Chapter Thirteen
Inside the Three Cranes Tavern, Sigurd eased onto a stool at the bar.
He had spent some time giving his dragon side the freedom to fly, staying beneath the clouds and weaving around the mountain tops. While the rest of the haven section remained fenced with glass and wire, the sky had been kept open. He’d give her time to cool, her emotions still raged and burned as his own. Pain. Guilt. Sorrow.
He would have stay up there if not for the fact he needed to keep himself grounded. He’d told her he’d love her. If their lovemaking hadn’t been enough, he’d tried to reaffirm it with his heart. Sealed it with the token of his scale.
“You be singing the sorrows of a heart sick man this evening?” Minna slid him a pint. Dark brew with bite of cinnamon. Who put cinnamon in their beer? Oh, bloody hell, he downed it, smacked it on the bar so it thumped enough to get the ole gal’s attention. “One of those nights, is it? And here I hoped you’d sing for us again.”
“Later.” If he could remember the words to any song at all.
Minna leaned forward, gave him a good view of her bouncers, but he diverted his gaze. “Likes to blow off steam that one. Fierce as a tiger. Hot headed, but a good heart our Ash has.”
Didn’t he know it. “I’m a fool.” He shook his head. “I’m an idiot.”
“I could have told you that a long time ago.”
A hand came down on Sigurd’s back, he looked over his shoulder, and jumped to his feet. “Bogdan. What are you doing here man? Is it Blake or Emily? No. No. Edmund?”
“Chill.” If that wasn’t an understatement to speak to a creature like him with ice in his veins. “Whatever he is having, make it another.”
Sigurd settled back as Bogdan took the stool to his left.
“How did you know to find me here?”
“I didn’t.” Bogdan winked at Minna. She gave him a slanted smile and tucked a piece of white hair back behind her ear. “I came for a drink after such a long flight. Istvan said this was the best tavern in town.”
“Istvan? You’re on a first name basis with the egg doctor?” Sigurd took a big gulp of his beer. He let it sit in his mouth, swished it back in forth a moment in thought before he swallowed. It tasted like horse piss and a dash of cinnamon to hide the vulgar after taste.
“He’s an interesting man, a lot like his daughter, if you get to know him.” Bogdan took a swig and nearly spit it out. “What is this?”
“Bark root beer,” Minna said in passing to serve another customer down further at the bar.
“Horse piss more like it.” Bogdan scowled.
“My thoughts exactly.” Sigurd turned, leaned back on his elbows and watched the groups of people laugh and eat through the establishment. Beer battered wings and thick fries the size of fingers exchanged between friends and lovers at tables. He smelled the grease and the burnt bits from the kitchen, and still he wanted some. “Grab us a basket or two of the fries and wings, would you?”
“Tell me there’s an all you can eat buffet around here?” Bogdan took another sip of his beer, winced, and beckoned a girl with a long brown pony-tail, who served another table their meal.
“It’s medieval here. A bit of a change from the island, but more civilized with cars and Wi-Fi accessible.” But that wasn’t why Bogdan had come. He wouldn’t have left the island with Blake on the verge of answering the summons of the Draconian Council and Edmund in America. “You brought Dr. Kovak back?”
“Emily wanted him to stay, but when he heard I had to head out, he wanted to return to the hatchery.”
“Why? What has happened?” Sigurd stiffened.
Bogdan whipped his dark blond hair back behind a shoulder and leaned closer. “Edmund found her.”
“Moldvan?” Her name came as a low growl from his throat.
“She’s using her niece, Cassandra, as she did Emily. Blackmailing Cassandra. Edmund and Cassandra have a meeting, and I’m headed to ensure Cassandra’s mum stays safe.”
“Then I’ll go with you.” Sigurd started to his feet again.
“You and the missus have a tiff?” Bogdan asked nonchalant.
Sigurd crossed his arms. “Missus? What makes you think…”
Bogdan chuckled and turned to the waitress who brought them baskets of chicken wings and fries. Her cheery round face turned crimson when Bogdan handed her an extra bill for a tip and leaned in to whisper in her ear. She giggled and headed off to serve the next bunch of patrons at a table across from the bar.
With a fry in his hand, Bogdan turn back to Sigurd. “You smell of her. Jasmine and pine, right? Her feminine scent is smeared over you. Mated, didn’t you?”
“I told you she was the one.”
“Then what’s got you sulking here? And wanting to run off to boot?”
Sigurd sucked the meat clear off the bone of a chicken wing before he replied. “She hates dragons. She never knew she was one. And now, she thinks I brainwashed her into the mating.”
Bogdan choked. Sigurd gave him a hard slap on the back. “You?” He sputtered and coughed to clear his throat. Tears came to his eyes.
“Obviously, I’m an idiot.”
“She doesn’t know you well, does she? You couldn’t talk a baby out of candy if your life depended on it, let alone brainwash or seduce any female into your bed. And a dragoness at that!”
“Keep it down. Keep it down.” Sigurd turned, hovered over his chips and stared out at the mirror behind the bar. What he saw staring back at him—pathetic, very pathetic.
“She’s a woman. Buy her flowers and shower her with trinkets. Give her a diamond. Females go wild for the diamonds, why do you think humans use them in courting all the time?”
“You haven’t met her. She’s not like our Emily. She’s like… well… one of us. Only she didn’t know it, and it scares her.” It scared him. He hadn’t been prepared for the swirl of emotions rippling through him as an aftershock from her. Or for her words to strike him so hard.
What kind of mate had Freya chosen for him?
“Imagine that. A woman has got you by the balls. Who is leading who?” Bogdan finished off his fish and motioned for Minna. “Give me a beer, and not that terrible swill you just served me.”
“House special isn’t to your liking?” She cleared away the empty baskets and took the half-drank pint.
“A good draft of pale ale would hit the spot after all that.” He nodded to the mess she’d cleared away.
“Light weight,” she teased, but poured him a lager as he asked. She lingered between them on the other side of the bar. “Is there anything else you be needing?”
“Yeah, a bucket of ice here for my friend. He’s about to get burned.”
Sigurd rolled his hands into fist and Bogdan held up his drink in salute.
“It’ll take more than ice to soothe that burn.” Minna looked directly at him. She knew. He could see it, read it, in her eyes. And she’d have to have known about Ashlyn.
“Minna!” She looked over her shoulder, down the way a man waved, and she headed off. “Catch me if you need something else.”
After she’d disappeared, Bogdan finished his lager. “I’m heading out in the morning. You’re welcome to come if you’d like, or stay here with your phone on alert. There is no telling how it will go down for Edmund and his lass.”