“Who?” I asked.
“Not anyone Meera could return the egg to.” Desmon leaned back into his high-backed leather chair. “I recognized it the moment I saw the green on the egg. The dragoness lost a competition with me several years ago and has been forced to sleep for a hundred years.”
“A hundred years!” Meera gasped. “But it can’t wait that long!”
“It won’t. It can’t. It will hatch soon,” Desmon said. “Gillisandra most likely considered the egg forfeit. But it tracks because it explains why something as precious as a viable egg was left unattended.”
“Gillisandra can’t be the only parent,” Seth said. “And the father will have to show up if he wants his child back. Meera can hand him Omelet then, that is, if you are willing to part with it.”
“For a price, of course,” Desmon agreed.
“Wouldn’t the egg hatching break the spell?” I asked. Then Meera wouldn’t need to meet this dragon in person and possibly be tempted by the life he could give her. I had a lot of wealth saved up from years of hoarding my own treasures, but it was nothing even close to what a dragon could offer.
I was suddenly back in that awful wizard’s possession, sneaking out of Seraphina’s window and desperate to prove that I was worthy, and realizing that I’d never be good enough.
“Won’t work,” Seth said. “It might just transfer to the dragonlet. Or worse. The spell might decide that the only option left is to remove Meera from the equation.”
I growled at the distasteful idea. “What about finding these wizards and taking them out? Don’t most spells only last until the caster dies?”
“Might work. Or it might not. But it still leaves us with an egg. Don’t dragons contract eggs and sperm for all their offspring?” Seth asked. “Won’t there be a trail?”
“I have found none. Though I have a guess of who the father could be,” Desmon said. “Gillisandra is a conniving female. She could’ve acquired the necessary DNA through trickery, which is highly likely. That would mean that whoever the father is hadn’t known about it until it surfaced after her incarceration. If they did, they’d make every effort to find it, whether to hatch it themselves or destroy it.”
“Destroy?” The look of horror on Meera’s face was unmissable
“No dragon would want his DNA in another’s hand,” I explained. “So if he could not acquire the egg before it hatched, he might choose to destroy it any way possible instead. I know it may sound heartless to human sensibilities, but dragons are not human, and they don’t abide by the same moral code. No offense, Desmon.”
Desmon waved his hand dismissively. “It has taken me decades of working with monsters and humans to understand their strange ways. I know my mate will insist I help free Meera from the spell, and if it puts another dragon in my debt, then I don’t see why not. We will track down this dragon from your dreams and set up the transfer.”
“Wait!” I stepped forward, like I was trying to stop the plan with my body. “Meera doesn’t have to be there physically, does she? Can’t she just leave it somewhere for him to pick up?”
“That won’t work,” Seth said. “Unless you want Meera to be constantly worried about the ghouls showing up again. Magic can be very literal sometimes, and in this instance, the spell is looking for the moment where she literally hands it over.”
“I can handle a few ghouls. I can’t protect her from a dragon. What’s stopping the other dragon from just squashing her and Omelet in one fell swoop to get rid of them and avoid being in your debt? There’s no guarantee he even wants the egg. He could see it as a threat. The dream could be a lie.”
“You doubt my ability to protect a human.” A wisp of smoke rose from Desmon’s left nostril.
Shit. I hadn’t meant to imply that or set off a dragon. “No. I’ve been tasked to protect her and—”
“Well, in that case, you and Redrock are released from service. You are no longer responsible for her safety. Thank you for bringing her and the egg to me. Meera will stay here.” Desmon stood, signaling the end of the conversation, and stepped out of the library.
Stay here? With What’s-His-Face the fire ifrit?
I paced the room fuming, as Seth and Mateo looked on, amused. What the hell were they staring at anyway? They had their mates. They are happy. It wasn’t their female being paraded in front of an unknown, powerful, and most likely dangerous entity. We were talking about a dragon here.
Well fuck them. They didn’t matter. I turned to the only one who did.
I turned to Meera. “You don’t have to do this.
“But I should. I can’t hide from ghouls forever.”
“I’ll protect you.”
“You can’t protect me forever either. I have a life to get back to, and so do you.”
“You can move here. You’re a realtor. It will be perfect. Darlington is up and coming; there are so many new developments.”
“It’s not that easy. And I don’t want to hide for the rest of my life. That’s no life at all. What if I want to do something on my own? I can’t have you show houses with me.”
