Chapter Fourteen
Later, after she’d washed the island’s sand off her body, Emily found Jacques packing in his room there at the manor. “I still don’t understand why you need to leave.”
He stuffed a rolled-up shirt his back. “Didn’t think I’d stay here while you sucked faces with the Lord of the Manor, did you?”
Emily detected a spoonful of bitterness in his voice. She walked over to the dresser. “I never knew you thought of me that way.”
Jacques snorted. “Just like since we were kids. You can ride me all you want when I’ve got my dragon suit on, but you don’t get my heart.”
That was her Jacques. Deep down, he was the dreamer-awaiting true love’s first kiss. Like most dragon born, there came more truth than fantasy in finding love at first sight. Or first kiss. Dragon, like man, was never created to live alone. Unlike humans, they were more patient. They could wait to find that one perfect mate created to become one with them.
Emily’s heart ached for him. As much as she loved him dearly, her heart belonged to Blake. She’d known the first time she’d laid eyes on him, her heart beating wildly in her chest as he walked towards her on the smoke laden stage. She’d sung for him. A dark sultry song she’d heard on the radio. She’d practiced for months, made Jacques fly her to the auditions while her foster sister Ash remained at the hatchery with their parents.
Little did she know it would bring her more than a gig on stage. His eyes never hid his yearning for her. Scared, she’d held him back. She belonged to Blake then, and she belonged to him now.
She could see that same yearning in Jacques eyes. It pained her never-the-less to have him leave. “I still love you,” she told him.
He smirked. “I know.”
She gave him a light punch in the arm, trying not to let the sadness swirling inside her leak out. She cried too often. She blamed this egg. How could her body betray her like this?
“I always knew you had that maternal instinct. Too bad your father had to wait this long to see it.” He zipped up his pack.
“Is that where you’re going? Will you make sure Father is safe?” Emily couldn’t bear thinking of anything happening to her father. Engrossed in his work, the poor old fellow didn’t have a clue what went on around him most times.
“Too risky. I’m flying out at sunset with Sigurd. He’ll show me the way to the flat in Rainsburg and I’ll direct him to the hatchery to fetch your father.”
Emily gripped his arm. “Fetch? You mean bring Father here?”
Jacques slung his pack over his other arm. “Your mate thinks Sigurd can convince him to move here to the island. It’s protected territory per their treaty with Britain, Romania, and a few other countries I can’t remember.”
That wasn’t important, not so much as having her father here. And Ash? What would happen to Ash? She would stay at the hatchery. She belonged there, but the thought of getting her father to leave made her laugh. “Can you see Sig asking father to pack up and move to the island? And can you see Father telling Sig to fly off without him?”
Indeed, he could. He laughed along with her and then shook his head. “It won’t be easy. Maybe Ash can help, but Margaret’s got her caught in her web, too.”
“Not Ash.” Emily couldn’t imagine anyone forcing her foster sister into doing anything she didn’t want. Three years, Emily’s senior, Ash had quickly taken to bossing Emily around when her parents took Ash in as one of their own.
“I bet Margaret had her parents eliminated when they were no longer of use.”
With Ash at her father’s side, always helping him at the hatchery, always stepping in front of her, and always an afterthought, Emily’s father never noticed when she didn’t hang around. “It’s not all that bad. And you shouldn’t talk like that. You make Aunt Margaret out to be some sort of…of,” Emily couldn’t say it. For all the bad things, her aunt may have or not have done, she couldn’t speak badly about the woman.
“There are things that if I would have told you, she would have killed me. It’s why Blake is setting me up in Rainsburg for a bit. Lay low. Sooner or later Margaret’s nest will get rattled and she’ll come out with teeth bared and claws striking not caring who she harms.”
“I can’t believe it.”
“You are always the one to believe the best in everyone, but let me assure you the faith you have in our dear leader of the Dragon Keepers is misplaced. She is not what she seems. Believe me.”
Emily bit her lip, contemplating what Jacques said. By the look in his eyes, she knew she had become a pawn in some terrible plans her Aunt made.
“Are you sure you want to go? I’ll talk to Blake. He can’t make you leave. Not if this place is like a haven for the dragon-bred.” She didn’t want him to go. All these years, he’d known these things. They told each other everything. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.
But he hadn’t told her this. His dark eyes turned onyx. He did it to hide his emotions from her. He could never fool her. She couldn’t smell fear as he did, but she sensed it.
She held enough fear inside her for both of them, so much, it caused the little dragon between them to bump against her from inside its protective shell.
“She knows where this place is. When she figures out we’re not delivering the egg to her, she’ll send Drake or whoever is handy. Blake will protect you. She’ll come looking for me first.”
His jaw clenched. So, this was the way of it. This became part of the price for finding love, for giving into her heart’s desire. No wonder the dragons feel cursed by the past. She’d sacrificed who they were to be with the ones they loved, only to become deceived so they could be robbed of their treasure, rights, and lives.
Emily felt her body trembling. From anger or fear she didn’t know which.
Soon she would have to face the circle of the keepers. Already, she knew, Blake had been summoned by the dragons of old.
Jacques put his arm around her. He kissed her head. “Your mate is a powerful pendragon. One of the last sun dragons known. No one would dare to come here or try to harm you under his protection.”
How soon he forgot what brought them here. No wonder the egg was so valuable. Although, she had her suspicions of the true origins of the egg, she kept them to herself.
“And you? Who will protect you?”
He walked her out the door. “I’ve got a band of dragons at my disposal.”
She followed him downstairs. She could hear the squalling guitars as Jacques pulled open the door to the basement studio. They would play until sunset, and then he’d shift into his black night fury form and fly off the island.