Page 23 of The Dragon's Stone Hearted Mate
“I have to stay within a certain radius of the soil I was born from, I believe. How far and wide the Other World spread that soil, I do not know.”
“Then how do you know you can’t go to Earthside?” I asked him as he bit into a carrot stick with a sharp crunch.
“I can feel it in my stones,” he shrugged.
“What if I put that dirt in a bucket or something?” I asked.
“As funny as it would be to let you fill up a bucket with dirt – mind you I’m imagining you digging shirtless – I don’t think it would work. Are you afraid to go back to Earthside?” he asked.
“No,” I shook my head and hooked my ankle round his calf under the table. The mating response magic was buzzingthrough all my atoms. It didn’t like being half a circuit. “I’m not afraid of Torvan. I’ve never been afraid of my brother. Maybe I should’ve been but Torvan was so full of hot air that some days I expected him to float away like a balloon filled with helium. Then everything changed and I haven’t been able to figure out why.”
“Maybe he just couldn’t keep from showing his true-colors with everything going on.”
“Let’s talk about something more pleasant,” I said, not wanting to think about the upcoming trip that would put distance between me and the mate I’d only reunited with a few hours ago.
“Kids? Was that a yes on kids earlier?” Rho asked.
“Where would we live? In Cabin Three?” I asked.
Rho flashed me a sad smile before speaking. “Are you already feeling limited by my reality?”
“Not exactly. I’m the one who left my life, remember?” I shrugged. “I’m just wondering the logistics of it.”
“There are residential communities in the Other World,” Rho said. “You know that. If you don’t want kids you can say that. You don’t have to pick a fight over it.”
“I never said that,” I sighed.
“Where would we live? In Cabin Three?” Rho parroted my words back to me. “Sounds like you were trying to pick a fight to me but I’m not going to fight with you. We’ll colonize Cabin Three if that’s what you want and build skywards like you dragons love to do.”
“So much for more pleasant conversation,” I sighed. “Look, I want kids. I just think we have to figure out where we’re going to raise them. I don’t want them growing up surrounded by all these sad people. It’s no way for a kid to live.”
“Okay, I’ll house hunt while you deal with your brother,” Rho said. “Finding a house is not some insurmountable obstacle.Couples do it every day, my dragon. If you’re upset about your brother or Cutter’s ghosts or Sherry being Sherry we can talk about that but I don’t have the patience to have a fake argument when you’re upset about something else. I’m too old for that. I waited too long for you to come back to sit here and let you be an asshole.”
“What if our kids grow up like Torvan?”
“They didn’t,” Rho shook his head.
“Different genetics this time,” I pointed out.
“Not from my side,” Rho countered. “Every family has an asshole.”
Plastic crumpled somewhere in the kitchen, and everything flew off the table as Rho lifted it so that the flat part made a shield in front of us. I opened my mouth to ask what the hell he was doing but a second later an arrow hit the table and then the table hit a man in the doorway. Rho didn’t so much as glance back as he crossed the kitchen, picked up the heavy wooden table, and brought it down on the man again as if it were a giant rubber rejection stamp. Bones snapped and organs crunched.
“What the fuck?” I finally asked when my brain figured out there was something to be confused about.
“Assassin,” Rho said. “Stones talk to each other. Let’s just say that I spent long enough at this camp that all the stones are my friends.”
“Who would want to kill you?” I asked, my nose scrunching up at the scent of the insides of the man spilling out of him.
“Not me, my dragon,” he sighed. “You, and no before you ask, he wasn’t a ghost. He had his arrow aimed right at you. I think the only thing that stopped him from getting the second one knocked into place was his utter shock when I picked up the table and started to fight back. I would ask if you recognized him but unless he’s the descendant of minced meat he’s unrecognizable.”
We stood there for a long, quiet second staring at the dead man. I’d seen plenty of dead folks in my day and made more than a few of them that way but I’d never seen someone so utterly crushed like they’d been put into a giant mortar and pestle. Footfalls rushed down the hall and a second later a handful of elven guards stood before us. One swore under his breath and lifted his foot right after it came down in the gooey pile of slush that was an assassin a few minutes ago.
“Does it make it better if he tried to kill us first?” Rho asked, a charming smile pulling at the corners of his mouth as he sat the table down.
“What the hell?” Cutter asked, pushing his way through the guards and leaping over the dead guy goo in a single bound, reminding us all that under his sad human face roamed the king of the jungle.
“Assassin,” I said.
