Chapter Twenty – Magnus

I remember. The words rattled around in his head, bouncing off the side of his skull along with various other images of his past life. For that was how he saw it. The past and his future with Ruby were two different things. It was as if he had been reincarnated, only instead of starting off as a baby, he’d been born a grown man.

“Can you tell us what happened?” Ruby asked gently, her hand resting on his arm as if he might break, her words gentle as if he were a child.

He blinked, trying to focus on her face. But a stray memory floated past his eyes and he was drawn to it, like a moth to the flame. “Emilia.”

“Do you remember what happened to her?” Ruby prompted.

“Let him take his time,” the old man said. Ruby dragged her attention away from Magnus, she was about to tell him to mind his own business, until she saw him slumped against two men. The wolves had shifted back to their human forms and stood, one on either side, supporting him. He had been truthful when he said the process would exact a price from both of them.

“I am able to speak.” Magnus’s voice didn’t feel like his own, it belonged to someone else. He coughed, and his gut wrenched, the fight with the bear and wolves had left him bruised and battered. His blood rushed through his veins, burning hot, and the sound of dry leathery wings brushed against this mind. His dragon wanted to come out to play and exact his revenge on all those who had wronged him. “Peregrine Manning.”

“That’s who put you to sleep?” Ruby asked quickly, her hands resting one on each arm.

“Yes. He took my memories and put me to sleep.” His brow creased as he pictured the scene. “He was in love with Emilia but was not her true mate. He said that if he could not have her, no one would.”

Ruby’s eyes widened. “She’s asleep too?”

He nodded once. “He paid a man to cast the Ancient Slumber spell on her. Knowing I would not stop until I found her, he cast it on me too. But Perry was scared I would wake up and remember, he added the memory spell.” He looked into Ruby’s beautiful face and lifted his hand to stroke her cheek. “I know where she is.”

“Where?” Ruby asked, her fingers curling into his sweater as he got ready to run out of the temple. “Wait, you have to calm down.”

“She is asleep, all alone.” Didn’t Ruby understand his sister was alone, unprotected now that her big brother was gone?

“Take a deep breath.” Ruby looked into his face and breathed deeply before letting it out. “How do you intend to wake her?”

Confusion hit Magnus square between the eyes. Ruby was right, he could find his sister, but unless they found her mate, she would remain in a deep sleep. “Can you help?”

The old man nodded. “I need something that belongs to her. A lock of hair, a scale off her back.”

“She is in dragon form.” He switched his attention to Ruby. “We need to leave now. We can be there and back again by nightfall.”

“Wait a minute.” She pulled him back. Why was she trying to stop him? “We can’t fly back to Bear Creek in the light. We have to wait until it’s dark.”

He was a mighty dragon, he could do as he pleased! The words brushed against his mind.

Hello, old friend, he said to his dragon.

We have been apart too long, now let us leave this place and wreak vengeance on all those who plot our doom.

You do not remember, do you? Magnus asked his dragon.

I remember we were betrayed! His dragon breathed fire, scorching flames meant to destroy their enemies.

“Magnus. Come back to me.” Filled with urgency, Ruby’s voice filtered through his thoughts and pulled him back to the present, and his mate.

“Sorry. There’s so much to piece together, it’s like a mosaic, all fragmented but somehow it all fits together and tells the story of my life.” He looked at the floor, focusing on calming breaths.

“We should eat,” the old man said and the two men at his side led him back up the stone steps. “You need to regain your strength.”

Ruby looked at Tiberius and asked, “Should we follow?”

“Yes. Magnus should rest before he risks flying.” Tiberius followed the shifters with Helena at his side.

“I think we can trust them,” Magnus assured her when he sensed her reservations.

“Yeah, says the man who was attacked by two wolves and a bear.”

I like her, his dragon told him, puffing smoke from his nostrils.

So do I, Magnus replied. Very much. Although love was probably a more appropriate word. He loved Ruby as much as life itself.

“Once Magnus has eaten we can see what this dragon of his looks like.” Helena’s excitement brimmed over, but Magnus couldn’t allow himself to share in it. Not when his sister had been so cruelly used. “Better than your human side I hope.”

“Helena is right. You look terrible,” Ruby told him bluntly.

“I feel it,” he replied, rubbing his jaw. His dragon wasn’t happy, he wanted to fly. Now. For centuries he had been trussed up inside Magnus’s head and now he wanted out. He needed to stretch his wings and fly high above the mountains, and then dive down on his adversaries and tear them to shreds.

They are all gone, Magnus informed his dragon as they followed the old man and his shifter bodyguards.

All gone? His dragon questioned.

Yes, we have slept for so long they are dust and ash. All except Emilia, we must focus on her. She needs us.

His dragon swished his tail like an angry cat. We cannot have our revenge?

No.

“Please, sit and eat,” the old man invited them to sit at his table and Magnus obliged, even though it took all his strength to keep his dragon in check.

“You said you could wake Emilia?” Ruby asked as she helped herself to fresh fruit and bread, washed down with some kind of tea. “Would her necklace do? We found it with Magnus’s treasure.” She turned to him and nudged him. “Do you have it?”

He retrieved it from his pocket and handed it to the old man. “This was Emi’s.”

The old man took it wearily from Magnus and turned it over in his hand. “As pretty as it is, this is not a part of her. I need something organic. Not a possession.”

“Do you know exactly where she is?” Ruby asked Magnus. “We can go to her, grab something and come back. I can do the round trip tonight if we leave early.”

“I know where she is.” Magnus reached into his pocket and took out the luminescent scale. “But we have something that belongs to her.” He opened his hand and showed the old man. “This does not belong to me.”

“Are you sure?” Ruby asked.

“Yes, I am darker in color. As you will see when I shift.” He studied the old man’s face. “Can you do it?”

The old man nodded. “Return tonight just before you leave. The magic needs the moon’s rays. Once the moon shines down on us, the spell will be ready, and you can return home and wake your sister.”

“Thank you,” Magnus said. “And what about payment? For everything you have done for me and my family.”

The old man smiled. “You will pay me what you believe I deserve.”

Magnus raised a chuckle, feeling much better after the food and tea. “My treasure hoard is not that big. The help you have given me is beyond price.”

“Then bring the item you value the most,” the old man said under the watchful eyes of his helpers, who were devoted to the old man. They must be some kind of cult of the dragon.

“You hold the thing most precious to me.” Magnus inclined his head.

“This?” the old man held up the pendant.

“Yes, it belonged to my mother. When she died it passed to my sister, who swore she would never take it off.” He tilted his head, remembering the scene vividly. “Peregrine Manning took it from her. He put my sister to sleep and kept it as a memento along with a scale. This scale.” The memory was clearer now, the details coming into focus. “But I happened upon him after the deed was done. He was walking back down the mountainside with the villain who cast the spell. I confronted him demanding to know where Emilia was. He said she had fallen and that he would show me where she lay dead.”

“Magnus, I’m so sorry.” Ruby reached out for his hand and he turned his troubled face to hers.

“I thought she was dead. That memory became jumbled up with the man who stabbed Emilia, I believe it was because the brigand's actions set this whole chain of events in motion.” His hand gripped Ruby’s, he wanted to hold onto her and never let go.

“I don’t understand, what does Emilia getting stabbed have to do with Peregrine Manning?” Ruby asked quietly.

Magnus sat still for a moment, composing his thoughts. “We were at the cottage, Emilia was picking strawberries to take into town and sell. A man came. A bad man. He tried to grab Emilia, but she fought him off, she was strong. I heard her scream and ran to the cottage, I tried to chase him away, but he pulled a knife and stabbed Emilia. There was so much blood.” His hands trembled as he remembered the sight of her blood. Dark red against the vibrant red of the strawberries.

“But she didn’t die?” Ruby prompted as he drifted away with his clouded thoughts.

He shook his head. “No. I called for help. Peregrine Manning was riding by, he picked Emilia up, placed her on his horse and took her to his mansion. There he called a doctor who treated her wounds. But she could not be moved for several weeks. During that time, he fell in love with Emilia. It was then that I painted his portrait, as a thank you for helping us. I had no money to repay him, you see.”

“What about your treasure?” Helena asked.

“That was stored away in the caves. But we never went there. We were content to live as we were, safe. Or so we thought.” His eyes stared past Ruby, seeing the cottage and Emilia’s face. He could reach out and touch her. “The painting attracted a lot of attention, I was asked to paint several more portraits. Perry was more than willing to introduce me to his friends. I did not realize it was because he was in love with my sister.”

“Peregrine Manning was in love with Emilia,” Ruby repeated. “That’s why he put her to sleep? Unrequited love.”

“Yes, when at last he admitted his love to my sister, she told him she could never be his, she belonged to another.” He smiled wistfully. “She loved Perry in her own way, but she knew one day she would find her mate and that would break his heart.”

“She did the honorable thing,” Tiberius told Magnus.

“Indeed. What I did not know was the extent of the love and trust she had for Perry. If I did I would not have been taken by surprise on the mountain that day.” Magnus smiled wryly.

“Emilia told Manning she was a dragon shifter.” Tiberius nodded as if picturing the events that unfolded.

“She did. She even showed him, I suspect. Emilia could never know how deep his love went and how possessive Perry was.”

“If he could not have her, no one could,” Helena murmured. “It is an age-old human fallacy.”

“And so, he found a man who could put her to sleep. He did not wish to see her in the arms of another. I can only guess he tricked her while she was in her human form and took her into the mountains. He must have removed the pendant before the spell was cast and she turned into her dragon. A keepsake to remember her by while she slept on her treasure.”

“Why were you on the mountain?” Ruby asked.

“I broke my promise.” Magnus shook his head.

“Your dragon,” Ruby whispered. “You shifted.”

“Yes, and I sensed Emilia.” He put his face in his hands, tired of all the memories in his head. So much sadness, he longed to sort through them until he found the happy times. “I think Perry knew I would be there. He knew I was a dragon shifter too. He had no interest in our treasure, only my sister. He offered me a choice. He reminded me of my promise to never leave Emi alone. I chose to sleep so she would not be alone if she woke from the spell. I had already broken one promise to Emi by shifting. Perhaps it I was the reason Perry knew about dragons. It did not matter. He had cast the spell she was already asleep. I could not break another promise and so I stayed with her.”

The old man reached out and curled Magnus’s fingers around the pendant. “This is yours, your debt is paid. The story you told will be written in our journals.”

“You don’t want treasure?” Helena asked with surprise, as only a dragon would.

“We live a simple life.”

“Thank you.” Tears misted Magnus’s eyes.

The old man bowed and got up. “Leave now, I must rest. Return when the moon rises and the potion will be ready.”

They got up, giving the old man their thanks. Magnus could not bring himself to acknowledge the three shifters who had fought with him. He might be a good man, but the memories in his head did not allow him to be in a forgiving mood.

“How are you feeling?” Ruby asked as they made their way out of the temple and into the daylight.

“Are you asking if I am ready to shift?” Magnus asked as he walked to the edge of the ledge and looked down.

“Are you ready?” Tiberius asked.

“We’ll soon see.” Magnus took a step off, his arms out wide as he fell down toward the jagged rock two hundred feet below. Behind him, he heard Ruby cry out and then he sensed her following him down into the valley below.

Static electricity filled the air as if a storm was brewing. It crackled down the side of the steep cliffs, fizzing and sparkling. Ruby had shifted. Now it was his turn. Letting his mind go blank, he relaxed the hold on his dragon and allowed him to take control. For a moment, neither of them existed in the same world as their mate. The loss was acute, and his dragon raced forward, his dark green scales reflecting the midday sun.

His dragon opened his mouth and flames spurted out and he roared loudly, telling the world he was back.

Next to him, Ruby appeared, a slash of red against the gray rocks. Together, they rose up, beating their wings in time with each other. Then the dance began, circling each other, entwining their necks as they flew in spirals toward the ground, only to rise up again like the phoenix from the flames.

And just like the phoenix, he had been reborn, and he rejoiced in this new chance at life and his newfound happiness.