Page 65 of MidKnight
I stared at him. Really looked. Because Declan was being vulnerable with me. He was telling me his greatest wish. He was asking me to grant it.
It filled my heart to bursting to know that he loved me that much. So, I nodded. “Okay.” Somehow, I would give that to him.
He smiled softly and dragged a hand down my arm. “Now,” he cleared his throat, “Ryan said you had another coin.”
I reached into my cleavage, causing Declan to moan. “Really? You had to keep it there?”
I giggled, “Making you rethink your requirements?” I pushed up the girls so he could get a better view. One of my nipples popped into sight.
“Uh,” Declan reverted to grunts, his eyes dilating as he reached to tweak it.
“Nope, I’m not desperate yet,” I tucked myself back into the dress. Now that I knew how much he really wanted our first time alone to be special, I wasn’t going to let it randomly happen. Instead, I grabbed the coin and handed it to him. It was still warm from my skin.
Declan took disappointment better than I expected, but perhaps his submissive side was used to being told ‘no.’ He grabbed the coin from my hand. “It’s exactly like the other one.”
“Yes. Donaloo, the wizard, gave it to me. And said something about failure being the price we pay for success.”
“Donaloo?” Declan’s eyes went wide. “He’s a legend!”
“Well, he’s also only half-there.” I wound a finger around my head in a ‘crazy’ motion. “He may or may not be coming to help us with the dragon.”
“This is amazing!” Declan’s face lit up.
“I might be slightly offended over you getting more excited about a half-crazed wizard than sex with me,” I said.
“Peace, he could help us.”
“I realize that. It’s why I asked for his help.”
“He’s nearly three-hundred-years old,” Declan said, suddenly standing and dumping me off his lap. “Oh, sorry! I wasn’t—”
I laughed, “It’s fine. I realized scholar Declan had come out when I saw your reaction to the name Donaloo. I swear, it’s like you have a separate personality.”
Declan wasn’t listening to me. He was already combing through a pile of books near his bed.
“I don’t know that I looked back far enough inEvaness Treasury History,” Declan muttered aloud. I leaned against his desk and watched bemused, as he paced the room, flipping pages in the book. “Here!” He smacked a page triumphantly with his pointer finger. “I found it!”
I went over to him and peered down at the page. On it was the profile of the woman from the gold coin. “Queen Aubrina.” I looked down at the date. “She lived nearly two hundred years ago.”
“Exactly! I hadn’t found her yet, but I did go through the tax payments from last year. The payment from Aiden and his province was made almost entirely in these coins. They’re in our vault.”
“What does that mean? I can’t punish anyone for their ancestors stealing from the crown,” I shook my head. “Or digging up buried treasure or whatnot.”
Declan bit his lip. “I know. The question becomes, where did he get all these old coins? Doesn’t it seem unlikely that he’d stumble over buried treasure? I mean, his land is smack in the middle of the country… pirates aren’t likely to go there.” Declan started pacing, book in his hands.
Blue fluttered over to me and settled on my shoulder. I patted his wings. “Sunken treasure or a pirate ship seem far more reasonable for the coastal provinces.”
“Sunken treasure!” Declan’s eyes lit up. “That’s an idea.”
“But how would Aiden, or whoever he’s working with, get it?”
Declan shrugged. “If it was in the shallows, a diver could get it. Or magic it up, obviously. They’d need to know the exact location, so divers might still need to be involved. The sea between Sedara and Rasle used to have horrid storms. I did a research project on it for Tutor Mathers once. One of every six or so ships would end up sunk. Quite nasty. I bet there’s a ton of coins down there.” He tapped his lip and paced again.
“But,” I tilted my head and said, “let’s say you’re an incredibly magical person who could control a djinni and a dragon. Wouldn’t you be powerful enough to just create coins? Modern coins?”
“Dammit!” Declan slammed a hand into his bedpost and marched over to his desk. He put a tic mark on the edge of the parchment. But then he ripped the parchment and handed the sliver with the mark to me. “Keep that. Sarding hell! Your version makes more sense. Why the hell would someone powerful use old coins that weren’t just lying around? It would be stupid. Too much work. Harder than minting them.”
“Sorry,” I shrugged, worrying the little parchment into a twist. “I just … I feel like we’re missing something big. And I don’t know what it is.”
