Page 41 of Captured in Love
Of course he has supernatural healing. No wonder my taser spell didn’t work. There are so many things I want to know about him, his family, his entire world. I want to make sure he’s okay, that he won’t have any lasting damage from that spell. But I’m not sure how he’d take my interrogation.
He eyes us warily, then clears his throat. “I am grateful that you saved me. But I have one more favor to ask of you.”
I glance up at Levi and Raphaël, then face Isak again. “Okay?”
His pale-blue gaze goes very serious. “I need you to keep what happened here a secret. If you don’t, I’m as good as dead.”
Fourteen
Nora
I stareat Isak in disbelief. “Um, did you mean the fact that you’re a dragon or that we found an underground dragon city?”
“Both.” He stares at me, his focus complete. “But mostly the first part. Nobody can know about me, and especially not a group of witches as powerful as the Ballendial coven. They have people all over the world, not just in Scotland, and if this got out, it would mean the end of my people.”
“But we’reinthe dragon city,” I protest. “The witches obviously know about it if they placed the tokens here.”
“It’s called Sjávarborg,” he says. “And there’s a big difference between knowing that dragons existedonce upon a timeand the fact that we’re still here, hiding in plain sight.”
He says it without being dramatic, his voice completely calm. His missing eyebrows give him a slightly surprised look, but other than that, he’s dead serious.
I exchange a look with Levi, thinking furiously. The knowledge that dragons still live, sea-dwelling ones or not, would shake the magical community. I wonder if our society has evolved enough in the last seventy years to make it possible for us to coexist peacefully, but I immediately discard the idea.
No, if this got out, covens from all over the world would unite in their hunt for our old enemies.
I glance at Raphaël, who has remained silent. I only ever told Levi that he was a vampire, even though I could have alerted our coven at least that the ‘ancient evil’ witches once created still lurked around, hidden among humankind.
But I kept his secret.
It seems that now, I’ll have to keep one more.
“Okay,” I say.
What else can I say?
Levi and Raphaël give Isak their promises as well, and the Icelander relaxes marginally. The magical society thrives on mystery and gossip, so us keeping secrets is nothing new, really. I’m just glad I have a different kind of relationship with my guys. Secrets ruin relationships, and back when I was dating Raphaël in college, ours imploded completely.
But when a secret protects an entire species from extinction… Well, I guess I can make an exception for that.
There’s also the fact that Isak could likely eat us alive if we refused his request, so…
I glance over my shoulder toward the volcano. “We need to get moving.”
With regret, I turn my back on Isak and stalk away. We might have shared a couple of extremely hot kisses, but our paths will go in different directions now. I understand why he tried to warn me away from the competition, even though I was angry at him at the time. I’d thought he was just trying to get me to quit, where in reality, he was trying to look after me, even though we’d been strangers. He must have heard the truth about the Ballendial Games and was trying to save me. It’s a quality I respect in a man, but even if I wasn’t already in a relationship with Raphaël and Levi, being with Isak would be impossible. His kind and mine are literally mortal enemies. There’s no use in moping about it, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy.
Raphaël and Levi fall into step with me, and we pass between houses, cross the boulevard, and climb the staircase leading to the top of the moat for what I hope is the last time. At the beginning of the bridge, we stop, and Levi sends out a pulse of magic to make sure the spell in the portal didn’t somehow regenerate while we were taking care of Isak.
Just then, a scuffing noise behind us has Raphaël turning back, snarling.
“Hey,” Isak says as he pulls himself up the last step. “Wait up.”
He’s completely, gloriously naked, and even though his burns haven’t healed completely, I can’t say the view isn’t interesting.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Levi growls. “Cover yourself, man. You can’t walk around withthatswinging around.”
Thatis absolutely impressive, even in its current state. I’d felt it when Isak kissed me at the guesthouse, and it’s nice to know that I wasn’t wrong about its size.
Isak glances down, then winks at Levi. “You witches are such prudes. What should I put on, do you think? Unless you want to give me your suit?”
