Page 33 of Dragon Tempted

“I traveled to other small human villages working odd jobs until a blacksmith took me under his wing and taught me his trade. I worked alongside him for a bit, then moved through villages and learned other trades. I continued to age until I almost turned forty, and then everything changed.”

“What happened?”

“I was trampled by a horse. I was on my own and laid on the forest floor looking up at the sky, wishing I could fly one last time before I passed out.” He swallowed. “I woke up days later, and even though everything hurt like hell, I was able to get up and head back to the hut I called home. I knew something wasn’t right. And that magic had played a part in it. I could feel it bubbling under my skin.”

He started pacing. “After that point it seemed like I stopped aging. You have to remember back then, if you were lucky and survived through childhood, the average life expectancy was fifty to sixty. It didn’t take long for me to figure out I was different.”

Megan’s eyes widened. “So you stopped aging after you should have died. I wonder if you hadn’t had the accident, if you would have continued aging?”

“I’ve thought about that before. I’ve thought about a lot of scenarios. But we’ll never know for sure.”

“What did you do when you realized magic was involved?”

“I returned to the witch village. My grandmother had been dead for some time, and I approached a woman that had been a few years older than me at the time of the attack. She told me what I had feared. My grandmother had set the curse in motion to destroy dragons but had unknowingly cursed all magic as well.”

“Why didn’t your grandmother reverse it?” Megan asked.

“She withered away rather quickly after the attack. If she had lived longer, maybe she would have tried to reverse it.” At least he hoped that was the case.

“And the other witches?”

He sucked in a breath in an attempt to soothe the pain in his chest. “They tried over the years to cast spells to reverse the curse, but nothing seemed to work. And their powers were also slipping away. That was all the information she shared, and even that was given to me reluctantly. The rest of the village didn’t want anything to do with me and encouraged me to leave. I didn’t know until years later that my grandmother had painted the Death of Magic painting.”

Megan tapped her pen on the notepad. “And you started keeping your journals after your visit to the witch village.”

John nodded. “I tried to return to the dragon village, but they’d moved away. It wasn’t until decades later that I heard they had traveled to America to start over again. And the witches also.”

“Why do you think they both left England?”

“A fresh start? Maybe they thought the curse wouldn’t follow them to a new land. I felt like I needed to follow as well. How could I break the curse if I wasn’t near the people impacted by it? By the time I traveled to the colonies, I could still fly, but I had lost my dragon.”

Megan jotted a few more notes and then looked up at him. “You noted several attacks over the years.”

John crossed his arms. “Yes. I was attacked by different factions at first—witches and dragons who were alive when the curse was cast or told by their parents or grandparents what had happened. I started to hide. Changed my name and moved around so that I couldn’t be tracked. After a few centuries the attacks died off as the truth of the curse was lost. And then about five years ago I was attacked by people who I now believe to be Templars.”

“Why do you think dragons attacked you?” Megan asked.

“Same as witches. Because they see me as the reason why magic is dying.”

John glanced away before he could see Megan’s expression. She wore her heart on her sleeve, and he didn’t need her feeling sorry for him. He met Sienna’s gaze, and it was no longer shuttered. Anger shot from her eyes. His chest tightened. Did she feel the same? That he was to blame?

Megan cleared her throat. She put her notes and John’s journal in the backpack. “I think that’s enough for now. I’m going to keep reviewing the journals. I’m creating a timeline and I’ll share any observations I make.” She stood and walked over to him, placing her hand on his arm. “Thank you for sharing that, John. I know that wasn’t easy.”

He nodded since his throat felt like a boulder was lodged inside it.

Megan smiled at him and headed outside.

Sienna stayed behind and faced him. “Can I ask you something?”

He’d answered enough damn questions for the day, but she had stayed quiet throughout the discussion and his curiosity got the better of him. “Yes.”

“What did it feel like to turn into your dragon?”

Hell. All the other questions were tiny pinpricks compared to this one. It had the potential to flay him open. But something about this female made him want to tell her the truth. “Turning into your dragon…it’s absolute freedom. It’s giving yourself over to something bold and beautiful. Something that hums under your skin and fills your lungs and heart like warm honey.”

She stared at him. Her eyes glistened for a moment before she blinked and put on her clan leader poker face. “That sounds…incredible.”

“I’m sorry you haven’t experienced it.” And he was. More than she would ever know.