Dragon's Lover [Part Three] Read online

  Dragon’s Lover

  Part Three

  Carina Wilder

  Contents

  Introduction

  1. Revelations

  2. St. Dunstan in the East

  3. Gone Girl

  4. Far Away

  5. The Game is On

  6. Dinner with a Stranger

  7. Amara

  8. Night

  9. Bliss

  10. Flight

  11. Truth

  12. Endings

  Also by Carina Wilder

  Introduction

  In case you’ve forgotten: Aegis has struggled to find a way to be with Ashlyn. Only at the end of Dragon’s Lover, Part Two did he realize that maybe it’s possible after all.

  Will he get to her in time, or is the threat against her moving too fast?

  This is the third and final book of the Dragon’s Lover trilogy, which is part of the Dragon Guild Chronicles.

  Dragon Hunter

  Dragon Seeker

  Dragon’s Lover, Part One

  Dragon’s Lover, Part Two

  Dragon’s Lover, Part Three

  Dragon’s Lover (Complete)

  Dragon’s Curse

  Once consumed by lightning and flames

  A place overgrown with moss and vine

  Lies at the heart of the city on the Thames.

  Seek it when you’ve found your Shield

  And remember who you are.

  Only then will the hidden stone be revealed.

  My child of flame,

  Daughter of the ancient,

  Girl with the fiery name.

  Revelations

  “She’s a god-damned Dragon shifter, you fool!”

  The Forsaken’s words rang through Aegis’s mind with all the velocity and aggression of a high speed bullet.

  Holy. Shit.

  Everything finally made sense.

  Ashlyn’s power, her fevers, even her intoxicating scent and the strange, internal voice that she’d told Aegis about, the one that had accompanied her off and on all her life. This was her Dragon déor at work, shaping her from an invisible place somewhere deep within her body and mind.

  Aegis’s own mind, meanwhile, was moving quickly into a state of shock. His eyes blurred with angry tears, his chest unable to draw in breath. He still held fast to his Forsaken enemy’s collar, knuckles white with the fierce tension of a desperate man out for blood. Lumen, Minach and the others stood by in tense silence, watching, waiting to see how their fellow shifter would react to the revelation that the woman he’d grown to care for so deeply was one of their own.

  “If she’s the Dragon of Fire,” Aegis muttered, seeming for a moment to forget the man whose life he held in his hands, “that means…”

  “It means you could be her Seeker,” Lumen all but whispered, laying a firm hand on his friend’s shoulder. He nodded towards the Forsaken, who’d gone white with either fear or hunger; one could never tell with their kind. “Move away, Aegis, we’ll take care of this traitor. You have too much on your mind to think straight.”

  But Aegis didn’t obey immediately. Instead he pulled the Forsaken towards him, gnashing his teeth as he spoke. “What is your name, traitor?”

  “Damien,” the man said, issuing a strange, psychotic-looking smile with those horrid, jagged teeth of his.

  “Damien. I will never forget your face, or what you did to Ashlyn in that alleyway. I’ll never forget that you threatened my rightful mate.”

  With that, Aegis released the man from his grasp and let the other Guild members take over. Walking away, he pounded his right fist into his left palm as he tried to grasp the magnitude of everything he’d just learned.

  He had to get to Ashlyn, that much was certain. Had to let her know what she was, what the discovery of her origins meant for them both.

  After a few seconds Lumen joined him. “You all right, Brother?”

  “Yes, fine,” said Aegis. “Fine.” But his face didn’t convey the impression that he was registering his own words.

  “So why the hell do you look so distraught? You should be happy, if anything. This is potentially great news.”

  Aegis turned to him, his mind focused for the first time in what felt like hours. “Yes, I know. If that fucker is telling the truth, Ashlyn’s not just a Dragon shifter, but a Kindred with incredible powers. I guess it shouldn’t come as such a shock to me; I’ve seen her strength and speed. I know what she’s capable of.” The corners of his eyes finally crinkled with a hint of a smile…or was it a wince? “Christ, Lumen, everything makes sense now. My almost painful attraction to her; the devastation of almost losing her. She’s part of me, I’ve felt it from the start. But now I’m really beginning to understand the magnitude of everything that’s happened.”

  “Good. That is good, right?” His Alpha relaxed, a smile overtaking his features. Seeing Aegis look quasi-happy was a relief, to say the least.

  But the joy that should have wound its way to Aegis’s pounding heart stopped just short of its destination. His mind had flung itself into a state of chaos, everything tumbling around in a knotted mound of disarray. The thing was, it wasn’t all good. Ashlyn was now in mortal danger, the target of a creature powerful enough to lead an army of Forsaken. As if that wasn’t enough, there was a Dragon inside her who had been trying to break free for the better part of her life, and wasn’t exactly about to calm down. With every minute that passed, her human form was in danger of being overtaken by her déor. She needed to learn to tame her Dragon soon, to control it, or it could kill her.

  “The Forsaken hybrid—that Damien bastard—he said that their leader is hoping to claim her for his own,” Aegis said softly, his voice hoarse with concern. “After all of our questions, it turns out that our greatest enemy wants to use her bloodline to strengthen his own. Which means that he must be one of us. Only a Dragon shifter would be so interested in the pure blood of another of his kind.”

  “Yes, it looks that way,” Lumen muttered, turning to look towards the man whose wrists were now being bound by the Guild members. “No doubt our half-Dragon captive is one of his offspring.”

  “Of course you’re right,” said Aegis, the revelation forcing a look of disgust onto his features. “What a vile thought.”

  “Agreed,” said Lumen.

  Aegis looked around for a moment, assessing the dark end of the warehouse where the men had gathered with their captive. “I just realized something,” he said. “Where’s Tryst?”

  Lumen shrugged. “I assume she’s still under the Heath. You know she doesn’t generally come along on these jaunts of ours. Doesn’t like to dirty her hands and all that.”

  “Damnation! I wanted to ask her something, but I suppose it doesn’t matter just now. Let me see that map, would you?” Aegis said, pointing to the crumpled paper that the Alpha still held in one fist. Lumen handed it over, watching his friend spread it out in the air before him, studying every inch. All of London was drawn in graphic detail, as well as the surrounding cities and towns. A mass of red circles dotted the image, denoting the locations where many of the Dragon Guild members lived and where they congregated on a regular basis, as well as the locations where the first two Relics had been uncovered. Their enemy and his coven of Forsaken had been thorough in their research.

  Aegis’s eyes hunted for the lake in Hyde Park that concealed Lumen and Neko’s subaquatic flat. Oh, thank God. There was no red circle there, no indication that the coven knew where the Alpha resided. Perhaps Ashlyn was safe for now.

  Aegis spun around to meet his old friend’s eyes, but Lumen was already speaking. “Go,” he said. “Just…find her. Make sure she and Neko are safe. The men will take this bastard Damien
in for questioning, see if we can find out where his leader lives.”

  Aegis nodded. Shifting without another word, he shot his Dragon into the air towards the enormous hole in the warehouse’s crumbling roof. Nothing mattered now but getting to Ashlyn. He had to see her, to tell her who and what she really was. Only then could he dare to hope that their future together could begin.

  * * *

  When Aegis had slid through the entrance to Lumen’s underwater flat, he dashed immediately for the master bedroom. Neko would surely forgive him for another unannounced visit. Even if she didn’t, he’d survive. Ashlyn was the only thing that mattered right now. She had to be there; she was still recovering from her fever.

  Please tell me you haven’t left, stubborn woman. Please be in bed, waiting for me.

  But as he sprinted past the kitchen it was Neko’s voice that stopped him in his tracks.

  “She’s gone, Aegis. She left nearly two hours ago.”

  He halted and back-tracked, turning to face the doorway where Lumen’s mate now stood, an apologetic frown clouding her face.

  “What do you mean, gone?” he snarled in a tone that might have been a little more antagonistic than he should have thrown at his Alpha’s pregnant partner.

  “She just took off,” Neko replied, a look of patient understanding creasing her features. “She muttered something about how she wasn’t going to involve herself in some arranged marriage, and that if she could find the Relic on her own, nothing else would matter. I didn’t want to let her go, but I wasn’t about to fight her. Don’t get me wrong, if I weren’t pregnant then maybe I’d have taken her on, but in this state I’m a serious coward around a determined woman with a Dragon bone blade in her possession.”

  “So, she’s really done it,” Aegis muttered, his tone softening rapidly. “An arranged marriage with a Guild member seems like the least of Ashlyn’s worries at this point. Jesus, Neko, she has no idea what she is…”

  “What she is? What do you mean?” Neko took a step towards him and reached for his arm. No doubt she was growing as concerned about Ashlyn as he was.

  Aegis pressed his back to the door frame and crossed his arms over his chest, his lips down-turned. “We’ve discovered—God, I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out—that she’s one of us. She’s a Dragon shifter.” He ran a rough hand through his blond hair and winced. “It all makes sense now, I should have known from the start. Her scent, the fevers, the incredible power that she showed in that alley…”

  “Wait, back the fuck up. I’m still registering the first bit. What are you saying? How is this possible?”

  Aegis shrugged. “I don’t know; I can only guess. She doesn’t even know it herself. It’s why she’s been so ill. It’s her déor, inside her. I think it tried to come when she was a child, when all shifters’ secondary forms emerge. But she had no one to guide her through the change, to help her, so when her Dragon was trying so hard to escape her body, she was trying with all her strength to keep it inside. Treating it like a parasite. It nearly killed her.”

  “So you think that’s related to her recent fever?” asked Neko.

  Aegis nodded. “I suspect that the fevers in the last few days were a result of meeting me. I think her Dragon’s desire to emerge grew even stronger; she wanted to reach out to my own.”

  “Oh, bollocks,” Neko said, reaching protectively for her belly and the shifter child that she carried. “You’ve got to find her. If the fevers come back…”

  “No shit I’ve got to find her.” Aegis had begun to pace the hall now, his strides frantic and long. “Now think, Dunkirk. Where could she have gone?” he mumbled.

  “I have some idea,” Neko said.

  Aegis shot her a hopeful look, eyebrows arched. “Where? Tell me.”

  “Before she left, she asked me if I knew of a place that had burnt down a long time ago and was covered with moss and vine, and I told her about an old church that I saw a few years back. Well, not so much a church anymore; it’s just the empty foundation, really. I couldn’t recall its name, though, and I figured that she was just asking out of some sort of passing interest, but I suppose she might have headed that way, now that I think of it…”

  “St. Dunstan in the East,” Aegis interrupted. “Sod it, why didn’t it occur to me before? Beautiful place. It was all but destroyed in the bombs during World War Two, but they left its remnants intact. It’s all grown over with green vines now, at least in the summertime. A friend of mine got married there a few years ago, yet I didn’t even think of it…” He stepped forward and wrapped his friend in a hard embrace. “Neko, you’re a saviour.”

  “Careful, you very strong Dragon shifter man,” Neko laughed, pulling away and grabbing her belly with both hands. “There’s a baby in here, and he may be half Dragon shifter, but I’m not sure he can withstand too many hard Aegis hugs.”

  “Sorry about that. Listen, I’ve got to run. If Ashlyn comes back, keep her here. Tell her I need to speak to her as soon as possible.”

  Neko nodded. “Of course.”

  “Listen, I’m going to have to grab the Tube at Lancaster Gate Station. If I fly, I may attract the enemy. My only hope is to find her before he does.”

  “Go, then…and good luck.”

  St. Dunstan in the East

  Ashlyn stared up at the quiet sanctuary of St. Dunstan in the East, her heart sitting somewhere in the vicinity of her throat. This place—this strange, crumbling ruin—was her best hope to find happiness with the man she loved.

  Once an active church in London’s downtown, the building had been mostly destroyed by mortars during the Second World War. Grey walls of stone, divided up by arching gothic windows devoid of glass, rose up to nothingness. At one end of the structure an absent wall had been replaced by sheets of plywood, clearly meant as a deterrent to any unwanted visitors. Signs lay across its surface that read Under Construction, Do Not Enter.

  “A set of ruins closed for construction. Irony,” muttered Ashlyn as she read the warning. She shuffled over to the front of the church, examining the large blue piece of plastic sheeting that covered the entrance. After a quick look around to see if anyone was observing her, she lifted a corner and crouched down to make her way underneath.

  Once inside, she found herself in a courtyard surrounded by stark grey walls. At their base was an abundance of foliage, tropical plants of all sizes somehow flourishing even in the middle of London’s winter. The tall windows and overhead sky broke up any sense of prison-like constraints that stone walls might have exerted on visitors. Trails of leafless ivy cascaded down the walls’ surfaces like the emaciated tendrils of a creature seeking entry from the outside. A strange and wonderful secret garden, beautiful in its isolation from the busy streets of the city.

  At the centre of the courtyard a small fountain was recessed into the ground, surrounded by a cobblestone patio and a series of wooden benches. Ashlyn spun around, overwhelmed by the loveliness of the place. The sky above was grey and dark, its low cloud cover threatening to pour snow on her at any moment, yet she felt entirely sheltered away from any elements that may have assaulted her. Something about this place was comforting, as though it held an answer to a long-enduring question.

  As she took it in, all she could think of was the man who’d left her that morning to go meet with his Guild of Dragon shifters. Aegis had given her the two most amazing nights of her life, but she craved so much more. She wished he were here with her to look upon the surrounding beauty. She wanted nothing more than to find the Relic and free herself from obligation to the Guild. That damned piece of stone was the only impediment to her future with Aegis. Everything in her heart told her that he was meant to be with her, just as she was meant for him.

  She pulled the small metal tube out of her jacket pocket, unscrewed it and withdrew the delicate paper scroll, unraveling it in her hand. Once again she read its strange series of words, reminding herself why she’d come to England in the first place. The verse, once an ut
ter mystery, made sense at last.

  Once consumed by lightning and flames

  A place overgrown with moss and vine

  Lies at the heart of the city on the Thames.

  Seek it when you’ve found your Shield

  And remember who you are.

  Only then will the hidden stone be revealed.

  My child of flame,

  Daughter of the ancient,

  Girl with the fiery name.

  “The sooner I find it…” she said softly as she looked about, scanning the walls for any sign. She squeezed a hard fist around the paper, which crumbled to dust in her hand. There was no need for it anymore; the Relic was here. She could feel its presence, even if she couldn’t yet see it.

  Slowly she began to walk the length of one wall, her eagle eyes searching it from top to bottom, left to right. She scanned every inch, looking for the faintest clue, the most minor unevenness in the surface of the smooth stone.

  But after a time her mind began to lose its focus, failing her in her quest. The rectangular grey slabs began to blend into one another, distorting themselves in front of her as though in a deliberate attempt to thwart her efforts. Perhaps it was the aftershock of her near-deadly fever. Maybe she just wasn’t yet healthy enough for this task.

  Her usually keen eyes blurred with frustration as she hugged her arms about her shoulders and let out a shiver. Damn it. It’s not just a slow recovery, is it?

  Aegis had told her that her duty as Seeker was to bond with the Dragon of Fire. He’d said that until she did so, her power to uncover the stone would be non-existent. Ashlyn was a prisoner of her own ugly fate. A fate that would take her away from the one man she wanted more than anything.

  She turned to a row of benches installed around the small courtyard in the centre of the hollowed out church and sat down, leaning her elbows on her knees, eyes clouding with tears as she tried to focus on the cobbled ground. What the hell was she supposed to do now? If she couldn’t find the Relic, then what?