core belonged to now, but what she didn’t know was the little details in the memory I’d had from the princess before she was put in the tomb. She had said “father” and then “king” separately. She knew Verin was not her actual dad.
Desmire was her father. The queen married Verin, for whatever reason, but she was no more than a wife in name to him. Her heart and soul belonged to the dragon who looked at the water clashing against the rocks.
“But the records book said Desmire died, and he didn’t have a core of onyx.” I pulled back, whispering so the boys wouldn’t hear.
“I think someone covered up the truth and replaced reality with their own agenda, hiding something larger than we knew. He was a Fae, and with magic gone, stuck as a dragon.” Dris’s face was grim and pale.
Someone didn’t want us to know about Desmire, about his cores, or that he was even alive. Immediately I thought this was Verin’s handiwork, but after reading just that one entry in the queen’s journal and seeing them together, I wondered if she was the one who covered it up to protect him and allowed Verin to think that her love—his brother—was dead.
So many secrets, so many lies.
“That’s probably why he’s been helping you so much. He knows you’re the only hope he has at getting his daughter out of the onyx . . . the onyx he placed her in to save her.” Dris finally understood that the princess was Desmire’s, not Verin’s, daughter. A deep breath released from her lungs, and she sounded like how I felt, blown away and tired from this life of secrecy.
The constant revelations and surprises cast my way were exhausting. I wanted to sleep, and just pretend it wasn’t any of my business. Only it was, I stood at the heart of this whole thing, and I’d come too far to turn back.
“Ladies,” Emrys called to us with his grin on his face.
“Are you guys becoming the best of friends yet? Male bonding over sharp weapons?” I put on a mask of contentment, not ready to reveal what I’d learned. Rune’s look was comical. He clearly thought I was crazy for bringing these two here.
A human, a werewolf, a librarian, and a spider walk into an Iron City. Sounded like the makings of another joke, if it wasn’t real life and dangerous as hell.
“What do we have?” Instead of chuckling like I wanted to, my focus was on the bag of weapons and armor Emrys had managed to swipe before our departure.
Four swords, two smaller sized bows and full quivers, four daggers, and three hatchets.
“I can’t believe you actually found the diamond armor.” Dris gasped at the thin material, which looked like a white shirt but shimmered in the sunlight.
“He stole it from the locked and guarded room in the bottom of the palace,” Rune grumbled, not happy that this goat Fae was able to break into something that he wasn’t supposed to.
“All for a good cause. I get the hatchets; you guys can divvy up the rest.” I reached to grab the little axes and touched the armor on my way. It felt soft and light in my hands, despite the diamonds Dris said were weaved in it.
“It’s as hard as diamonds and will stop a bullet.” Dris answered the question inside my head. The queen most likely made it for her warriors for past battles.
“You and Dris will wear them. I only could get two before more guards came.” Emrys reached down to grab the two tunics and gave them to us. The material was smooth as silk, and I managed to put it on with ease. The sleeves stopped at my shoulders, so it only covered the torso, protecting the most important organs.
“Will you guys be OK?” I didn’t like using this armor while leaving them exposed, but both of the men ignored me.
“If anyone needs to take a piss, or whatever, we’re leaving in five minutes.” Rune commanded us and I raised my eyebrow at him. This was my mission and he was already taking over being general.
While the others were talking about weapons and figuring out how their skill would be most useful, I walked over to Desmire. My heart ached for him. The princess’s memory barreled into my thoughts again. She had said like mother like daughter, both destined to marry one brother but fell in love with the other brother instead. Tor was no Verin, though. He was gentle, kind, and dependable.
Desmire’s head shifted slightly at my approach, but he didn’t move. The water and sky were beautiful. Our world was vast and unique, yet damaged in many ways . . . ways I hoped we could build on and make beautiful again.
The smell of the salty air calmed me and reminded me of the silence in a forest before the storm. “I’ve never seen the ocean before.” I rested a comforting hand on the side of the dragon. “Tor and Mariam would tell me stories about this great body of water, untamed and free. It’s every bit as beautiful as I imagined it would be.”