“You taunt me, Cyntag. You know I can’t resist all this secrecy.”
He chuckled. “Yes, I do.” He slid a glance to Ruby. “I hear I’m a master manipulator, as a matter of fact.”
Kade’s low laugh rumbled over the phone. “Oh, yeah, I gotta hear this.”
“Where can we meet? Like now.”
Once he’d made arrangements and disconnected, Ruby asked, “Can you trust this guy?”
“We worked together in the Guard for a long time. Serving in the Guard is like being a cop or in the military. We’ve covered each other’s asses, kept each other’s secrets, and saved each other’s lives. He’s still there, so we haven’t had much to talk about since I quit. So the answer to your question is: mostly.”
“Why did you quit? Seems like you were in it a long time.”
Careful. “It was time to do something else. I’d lost the fire.”
“That’s sad, a Dragon who’s lost his fire.”
Her words burrowed into him like a drill aimed for his heart. “It’s just the way of it, Ruby. The longer you’ve lived, the more you’ve seen, the less you care. You’ve got a long way to go before you start feeling that way.”
She touched his arm but quickly let her hand drop. “I wasn’t worried about it happening to me. I was thinking of you.”
The breeze toyed with the strands of her honey hair that had escaped the braid. He resisted the urge to twine one around his finger. His Dragon strained, pulling him toward her. Want.
He held strong. No.
Something about her sparked his soul, the first time he’d felt such a thing in…he didn’t even know how long. She, of all women. Talk about karma.
He smacked the walking stick into his palm, feeling the sting of it. “Don’t feel sorry for me.” The words blasted out like bullets. “Don’t feel anything for me.”
The Book of the Hidden
Garnet returned to her castle at last, accompanied by Dragons to keep her safe on her journey. She had left her home a girl and returned a woman. A fighter. A widow. The Dragon Prince’s spell must still dwell inside her, as his death was an ache in her soul.
As they neared, they were met by a band of villagers who shared terrible news. Much of her kingdom was held under the dark reign of the Shadows, even though their master was dead. Now Garnet and those who would fight beside her would banish them.
The word spread through the hovels and exile camps throughout the woods that the princess had come back to save them. Garnet gathered an army of Dragons and Deuces. Elves and fairies joined, too. One fairy, Emerald, took the form of a dove. Had her beloved Opal been a fairy all along? This dove would spy on the castle and report on the enemy’s movements.
Emerald brought back both intelligence and the horrors of what was going on at the castle. The Shadows were killing Dragons and using their power to create a new master. And even worse, children were being sacrificed for their purity and innocence.
Garnet and her army readied a plan to take back the kingdom…
Chapter 13
Ruby and Cyn walked down a long dock, searching for the right slip number. Boats—scratch that—yachts lined either side, some occupied if the lights inside the cabins were any indication. A dog barked as they passed a sailboat.
She inhaled. “The smell of the sea and lapping sound of the water brings back good memories.” Until that last hurried night when her father had gone on the run.
Cyn blended into the night with his dark hair and clothing. They’d stopped at his house to wash up and gather what they’d need in case Mr. Smith found where Cyn lived. She’d brought The Hidden to see if this Kade could resurrect that, too.
It was now a little less of a god-awful hour of the morning, nearly five o’clock.
“Here it is,” Cyn said, coming to a stop in front of a vintage beauty fully ablaze with lights. Polished chrome reflected them like starbursts.
“The Guard must pay pretty well.” It wasn’t a huge boat, maybe the size of the one her dad bought right before the accident.
“When you get to the top, as a Vega, it does. Not like how the Mundanes pay the people who protect their citizens.” He stepped easily onto the top of the edge and jumped down, then held his hand out for her.
She could handle climbing onto a boat, but refusing would make her seem churlish. Except as his hand enveloped hers, her knees actually went weak, which put her off-balance when she stepped down and fell into him.
“Sorry,” she said, her hands automatically bracing herself on his hard chest.
His fingers tightened on her waist like an involuntary reflex. They both froze, gazes locked. The embers in his eyes danced, and she had a feeling hers were, too. She knew she should step back, oh, about now. And he should be letting her go. Neither of them were moving. She felt dizzy, then realized she hadn’t taken a breath since his hands had gone around her. His mouth opened, as though he were going to say something. Or lean down and kiss her.
Yes, kiss me.
Oh, jeez, that was her command, not the Dragon’s.
“Whoa, who’s getting hot and bothered on my boat?”
They spun to see a man who was jumping down from the roof. He chuckled, low and genuine. Cyn didn’t refute the fact that they were getting hot and bothered so she didn’t either. The two did the manly kind of hug, shoulder to shoulder while patting each other’s back. Kade was cast in silhouette, so all she could see of him was the outline of tousled wavy hair.
“Come on in.” Kade waved for them to follow him into the cabin. “Thought this might be the best place to meet for unofficial business, and I happened to be staying the night here anyway.”
Cyn looked around. “Suits you.”
“There’s nothing like being rocked to sleep. It doesn’t hurt that the chicks dig it.”
Kade assessed her the moment she stepped inside, his moss-green eyes revealing his curiosity about her role in all this subterfuge. They also revealed the swirling mist that marked him as a Deuce.
He thrust his hand at her. “I’m Kade.”
His hand was strong and calloused and didn’t give her the jolt Cyn’s hand did. “I’m—”
“Garnet,” Cyn said.
“Nice to meet you, Garnet.” Kade slid a smile to Cyn. Yeah, he got it. At least Cyn hadn’t called her Ms. Smith.
Kade didn’t need a yacht to impress the chicks. He looked like a guy who owned a sailboat, a surfboard, and probably a Sea-Doo or two. His sun-burnished hair even appeared wind-tossed, though that was probably because they’d roused him from sleep. He didn’t look like a police officer, that was for sure.
Cyn chuckled, tugging on Kade’s flowered shirt. “Going Jimmy Buffett?”
“Someone was always haranguing me to get a life outside the Guard.” He raised his arms out. “This is it.”
That’s when Ruby saw the dagger tattoo on the inside of his right arm, the sharp tip at his wrist. An elongated V with curved lines at the top was incorporated into the hilt. For Vega? More interestingly, the tattoo shimmered with magick, though it didn’t move like the Dragon did. Her gaze went to Cyn’s forearm, realizing that the faded scar there matched the design of Kade’s V.
Cyn picked up some paperwork on the table, shaking his head as he tossed it down again. “Still working on your off time.”
“But I do have a beer while I’m reading over the case notes.”
“I appreciate you seeing us like this.” Cyn handed him the book they’d found at Brom’s. “Is there anything on these pages?”