Page 19 of A Dragon's Miracle (Fires of Fate)
Ryan
The dinner partyFinn's mother organized took place about two weeks after Finn had brought me chicken soup. The date was suspiciously close to Thanksgiving, and I wondered whether Finn's mom had read something about it on the internet and liked it. Or maybe she'd heard about it from Adrian.
The two were chatting amicably as they set the dinner table together, completely ignoring the noise Adrian's three year old twins were making as they raced each other around the room, dressed in tiny toddler suits.
One of them almost ran into me and made me stumble. I would have fallen flat on my face if someone hadn't pulled me back at the last second.
“Careful there,” Zed said.
I straightened. “Thank you.”
“Those twins can be a force of nature. Can't wait for my daughter to get to that age,” Zed said with a grin.
That moment, Adrian came over to us. “I'm sorry. Did anything happen?”
“It's fine,” I said.
Adrian shook his head. “I'm going to have them sit down. They've been out of control ever since their little brother arrived.” He looked over to the other side of the room, where his mate was sitting with the newest addition to their family.
“They're probably taking advantage of the fact that your focus is elsewhere,” Zed said.
“Little bastards,” Adrian said with a smile. “We'll see how they like it when I take their toys.”
I braced my ears for the oncoming temper tantrum as Adrian walked over to his boys.
“You ever want to have kids?” Zed asked me.
Why did everyone want to know that lately? “I don't know,” I said. “I...” I had to stop because something got stuck in my throat and I had to cough. God dammit. I really had to get some more medicine soon.
Before I realized what was going on, Zed put his hand on my back and I flinched as I felt his magic, but the urge to cough dissipated.
I whirled around and stared at Zed, who met my gaze with raised eyebrows.
Oh shit.
“Please don't say anything to Finn,” I asked him.
His expression turned to one of sympathy. “So you know.”
“Yeah.” I avoided his gaze and looked at the dinner table instead. People were starting to take their seats. “It's not a cold, I know that.”
“Is this why you're turning Finn away?”
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, gathering myself. There were so many reasons I was turning Finn away. All of them related to me, and none of them related to him. “I'd rather not talk about it, if you don't mind.”
“I understand. I’d try to heal you but, this is too much. I’m sorry.”
“There’s no reason for you to feel sorry.” I was well aware that this was beyond what Zed could cure. Not even Jin could help me without his potions. He could alleviate my symptoms with his touch, when he chose to, but he couldn’t make the cancer go away. “I’d appreciate if you didn’t mention this to anyone.”
For a moment, Zed was quiet. Then he said, “I'm not going to tell Finn, but only because I think you should be the one to do that.”
I swallowed. The message was clear. If I didn't tell Finn anytime soon, he would.
“I have to make another trip home soon,” I said. “I'll talk to him after that.”
Zed nodded, and then he walked away to sit with his mate. I chose a random chair to sit in.
I wasn't surprised when Finn joined me a few minutes later, a big smile on his face, a toy car in his hand, and one of Adrian's toddler's hanging on his arm.
