Page 55 of The Soul of the Dragon

“That’s a question we have all asked ourselves for many long years. Which feels like an eternity by the way.”

“And you still have no idea why they would do that?”

He remained quiet long enough for me to surmise he knew enough whether he wanted to admit to it or not. “Yes and no. We didn’t have a good relationship from the time we took over their region, and those worse days I referred to—"

“You caused a lot of problems for them.”

He snorted. “That’s a nice way of putting it. But I didn’t trust them, and when I don’t trust someone, I will always be the one to strike first.”

I pressed my lips into a grim line and tried to digest what he said and what lay between the lines of what he spoke of.

“Did they fight back?”

“Always. Magic is strong in the North American continent. The earth there was all but untouched when we first found it. So while they were strong there, so were we. But a fire breathing dragon with an attitude problem is more dangerous than you can imagine.”

“Oh I can imagine. But there are always two sides to the story and if you antagonize a dragon, you’re going to get what you get.”

He laughed heartily behind me, and I soaked up that rolling sound as it brushed across my skin and lit up my nerve endings.

“And they are the reason you need the amulet?”

“Yes. I don’t think we would under any circumstance stop searching for a way to break their curse, but the fact that my mother and my twin’s mate are trapped on the other side of it, is driving all of us mad. Even Ian, who is the most levelheaded of us all, is slowly turning feral.”

I stopped walking and turned back. “What? Your mother is trapped?”

He nodded, his facial expression hard and locked down, void of all emotion. But as much as he tried to hide it, I felt his pain as swiftly as my own. His mother may still be alive, but his ache of loss was very strong.

“She is. And Ian’s mate. She’s an omega too and I think because of that he feels the loss of her more keenly than normal.”

“That’s awful.” And more of a complication than I expected. He had more than a good reason to find the amulet. He had the pain of loss driving him. Crap.

Now what the hell was I supposed to do? Turn my back on him?

Yes. A little voice in my head whispered. He’s not fae, you owe him nothing.

But I didn’t think that little voice understood all the facts. Isaac and his dragon was a complex creature and I had a bad feeling he found me for a reason beyond the fact the King sent him to hunt me.

Fate meant for him to find me and now we were both screwed.

ChapterTwenty-Two

Isaac

While I’d left out a metric ton of details about the kind of man I truly was, I hadn’t technically lied.

What was the point of telling her the worst? Better to sugar coat it a little and make my history a bit more palatable. She didn't need to see all the blood on my hands.

As we emerged from the water, I scanned the area with all of my senses on high alert. If anyone waited for us, they were hidden from me.

Just like those damned imps who were hell bent on taking me down every time I took to the skies. It was a crime that I couldn't fly free here. I would have liked to try again with my little beast, and show her the true wonders of freedom that normally comes from soaring in the clouds.

The dragon snorted inside my head and I felt that loss as deeply as he did. I’d never wanted someone on my back before this, and now that she’d been there, I’d want to do it again.

"I don't see Sprite anywhere."

Kitra emerged from the water with her soaking wet dress clinging to her curves. In the moonlight, her pale skin practically glowed. There was something almost ethereal about her and it pulled me to her with magnetic force.

I'd seen her naked, and yet this silhouette, even from behind, with the moonlight shining down on her, was the most erotic thing I'd ever seen. I tried to ignore the tightening at the front of my trousers, but it wasn't easy.

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