“The same dragon stole from you?” Kayla couldn’t believe a dragon would risk…well, she didn’t know what Sigrid was truly capable of. Maybe she couldn’t put a hex on the dragon or strike him down with a lightning bolt.
“Yes. And if you want my help, you’ll have to retrieve my locket for me. What say you?”
Kayla was shocked that the falcon fae would ask her to retrieve something for her also. From a dragon! “With all your powers, why don’t you just go and get it yourself?” She didn’t ask it in a smart-aleck way. She really did wonder why Sigrid would have to rely on anyone else to get her own locket back.
“If I could, I would. I’m much too busy.” Sigrid motioned to the jars sitting on shelves on one wall. The potions were of a variety of colors, mostly pale green or amber in color. One said love potion on the gold label. The color of the liquid was lilac in color.
Kayla suspected that something was holding her back. Were their lockets similar in that Sigrid couldn’t transport either? But then how could she still use her magic to create spells or help Kayla? Something else seemed to be going on. “But you don’t know which dragon it was?”
“He had purple scales.”
Alton?
“Why did you want to return to the human’s world?” Alton asked Mark as he shifted after carrying both him and the girl back to Brett and Ena’s castle for safekeeping.
“Muriel went to the human world to check on my foster mother and learned she was dying.”
“I didn’t think you had any family left.”
“I didn’t. I mean, she had taken care of me when she wasn’t angry that I existed. I just wanted to see her one last time.”
“She had her memory wiped. She wouldn’t even know who you were.”
“I know, all right? I just had to do it for me. For closure.”
“So Muriel took you to the hospital? Your home? What?”
“The hospital. It’s the one right across from the school. Three fae seers were checking on a friend at the hospital who had broken his leg during football practice. They saw me and not only knew me, but they saw Muriel too. She was invisible to humans, but they saw her plain as I can see you now. They grabbed us both and said they’d kill her if I didn’t cooperate. They knew I’d disappeared, but thought I was dead. I tried to convince them we want to work together, and that I’m living with you. Well not with you, but your kind. They said that was fine. You’d come for me then.”
“So where’s Muriel?” Alton asked.
“I don’t know. They took off with her in a pale blue pickup, and then Hannah stayed with me to ensure we were the bait.”
Alton looked down at the blond-haired leader of the fae seers. “So, Hannah, where did they take Muriel?”
“Jump off a cliff. I’m not telling you nothing.”
“Fine. Have it your way. Your friends probably won’t even care if you don’t ever return. You’re in charge, right? So someone else will take charge instead.”
“If I tell you, then what?”
“I’ll let you live. I don’t want to do it, but I will.”
She shook her head.
“Fine. Have it your way.” Alton shifted, grabbed her up, took a flying leap into the air and flapped toward the sun, then dropped her. The only way to prove he meant what he said was to show her he meant what he said.
She screamed as she fell toward the trees down below and Mark shouted, “But she can help us!”
Only if she was willing to help. Otherwise, she was useless to them. Hoping his demonstration helped to prove his point and didn’t just give her a thrill like the humans enjoyed riding the tallest, fastest roller coaster rides with 400-feet drops, one with a record ten inversions—Alton knew because he’d been on them before—he dove down and picked her up in his talons before she hit the tops of the trees.
She’d fainted, which was a disappointment. He’d wanted her to feel just how terrifying it would be to fall from that height with no safety net involved, no brakes, nothing to keep her from impacting with the trees below her, and tell him everything he wanted to know.
When he returned to Ena and Brett’s castle, he dumped Hannah into the water fountain, a statue of a dragon in the center spewing water, instantly waking the human. She shrieked, scrambling to get up. At least the water was warm and clean. Satisfied he’d elicited some kind of response from the human, Alton set Mark down on the cobblestones, landed, and shifted.
The girl was spluttering and coughing, trying to regain her footing in the slippery fountain as Mark hurried to help her out of it. “Thanks for not dumping me in there too.” Mark didn’t say it in a nice way, more sarcastically. He knew Alton would have gladly dumped Mark in too for all the trouble he had caused—and it wasn’t over yet—if it wasn’t that Alton might have angered Brett, the queen’s favorite dragon for now.
Alton stalked to the huge oak doors and knocked.
“Coming! Coming!” Ryker, Ena’s butler, answered the door at some length wearing all black as he felt a butler should. He frowned at the party, no maid, and no Ena or Brett.
Instead, Alton had brought a dripping wet female fae seer who was wringing out her blond hair and looking furiously at everyone while Mark escorted her to join Alton. At least Alton had recovered Mark from the human world. If that was any consolation.
“Lock this one up,” Alton said, roughly hauling her by the arm into the main sitting hall, realizing afterward that she was dripping water all over the slate floor, when he saw the golden fae seated on one of the burgundy brocade couches drinking from a tea cup. Kayla.
Except she wasn’t wearing the aura of a golden fae this time, but a dragon fae’s! She was dressed in dark brown clothes, the kind women wore for horse travel or for fighting, not for socializing, the skirts in layers so that when she moved, slim fitting breeches could be seen beneath them. She also wore brown suede boots for traveling, not impractical shoes meant for dancing or visiting, but something that she could wear to walk long distances through the woods.
Her eyes widened as soon as she saw him. He couldn’t believe she was here and for a moment, he just gawked at her as if she were a ghost.
Was she here to steal Ena and Brett’s gold instead of his own? Had she been speaking the truth about it? She couldn’t even fae transport, unless that had all been a lie. It had to be.
“Chain this one to the rack in the dungeon,” Alton said to Ryker. He just hoped Ryker wouldn’t tell him Ena didn’t have any torture devices in the dungeon or anywhere else. None of them did. Alton knew that, but he wanted to use any means to scare the fae seer into telling them what they needed to know. “She knows where Muriel is.”
“In that case…” Ryker nodded.
A woman screamed from the dungeon that made a chill crawl up Alton’s spine.
“It’s currently in use. We’ll have to confine her to a room until she can be tortured, but soon,” Ryker promised, not missing a beat, his expression indomitable. “We have four more ahead of her, in fact.”
Alton raised a brow at him, trying hard not to share a dark smile too.
Ryker shrugged. “It’s been a good week.”
Alton smirked. He knew Ena kept her gold in her dungeon. No room for prisoners. But her prisoners didn’t need to know that. He wondered who was screaming in the dungeon to help with the charade though. Cook?
“I’ll take her to a room,” Mark said.
“No letting her go,” Alton said, his brow furrowed.
“Like she has anywhere to go?” Mark sounded irritated that Alton would even assume he’d help the girl escape. He took her arm and walked toward the hall to the chambers on the first floor.
Humans in the employ of the dragon shifters really needed to learn some manners. Alton turned his attention to the faux dragon fae next, taking great strides to reach her. She couldn’t fae transport inside the castle to the outside, for the same reason other fae couldn’t transport inside. Iron ore in the outer walls kept the castle secure. “What is
she doing here?”
Before he could apprehend her, she quickly set the tea cup on the rosewood table and rose from the couch.
“She is looking for a special locket that she lost in the forest,” Ryker said. “She’s hoping to learn if one of the shifters located it since all of you have such keen senses.”
“She is, is she? Would she pay a lot of gold for its safe return?” Alton reached for her arm, but she slid away from him so that he missed taking hold of her. “Lock her in a cell until I can further question her.”
“But—“
“Do as I say. She’s not who she claims to be.” But Alton didn’t explain that she was a golden fae either. “I’ve got to return to help Brett and Ena find Muriel. Don’t let this one flee no matter how she begs you to let her go.”
“Well, I came in peace and friendship and this is how you treat a fellow dragon fae?” Kayla haughtily asked.
“She is not one of us. Lock her up.” He grabbed her arm then and handed her over to Ryker.
“And what about Mark?” Ryker asked, taking hold of Kayla’s arm.
Alton noticed Kayla was only looking at him, not with concern or conceit, but with genuine interest. He couldn’t figure her out.
“What if I could go with you and help out?” she asked.
“How could you possibly help out?”
“I can hide my fae aura from the humans.”
“And what would you want in return?”
“A bronze locket with the symbol of a falcon on it. It’s a friend’s.”
Alton studied her responses, hoping to see through her deceit. “I thought you were searching for a locket that belonged to you.”
“I am. I want mine back too.”
“If she could help,” Ryker said, “wouldn’t it behoove you to take her with you?”
Alton thought she would be more trouble than it was worth. Then again, he was curious about her and the real reason she wanted the lockets. “She couldn’t help.” He wasn’t about to agree to anything he’d regret later.
“What about Mark?” Ryker asked, his brow arched.
“He should be doing whatever job he was supposed to be doing instead of creating problems. I’ve got to go.” Alton gave Kayla one last discerning look, noting she was not wearing any jewelry today either, and headed outside where he could transport to the high school in the human world. When he arrived there, he found it was pouring rain and the school was closed now. He paused on the roof, trying to decide where to go next.
“Okay, listen,” Kayla explained to Ryker. He’d been so nice to her until Alton had showed up all of a sudden. She’d wanted to sink into the sofa, hoping he wouldn’t look her way, but nope, he had to catch her drinking tea and that was the end of being totally unseen. She hadn’t ever thought she’d end up running into him here. She’d asked in the village and was staying far away from his castle for the moment. But if he was returning to the human world, his castle would be the perfect place to visit! “Alton is irritated with me because I was mouthing off about his scales changing color constantly. He’s annoyed me in the past. I just figured it was time for a little payback.”
Ryker was still holding her arm and looking down at her, a glint of humor in his eyes. Did that mean he liked it that she was giving Alton a hard time? She wasn’t pulling away because she was trying to maintain her cool and pretend that she had no intention of doing anything wrong.
“In fact, I told him that I thought his scales were beautiful when they turned a lovely shade of violet.”
That earned her a little smile. But then Ryker’s serious face was back in place, and a woman screamed from the dungeon again.
The high-pitched scream made Kayla’s skin crawl. She wanted to save the woman. She wanted to get out of here before she was put on the rack! “Listen, since it sounds like Ena and Brett may take a while longer to return, I’m going to check with Alton’s friend to see if he might have been the one to have found my locket. He was practicing for the dragon games with Alton in the same vicinity.” She had to bluff her way through this, not knowing who the brown dragon was by name and hoped Ryker wouldn’t catch her up on it.
“What about Alton?”
“I already asked him. He wouldn’t say.”
Ryker still hadn’t let go of her arm, but he’d loosened his grip.
“You aren’t going to let a dragon shifter, not of this household, tell you what to do, are you?” Kayla asked so sweetly, Ryker’s smile returned. “I wouldn’t. If I were you. He has no right telling you what to do as if you work for him. Bossy dragon shifter.”
Ryker released her, but eyed her warily.
“Thanks. I’ll put in a good word for you with Ena, next time I see her.”
“I’m sure that releasing you is a mistake, but anyone who would dare tell Alton that his scales are beautiful deserves to have a chance to do it again. If you are not who you claim to be, though, don’t come back, and I won’t have to incarcerate you like I’ve had to do with the fae seer. However,” Ryker said, sounding like he was hatching a plan, “I do worry about Ena and Brett and her lady’s maid, Muriel. If you could see to helping them, I would be sure to put in a good word for you regarding the lockets, if your deeds prove worthy.”
“Could I ask you to do one other thing?”
“What’s that?”
“Stop the torture down below?”
Ryker smiled, but the look was more dangerous than reassuring.
“If you do, I’ll go,” Kayla said.
“Agreed.”
“Where do I need to go?”
Ryker told her the location in the human world and hating schools more than anything, Kayla told herself this was going to work. She was not going to get caught by any fae seer. She was going to do a good deed for the dragon fae shifters, and they would reward her by giving her the two lockets.
She hoped she wasn’t fooling herself.
She thanked Ryker, trying not to overdo it, and headed outside. Then she transported to the human high school and was standing in the empty parking lot where lightning was streaking to the ground off in the distance, thunder followed in a huge cracking sound, and rain poured down from the heavens, soaking her. There was no sign of anyone—fae or human.
What now?
4
Alton couldn’t believe that the golden fae had sneaked into Ena and Brett’s castle, pretending to be a dragon fae. The power to switch fae auras was rare. He had to admit he admired Kayla’s tenacity, and he wondered about the locket she was trying to locate. And the one also that he’d taken from the falcon fae.
The only reason he’d even taken it from the falcon fae was because she’d fought to steal the gold the golden fae had left behind. He was now certain Kayla was the one who had torn off her jewelry in the piney woods before she disappeared. That made him wonder why she hadn’t changed her fae aura and pretended to be a dragon fae at the time. Why leave her gold behind?
What he hadn’t expected was for a falcon fae to attack him out of nowhere. When he was a mighty dragon!
The locket had to mean a great deal to Kayla if she was risking her life trying to find it. The same if she was trying to locate the falcon fae’s locket. The other fae had to be a good friend of hers, for the same reason, he realized, that she had attempted to steal the golden fae’s locket from him. At the time, he had believed the falcon fae had just wanted the gold objects. What did he know? He didn’t really know anything about them.
He had to look over his treasure again. He hadn’t noticed anything unusual about the gold jewelry he had found in the woods. He had just grabbed all if it and after searching for the golden fae and not finding her, then fighting with the falcon fae, he had gone to the cave where he hid his treasure, and dumped his find on one of his piles of gold and silver.
He had to know both the lockets’ secrets and what it would be worth to Kayla for him to return them.
The dragons paid the merchants and their staffs well. They could afford to.
Likewise, when their dragon services were needed, they could ask for a goodly sum, depending on the case. But they didn’t give up their goods for generosity sake. If he had her treasure, he would have to ask for something worthwhile in return. It was only good business. Dragons normally didn’t give their gold away unless it was to someone they cared deeply about. He should have known when Ena gave jeweled weapons to Brett, she did so because she cared a lot about him and it hadn’t been just a means to give him a way to protect himself.
Alton transported into the school, heard someone polishing the floors and then saw one golden fae coming down the stairs. He stared at Kayla in disbelief. He couldn’t believe it. Why was she here, of all places, when Ryker was supposed to have locked her away?
“What are you doing here?” he asked Kayla, his tone harsh.
“I came to help Ena and Brett and her maid.”
“So you know them?
She had the good sense to look a little nervous. Even though she was wearing the dragon fae aura still, he knew what she was. So there wasn’t any sense in her trying to pull the wool over his eyes.
He doubted she knew either of them, unless she’d met them somewhere other than in the dragon fae kingdom.
She folded her arms. “I wanted to help. It seems we’re wasting time here chatting.”
“You want to help out from the goodness of your heart? You thought if you helped me, I’d give you something in return.”
“I’m helping Ena and Brett,” Kayla said defiantly.
Alton smiled in a dark way. “Good. Then they will owe you. How come Ryker let you go?” The traitor.
She narrowed her eyes. “I reminded him you had no right ordering him about. Not only that, but I told him about your stunning purple scales. I think he almost smiled when I told him how I’d mentioned to you how beautiful they were. He released me after that.”
Alton could strangle her. No one knew, at least yet, that his scales had turned purple. So far, they’d been blue, silver, orange, and Ena’s olive green color when he’d been in the other dragon fae’s presence. Only Kayla and that irascible falcon fae had seen him wearing purple scales. Then again, maybe Ryker hadn’t believed her. Alton was certain that wouldn’t be the case or the butler wouldn’t have released her.