Page 32 of Dragon Tempted

With Adam insisting on accompanying Tessa every time she showed up at his cabin, he’d had another dragon to contend with. But this? The air crackled around him. He stepped out of the cabin and gazed up at the sky. And that’s when everything came into focus. A craving for that wide-open space above was fundamental to anything with wings.

As if called by his thoughts, a guard soared above him, his orange wings shimmering in the early morning sky.

A sky John hadn’t flown for over a century. Even though he didn’t age, the curse still leeched his dragon powers away. A double whammy he could thank his grandmother for. John was the only living dragon who at one time had been able to turn into his full dragon. First his dragon left him, but his wings remained as a consolation prize until they were taken from him as well. Dragons born in the past century or so could unfurl their wings and fly, but they couldn’t turn into their full dragons. And now in recent years dragons were losing their ability to fly and babies were being born without back markings where their wings should eventually appear.

If this continued, dragons would cease to be.

He swallowed. He would give anything to feel his wings unfurl and the air currents embrace him as he soared above the earth. But he didn’t have time to wish for things that couldn’t be. Instead he would break this curse so that others would once again feel their wings and, magic willing, their full dragons.

John walked around the cabin, taking in the trees cocooning it. He touched the closest tree, running his fingers over the rough bark. Trees offered a sense of permanence. Pushing up into the sky while being linked to the earth, something else that John didn’t have.

He was like a tree with failing roots—already hollow on the inside. It wouldn’t take long for him to topple.

An engine sound had his heart revving as he turned back to the small clearing in front of the cabin. That would be Megan. She’d called earlier and asked if they could meet. It had been wishful thinking that she would simply review all the journals and not have questions, but the idea of discussing them made him feel like he was sucking air into his lungs through a straw. However it needed to be done.

The UTV came through the break in the trees, but Sienna was driving it. Megan sat beside her and waved cautiously at him. They came to a stop, and Sienna put the vehicle in park but kept it running. Was she just dropping Megan off? He should be happy about that, right? Megan climbed out of the UTV and pulled out his backpack. His hand twitched by his side before he stopped it. He was so used to protecting that bag that it was second nature for him to reach for it.

Megan walked up to him. “Would it be okay if Sienna stayed? It’s perfectly fine if the answer is no. I just thought it would be good for someone else to hear our discussion as well.”

Did he want her there? If he had anything to hide, he sure wouldn’t have handed over the backpack to Megan. And he trusted Megan. Sienna was a new variable. One that was wickedly intuitive and kept him on his toes. He didn’t like that she knew him as well as she did when they were still mostly strangers. What would it be like if he let her further inside?

He looked over at Sienna. The longer it took him to answer, the more she fidgeted in her seat. Maybe she wasn’t as confident as he thought she was. And even though he normally didn’t care what others thought about him or his actions, he didn’t want her to think she wasn’t welcome.

And that was definitely new for him.

“She can stay.”

“Great,” Megan said before gesturing for Sienna to come. A brief smile graced Sienna’s lips before she shut off the UTV.

They headed inside and Megan set the backpack on the table. “Okay if I sit here?”

“Of course,” he said automatically. He kept standing since he wasn’t in the mood to sit down.

Sienna gravitated to the sewing machine again, running her fingers over the top before turning to face them. “I’m here to listen. I’ll keep quiet.”

John wondered if that would remain true, and almost said so but didn’t think they needed to start the meeting butting heads.

Megan smiled. “Thank you for sharing your notes with me, John. As you know, there is a lot of information here. I think discussing a few items with you will help me get some context on things before I keep studying them.” She unzipped the pack and pulled out the oldest book and rested her hand on top of it. “From what I can see, you didn’t begin keeping notes until about thirty or so years after the attack.”

He swallowed his emotions down. “Correct. I didn’t realize what my grandmother had done. That a curse existed until I stopped aging.”

Megan took out a new pad of paper and a pen and jotted down some notes. “So you lived all that time with your grandfather’s clan? You mentioned that you lived with him after the attack.”

“After my grandmother sent me away, my grandfather raised me as dragon. But I didn’t live with the clan for very long.”

Sienna walked over to the bookcase and looked at the books sitting on the shelf. Was the conversation boring her?

“When did you go out on your own?” Megan asked.

“The summer I turned eighteen. I left the village after my grandfather’s death. I was a constant reminder to the clan of what happened to my father, who was supposed to be the next leader.”

Megan frowned. “Wouldn’t you have been the leader after your grandfather died?”

His stomach twisted. “Normally, yes. If I were a true dragon. But no one wanted a half-witch, half-dragon leading the clan. And I didn’t blame them.”

Megan’s eyes filled with pity. He didn’t need that. He looked over at Sienna, who had stopped studying the shelf and instead studied him. She obviously was paying attention. But her expression was shuttered. No pity or sadness directed at him, which he appreciated.

“Where did you go after leaving the clan?” Megan asked.