ERICA tried like hell to look away from Kodran, but her eyes had a mind of their own. Dear God, the man was rocking the...everything. Over the past year, she had been around a lot of dragon males. Yes, they were the enemy, but they were built. It was just how the species was made. Strong and powerful. Some were attractive. Some not so much.

But Kodran?

He was something altogether different. Better. From the gorgeousness of his face to the proportions of his well-cut tattooed body. So she gave herself credit for finally being able to drag her eyes away from his impressive and very erect dick to meet his eyes. What was he talking about again?

“The water,” he reminded as a small, knowing grin ghosted his lips. “Not what you’re more interested in.”

Way to be blunt.

“I’m more interested in the water,” she lied and absently traced her finger around a metallic circle made from mica bits engrained in the rock. Great dick aside, he made a good point. Hell, the word point made her eyes fall right back down to... She shook her head and snapped out of it. Come on, she preached to herself, he’s just a man. Eye on the ball. And of course, the word ball made her eyes go to... Damn it.

“Down,” she blurted and widened her eyes.

“Down?” The corner of his lips inched up as his eyes trailed down her body. “You or me?”

“I mean get down into the water so I can think straight,” she ground out, so turned on her upper thighs actually ached. That was a first. But then so were lots of things in the past few hours. Most especially the killer kiss they shared. Who kissed like that? Him apparently. Just like he had in their previous life. And she was just remembering it.

Kodran did as she asked but took his time, turning to walk a bit before he sank down. Just enough time to drool over his ass. Screw it. When did God or Odin get around to making men like him? Never mind that he was dragon. That was another whole she-was-never-gonna-survive-this aspect. Because as it stood, if he approached her right now, there was a ninety-nine point nine percent chance she’d spread her legs.

He inhaled and grinned in her direction. “And there’s a hundred percent chance I would take you up on that offer.”

Naturally, he could smell her arousal. She imagined all of Scandinavia could. More alarming, however, was that he seemed to read her thoughts far too clearly and quickly before they had even slept together. He kissed her for a reason, and it had already opened a floodgate. So what would sex do? She tried to ignore the sharp ripples of pleasure and involuntary clenching of the inner muscles between her legs. For shit’s sake, was she having a mini-climax just thinking about it?

Kodran released a hoarse chuckle as he drifted her way and watched her closely. Not just him but his dragon. One she knew wanted to pounce and take her now. Wanted it so bad he could taste it. And the man? He was trying to exercise reason but losing.

“Of course the water. In a pond created by Eluf,” she managed, finally tearing her eyes away and getting on subject. “With water running from...” She peered up at the water’s source, but it seemed to be dripping from the ceiling. So she used her dragon eyes to look further. It appeared to be a root system with water crashing around it, submerged maybe. “What is that? What am I looking at?”

“The tree,” Kodran murmured. “That’s the root system of Eluf’s tree. Somehow, it taps into the ocean, the strength of it, and becomes one great conduit to hide things. This is how we moved around, Erica.” His voice grew softer. “This is how we managed to move to different locations without Bard ever being the wiser.”

“But where would we go?” Her eyes met his. “We lived in a time when our relationship was taboo. Dragons and seers alike were put to death for what we did.” She bit back a wave of emotion. “You were eventually cursed for it...” She shook her head. “And we both know what happened to me.”

“There were others though,” he said. “Those of us who believed that there shouldn’t be laws against our species mating...loving. We had people. Places. Allies.” He shook his head, clearly trying to remember. “We formed a secret group. A society that supported our cause. One that desired a future where seers and dragons could be together.”

“Like mom and dad,” she said softly. “A seer and a dragon who were doomed.”

“Yes,” he said, his voice just as soft. “And I’m sorry for that Erica. More than you know.”

She frowned. “Why should you be sorry?”

“Because I couldn’t stop what my people did to your mother,” he said. “Even if it was in another life.”

Based on the startled expression on his face, he hadn’t intended to say that. For that matter, he didn’t even know what it meant or Eluf’s part in it. Not yet. So she didn’t bother accusing or drilling him about it. There was no point. He didn’t know.

Not, most likely, until they slept together.

Then she had a feeling they would know everything.

“You could have told me,” he murmured, moving a little closer.

“Told you what?”

“About what Eluf did for Maeva,” he replied. “The suffering she endured above and beyond what happened toward the end. Before she traveled to the future.” He shook his head. “What I know for certain now, though, is that there was no way you could have been Hallstein’s, I mean Bard’s destined dragon mate. Not for Eluf’s magic to have worked. He would have been incapable of coming between the power of fated mates.”

“How do you know?” she shot back, defensive. Shoot, the other side of Maeva kept trying to surface. “Eluf was the most powerful seer on this planet.” Frustrating disgust filled her. “He could have been capable of anything.”

“There it is again,” Kodran murmured and closed the distance so quickly, she had no chance to shift away before his hands were on the rock on either side of her. “What is that, Erica?”

She tried to ignore how close he was. The power of his hard body. The sexy cage he had just put her in. And hell, his scent. She inhaled the spicy masculinity of it. Or at least she thought she was simply inhaling from afar until her nose was against his neck and her tongue was flicking over his heated skin.

There was no logic here. No humanity. Only beast.

And she absolutely loved it.

“Erica,” he whispered and tilted his cheek toward hers as if he couldn’t help himself. “You still hide so much. Tell me what’s going on inside you...because there’s something.” She knew it took everything in him to cup her cheeks and force her to look at him rather than take her right now. “The only way to move forward together, to defeat the enemy, is by being honest with each other.” His eyes pleaded with hers. “What’s inside you? What makes your personality shift?”

“I’m surprised you didn’t mention sex as the only way to move forward,” she managed, so lost in his eyes and the feel of him she couldn’t think straight. Her thoughts were borderline incoherent.

“I would rather you tell me first,” he said, certainly not unaffected by their proximity. “I would rather us gain trust between each other that has nothing to do with our physical connection.” He searched her eyes. “We can do this like normal people. We can get to know each other first.”

That snapped her out of her reverie, and she snorted. “Seriously?” She shook her head. “In what reality do you and I get to do that? We’re not like other people. Far from it.” Then things just kept tumbling out of her mouth. “Einar, a friend in my previous life and my father in this one, covered for us in that other life. He pretended to be my lover, my mate, but Bard eventually saw right through it. He saw when nobody else but you could that I was a rare dragon. I had no mate. They didn’t exist. Or they weren’t born yet.”

She ground her teeth and closed her eyes as memories and strong emotions bombarded her.

“So he took you, didn’t he?” Kodran said. “And I’m not referring to what he did in those last days we had together but long before.” His fingers brushed gently over her cheekbones as if trying to soothe her past pain even as he fought his own. “He made you his mate though it was unnatural. He forced you.”

“Yes,” Erica whispered. She didn’t want to tell him everything but realized he was right when he said it was better to share this way than having sex to get all the answers. So she met his eyes. “He took me, raped me and claimed me.” Hell, she tried to stop it, but her eyes welled with tears. “I had no choice. We had no choice. He was far too powerful...still is.”

It took a moment for Kodran to process the enormity of what she had said. All of what she said. When it did, fury filled his eyes. “You and I were together before he took you, weren’t we?”

“Yes,” Erica confirmed. “We had a long history. One everyone thought was just friendship.” She shook her head. “One that wasn’t allowed, so we kept it secret.”

“But this place.” He looked around. “Eluf created this...I created this for you after Bard took you. After I created the doppelgänger so you wouldn’t have to...”

“That’s right,” she murmured as he put the pieces together. “So I wouldn’t have to suffer his abuse anymore. The other Maeva would. My dark side.” She frowned. “The only thing neither of us saw coming was that the part of me I shed was the perfect match for Bard. A match so good it never faded when I died. It didn’t fade away like doppelgängers should when their shadow self dies.” She sighed. “Instead, it became its own entity somehow...connected across time to Hallstein but still part of me. The perfect tether between us.”

“One that you’ve taken advantage of the past year.” He came between her legs and hung his head until his cheek rested against her temple. The pain he felt was palpable. Consuming. And she felt it inside out. Her pain but his at the same time as he whispered close to her ear. “Why did you take so much on without any help? Without seeking me out?” He paused, hurting for her. “I could have helped you just like Eluf did. I would have found a way to keep you from suffering as I’m sure you have.”

“No,” she murmured, trying to ignore her heart as it started to thud harder. He was too close. Too much. But she had to keep talking. “I found a way. I’ve kept him at a distance to a certain degree.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that the evil side of Maeva was so convincing that the good side of Maeva got away with an awful lot.”

He paused for a moment before he pulled back and met her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that I used evil to do good,” she said. “And by good, I mean that though Hallstein thinks he’s raped and had me a thousand different ways in the twenty-first century, he’s never hurt me.”

“Loki’s cock,” he whispered as what she said sank in. “So in your own way, you did what Eluf had done for you in another life, and used another side of you to deal with Hallstein.”

“Yes.”

For a second happiness flickered in his eyes before he thought it through some more and murmured, “But there’s always a price to pay. There was in our life together before...and now there is in this one.”

“The evil Maeva’s become more real, Kodran,” Erica whispered, grateful to finally share with someone outside of her father’s spirit. “She found her way back to Hallstein. Or he found her. However you want to look at it. Either way, once the connection was made, I tried to stay close to him, to track his moves, so I could either kill him or give information to my family so they could kill him but...”

When she trailed off, Kodran frowned. “But what?”

“Maeva.” She swallowed. “It was hard...sometimes I couldn’t keep track of things...she was stronger.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that the other side of me is worth paying close attention to.” Her eyes stayed with his. “She’s unpredictable.”

“Does she follow your thoughts?” he asked. “Can she report back to the enemy about us? About all this?”

“No, it’s not like that.” She shook her head. “But she’s gained strength, and it’s all my fault. I should have never gotten so close to him. I should have never thought I could keep her repressed once I realized she existed.”

“So who is she in all this? In everything my kin and their mates have gone through up until now?” he asked. “Because she’s tried to possess people. Then she’s actually appeared in dragon form. I saw her battle Matthew and Shannon just yesterday as a dragon. Now Hel has her.”

This was the part she didn’t want to get to. The sadness of it all.

“Hel doesn’t have her. She can’t.” Erica frowned and dropped her eyes. “Not if I’m sitting here with you now.”

His eyes held hers for a long, strained moment before the truth occurred to him and he again whispered, “Loki’s cock.” He shook his head. “All along she’s been using you just as much as you’ve been using her. She’s been trying to possess your sisters and doing anything she can to get back to Hallstein...Bard.” Concern drew his brows together. “And now, for the first time, she’s appeared in dragon form.”

“That’s right,” she confirmed.

“And that is a very bad thing.”

“About as bad as it can get.”

“Because she’s accessing your inner dragon,” he said. “The power of it.”

“Exactly.”

“That happened because of our connection in the cave when I was traveling with Shannon and Matthew, didn’t it?”

“Yes.” She swallowed hard. “That connection was close to the Place of Seers. And close to Matthew and Shannon as they reconnected with their ancient dragon incarnates which put us in the direct line of fire for this era to catch up with us damn fast. As I’m sure you know, magic works that way. The second Maeva connected with ancient times she started drawing on my dragon and manifesting her own version.”

“Loki’s Hel,” he muttered, leaning against the rock beside her as he rubbed his hand over his chin and shook his head. “So all this time, you’ve been in two places. The one place because you chose it. The other against your will?”

“Pretty much,” she murmured.

“Then why not tell your sisters sooner? My kin?” He frowned. “It might have been easier on all parties involved had they known this.”

“Because I couldn’t risk my cover,” she mumbled.

“Your cover?”

“Yeah, you know.” She arched her brows at him. “The person Hallstein has known me to be for over a year.”

Kodran crossed his arms over his chest and eyed the water streaming down the wall for several long moments before he said, “Why so long? Why did you go to him over a year ago and not more recently?” His eyes shot to hers. “More importantly, how did you meet him in the twenty-first century?” He narrowed his eyes. “How did you know he was there when even my kin and I didn’t?”

“Because somebody reached out to me and told me,” she said softly, wishing that day had never happened but at the same time grateful or she wouldn’t be here now. She wouldn’t have been able to stay one step ahead.

“Who told you?” he asked.

“The prosecuting attorney in court one day,” she finally said and met Kodran’s eyes again. “Hallstein.” She shook her head. “A great impersonator of all things it seems.”

When his brows shot up in surprise, she continued. “Somehow, he had locked onto Maeva inside of me, and that was his way of introducing himself.” She scowled. “Fitting considering the state was defending a man who turned out to be guilty as sin.”

“So that was when he ended up in the twenty-first century?” he said.

“Round about, yes,” she confirmed. “When he did, he decided it was the perfect hiding spot for the majority of his tribe, so he brought them all forward in time to Virginia.”

“Why there when everything is happening in the north?”

“For starters, he hates New England,” she said. “The closer to Winter Harbor, Maine, the worse his aversion.” A small grin crept onto her lips. “Then, of course, there was another reason to head south.”

“What was that?” he said.

The grin turned into a smile. “My brother, Kage.”

When he looked at her in question, she continued.

“He had approached Hallstein prior to that,” she explained. “Not as an enemy but a potential friend. He spun some bullshit tale about my sisters and how he was a shunned, neglected part of the family.” She shook her head, grinning because she was still so impressed with what her brother had managed to pull off. “It was Kage who got Hallstein to stay in Virginia. It was Kage who convinced the enemy and his crew to go there so he could keep an eye on them.”

“Yet Hallstein appeared many times during all this,” Kodran said. “He fought my kin.”

“Sure he did.” Erica made a back and forth motion. “Just imagine a dragon as powerful as him having access not only to Helheim but a solid base in the twenty-first century. That gives an evil motherfucker a whole lot of wiggle room.”

Though he might be struggling and astounded by everything she was telling him, he still managed to smirk. “You have strong words.” His eyes warmed. “Words that weren’t yours before you came together with Hallstein?”

He was referring to her cursing.

“Hell, yeah, I have strong words,” she confirmed. “But, yes, you’re right. Before I hooked up with Hallstein, I was a different creature altogether. Very professional. A big time lawyer.”  Humor fled as she remembered what she became. “When I gave up being an attorney for...a different life down south, I picked up a new lingo and changed my look to fit in.”

“Why did Hallstein want that?” Kodran asked softly. “Why did he want that version instead of what you had been before?”

“I’m surprised you have to ask.” Erica frowned and shook her head before she met his eyes again. “Our enemy isn’t a big fan of strong women. Especially a strong woman who is half dragon.” She grimaced. “Double kill.” Erica tried her best to let go of memories even as she shared them with Kodran. “The minute I knew I had a chance to get close to him, I started playing the part of a weak woman dependent on her long lost dragon mate. As to my make-over and personality change, he hung with a rough crowd.” She shrugged. “So I adapted.”

“Once he knew he could trust me, I became a spy,” she continued. “He didn’t want me at the chalet in Winter Harbor, but I was allowed up north to keep a close eye on things. What I was really doing was helping Anthony and being there for my dad’s ghost.” She rolled up her sleeves as her skin grew hotter. As rage built. “When I wasn’t up north, Hallstein kept me a secret. His own little play thing.” She shook her head. “A few months after my sisters started traveling back in time and things got rolling, Hallstein finally allowed me to reveal myself to Kage.” She shrugged. “It goes to show you how secretive Hallstein was because his right-hand-man didn’t even know I existed.”

“After a while, Hallstein realized destroying your people wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought,” she went on. “So he was on the go more between the centuries. That’s when he told me to crash at my brother’s place to keep me safe.” She met Kodran’s eyes and tried her best not to sigh. “I stayed with Kage a few weeks before his mate surfaced and I was pulled back in time by you. You pretty much know the rest after that.”

Kodran frowned. “And what did your brother make of you being mates with Hallstein?”

“Well, at first he didn’t know,” she replied. “Not for a while actually. Hallstein didn’t want anyone to know. He felt it put me in too much danger.” She rolled her eyes. “I guess he didn’t take into consideration I was already with the most dangerous prick around.”

“But you did end up telling Kage, yes?”

“Yup,” she said. “Toward the end.”

Kodran kept eying her as he processed everything. She knew what he was thinking. That all she had done from start to finish had put everyone at risk. That had she just reached out to someone this all might have gone very differently. And he was right. For all her hard work and sacrifice she’d still let everyone down. How else could it be considering she was here now and Hallstein wasn’t dead with a knife to his side or a bullet to his brain. Because she could have done those things at any given moment.

“But the other half of you could not,” Kodran murmured, inside her head again. “The dark side of Maeva held you back. She protected him while you tried to destroy him and because you’re two halves of the same person, something I created in this era, you couldn’t. Any more than she could ultimately possess your sisters or be trapped by Hel.”

Her throat closed and she nodded.

He said nothing at first, just stared at her. The moment had arrived. The one she had dreaded for so long. The first Sigdir had just figured out what she had done and how many lives she’d put at risk. More so, Kodran had figured it out.

Her best friend in another life.

While he might not have achieved that status yet in this one, she felt strongly about him. His opinion mattered. Heck, she had thought she was long past feeling this way about anyone, but she should have known better when it came to him. He mattered in every life. More so what he thought of her.

“You could have gone to your sisters after Hallstein approached you in court,” he finally said. “That would have been the safest thing to do. You could have worked as a team to fight him. You could have enlightened my kin.”

Erica didn’t respond. She had no idea what to say. He was right. Yet it hurt that he seemed so...

“But instead of doing what would have been safest for you and your sisters,” he continued as their eyes held. “You decided to go the extra length, learn all you could and risk your very life for your sisters and in effect, my kin.”

She wasn’t sure how to answer, so she nodded because it was true.

“And you’re wrong about my thoughts.” He cupped her cheek. “I think you put yourself at too much risk. And I don’t think for a moment you let anyone down.”

“I’m glad you feel that way...that you’re not upset with me.”

“I am,” he said softly. “But not for the reasons you thought.” He cupped her other cheek. “The anger I feel is because you were in harm’s way and I wasn’t there to keep you safe.”

She was having trouble focusing on the conversation with him so close. With the powerful feelings churning as she stared into his eyes. 

“Is there more?” he murmured. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“No,” she lied. Because how could she ever tell him the evil side of Maeva thought she was in love with the enemy? “You’re pretty much catching on to everything.”

Their eyes held for a long moment, every second torturous because he knew she was lying.

“What is it?” he whispered. “Please tell me, Erica. Please trust me.”

Kodran was right. She needed to start trusting him. And he deserved to know.

“It’s Maeva...or should I say both versions of her,” she murmured as her eyes stayed with his. “Kodran, a countdown of sorts started the minute you and I touched the Gungnir. One that is going to end one of two ways whether or not you and I sleep together.” She swallowed hard. “Either I’m going to fully and willingly become mates with you...or with Hallstein.”