I dropped my tear filled eyes down to the tiny piece of white paper that I was still clutching in my hand and sucked in a shaky breath. “That’s not possible.” How the hell had someone known to leave a note for me about something that hadn’t even happened yet?
“You’re not thinking clearly. You of all people know how possible such a thing is . . . you being a Seer.” Khol dropped his voice to a low cajoling tone as if not to spook me.
Right. I wasn’t thinking clearly. The whole pregnancy thing coupled with Bryn being an utter idiot had fried my brain. Of course I knew the dragon Queen was some kind of Seer, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. “But I can’t just let him go. Who knows what he’ll do when he’s like this.” I bit my lip and unleashed my imploring eyes on Khol. “Will you—”
“No. I won’t—” he started, already knowing what I was going to ask.
“Please.” I whispered as I let my tears finally spill down my cheeks, leaving salty trails in their wake. “Please go talk to him.”
Khol reached out to cup my face tenderly, even as he gritted his teeth in aggravation. “Your tears are my biggest weakness.” He said gruffly before he turned to seek out Bryn.
Satisfied in knowing that Khol would bring Bryn back to me, in a manner of speaking, I sunk back down on the bed and studied the note that had to be from the dragon Queen. The first part of let him go had already come to pass, but what about the second part? How long would I have to remain in this cabin? I had a sinking feeling I wasn’t going to like the answer.
And what about the whole Bryn and Khol situation? By letting fate decide the outcome of who I would mate with, was I really being cruel to both of them? I was determined not to need either one of them, but I was kidding myself if I thought I wouldn’t want either one of them.
I sat on the bed and stared out the window until the sun dipped below the horizon and the stars crested the night sky. Where the hell were Bryn and Khol?
6
“Paige Joplin Stone, awake now . . . for we have much to talk about and a very short time to do it in.”
“Huh?” I mumbled as I reached up to groggily rub my eyes with the backs of my hands. Then realization hit me. “The Queen!” I blurted as I tumbled out of bed focusing in on her. But there was something not quite right. She stood before me, exactly as she had looked in my visions, except she seemed almost transparent.
“Be careful. You wouldn’t want to injure the little one growing inside of you,” she said with tenderness in her voice.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked without thinking, and then flushed with embarrassment. One simply shouldn’t ask a queen what was wrong with her, at least I would imagine because I’d never met one before, human or otherwise. “I’m sorry. I—”
She brushed my comment aside with a wave of her dainty, yet almost transparent hand. “Surprisingly, you remind me much of myself at your age. Or rather I should say it might surprise you, because of course it’s no surprise to me.” She smiled at me and I found myself studying her more closely. It was the first time I’d seen her smile, and there was something very familiar about it. If only I could put my finger on what it was. She stepped toward me, distracting me from my current train of thought, and focused down on my stomach. Her gaze glazed over for a moment before she looked back up to meet my eyes. “He will be beautiful.”
My heart skipped a beat. “You can see him? Can you also see who the father is?” If she could tell me—
“Yes, I can see who the father is, but I won’t tell you.”
“Why not?” I demanded in a shrill voice. “If you know—”
“Because it will change the path for all of you and I cannot let that happen. Too much is at risk already. Just know he will be perfectly healthy.”
Then her words truly sunk in. A boy. I was having a boy. An image of Bryn when he was a child flashed in my mind, his black hair tousled and hanging in his bright blue eyes that always seemed to glitter with mischief, his patented smile complete with dimples inviting me to join in on the fun. My heart clenched. I wanted it to be his so desperately. “Why am I here?” I asked trying to dislodge the image of the Bryn that had first captured my attention when I was still a child myself.
“First I will answer your question of what is wrong with me.” Amusement twinkled in her eyes. “I’m not really here. At least my body isn’t. This is the only way I could come to you.”
“But if you could leave your body, then why make me travel to you? Why not come to me if it’s so important?” I was about to bombard her with more questions but then I stopped myself. She was the friggin’ dragon Queen after all, not just some random dragon. I could at least try to show her some respect.
“I want you to be at ease with me,” she said in a very Khol-like manner, in which I mean it was as if she had plucked the thoughts right out of my mind and answered them. But then again if Khol could do it, then I’m sure the dragon Queen could do it as well. I exhaled a huge breath as she continued on. “I’m very near death—I have been for some time now, and I only linger to finish the tasks I have set into motion.” I nodded my head unable to find a response. She was dying, or near death . . . the same thing in my book. What is someone supposed to say to that? “My body is near here, protected by Dragos, who awaits my death to follow me into the afterlife.”
That got a response out of me. “My biological father is near here? Does he want to meet me?” The real question was . . . did I want to meet him? And what did she mean by follow her into the afterlife?
The Queen’s face tensed and she turned away from me so I couldn’t see her eyes. “No, he has no interest in meeting you. Although he would never harm you—he blames you for the deterioration of our relationship and ultimately my death, and therefore his death as well.”
After seeing what I had in my visions I could understand why he blamed me for the deterioration of their relationship, I suppose, but her death? And his? “I don’t understand.”
“Dragos knows the outcome of my visit here, but not the reasons. As for his death . . . he is my mate and he does not wish to go on without me. It’s even doubtful if he could. Mates such as us sometimes follow each other into death because our bond is so tight.” I inhaled sharply at her words. Was she implying something that would happen today—with me—would ultimately cause her to meet her demise? And my biological father too? He was my birth father and even though I was unsure about my feelings for him, I didn’t want him to die. “I couldn’t let him know the truth. It would have ruined everything.” She began pacing the small area in front of the huge window. “There were so many pieces and one wrong step could have meant the end of this world. It still can. I looked at it from every angle, fought to find another way . . . There just wasn’t . . . isn’t. I sacrificed so much, letting him be with another, it ruined us despite our love, and I still have one thing left to do.” She brought her illuminated golden eyes up to mine abruptly. “I must give my powers, and therefore my life, to you . . . my daughter.”
“What?” I backed up until my knees caught the edge of the bed and I tumbled back onto it before sitting up so I could look at her again. “You’re not my mother.” But her smile, her face . . . “Everyone always said how much I looked like my mom,” I whispered.
“That’s why she was chosen.”
“What? No.” My mind was reeling. And yet her words, deep down, felt right to me somehow.
“Dragos impregnated who you thought was your mother so that the switch would be believable. No one, not even him, knew what I planned to do. He still believes you to be his half-human daughter—if he knew . . .” She shook her head as if trying to dislodge some thought from her mind before continuing on. “He must never be allowed to know differently. Not that he has much time left, but I foresaw that my child . . . you . . . if I kept you . . . you would have been killed in your tiny crib when you were only five days old. Instead, the other child was, and you were left to grow up untargeted by those who wished to strip the dragons of their future queen.” I felt all the blood drain from my face. I had just learned that I had a half sister and she had been murdered in my place, and that I was apparently the future dragon Queen. Can you say brain overload? “I gave you up so I could protect you.”