Dragon Cipher Read online

  That did not happen.

  Instead, a brisk knock from the hallway startled both of us. Laurel jumped a little in her seat. I had not expected our visitors, but I knew already who they were.

  “Ah. It is Cobalt and Kat,” I grumbled as I rose. “Nobody else has the power to override my elevator codes.” I didn’t add that my dragon senses alone would have told me that it was the two shifters who shared ownership of the club upstairs with me.

  “I’m surprised that you allow even Cobalt to move freely within your apartment.”

  “I certainly do not,” I answered. Knowing that she would not respond well if I allowed my bad mood to take hold, though, I brushed off my outrage with a small grimace. “He has never entered my space without my permission before. Perhaps there is an emergency.”

  With a crackle of dragon energy, my visitors entered the dining room where Laurel and I had been such a cozy twosome only a moment ago. Neither of them looked happy.

  Kat stepped purposefully toward Laurel. “You are safe!” she exclaimed.

  “Of course I am,” Laurel said. She looked no more thrilled to see the others than I was.

  Kat shook her head at me in frustration. “Well, can you blame us for wondering? Sure, you let us know last night that she was with you, but no word since then? I was concerned.” She paused, then finished her thought. “As we all know that Laurel does not care for dragon company, I was worried that…”

  “That I was holding her hostage?” I asked flatly. “That she consented to stay for a short time, and then I tied her up and prevented her from leaving?”

  Cobalt broke in. “No, of course not. Nobody thought anything like that.” He was more restrained than Kat, but not very convincing. Although it grated more than I would admit that they had trespassed on my home life after all this time, I also realized that they were telling the truth.

  Kat meant it when she said that she had been worried about Laurel. And that was the one thing in the world that could have made me more lenient. Everybody knew Laurel hated dragons. I couldn’t explain the fact that she had consented to stay here. I only knew that I was glad she had.

  “Well, now that you are here, shall I offer you coffee as well?” It was the last thing I wanted to do, but there was no help for it.

  Kat eagerly pulled up a chair and helped herself to some fruit. “Ah, thank you, Safyr. I’ve never understood why we don’t socialize with you more outside the club. I can’t believe that I haven’t ever seen your place.”

  “No.” Politeness required that I add more than that. “It is just that I am more comfortable meeting people at work.”

  “I know, and I am sorry that we came barging in here like this,” Cobalt rejoined. He had the grace, at least, to look abashed at having come here. He knew full well that I did not receive visitors here and that I never had.

  “It is no matter. Now that I have invited the beautiful Laurel here, it seems that I am open for business to all.” I winced at how sour I sounded. This had to move forward. It was the only way. If I wanted to win my mate, then I had to change. I was going to have to move outside my comfort zone, as they said in this world. I pasted a social smile on my face, as I did every evening at work. “As you are here, I wanted to ask your opinion about something. You in particular, Cobalt.”

  “Yes?” He was polite, but not terribly interested.

  “Come this way. Let me show you something.” The two women had momentarily settled into comfortable chatter, which I did not disturb. Laurel had known Kat as her friend before she became Cobalt’s mate and a dragon herself. It was that link that allowed her to brave this temporary situation as a houseguest of the shifters she feared. That, and of course, her passion for her research on the magic of this dimension.

  “Look at this,” I urged Cobalt again, eager to capture his attention while it was just the two of us. We were Elterian dragons, born and bred in Caerulean House. His judgment of the problem meant a good deal to me.

  That said, I could not bear to even think of his judgment of me. Of my past.

  No. No time for squeamishness now.

  I led Cobalt back through the hallway and to the living room desk. We walked straight to the tablet. It was the most important thing I owned, for reasons different from any other dragon who might have possessed it. It still hung on the wall, untouched by either Laurel or me since last night.

  When Cobalt saw what I was looking at, he let out a low whistle of amazement. His face drained to a pale color that was in stark contrast to his tanned forearms. His crisp, white shirt made him look every inch the Florida billionaire this morning. He had carved out a life here that was almost as convincing as my own.

  Except that his was real, and mine was not.

  I felt my lips curve up in enjoyment of his reaction to seeing the gleaming gold on the wall over the desk.

  Ha. I had finally let my old friend see even a sliver of my story. His amazement was both palpable and gratifying. It was enough to make one want to start sharing secrets. Almost.

  He actually stammered. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Probably,” I rejoined happily. “It is from the Age of Chaos on Elter. A golden tablet, handmade by dragons who possessed more, and wilder, magic than we can even conceive of.”

  Cobalt lifted a hand to reach for it. Perhaps he meant to take it down to examine it.

  I recoiled, with a fierce injunction, “You mustn’t touch it.”

  “All right.” He yielded. “You’re a bit of a rabid preservationist, are you? I had no idea. I didn’t think you collected anything unless it was at the bottom of a glass.” He snorted at his own wit.

  I shrugged that off. “I have a few treasures in my collection, yes.” In truth, I did not. I owned almost nothing besides this. But all this would make more sense to him if he thought I was a history buff.

  “Where could you even get such a precious thing?” He continued to look at it in wonder, stepping this way and that to get a better view of the markings on the surface without touching it. “I have heard legends of such magical objects, but even those are so far back that I can hardly remember the tales. These things were made before the days of the Founders, before those dragons set into motion the plan of the Elterian Houses.”

  “They were. I have no question as to its provenance, of course. It is most certainly genuine.” I forestalled his next questions with a slight wave of my hand. “However, I cannot reveal how it came into my hands. All I can say is that I am utterly sure that there are no others remaining in any world.”

  Cobalt ran his hands through his hair, making it stand on end. It was unusual to see him so stirred. “This should be in a museum on Elter, man. It is the oldest artifact that remains from our world, no question. You have a responsibility to share it with others.”

  “No, I don’t,” I answered firmly. “It will never be in a museum. It is a magical object, not a toy! It needs to be with me.”

  I saw a flicker of curiosity in his face, but he did not press the issue.

  I drew a long breath, calming myself. I had not shown him the tablet, after all these years of keeping it to myself, merely so I could spill all my secrets at once. I had not intended to draw attention to myself like that.

  Beginning again, I addressed the real matter at hand. “I was hoping to consult with you about this. I know that you are not an expert in ancient magic. I am seeking consultation with Laurel about it.”

  Humor danced in his eyes at the idea that I had invited Laurel into my home for the night for professional reasons, to ‘consult’ with her, but he let it go.

  Undaunted, I went on. “You may be able to help me identify the source of the gold. It was made so long ago, that of course the political boundaries were different on Elter than they are now. But what I’d like to do is to take the tablet back to the precise location it was made.”

  “Whatever for?” Cobalt looked disbelieving. “You’d take something so priceless out into the middle of nowhere, jus
t to allow it to commune with its origins?”

  I closed my lips tightly. I hadn’t prepared a cover story for this. Laurel would know immediately what I was talking about. If we wanted to unravel the spell that was keeping a piece of my soul imprisoned, we would need to take the tablet to its place of creation.

  I could take us through a portal to Elter. Laurel could work the magic that would release the tablet’s grip on me.

  All I needed to know was where to go.

  Cobalt was an exceptionally well-traveled man in the landscape that was the modern world of Elter. He had been the Captain of the Guards, moving in the highest circles of dragons, and seeing the physical features of the land up close. I had faith in his ability to assess this.

  Cobalt stared judiciously at the tablet, taking in the particular sheen of the metal. He tilted his head, noticing the interplay of the colors that mottled the marked, lettered surface. After a long pause, he gave me his answer.

  He was no longer laughing. Something about my seriousness had infected him as well. We were as quiet as if we were standing in a state museum, paying homage to the powerful magic that was forgotten to all dragons now.

  “I believe I can see where the metal was sourced,” he said slowly. “In fact, I am confident that I’m right. But you’ll never be able to take the tablet there.”

  “You think I’m unwilling to return to Elter?” I asked. “It is true that I have not been there in a very long time. But I have resolved to take this tablet back. Laurel will go with me.”

  “It’s not that I don’t believe your intention to go. It’s just that you can’t. This piece was made in the heart of the most dangerous part of our world. Back then, it might have been a mountain without settlement. A mine, perhaps. But now? Now it is the stronghold of the red dragons.”

  Icy apprehension froze my dragon spirit. “The actual stronghold of House Rubellus?”

  “That’s right. I know that mountain well. You can’t possibly plan to go there, even if you frame it as a diplomatic mission. And you can’t…”

  I finished his sentence. “I could never take Laurel there.”

  Just like that, my purpose for living, the reason I had kept going for so long, fell away from me. There was no way around this. No other possibility.

  I needed Laurel to unwind the magic. I had to break free, if I hoped to take her as my eternal mate.

  And yet, going into the heart of the most perilous part of my dragon homeland was the one thing that I could never, ever ask of her.

  Chapter 9: Laurel

  What a relief it was to sit and talk with Kat for even a few minutes. I felt a pang of regret that I had been so snippy with her for most of my visit. I had been a poor houseguest, distracted from obligations of politeness by the discomfort I felt amongst dragon shifters.

  When I tried to apologize, though, Kat would have none of it.

  “I am sorry that I was grouchy with Cobalt at the market,” I began. “It is hard to explain, but I have been angry at dragons for so long that it is hard to relax with them. I hope he understands.”

  “Of course. We both do. And it isn’t hard at all to see that after what you’ve been through in a world where dragons dominate peasants and take their very lives, you might be worried about spending time with them.” Kat nodded gravely at me.

  I knew what she was thinking, though. “It is strange, though, that I wanted to come here. Isn’t it? I agreed to visit you here, staying on an island community of dragon shifters, spending time in your home with you and Cobalt. Now that you are both…” I didn’t want to seem rude, so I trailed off.

  “I know. Now that I’m a dragon shifter as well, it is harder for us to be friends.” She leaned toward me, tucking her chin down as she considered what I’d said. “I don’t think it has to be, though.”

  “I want to be honest. It sounds terrible, but I was more comfortable with you back when you were a human. Before you became Cobalt’s mate, and a dragon.” Then I felt a flush creeping up my cheeks. I was going to have to say what I was really thinking. I paused, then blurted it out all at once. “What’s it like?”

  Kat’s face opened up into a wreath of smiles. She looked as if she was trying for all the world to keep her private thoughts to herself, but she could not. Clearly, my question had brought up intense feelings of happiness. And, more than that, something that looked like lust. Like a passion that was fulfilled, but at the same time endless.

  She grinned at me. What must I look like to her, wondering about all this with my usual transparent expression?

  “Laurel, it’s ok. I don’t mind talking about it. It’s just hard to put it into words. When I fell in love with Cobalt, I thought at first that it was a regular love affair. You know, when you can’t stop thinking about somebody, and you want to be with them all the time. The sort of thing you read about in books. But there was this underlying...um...hunger. That’s all I can say to describe it. I felt it within me all the time. It made me crazy at first, before I knew what it was.”

  “And what was it?” I was hanging on her every word, like a girl.

  “It was the telltale sign that we were fated mates. Do you know much about it? I guess I thought that since you were from Elter yourself, that you would have more information about it than I do.”

  “But I’m a peasant,” I answered bitterly. “I would never in a million years think I would be the mate of a dragon. More like his meal.”

  “That complicates it, doesn’t it?” Kat spoke seriously. “I saw your face just now. Are you feeling this for Safyr?”

  I brushed aside her comment, waving a hand at her as if I could make the whole topic go away. “Of course not. That would be insane. Wouldn’t it?”

  “I don’t know. But I can tell you that Cobalt was amazed that Safyr brought you back here last night. He never, ever, allows anybody to come here to his apartment.”

  “Oh, that. He just wants my help with something. As friends.” I knew I sounded like an idiot. But it was too personal to talk about. How could I admit to her, to my friend who was also now a member of the race I hated desperately, that I knew what she meant?

  How could I say aloud that since I met Safyr, I had felt the ache of wanting to be with him every second, of wishing that he was with me? Even right now. It seemed that they had been in the living room too long.

  I shook my head to clear it. That was crazy. There was no way I was ever going to build a future with a dragon shifter. So I might as well get over the silly fantasy that I missed him when he was no farther away than the other room.

  Honestly.

  Just as Kat was tilting her head, looking at me with equal parts sympathy and doubt, the two men returned to the dining room. There was something shuttered about Safyr’s face. He had left the room in a cheerful mood, ready to take a step forward and open himself up to his friend.

  He wanted to grasp a new chance at life, but it was more difficult for him than he cared to admit. I saw plainly how hard it was for him to let go of his habitual isolation.

  How could anybody think that he was a gregarious bon vivant? It was as if they could not see him at all.

  But now, coming back into the room, he looked even more alone than he had last night. He was as closed as the mussels I had seen at the market. What had happened, to lead to such a change?

  Safyr turned to me. His voice was kind, but his words were strained. “If you two don’t mind staying here to enjoy your coffee together, Cobalt and I are going to go up to the club. We have a little business to take care of this morning.”

  Kat merely nodded at her mate. Some message passed between them, and I remembered that they might have an actual telepathic link.

  I craved that with Safyr so sharply that I almost cried out. I wanted what they had. Was it wrong to need something for myself?

  I already felt that I could read Safyr’s actions and body language so well. What would it be like to have a way into his mind as well? Would it confirm what I thought I kn
ew of him, or would I meet somebody entirely new to me?

  My magic was supposed to be helping me, yet it was as if I had none when it came to Safyr. The tall, blue-eyed dragon shifter was a part of me already, and yet simultaneously so far beyond my understanding.

  With an attempt to be as easygoing as Kat, I tried to show that I was fine with the idea of their making a quick trip up to the penthouse club. “We’ll be here, no hurry,” I assured Safyr.

  As they left, though, I found myself silently fuming. I had become somebody who waited for dragons. That wasn’t me. I was a revolutionary, working for my people. My life plan was about freeing all peasants from dragon rule.

  I’d thought that I could come here and accept their hospitality if it meant that I got closer to my goal. But what if I was merely fooling myself? What if I was, yet again, the butt of a painful joke in which dragons devalued people until there was nothing left of us?

  But that wasn’t what Cobalt had done to Kat.

  I sat up straighter and poured myself another cup of the perfect, steaming coffee. As I stirred it, I tried again to learn from Kat without telling her more than I wanted to share.

  “What do you really know about Cobalt?” I sent her a shy smile, not wanting to appear rude. “Do you know how old he is? Just for example?”

  Kat looked perplexed. “Of course. Now that we are mated, I know everything about him, from his tiniest likes and dislikes, to his most secret eternal hopes.” She rubbed her lower lip, baffled at my question. “You know it doesn’t really matter how old a dragon is? They are all vastly older than us. The differences are too great to even try to understand. One must just trust.”

  “That’s not something I do well.”

  “Nor I, at first. But it came.”

  “What if you found out that Cobalt was lying about something?”

  “That could never happen. I know his soul now. He is of Caerulean House. Thus, he cannot act with anything other than honor. It’s as simple as that. Really, though, it all changes when you become mates. It might be that you will find out.” Kat smiled. I wasn’t fooling in the least with my falsely casual chatter.