Chapter One
NATE
I’d tucked my head against the wind, yet I knew the instant I entered the Circus. It was unlike anywhere else I’d been, with three sections of tall Georgian terraced houses curving to form a perfect circle. Tourists came to Bath from far and wide to marvel at it. Not me—I’d never wanted to see the place again.
There had been a time when it was my second home. Now, in the dark autumnal evening, I found myself wondering which sort of circus it was. Was I about to be thrown to the lions or simply a clown? In all honesty, probably both.
I dreaded the prospect of revisiting my past, but I had no choice. I was there under orders from Bim, the autocratic head of our family, who also happened to be my grandfather. Recent cyber-attacks on our family’s banks had been traced to Bath. That didn’t mean the Fortescueswerebehind the attacks, though it would be a hell of a coincidence if not—they were a dragon banking family secondin influence only to my own. My task was to use my connections with them and find out for certain.
Humans would have involved the police, but we dragons prefer to settle our own business. There’s a savagery to our dragons that the modern world can’t tame completely, though we walk among humans unsuspected. It’s better to keep it that way than face the threat of capture and experimentation.
Bim had promised a significant reward if I obtained useful intel on the Fortescues. No dragon can refuse the possibility of more treasure, but what drove me was deeper than that—IneededBim to know I was useful. And so I walked up the path to the once-familiar house and knocked on the door. Relief flooded through me when a strange human answered. The Fortescues must have moved, which meant I could go home without having seenhim.
“Can I help you?” The balding man at the door wore an off-the-peg suit, cuffs shiny from wear. It wasn’t how I’d expect someone who owned this place to dress, and I realised with a lurch that perhaps this wasn’t a reprieve. Perhaps the Fortescues had employed a butler during the years I’d been absent.
“I’m here to see James Fortescue?” Damn it, that had come out as a question, belying the fact I was a thirty-year-old City professional.
“Nate? Nate Mortimer?”
I peered around the guy in the doorway and found Ella in the hall, her mouth open as she stared at me. It had been five years, and though her figure had changed from a gawky girl to that of a young woman, there was no mistaking those clear blue eyes or the blonde curls swept up in a sophisticated style. She looked older than she was—seventeen or eighteen, I thought, unable to remember for sure. High heels clicked on the marble floor as she came swiftly over to me. Her black dress ended halfway down her thighs, and thediamond necklace above her bust sparkled in a way that demanded my attention. She’d grown up while I’d been gone.
The man at the door stood back to let me in, and Ella hugged me.
“My God,” she said, “I thought I’d never see you again after my idiot brother dumped you.”
She hadn’t changed, appearances be damned. Foot in mouth, the way she’d always been. I bit back the need to say something to salve my ego. It would be pathetic to tell her that it had been a mutual split or that I’d dumped him, especially since it wasn’t true.
“It’s good to see you,” I said instead, as she pushed close against me. Her boobs pressed into me, which was awkward, but she still wasn’t letting go.
“What are you doing here?” Ella finally drew back far enough to look into my face, and her eyes lit up. “Oh, don’t tell me, you’re back together? Charlie didn’t say athingabout it. I’m going to—”
“No,” I said sharply. Even the thought of being back with Charlie made me sick. After what he’d done to me, I never wanted to see him again.
She ran her fingers through my hair. “You’re even more gorgeous now that you’re older.”
I didn’t know what had happened to the sweet, shy girl I’d known. She was now confident, with no apparent understanding of boundaries. Very like her brother in that regard.
“I’m hoping to stay in Bath for a while, so I’d like to see your father and ask for his agreement,” I said. Bath was the Fortescue family’s territory, and part of the pact between dragon families was to respect one another’s domains. Dragons were so territorial that staying in another family’s territory without permission would be a swift way to die. “You know, manners? You may have heard of them.”
“I have no idea why I like you,” she teased. “Give your jacket to Taylor, and then you can come upstairs and find Daddy. I know he’ll be pleased to see someone civilised—we’re drowning in visiting country bumpkins at the moment.”
That was unexpected. The Fortescues were one of the four richest, most powerful dragon families, and they mixed only with the cream of dragon society. Excepting my family, that was. Our families took pains to avoid each other for reasons that remained opaque to me. Charlie and I had been an aberration, meeting by chance at uni all those years ago.
That the Fortescues were now networking with dragon families outside their usual circles might be relevant to my investigation. Shrugging off my jacket, I passed it to the hovering butler with a word of thanks before turning back to Ella. “Sorry, you havewhovisiting?”
“Oh, a family of poors from Devon or Cornwall or somewhere like that.” She wrinkled her nose. “Daddy’s taking the opportunity to marry off some of the uglier ones.”
I looked away to disguise whatever was showing on my face. The Ella I knew had been a little insecure and very sweet. I’d never heard her talk about other people this way.
She took my arm, and the sound of multiple voices engaged in conversation grew louder as we ascended the staircase. “I didn’t mean that,” she confessed. “It’s just, I don’t know why Daddy invited them.”
I glanced down at her and saw the real Ella again. I guessed she’d been pushed past her limits by having strangers in her home. If this was the usual dragon matchmaking visit, pairing single dragons with those from a different family to keep bloodlines strong, she was probably being pestered at every turn. A lot of people would want her. AllIwanted was to examine the diamonds in thatnecklace she was wearing, but I couldn’t see any way sticking my face so close to her bust would turn out well for me.
“Perhaps it’s more about soft power than money,” I suggested.
“What could they possibly have that we need?”
I’d like to know that, too.
