Page 5 of Blood of Dragons

“Speaking of trouble…” I turned to her and kissed her on the temple as I placed my hand over hers on her stomach.

She closed her eyes at my touch like she always did, a warm smile on her face. “Don’t expect me to wait to eat until you get back.”

“I already assumed.” I left the chair and walked through the crowd of people, their voices boisterous as the wine flooded their systems. The musicians played their drums and guitars in the corner, adding another layer of energy to the festivities.

I took the stairs and made my way down, stepping into the empty hallway with my brother nowhere in sight. “Silas?”

“Down here.”

I turned to the left, seeing the staircase that led underground to the storage room, a place we had no business visiting. But instead of shouting back and forth, I decided to descend the stairs, circling the round staircase until I entered the dusty storage space. The lamps burned low in the corners, casting an orange hue against the stone. Large wine barrels were stored there, along with bottles of rich liquor and aged cheeses. The last time I’d been down here was when Vivian and I were sneaking around, having late-night hookups behind the wine barrels. She was of ordinary birth, so we could never be anything more than clandestine lovers. When things got too serious and complicated, I broke it off. But the agony I felt didn’t last a few days or a few weeks. It was the kind of pain that would always last. I told my father I would marry her with or without his approval—and I’d never forget the look on his face.

He was proud.

I married her shortly afterward, and now we expected our first child.

“What are you up to, Silas?” I surveyed the wine barrels stacked throughout the room, a disorganized mess because there was too much for the space to hold. All the members of my family were heavy drinkers, and we were depleting everything in storage as soon as it came in so there was no time to organize it.

“Back here.”

I squeezed through the wine barrels and inched farther into the back of the room, following the maze of containers and then getting a waft of the cheese that was still aging. Vivian and I had stayed away from this section during our midnight rendezvous. “What is it, Silas? My pregnant wife is sitting up there alone.”

He rolled his eyes. “She grew up a commoner. She can handle herself.” He opened one of the cupboards and pulled out a single wine bottle, covered in dust. “I was down here the other day trying to figure out what to get Dad for his birthday, and I found this.” He held up the bottle to me and turned it so the label could catch the light.

I stared at it, my eyes narrowed to read the old script.

“Look at the year.” Silas pointed to the label. “It’s over one hundred years old. I looked at the records, and this is from our great-grandfather’s time. With the way we drink, I’m not sure how we missed this. It must have been hidden in the back all this time. I was thinking of giving it to Father for his birthday gift.”

I held it up higher and turned the bottle, looking at the color of the contents. “The color is off, too bright for a red wine. I wonder if it’s gone bad.”

“Wine doesn’t go bad, idiot.” Silas snatched the bottle back. “You’re just jealous that I have a great gift.”

“I’m giving Father a grandchild. I win.”

He rolled his eyes. “Asshole.”

“I really do think something is wrong with that wine, Silas.”

“You’re an expert now?”

“I’ve overseen wine production in the past. I’m not an expert, but I can spot the difference between wine and piss. It must have spoiled. Perhaps the cork wasn’t sealed properly. You can still present it to him, but I wouldn’t have him drink it. It can be a novelty item, something to put on display in his study.”

“Fine,” he snapped. “Wouldn’t want to make Father sick on his birthday?—”

“No, that one.” A deep voice came from the other side of the wine barrels and storage containers. “Switch those two out, Jairo.”

My eyebrows furrowed as I looked at Silas. “Jairo?” I mouthed.

Silas gave a shrug.

Jairo was a cousin, distantly removed on my father’s side. There was also tension with his side of the family, a quiet hostility that was so palpable it didn’t require words. But my father insisted on inviting them to things, as if that would somehow seal the rift between us.

I moved through the maze of barrels and reached the other side of the storage unit, finding Uncle Barron’s two sons, Jairo and Kael. They seemed to have rolled a wine barrel all the way down the stairs without breaking it. “What are you guys doing?”

They both froze on the spot, giving a slight jerk when they were caught by surprise. Jairo immediately looked at Kael, who had his eyes wide as he stared back. A second passed, a silent conversation between them.

Kael, the older brother, was the one to speak. “What are you doing?”

Silas continued to hold the dusty wine bottle he’d found in the back. “We don’t have to explain what we’re doing in our wine cellar. You, however, have no business being here, so I’ll ask again, what the fuck are you doing here?”

---