Page 83 of Rescued By The Dragon

I cupped her face between my palms. “He was your father whether he was your biological one or not. He raised you. He loved you. Now that he is gone, it will feel good to find someone with the same blood as you. Tomorrow, we’ll take another step in finding that for you, Baby Girl.”

Amara kissed my nose and continued to get ready for bed. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I dug it out and Theresa’s name flashed on the screen.

“Hello?”

“Dorran,” she said. I could hear the unease in her voice. “I got the results back on the pills that Amara was given.”

Amara’s gaze shifted toward mine in the mirror. “And?”

She cleared her throat. “It’s an herb used for natural remedies.”

“Okay,” I shifted. “Remedies for what?”

“Suppressing powers. Suppressing memories. She’s been taking this since childhood?”

Amara nodded.

“Yes,” I said.

“It looks like her stepmother was trying to hide something from Amara or trying to keep her tamed.”

Amara’s face turned ashen.

“Thank you, Theresa. Is it okay for her not to take it?”

“Well, yeah,” she said. “I mean, I don’t know what she was trying to suppress, but whatever it is, it’s going to come out now.”

What in the hell?

“Thank you, Theresa.”

Amara clung to me with her face pressed into my shoulder, and my arms wrapped tightly around her. I didn’t shift into my dragon for the flight, because I wanted that to be special. Her seeing my dragon for the first time was a vulnerable moment.

We’d spent most of the night in silence. After the phone call from Theresa, I knew we were in over our heads. She was suppressing Amara’s powers. We made our way to The South Kingdom after an hour of getting permission to fly there.

We landed at the front gates and were immediately seized by the guards. Once they realized we’d been given permission, which was rare, they let us go.

Amara stood on wobbly legs and I helped her for a few yards until she gained her control. “I don’t know how you are standing on two feet right now. I feel like I need to throw up and sit down.”

“Do I need to carry you?”

“No,” she said, slicing her hand through the air. “I don’t want everyone staring any more than usual.”

I glanced around at the courtyard in the distance. There were many dragons out, but none seemed too worried about us. “Ah, come one. Interspecies dating isn’t that big of a deal anymore.”

She eyed me. “Right.”

We followed Toby’s directions toward the far end of the kingdom. His grandmother, Verna, was well-known in the facility for her outlandish stories.

Which didn’t look too good on our end.

The nurse at the reception desk glanced over her thick-rimmed glasses when we walked inside. “Can I help you?”

“We’re here to see Verna Gossett.”

The nurse clacked on her keyboard. “She’s in room 18. Down the hallway to your left. Here are your visitor tags. Visiting hours end at four, so you have a while. You’ll need it. Verna is a talker.”

While walking into the nursing home something heavy hit my chest. The laughter of the older people was light-hearted, but it felt so sad to see them there.

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