“You, of course, have done nothing to invite these feelings.”
Leena’s gaze shifted to the floor. “Not intentionally.”
Marjory made a sound deep in her throat. “And you have explained to him your oath and obligations?”
“Yes, Mother.” She was a horrible scribe for acting on her impulses. She must go back to the temple. Must put distance between Colin and herself.
“Then I fail to see the problem. I am sure he will respect the boundaries of your oath.” Leena’s gaze snapped up to her Quanling’s and found the woman’s eyes cold and hard.
“But I think it would be best—”
“The temple is not a place to hide, daughter, especially now, not with a world at war. You and Colin will come with me back to the temple where you, and no one else, will help him find what he is looking for. Am I understood?”
Leena swallowed. “Yes, Mother.”
“Very good.” She ushered her back to the ambassador. “Apologies for the delay. Leena misunderstood her assignment. She will help in any way she can to protect and advance the kingdom of Rogos.”
“Splendid,” Raj said. “The high lord will be pleased.”
And so, Leena thought with a scowl, would Colin.
Chapter Fourteen
New Orleans
December 25th, 2018
Raven chewed her lip while her mother and father stared at Charlie with a look of total surrender on their faces. They’d been like that for the better part of an hour, just trying to let everything sink in. She thought it was not unlike the stages of grief. They’d journeyed through denial and then anger, when her father had chastised them all for keeping this a secret for so long, and now she suspected they were entering depression.
They sat shoulder to shoulder on the floral sofa in the living room, both looking a little light-headed, and leaned into each other as if they were holding each other up.
“You’re a witch,” Sarah said absently. “All three of you are witches.”
They’d gone over this a hundred times. “Yes. Just like the family legends always said.” Raven nodded. “It was all true. It runs in our blood.”
Sarah glanced at David as if he were to blame, but, in fact, it was the Tanglewood bloodline, Sarah’s bloodline, that gave them their magic. “I guess it skipped a generation.”
“And you’re a dragon?” David squinted at Gabriel and ran a hand down his face when her mate nodded slowly. “Our grandchild can fly.”
“Yes,” Raven said in her most soothing voice… again.
“It’s really not that big of a deal.” Avery flipped one hand in the air, garnering looks of horror from her parents. “Once you get used to the idea, it will seem perfectly normal.”
Charlie chose that moment to soar across the room and land in Raven’s lap. David’s mouth dropped open in a frown so exaggerated it was almost comical. Gabriel rubbed Raven’s shoulder and pulled Charlie into his arms.
“I never had a family like this,” Gabriel said in a voice like scorched embers. “My childhood was filled with weighty expectations and clenched teeth. My uncle assassinated my father and my eldest brother.”
Sarah inhaled sharply, and David wrapped a comforting arm around her.
“My father was more concerned with how well we fought in the pits than showing us any sort of affection. Still, I missed him after he was gone. Our uncle, as it turns out, was acting under my mother’s influence. She tricked my siblings and me into thinking we must stay apart, and so for three hundred years, we didn’t even have one another.”
A gagging sound came from Sarah’s direction. “Did you say three hundred years?”
Gabriel glanced toward Raven, a resigned look on his face. “I am approximately five hundred years old, give or take a few due to the differences in the time flow between our worlds. I am a dragon. I am immortal. As are your daughter and your granddaughter.”
Now Sarah pressed both hands into her mouth.
“I keep waiting for you all to tell us the punch line,” David said. “But we’re the punch line. The human grandparents.” He gestured toward Charlie, shaking his head. “Is this real?”
