Chapter 10

The Great Oak stood in the center of four roads that led north, south, east, and west. Those roads further branched out a few miles later, and all led to the main villages of the twelve kingdoms of our realm.

Tauria, Gemina, and Saggitaria dragons all had neck ridges. The nine other dragon clans did not. Aquaria dragons were varying shades of blue. Capricornia dragons had serpentine necks and long forked tongues.

Awed, I noted all of them as Donovan glided for a landing in a field adjacent to the spreading limbs of the Great Oak.

Far below, Renata waved frantically as she recognized me or, perhaps more likely, Donovan’s distinctive green hide. I waved back, a thrill of expectation sweeping over me.

Two whole days to spend with the coven and my village family! I could hardly contain my excitement.

“I wish you could stay with us,” I told Donovan as he swooped low enough that I could make out the plaid weave of Mother’s skirt.

“Me, too,” Donovan rumbled. “But I have guard duty this weekend. Maybe another time, if your family would welcome me.”

“They’d better,” I declared, “or they won’t have me visiting either.”

“Marley,” Donovan said with a dragon-sized sigh. “Don’t go dictating terms. Give them a chance to warm up to me. Your mission this weekend is to spread the rumor that you actually enjoy living on Zodiac Mountain.”

I couldn’t repress a giggle.

“I enjoy living with you,” I said, and he rumbled with surprised happiness. After only a few flights, I was beginning to be able to interpret dragon noises. At least Donovan’s at any rate.

“And I enjoy living with you,” Donovan told me as we touched down to earth. He gave a particularly sexy growl. “Especially at night.”

“I keep telling you it’s a good thing we have thick stone walls between our bedroom and Rabb and Val’s. You make a lot of noise, Donovan.”

Dragon laughter burst from his massive snout and reverberated through his body.

“I shall miss you, little witch,” he said as I climbed down after I threw my satchel to Papa who stood below, beaming from ear to ear.

“It’s only two days.” I pressed my lips to his shoulder as I slid down to Papa’s waiting arms. Donovan swiveled his head to look at me, and the affection in his huge, green eyes was unmistakable.

Papa gave him a considering look before focusing on me and nearly crushing me to death in a tight bear hug.

Donovan leaped back into the air and joined the multitude of colorful dragons decorating the sky. I tried to smother a pang of loss, but couldn’t help the sudden tightness of my throat.

“You look well, Marley.” Papa held me at arms-length so he could drink in my appearance. My heart raced as I looked into his beloved face.

“Papa, it’s been one week since you last saw me. You make it sound like it’s been forever.”

“Has it felt that way to you?” he asked, with such keen perception I averted my gaze. “Are the dragons treating you nicely?”

“One of them is anyway. The only one who really counts.” I lifted my head to stare up at the sky. Donovan was a tiny blur, winging his way to the king’s castle where he’d guard the ramparts for the next forty-eight hours. I still thought he’d have had time to shift and say hello to my family despite his protestations to the contrary.

A small ember of resentment smoldered inside me. I’d endured hostility from an entire clan of dragons for a week, yet he couldn’t face my parents and sister for two minutes.

Oblivious to my internal musings, Papa said, “But not all of them?”

He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and led me toward the Great Oak, where Mother and Renata waited impatiently. For reasons I reluctantly understood, they wanted to keep as far away from dragons as possible. Everyone was a coward but me, it seemed.

“Oh, Papa!” I leaned my head against his shoulder as we walked. “It’s barely been a week. Old prejudices die hard.”

His mouth tightened. “I’ll not have them mistreating my daughter.”

“They’re all blustery, spiteful words. Donovan would leap to my defense if anyone actually tried to harm me.”

Dragons he had no trouble facing, unlike witches.

“I should hope so,” Papa said fiercely. “I don’t like hearing about verbal abuse either, you know. Does your husband defend you against that?”

“I need to fight my own battles. I can’t hide behind my husband all my life, can I?”

“I’m not asking if you’re hiding, I’m asking if he steps up. Does he? Marley!” Frustrated, Papa stared after me as I broke free and ran to Mother and Renata, who enveloped me in their arms. We hugged as if we’d been separated for centuries rather than seven days.

“Oh, you are so brave!” Renata pressed her cheek to mine. “Riding on a dragon like you did. It must be an awful experience.”

“Not a dragon. That was Donovan. Remember him? My husband?” I tried not to sound harsh, but she made it seem as if I’d run some sort of gauntlet instead of having been treated to the gift of flight by my own spouse.

“They all look alike to me. Terrifying and ugly.” Renata shivered theatrically.

“Nice of him to take five minutes to come say hello,” Mother remarked with a waspish smile. “He managed to avoid us during the wedding reception as well.”

Mother linked arms with me and led me toward Papa’s horse and wagon. “Dragons are shifty, cunning creatures as we all know, though.”

“He’s not shifty,” I muttered.

Mother raised an eyebrow. “Good in the sack, I take it?”

“Mother!” Renata’s face reddened with mortification.

“Kelly!” Papa gave us both a look of horror.

“You don’t sleep with him, do you?” Renata covered half her face with her hands. “A dragon, Marley? You wouldn’t!”

“Not when he’s in dragon form, you dolt!” I smacked her in the arm hard enough to make her wince and rub the sore spot.

“Ew!” She grimaced. “I don’t know how you do it. Bad enough you have to live with those awful creatures, but sleep with one of them? Disgusting!”

“It’s kind of hard to start a family without having sex,” I remarked, lifting my skirts so my oldest half-brother could give me a hand up into the wagon.

“You want to have his baby?” Renata screeched. I’d forgotten how high-pitched her voice could be. Heads turned all around us.

“Why don’t you speak louder so the whole kingdom can hear you?” I flounced onto the board stretched across the wagon. Rough seating compared to a chair mount. And the view was limited as well.

“Girls, let’s not argue.” Mother climbed into the wagon gracefully, tucking her plaid skirts beneath her. “Marley’s only home for two days. Wouldn’t it be a shame to spend even a second of that time bickering?”

I gave her a grateful smile.

“I’m not arguing. I’m expressing my opinion. Am I not allowed to do that anymore now that Marley’s married to a dragon? I know you and the coven have agreed to ignore the fact she’s living with dragons and pretend she’s home for good, but I don’t know if I can.” Renata took a seat and tucked a strand of honey-gold hair behind her ear.

“Ignore?” I gaped at my mother. “Pretend I don’t live on Zodiac Mountain?”

Mother leaned over to pat my hand. “We thought you’d like a reprieve. It can’t be easy being surrounded by those filthy creatures. We only want what’s best for you.”

“You mean you feel guilty because I have to live with dragons, and you’d prefer not to be reminded of it every time you look at me.” I leaned away from her touch. “Honestly, Mother, maybe I like being married to Donovan.”

The look of sheer revulsion on her face made my blood boil.

“Dragons are people, too,” I said, bouncing indignantly on the board as my brother chirruped to the horse, and we began plodding along to the village.

“Barely.” Mother repressed a shudder.

My jaw ached from clenching it. “Is that how you’re going to look at your grandchildren? As if they’re barely human? Dragon genes are dominant, so any child I bear will be a dragon.”

Renata’s mouth dropped open. Irritably, I reached over and closed it by pushing up on her chin.

“I’d be casting fertility inhibiting spells right and left if I were you,” she muttered.

“Well, you’re not me!” I snapped. “I happen to want a baby. I have for a few years now.”

“Of course you do.” Mother stroked my hair. “Even if your children will be dragons, they’ll still be family. Then you won’t be all alone stranded on that awful mountain.”

“I’m not the first witch from our coven to live on that mountain. Until our stupid feud began, Tauria dragons married witches!” I cried.

“Only the ones foolish enough to agree,” Mother said. “There weren’t that many, believe me.”

“There was at least one. And her dragon husband loved her so much, he stopped eating the tubers when she died.” I grimaced at her shocked expression.

“He’s the one who buried that damned box in the field. A symbolic gesture that he hoped would immortalize his love. Instead, it gave rise to this ridiculous feud and turned everyone against each other.

“You’re old enough to remember when dragons were our friends, Mother, don’t deny it!”

“I’m not denying anything.” She drew her skirts tighter around her legs. “But I had no dragon friends. They’ve always frightened me more than anything else.”

Renata shivered, and wrapped her arms around herself.

“Like mother, like daughter,” I observed. “I’ve always admired dragons.”

“You never!” Renata goggled at me. “They’ve been our enemies since you were a baby! How could you admire people who have torched our fields and taken every opportunity to terrify us out of our wits, all because we found a buried box? It didn’t have a name on it. Nobody knew it was a dragon’s treasure. And you just said the dragon who buried it stopped taking the tubers, so he’s obviously dead. So that treasure was up for the taking, wasn’t it? Finders keepers. And the dragons are sore losers. Why would you admire people like that?”

“At least you’re referring to them as people now, not creatures.” I took a deep breath before expelling it. “They probably became people to you right around the time you realized you might have a dragon for a niece or nephew.”

“Nephew?” Renata gasped. “You mean to tell me you aren’t using the daughter spell since you’re trying to get pregnant? You’ll chance having a boy?”

“I rather hope I do have a boy. Several of them,” I said. Papa chuckled from the front seat and Mother frowned at his back.

“A dragon baby’s bad enough, but a boy?” Renata screwed up her face in horror.

“In fact, it’s settled. I’m going to start casting son spells on Donovan the minute I get home, so I’ll be sure to have one.”

Of course, I was lying through my teeth. Donovan would likely explode with wrath if I cast magical spells on him, and I wouldn’t do it behind his back. Never again would I use magic on him without his permission. But maybe he would like a boy.

“Is there a son spell? Mother? Is there, really? I’ve only learned the daughter spell,” Renata said.

“So have I, but it stands to reason if there’s a daughter spell there must be a son spell.” I gave her a dirty look. “And if there isn’t, I’ll make one. It can’t be that hard. Just the opposite of a daughter spell.”

“Living with dragons has driven you completely insane,” Renata accused. “Next you’ll be telling us you’re in love with that horrible green beast.”

“As a matter of fact, I am,” I declared, sitting up straight as I could with the wagon jouncing along the path.

Renata shrank back from me disgust. Mother blinked very fast, her mouth working.

“The king has much to answer for,” Mother declared, anger firing in her eyes. “Marley, it’s been one week. You’re only imagining it’s love. Probably to repress your true feelings of revulsion.”

“In case you’ve forgotten, I married Donovan to help end the feud between dragons and witches. I would think falling in love would be a step toward that goal, wouldn’t you?”

“You married as a punishment because we couldn’t deliver the king’s herbs. The idea that you’d be able to singlehandedly stop this feud is sheer nonsense.” Mother’s eyes sparkled with anger and unshed tears.

“It wouldn’t be singlehandedly if I had any sort of support from my family!” I shouted.

“Right!” Mother yelled back. “Exactly how much help are you getting from his family? None, I’ll bet.”

“These things take time, Kelly,” Papa said softly.

“You stay out of this!” Mother snapped at him.

“Why should he? He’s family, too!” I cried.

“But he’s not a witch,” Mother pointed out, her lips white. “He can’t help this situation, so he should keep quiet.”

“If that’s the way you feel, perhaps we should skip lunch at the inn and take you straight home.” Papa didn’t look back at us. “I, for one, have lost my appetite.”

I’d been looking forward to a leisurely meal at the inn where I could be surrounded by my witch and village family. I bit my lower lip and wished I’d kept my mouth shut.

They hadn’t seen how Donovan treated me, or what he did for me. Talk of love and babies must have been shocking to them. They still saw dragons with the same biased eyes as they always had. I’d done nothing but entrench their prejudice.

The rest of the ride was a silent horror. Once my brother Jeremiah pulled the horse to a halt outside Mother’s cottage, I slid from the wagon as fast as I could.

“Wait a moment. Aren’t you going to say goodbye to me?” Papa called.

I stopped, then slowly turned.

“Your grandmother will drive you back to the Great Oak tomorrow afternoon. I won’t see you again this weekend,” Papa said with a mournful smile.

He hopped down from the wagon seat, and I ran to hug him.

“I’m sorry. I should have bitten my tongue and not said half the things I did,” I whispered in his ear.

“What? That you love your husband?” Papa hugged me tighter. “Why should you keep good news like that to yourself? Love wants to be heard, Marley, not bottled away inside. It tends to curdle if you do that.”

“Nevertheless, the first person I should have told was Donovan, not Mother and Renata.”

“He doesn’t know?” Papa held me away so he could look me in the eye. “Don’t you think he loves you back?”

“It’s only been a week. And if you think this ride was bad, you have no idea what I’ve put him through in front of his clan. I’ve learned a lot about myself this past week, Papa, and mostly what I’ve discovered is that I’m an impatient, demanding woman. I want everything to be settled just like that, when it can’t be. And when things don’t go as I want them, I’m not very gracious about it.”

“You can’t be blamed for wanting peace.” Papa kissed my forehead. “And I saw how that dragon looked at you before he hightailed it out of here. If he’s not already in love with you, he’s a good way down the road.”

A no doubt foolish grin spread across my face. Love could be such a sloppy emotion.

“Off with you.” Papa gave me another kiss before climbing onto the wagon. “And have a good visit. I hope you’ll be back soon!”

Jeremiah waved before slapping the reins across Papa’s old plow horse. I waved back before scooping up my satchel where Renata had thrown it before flouncing into the cottage.

Steeling myself, I pushed open the front door. Practically the entire coven crowded forward to greet me.

Between all the hugs and kisses, I quite forgot to be angry or hurt anymore.

That night we performed a ritual on a newly planted field—the same one Donovan had razed to the ground a few weeks earlier. Protection spell in place, everyone returned to their cottages.

Exhausted with the mental and physical effort I’d expelled during the ritual, I couldn’t find my bed fast enough.

I’d just settled down into my comfortable single bed when Renata came into the room, bearing a candle that she set upon the dresser to illuminate the mirror. She picked up a silver-backed brush and attacked her tangled hair.

“The wind always blows my hair into snarls,” she remarked, wincing as the brush encountered a wad of knotted hair. “I can’t think how you can sleep on those tangles. It’ll take you an hour to comb them out tomorrow.”

“I don’t care,” I mumbled into my pillow. “I’m too tired to hold a brush.”

“Want me to do it for you?” she offered.

“I thought you were mad at me for falling in love with a dragon. Why would you brush my hair?”

“Because we’re sisters?” She turned toward me, her lovely face full of remorse. “I’m sorry, Marley. Don’t be angry with me. You know dragons scare me. I can’t bear the thought of my only sister shackled to one of them forever.”

“Not forever, just fifty years or less.” I stifled a yawn and wished she’d shut up. We could make up tomorrow morning as well as tonight.

“Are you never going to eat a tuber? Isn’t that silly, considering you’re one of them now?” Renata drew the brush through her hair, yelping when she encountered a snarl.

“What does that mean? One of them? Am I not still a witch?”

“You could live a thousand years with a clean conscience. They eat them. You’re married to one of them and live with them. It’s not like you’d be going behind their backs. Oh!” She nearly dropped the brush in her agitation. “Won’t they let you eat the tubers? Would they really withhold them from you? What if you’d eaten them here with us? You could die! Or do they expect you to eat them here when you visit us so they don’t have to see you do it?”

“Will you stop peppering me with questions? I feel like an over-spiced pot of soup.” I groaned.

“You can be such a little prig.” Renata set down her brush and stretched her arms above her head while yawning. “You wouldn’t eat them with us because you thought the dragons wouldn’t like it, and now you won’t eat them even though you’re married to a dragon. You’ll make him a widower when he’s still got centuries left to live. I’ll bet he likes that idea. Then he can marry another dragon and be happy.”

She pointed a finger at me. “That’s exactly why you won’t eat them, isn’t it? So your precious husband doesn’t have to endure you any longer than half a century. How sweet and considerate of you. You must sleep soundly every night, Marley, puffed up on your own generosity.”

“Shut up!” I shouted, jumping out of bed dragging my pillow and blanket with me.

“Where are you going?” She gaped at me as I stalked for the door.

“To sleep with Mother. I’m not spending another minute with you! I hope half your hair comes out combing those stupid snarls!” I slammed the door behind me.

“Next time you visit, stay with Papa!” Renata screamed as something, probably her brush, thunked against the door.