Page 18 of Bound By Roses

“Your friend is inside. The other dragon.” She means Rhett, no doubt. “You do not have to wait for him to leave.”

I shake my head and open my mouth to object, but no words come out. I didn’t mean to come here, and I certainly don’t want to go inside that room. I can’t.

“Are you ill?” she asks me, taking a step closer. I match her step with a backward one of my own and put my hands up in front of me.

“I shouldn’t be here,” I say, and the words have never felt truer. Yet, at the same time, I know I can’t leave. Not until Jade is awake and I know for certain what kind of future I’ve forced upon him.

CHAPTER SIX

QUINN

My mind is reeling.

Not only is Aurelia my aunt, but she had a child. Which means that I have—or had—a cousin. I couldn’t bring myself to ask her because the only reason I know about that and what happened to her mate is because I’ve read her journal. It’s an invasion of privacy whether or not I knew it was hers, and that’s exactly the kind of information you only share with those you trust. Losing a mate, and perhaps a child, are secrets understandably kept buried in the past.

That said, I’m debating if I should ask Merrick about it. As the oldest of the dragons, he’d know who my cousin was and be able to tell me what happened to him. It’s more than likely they were lost when Lunae attacked Marein and although having the knowledge will do nothing for me, I’d at least like to know his name so that I might find him in the afterlife one day.

As I walk down the glass hall illuminated by glowing algae growing along the sides of the tunnel floors in special trenches, I marvel at the ingenuity of this place for what’s probably the first time. When we first arrived, I’d been preoccupied with my trial, then we were under attack, and then my bond to Abby wasbroken and the last thing I was interested in was architecture. But now? I can appreciate the time and skill that went into crafting an underwater city built to accommodate both land and sea dwelling sirens. I remember Tess telling me before we left Rosewood that not all sirens can change at will, and some are bound to the sea for years at a time. This place is the solution to this. Families wouldn’t be separated. Lovers could still be close. Even humans and dragons who’d fallen in love with these aquatic beings would have a place.

If things were different, I could have grown up here. If the ocean wasn’t dying and my mother hadn’t been forced into marriage with a man she didn’t love, my father could have abandoned his duties in Lunae and come here. Evan and I would have been humans living beneath the waves, our father with us, and when the sea called to our mother, she would have returned to it instead of allowing an incurable fever to steal her from us.

I can’t entirely picture growing up amidst waves instead of trees. Rosewood is my home, as is the forest that sustains it. It may have been a witch and the curse of dragon’s blood that turned me into a wolf, but there must have been some of me in there, too. Because why a wolf? Why not a siren or a dragon or some other creature of the forest?

I force the query from my mind when I reach the dining hall. In the time I’ve been gone, it’s been returned to the state it was in before I was forced to clash blades with that fucker Erwyn. I don’t care what Aurelia—Lia—says about the way he treated my mother. She was unhappy with him while they were together, and the first thing he’d done when he realized who I am was to call her a whore.

Lucky for him, he’s nowhere to be seen.

But neither is Abby.

I scan the room again just to be sure and then open my bond as wide as possible. I was never closed off to her, not even whenLia and I were talking, but she’d respected our privacy as I didn’t so much as feel a wisp of her against the tether that connects us.

I feel her now, though, as I reach for her.‘Stabby?’I call out to her, keeping my mental voice soft. I already know she’s on the surface, somewhere high above me in the ruins, but the distance I’m feeling between us isn’t entirely physical. There’s something weighing on her mind that wasn’t there before we’d parted ways. I don’t know what could have changed in the last hour, but I know it’ll take a lot less than that to have her smiling again.

‘I’m in the ruins,’she says, and there’s a hint of sadness that comes with her words. So I’m not wrong. Something happened.

‘I know. I’m already on the way. Are you okay?’Physically, she’s fine. I’d know if she wasn’t. But emotionally? Something is definitely off.

‘I’m fine. I just…’

I wait for her to continue as I begin the climb up the many, many steps that lead up through the whirlpool and into the ruins. One of these days I’m going to need to count how many there are because this is ridiculous. I’m in good shape, despite the injury to my leg, but I feel as if this staircase has the ability to kick my ass twice over. I take back what I said about the ingenuity of this place. Whoever designed this staircase is a sadistic asshole.

‘I need you.’When that thought reaches me, the sadness from her earlier words is replaced by a heat that makes me instantly hard.

Fuck. As much as I’m going to enjoy every moment our newly forged bond compels us to be intimate, I could do without the instantaneous raging boners. Especially when I still have five hundred fucking stairs to climb.

I take them two at a time, increasing my pace to as much as my body—and my suddenly too-tight pants—will allow.

‘Stabby…’My mental voice is suddenly as raw as the fire burning my core.‘You’d better find us somewhere private, because as soon as I make it up these Gods damned stairs I’m not going to give a fuck if there’s anyone around.’

I fly up the rest of the steps, breathing hard, lungs burning as much as my cock. When I burst through the opening, I’m blinded by sunlight, but it doesn’t matter because I can feel her.

‘Go straight,’she tells me, even though I’m already headed that way.‘I’m in the building with the—’

‘Tower,’I finish for her.‘I know.’

There’s no door to this building. Or, at least no door that works. My brain can only just register planks of broken wood that must have been split when this place was raided twenty years early. I don’t have time to wonder about the fates of those who once lived here because Abby is so close now. Mere meters above me at the top of the tower.

‘I’m really starting to hate stairs,’I mutter as I race up the spiral, already unclasping my pants and freeing my erection. That relief only comes second to what I know is only seconds away.

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