“I won’t have a choice.” He looked at her desperately. “When the goddess installed me as the Guardian at the Gate, she ensured that I could not lie to her. If she asks, I will have to answer truthfully.”
“Then say nothing. Give her no reason to ask.”
He glared at her, his wings snapping open with his burgeoning anger. “And let them get away with it?”
Medea recoiled as if he’d slapped her. “If they hadn’t, I, your mate, would not be here. I would have never been born.”
Her words sliced into his heart and made his breath hitch.
“What harm have we done, Tavyss? We’ve lived here our entire lives, and my parents and sisters have never touched a sheep or taken a bite of an apple until the one you fed me tonight. We live on fish, roots and berries—nothing forbidden. The nymphs have helped us from the beginning. We belong here. This is our home.”
Tavyss heard the pleading in her voice, saw the tears forming in her eyes, and for a moment he wanted to comfort her. He longed to stroke her hair and tell her everything would be all right. Her wild-orchid scent grew stronger with her anger and fear. But there was an undeniable truth that he had sworn an oath to Hera. If he didn’t fulfill his duty to the goddess, what did that say about him? Was he no better than his corrupt brother and sister, having no regard for duty or loyalty if it inconvenienced his will?
“You don’t understand. I am bound—” Tavyss paused his pacing in front of her. A dark thought entered his mind. Her magic was strong, as strong as a god’s. He grabbed her by the shoulders. “Where did you learn the spell you used to project me to Paragon?”
Her mouth dropped open, and he could see fear in her eyes. Good, she needed to be afraid. If it was what he thought it was…
“I learned it from our book of magic.”
“Your book?” Relief washed over him. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe she’d learned everything she knew from her parents. “Your parents taught you everything you know? A family grimoire?”
She looked away. “Not my family’s. Mine and my sister’s. We needed to learn how to use our power, and ours is so different than our parents’. Our magic stems from our tree, you understand. The tanglewood tree. As Tanglewoods, we need to know how to wield the power we were born with; so we used our magic to conjure a teacher, and the book came to us.”
Cold horror crept up his spine, and he gripped her elbows. His dragon was dangerously close to the surface, and he saw the glow of his eyes light up her face. “Show me the book, Medea.”
With a shaking hand, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the gemstone. It was a diamond the size of a walnut, the same one she’d used to cast him into Paragon. At her suggestion, he held the stone up to his eye. He shouldn’t be able to see a thing, not with only the light of a single moon to go by, but the grimoire inside the stone put off its own golden glow. There, contained within the facets of the stone, was a book with an ornate golden cover inscribed with a peacock. Shards of ice formed in his stomach as he turned the stone and watched the pages flip, expand, and come into focus.
Magic spells. A collection of charms and incantations designed by the gods themselves.
There could be no mistake.This was Hera’s golden grimoire!
Chapter Eleven
Confusion pounded against the inside of Medea’s skull until her head ached. She’d never seen Tavyss so furious. His skin roiled as if his inner dragon fought him for control. Talons sprang from the knuckles of his hand, and his eyes glowed gold in the darkness. If they hadn’t just made love, she would have thought he wanted to kill her. Maybe he would kill her. She remembered the day she’d surprised him and he’d thrown her against the tree. He’d said he was a warrior. Her father had called him a furious beast. Was it possible she’d overestimated his capacity for compassion?
It was full dark now. Late. Her mother and father would be looking for her. Her sisters must be worried sick. But Medea dared not leave him now. Something was desperately wrong.
Tavyss backed away, shaking his head. “I have to return this to Hera. I’ll find a way to do it that makes her assume it came from Paragon.”
As quick as she could move, Medea drew her wand from her sleeve and uttered a retrieval spell. The gem flew from Tavyss’s hand into hers. “No, you will not! It’s mine and my sisters’. You shall not take it. Not even for the goddess.” She didn’t know where she got the courage to defy him, because Tavyss in this state was terrifying.
He bared his teeth. “It’s Hera’s book, Medea. She won’t rest until it is returned. She’s charged me with recovering it.” He held out a hand expectantly to her. “I won’t be able to lie. If she finds out you have it, she will smite you from this world and the next.”
Medea straightened. “And what gives her the right? She abandoned the book in the underworld. I retrieved it fairly with my own skill and resources. Isn’t that the way of the gods and men? Did not Jason secure the golden fleece in the same such manner? And Hercules, the head of Medusa?” She watched him recoil. “We both know all the stories. Hers is not the only book we’ve conjured. My sisters and I are well studied in the ways of man.”
He snatched her wrist and squeezed. The gem dropped into his opposite hand.
“Oww! You’rehurtingme!”
“I’m sorry, but it is my duty to return this to the goddess. I do this for us, Medea. She will not leave us alone without it.”
“My sisters and I are still learning the limits of our magic. This is our guide. We use the book every day. You can’t take it.” She raised her wand, her body tensing with her growing ire.
“She’ll. Kill. You.”Tavyss’s ring radiated gold. The spell she cast bounced harmlessly off his shield.
Medea trembled with the awful emotions overwhelming her. “Tavyss, you can’t possibly think that simply giving this back to Hera will stop her bitter tirade. She’ll want to know where you found it, and then she’ll come for me anyway.”
Tavyss growled, his wings snapping out to their full glory. Would he shift into that dark and deadly dragon she’d seen outside the gates?
