Chapter 10
Verrian sat in stunned silence.
Lisa loved him.
The warmth of that knowledge flooded through him, mingling with the cold, hard reality. He wanted to run and sing his joy to the stars, and wave his fist at them in frustration. The internal conflict threatened to tear his heart apart.
Now she told him. Now, when he couldn’t do anything about it.
It would have been easier to pretend they didn’t care for each other. Then, maybe, he could have accepted this enforced separation.
But now…
“Look, it doesn’t matter if you don’t love me back.” The disappointment in Lisa’s voice ate away at the indecision that had paralysed him. “I just don’t want to never see each other again. I don’t think I could bear that.”
“No, Lisa, it’s not like that…” Verrian rushed to explain. “I do love you.” He struggled to find the words to explain just how much her words meant to him. “You are my lifemate. More than my mate. I don’t know how I can live without you.” He wanted to give a big, long speech, like she had. He certainly had plenty to say. He just didn’t know where to start.
And he wasn’t sure it wasn’t going to bring more pain anyway. They couldn’t be together. He couldn’t see any way around that. So what was the point in admitting how he felt about her?
Hopelessness threatened to overwhelm him, but somehow, in the midst of it all, there was a beacon of light. Lisa. She made it all worthwhile. He’d never give up what they had shared together, even if it was causing him soul searing agony right now.
Even if they could never act on this, even if they had to live the rest of their lives apart, he wanted her to know how he felt.
He needed her to know how he felt.
“Really?” Lisa asked, her voice uncertain. “You’re not just saying that?”
“Really,” Verrian said firmly. “I… I tried to convince myself I didn’t, for a long time there. That what I felt for you was a product of the Mesmer bond somehow, even though we’d completed it and it should have been gone. I didn’t know what to think. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, and I never thought I would.”
“I know,” Lisa said softly. “I did too.”
“It’s my fault,” Verrian said wretchedly. “After I was injured, when you wanted to heal me, I should have said no. Then we wouldn’t be bonded now, and this wouldn’t be so hard.”
“No,” Lisa said firmly. “I wanted it as much as you did. It was my fault too.” She was silent for a long moment, then she said, “I get it.”
“Get what?” Verrian asked, confused. Was Lisa talking about how he felt, or the situation they were in?
“I get why you can’t break your word to Ultrima. I don’t like it, and I don’t want it to be true, but I understand.”
Verrian could hear the pain in her voice. He knew exactly how it felt, because he was feeling it too. Like every beat of his heart hurt. Every breath he took was a struggle.
He didn’t want to live his life without Lisa in it. He couldn’t even begin to imagine it. Every time he thought about returning to his clan, Lisa was there with him, holding his hand, and grinning at defeating Ultrima.
He couldn’t imagine her not being there. He couldn’t picture her going home to her apartment and living there without him.
It was all wrong.
Trouble was, he didn’t know how to make it right.
And he couldn’t focus on it right now. They had bigger problems at stake. His deal with Ultrima wasn’t going to matter if Lisa was trapped inside the Trima dragon’s lair. Getting her out needed to be his first priority.
He focused his mind on that, the focus making him feel a little stronger, his mind a little clearer. “We can figure that out later,” he told Lisa. “Right now, we need to get you out of there.”
He could sense a similar change of focus in Lisa. “Right. Where do I even begin to look for this secret entrance?”
“Apparently it’s on the west side of the mountain, opposite the obvious entrance,” Verrian told her. “We’re heading around that way now, to see if the area outside is clear. If you can find it, I can help you once you’re outside.”
“How are you going to manage that without seeing me?” Lisa asked.
That, Verrian wasn’t sure of. “I’ll figure something out. We need to find it first. You look from inside, we’ll look from outside.”
At least now they had a plan. Verrian followed the TV reporters around the mountain, keeping an eye out for any of the police. Most of them still seemed to be at the front, near the main entrance to the lair, but did they really expect that there was only one way in and out?
His sharpened hearing detected movement up ahead, the shifting of feet, moments before he saw the glow from a torch. He put up a hand to warn the others.
Todd squinted ahead, then nodded as he saw the torch light. He motioned for his crew to make their way further into the bush to go around the police officer.
Verrian winced at the loud sounds their movement made. They had no idea how to move quietly. They were never going to get past undetected.
He hesitated for a moment. He already knew as much as they did about where the secret entrance to the lair was. He could fade into the background, let them get caught, then find it himself.
Trouble was, if Lisa needed help, he couldn’t help her.
Verrian bit back a sigh. He needed them.
He used a little dragon magic to mask the sound of their movement, but a little too late. Already he could hear the police officer talking into his radio, and swinging his torch in their direction.
The TV crew froze.
At least that kept them quiet.
The bobbing torch moved in their direction, and Verrian’s mind searched feverishly for a way out of this.
The torch was far too close to their position for comfort when it came to him. He raised his chin, and let out a long howl, mimicking the sound of a dingo.
It startled even the TV crew, all eyes staring in his direction, blinking in surprise. Only Rita grinned knowingly.
The police officer paused, waving his torch through the trees. Everyone froze as the light bounced through the leaves dangerously close.
Verrian mimicked the sound of feet padding through the leaf litter going away from their position, and the light followed it.
“False alarm. Must have been a dingo,” the police officer said into his radio. “All quiet here.” And he walked back to his previous position.
Verrian breathed a sigh of relief. That had been a close one.
This time, he made sure to muffle the sound of everyone in the area before they moved, although they were all trying to be quieter now.
Now that he knew what he was looking for, Verrian was able to point out the police officers, every fifty metres or so, surrounding the base of the mountain, early enough for them to give them a wide berth.
They arrived at the area of the cliff face where the secret entrance was supposed to be without further incident.
Now the real work began. They had to find it.