Chapter 32 A small price
“I’m sorry,” Wolf-girl whispered.
Again, that damned apology. My forearm tensed as I grabbed the desk.
But my voice came out silky, startling my dragon senses, “Thank you.”
The simultaneous jolt in my heart, startled me even more.
I turned my side to her, trying to focus on other things in the room. This couldn't be right. Hale could not have been right.
“I love Hale,” I blurted, desperate to fill the silence.
When I glanced sideways, her eyes narrowed in surprise.
“I would take his place in hell without second thoughts.” I closed the cushioned space between us, suddenly wanting her to know, because what the hell were we keeping polite secrets for? “And I’ll go to war for Finn.”
She blinked rapidly, unable to school her expression.
Then licked her lips as her eyes jumped away from mine.
I waited. Let the silence stand till the sound of her heartbeats slowed again, until the pink flush on her skin was gone, until her face melted back to neutrality in what she thought was quick enough to fool me.
This was a surprise. Finn was apparently not the only one who fell in love at first sight, after all.
“I love them,” I nodded when our gazes locked again. “Years have proven that the love I feel for them is no less than what I feel for Nymphaea. But it would be untrue to claim the love was the same. Do you understand?”
She nodded immediately, too quickly.
My temple pulsed. There was someone else. There was someone else she loved beside Finn.
I shelved the thought away for later.
“Mm. So you’ll understand why I found her sudden death unacceptable. I was desperate to correct nature’s mistake because…”
Her lips trembled at the corner, "Because dragons are supposed to be immortal.”
Those soft eyes dropped to the table, her face apologetic.
“I did…” I paused, carefully choosing my next words. “things to bring her back. Things the Concord of Firstborns did not approve of. They have no power over me, so they cursed her to punish me.”
My phone chimed at that point. A single, drawn out vibration. Hale.
I reached a hand in my pocket and pulled the phone out. My eyes sped through the text, and with a frown, pocketed the phone again. “We’ll revisit this again, doll.”
“Wait.”
I froze midway to my feet, as my heart gave that violent kick again. I sank into the seat, and drew closer to stare in her eyes.
She blushed at the intensity, but she did not look away.
“I’m sorry about your wife.”
I nodded.
“Is there something I can do to help?” Her voice was soft, eyes trusting,
The immediate urge to laugh was drowned out by a loosening in my chest. This meekness, tenderness, was growing on me. Those eyes that were melting, sad for me, almost weeping for me.
Sweet Lys. It made sense now.
“I…” I stopped. “We did not find our ascendant on time.” I was saying when I noticed a tiny lift at the corner of her lips.
My impulse was rage, but instinct told me to wait.
“I’m sorry.” She gave her head a quick shake. “I just find it ironic...” My eyes ran down her tensed arm to her fingers, drawing patterns on the table, “That I am the ascendant of this decade when, my whole life, I have been training for a tournament named the Grand Ascension.”
She was smart. Why was it a surprise that she was smart and articulate?
“We’ll make it worth your while.” I detested the ritual as much as its biggest hater. Likely Finn. But it was an ugly price we were condemned to paying.
She opened her lips to say something, but snapped it shut again, and nodded for me to continue.
I did not press.
“One of the consequences of my delay to choose an ascendant is dissolution.” I cleared my throat, deciding just how much was sufficient to tell her without burdening her mind. “This dragon isn’t as sharp as a needle anymore. So perhaps, I may have overlooked a detail.”
She stared at me quietly.
“If you were Nymphaea,” her eyes widened, her jaw slack. “And you reincarnated. Where would you go?”
She stared at me, blankly.
Oddly, I did not feel the usual irritated impatience at this delay.
“I’m not sure how to answer that. People act differently.” Her gaze traveled to the book, still open to the image of Nymphaea, head held high, face schooled into sophisticated calm. “We are so different.”
“You’re both women. Try.”
She swallowed, then exhaled and laced her hands together on her lap. “I guess I will return to the things I know. Familiar places, people.”
I nodded.
Nymphaea had done exactly that the last two times she reincarnated.
She was born into families I knew, stuck to the passions she had loved her whole life, but most importantly, she retained her signature scents, Lilies.
However, all the women I met in the last hundred and twenty years with lily-scented perfumes were not Nymphaea.
“She did not return to her husband,” I pointed out.
“Perhaps she is pursuing something she couldn’t have with you?”
My head jerked back, a static sound in my ear like I had just been slapped. She gasped at my reaction and pulled back.
Impulsively, I grabbed her upper arm and yanked to myself.
“I did not…” She stuttered, her heart beating so loudly it made my ears ache. “I did not mean to…I’m sorry.” Her fists were bunching the seams of her shorts now, wrinkling it.
“Stop apologizing." I said finally.
Our gazes fused for a second. I realized that Hale was not very far from the truth.
Although I was not in love with her, this was the first woman I was in danger of falling in love with after Nymphaea,
This realization was jarring, and shoved the knife of grief deeper between my ribs. Guilt felt like a million needles across my skin.
But if this tiny rich girl was right, and Nymphaea had seized this opportunity to explore things she knew I would not approve of, I knew exactly how to pull her back to me.
“What do you want to ask?” I could not ignore the restlessness in her mind anymore.
“Would it be OK to visit your vault again?”
I gave a small nod. “Hale and Finn have unrestricted access to it. There’s no reason you shouldn’t.”
My hand strayed upward, moving up her arm, past her shoulder and down her back. Her body was a marvel. So lithe, firm from years of intense training.
Splaying my fingers on her back, I yanked her against my chest.
Her eyes dilated. The sound of the stream in her veins sharpened.
If Hale was here, I may not have been able to hold back anymore. I’d have been unable to stop myself from plopping her on this desk, and spreading her legs wide so I could see that pussy.
But Hale was somewhere in LA doing Mayor business.
As if on cue, my phone vibrated again.
But I ignored the phone this time, maintaining locked gazes with the women now breathing in my face.
“What else?” I whispered near her cheeks. “What other request is flapping its wings in your head.”
She swallowed. Hesitated. Then licked her lips in what I realized was a nervous habit. “Can you see the future?”
I paused. That was the last thing I had been expecting her to say.
“These things are often not accurate.”
She looked unconvinced.
“I could look into your future right now and find you became Miss America 2024, but then you go down to the kitchen and set yourself on fire, how do you think that would play out?”
She pressed her lips now, nodding in understanding.
“What do you want to know?”
“Will I win the Grand Ascension?”
I smiled at her cuteness. “You no longer trust your abilities?”
“A witch told me something earlier. About an incident that could...” She inhaled, her shoulders quivering at the memory. “...that could make me not win.”
She was holding something back. But if she wanted me to look into her future, I was going to see it anyway.
“These things come with a price. The cheapest is a kiss.”
She reacted how I thought she would. Shivered against me, and since we were so close, her breast pushed into my chest.
“Ok.”
“So readily?”
She shrugged, shyly peeking at me from beneath her lashes. “The witch wanted my blood in return.”
“Well, blood is Finn’s forte, not mine.” I palmed the back of her neck, and crushed her lips against mine.