Page 93 of Dragon Unhinged

“Yeah, we’ve started to notice that. It’s never been a secret that the fae hate the human world and would love to see it destroyed. They blame humans for the staggering drop in their powers.”

“I want to hear all of this, Tabitha. But right now, I need you to tell me everything you can possibly think of regarding Grey’s plans for a pregnant dragon mate.”

She meets my gaze again. “You want to face down your own demise, I’ll give you the knowledge I have, but I’m not joining the Wystan fight. I’m not helping with anything other than knowledge. Maybe it would be best if everything burned to the ground and we started over without all this bullshit.”

“Yourself included?”

“If that’s what it takes.” She wrings her hands together. “You want to believe the dragons, the tourmaline clan, think of you as family. As someone to be cherished. But we’re abominations. We weren’t supposed to exist. And if you had the magical strength to see through the spells, to see through the veils placed on history’s eyes, you’d realize just how much damage witches do. How much damage we’ve both done, just by existing.”

I frown. We’ve always had the ability to see beyond the veil. It’s no secret the ancient spells that exist to keep humans from knowing we all exist, though that ship has sailed too. But why does she think we’re damaging so much, when we’ve helped so much?

I can’t believe anything she’s saying. Clans have always had witches. We’re revered. Or at least we’re supposed to be. We help guide the dragons to their heartstones and keep them safe. We’re able to do things dragons can’t, even though we are still dragons, we just have more magic instead of a dragon of our own.

I can only imagine the shitstorm that led Tabitha to where she is now, but I want to believe she can come back from it. I want to believe that she’ll see the truth, before it’s too late.

“Even if that were true, don’t you want to try to undo some of the damage? Try to help at least one woman, someone who isn’t dragon born, someone who wasn’t ever expecting for this to be her life? You can’t actually want Grey to have control over a baby. Least of all a baby dragon.”

Tabitha let’s out a long, frustrated sigh. “If he already has her, if he’s had her for days, how can you believe she’s still even alive? If she’s had that baby, she’s nothing more than food or just a carcass.”

“And if she hasn’t?”

Tabitha turns her head away from and looks out the window, down to the beach below. “She’s probably wishing she’s dead. That potion is a nasty one, and without me there to administer it, I doubt he cares enough to pace the dosage correctly.”

“Where would he take her?” I don’t want to think about the magic he forced her to do, the magic that’s still in his arsenal, waiting to be unleashed. Witches can feel their spells working, even over great distances. With as much magic as Grey constantly burns through, she must be feeling it constantly.

It’s bad enough we’ve seen women who can breathe fire hot enough to scorch a dragon’s scales. No fire has damaged a dragon in the history of time until Grey’s dragon breath catastrophe. I don’t want to know what else he’s got planned for everyone who defies his plans.

“He’s got houses, storage, warehouses, underground facilities, and sleeper agents all over the world. He used to talk about finding keys, pieces of a puzzle that could never come together again.” She turns away from the window and looks back at me. “But if I had to guess, he wouldn’t want to take his prize around the world. He’d want her close enough for your precious royal Wystans to feel the pain of what he’s doing. Just close enough to drive a dragon mad, but far enough that he won’t be able to get to her before it’s too late. The Montreal house would probably suit those needs.”

I hold my breath, trying to hold myself back from lunging at her for more answers. Slowly, I say, “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to give me an address?”

“And make it easy on you?” She gives me a malicious smile, and for the first time since we brought her back, she looks like Grey’s Tabitha. “If you’re really as powerful as you claim to be, and your clan is as skilled as you believe, that should be more than enough to find her.”

Gods, witches can be so obnoxious. Myself included, if I’m being honest. But I’m almost sure this is left over from Grey’s demands. If it’s pure vampire thrall, it takes more to get rid of than just a bath with a potion and some salt. Or maybe Tabitha doesn’t trust anyone anymore and she’s trying to make us prove ourselves.

Either way, if Tabitha wants to treat this as a game, as something to prove that maybe we really are on the side of right, then I am going to do everything in my power to prove to her I can be trusted. That I have the strength to stand up to Grey.

That we have the strength to win.

She dismissively waves at me, and I want to reach out and…

And I don’t know what. Embrace her. Squeeze her until all this anger, all this rage she’s holding onto dissipates. Throwa burst of powerful, white-hot, healing magic at her with everything I’ve got.

Anything to shake her out of this attitude that I know isn’t really her.

Frustrated, I make my way down the hall to my room, where I can reach out to Ash. Maybe he’s had better luck.

Maybe Declan or Malcolm has some idea on where to look.

And if not, at least I might be able to text Kashton or Athena to see if they can search real estate records or do anything else to find where Grey might have property in Canada.

Before I even make it to my desk, my phone rings.

“Ash, I was just about to call you.”

“Tell me you’ve got something from Tabitha. Anything.” He sounds a bit frantic, and I’m worried we’re dealing with even worse things now.

“She said Grey has a house in Montreal. Didn’t give me a lot of information to go on, but she thought it was the best bet for where he’d take Brianna. I was going to ask Athena to do some internet sleuthing while I try to find a magical path to her.”

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