Page 75 of A Story of Sinners

Then, we moved, starting the slow and arduous journey to my room.

* * *

Eulalia ordered dinner to be delivered to the room, and when we’d arrived, I immediately dove into bed. The two ladies chattered as they waited for the knock on the door announcing the arrival of dinner, and I closed my eyes for what seemed like an eternity.

A hand on my shoulder woke me, and I squinted my eyes open, seeing Gabriella hovering over me. “Dinner is here. It looks like it came with a present, too.”

“Huh? A present? From whom?” In my addled state, my mind had conjured Dream Ryken, and I prayed for a note from him, at the bare minimum.

“I don’t know, silly. Open it,” Gabriella answered and retreated to the small table in the center of the room.

I pushed my hair from my face and padded over to the table, taking a seat and eyeing the small box with a note attached. My heart jumped for a moment, but when I grabbed the envelope and spotted the green dragon seal, it dropped.

Only a present from the dragon lord.

I carefully opened the envelope and peeled out the letter inside. A small sentence sat scrolled on the top of the page.You were missed at the dragon flight.

I went for the box, opening it to find a small ruby gemstone surrounded by velvet. There was no chain or setting, just a simple gem. To gift a full piece of jewelry would indicate something other than what our relationship entailed.

“Be careful of Fin’s Father,” Eulalia warned. “He’s an unmated male dragon, and they tend to collect beautiful females like gold, hoarding and stashing them away so nobody can get close. I don’t want to see you become one of those females.”

I snorted and met her eyes. “Eulalia, he’s ancient.” He really was—older than I could comprehend, around even before Ryken’s grandparents had ruled the realm. I pushed the box to the side. “Trust me, it isn’t like that. Not at all.”

Eulalia stared blankly at my face, expecting some hint I was misleading her, but I was being honest. Lord August had lost his mate, Fin’s mother, during the war, as well as his daughter—Fin’s sister. While the dragon lord did hoard women like gold, I was not one of them. The dragon lord didn’t see me that way; the complete opposite, actually.

I reminded him of his former daughter, with hair the same red as hers and eyes the same green and gold. He found our shared time to be a comforting balm to the losses he felt. I, in turn, felt the same way about him and Redmond, whose new sole focus was Ryken. The two had become thicker than thieves, one never too far from the other, forgetting my existence entirely, besides the occasional lurking.

I shook my head and winked at Eulalia. “In that case, you better mate your dragon fast, before he starts hoarding women like gold.”

She slapped my arm and chuckled. We both knew Fin wasn’t the type to chase women. He wasn’t before her and wouldn’t be after her. Though, with the soul bonding, there wouldn’t be anafter. If one went, so would the other.

Eulalia shifted her attention to Gabriella, who was pouring dragon juice into teacups—a drink made from the juice of dragon fruit and sprinkled with relaxing herbs, something Eulalia and I both desperately needed. “How was your day, Gabriella?”

Gabriella pushed the ceramic cups to us and took a sip of hers, slyly peeking from the top of the rim. “It was alright, but tomorrow will be better.”

I tilted my head, noting the mischievous glint in her eyes. “Oh? Why will tomorrow be better?”

She placed her cup back on the table and licked her lips. “Kieran will visit tomorrow.”

The two of them seemed to tip toe around each other, obviously attracted, but I’d never witnessed a spoken word between them. In fact, I wasn’t entirely sure Kierandidspeak. Still, whenever he was due to come around, Gabriella dressed in the finest of fae clothes, styled her hair, and donned extra cosmetics. It was as if she knew, on some deep subconscious level, that he would be arriving in the Dragon Lands. I’d never bothered to ask her how she knew.

“How do you always know when he’s coming around? I’ve never actually heard him speak. Does he tell you in advance?”

She dipped her head, and a blush colored her olive skin. “He speaks a lot, actually…quite a lot, but only in my dreams.”

My brow raised. “Your dreams?”

Her lips quirked as she fought a barely contained smile. “Every night when I dream, he pays me a visit. He tells me about his day in the winter court and asks about mine…and when he touches me, it feels so real.”

I could feel my eyebrows threatening to recede into my hairline, completely aghast for multiple reasons. I held up my hand. “Wait. We’re going to get to the whole touching thing in a minute, but what do you mean by he visits your dreams? Is that something he can do?”

“All high fae can visit dreams,” Eulalia interrupted. “Fin visits mine whenever he is away and, seeing as he hasn’t returned, tonight will probably be a dream visit.”

The muscles in my face dropped, taking away the slight smile that had formerly graced it.

Eulalia noticed. “Oh…you didn’t know that.”

“No,” I answered, completely bewildered.

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