Page 49 of So I Dared a Dragon

“They’re both really good theories,” Tina said. Whoa. She hardly ever agreed with me. “We should run them by Aarix and the guys when they get back.”

“Are you going to tell me where they went?” I’d known there was little chance they’d stayed at HQ all night. All that power was too much to be contained.

“When the time is right, you’ll know everything,” she said.

I groaned, but reminded myself,baby steps. They saw me as important, which was an improvement fromthorn in their side. So I put all my energy into suppressing my grin as I finally cracked open the ancient tome.

The pages felt waxy between my fingers and I was afraid the heat coming off the scales would melt them into the world’s most valuable ball of wax. I cautioned a peek at the other ladies, and they were all deep into their books as well, looking for the answers that would help my mate.

My heart warmed. It had been a long time since I’d felt like part of something bigger than myself—or even wanted to. The Montana pack never did any sort of deed—good or otherwise—with expecting payment with interest.

The book had a vibration that I’d never felt before. Like every cell in my body was singing a hymn in reverence at the chance of being this close to it. The artwork was hand drawn and surprisingly detailed. If I dared touch the page, I imagined I would be able to feel the bristle of the wolves’ stiff fur.

I closed my eyes for a moment, giving my own she-wolf a chance to make herself known.

Any time, wolf…

Nothing but a throb from my newly-scaled forearm.

“These are harder to read than I expected.” Tina’s voice startled me back into the room.

“Handwriting and language have evolved over the generations.” Wendy chuckled. “You get more accustomed to it the more you read the texts. If there are any words you can’t decipher, let me know. I’m familiar with some of them, and if not, I’ll do what I can to find the meaning.”

I loved that passion. I was envious too, because the only thing I’d ever felt that strongly about was trying to put my life back together in a way that I refused to admit was no longer possible. Maybe that was what Wendy wanted, to bring back these ancient civilizations in a way…which could be very useful if we were on the right track about these dragons.

Concentrate,I said to myself. I’d been so wrapped up in the illustrations, I’d barely looked at the curly script. The next page had a list that didn’t make sense out of context. I’d come back to it. There were more drawings, so lifelike I swear they moved as I turned the pages. I flipped back and forth, testing the theory, and I was right, but not in a way that I ever expected.

“The words are…” I looked up at the ladies, and then back to the rapidly changing page. “Disappearing.”

“No way.” Wendy was the first to leave her seat. Laura and Tina followed, coming to watch the words get swallowed into the ether as I moved the page.

“It’s like there’s a magic spell on the book,” Laura marveled. “The words vanished.”

“There’s something someone doesn’t want us to know,” Tina said ominously.

“Can I take a closer look?” Wendy asked.

I nodded and slid the book over to her. A chill went down my spine.

She moved the page the same way I was, tilting her head, repeating the motion more slowly.

“Give it another try.” She pushed the book toward me again. “Flip the pages.”

I wasn’t sure what she was looking for, or why, but she was definitely the expert in the room, so I did as I was asked.

She gasped. “The words are only disappearing when Calista turns the pages.”

eighteen

. . .

Calista

Nothing ended a meeting faster than the unfortunate discovery that I could make ancient wisdom disappear. I was pretty sure I was banned from the library to make sure I didn’t completely erase all of shifter history.

Ugh.

The worst part was we didn’t find anything worthwhile for Aarix to work with. I’d daydreamed of finding the one buried piece of information that would save those dragons. That would finally give my sweet, tortured mate peace.

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