Page 56 of Daughter of Garnet

"You know about dragons?"

With a steadying breath, he gathers me in his arms and adjusts us so I'm sprawled across his lap. "I have read a lot of books in my life, and there really isn't much out there about Ilota or her Blessed. I've picked up most of what I have from campfire stories, stuff scribbled in the margins, or said in passing in other books. So much has been hidden and sanitized that I was never quite sure, but there are mentions of dragons in fables. Stories told to children who tell them to their children. Myths."

My dragon pushes forward again, lengthening my teeth and heating my skin until I can convince her to recede and allow me to stay in control of this situation.

"But we're real. I'm real."

Cliff kisses the top of my head and drags his hands soothingly down my arms. "So we have to ask ourselves who doesn't want anyone to know that?"

CHAPTER 28

Zoe

I haven't heard from Cameron since he gave me the dress for the masquerade, and it's worrying me. If someone had told me that I'd miss my stalker one day, I would have laughed in their faces, but there is no laughing now. I had grown accustomed to seeing his pointed script, and some part of me felt comforted knowing he was watching me.

But there have been no letters, and I'm surprised to find that I am actually upset about it.

Man, I am messed up in the head if I am pushing away my best friend for being too overbearing and controlling, but relishing the attention from my stalker.

I need to tell Cliff about this. I know I do. After I bonded him in the library yesterday and the heavy conversation we had, we went our separate ways, which, in retrospect, must have been confusing to him. We shared a heart-to-heart, I literally tied our souls together with my teeth, and then I left. We didn't even have dinner together, which is unlike us.

But a bond is a massive life change, and he deserves some time to process it without me around.

"Anything to say, Ilota? Got any wisdom on why everything about you has been scrubbed clean, and I'm considered a myth?" Even though I can talk to her in my mind, it's cathartic to speak aloud, even if someone may overhear and think I'm losing it. As I expected, she stays silent, leaving me with my thoughts bouncing between Cliff and Cameron.

My Beta and my stalker.

Gods, my life is not where I expected it to be right now. So much for a quiet Beta life back in Agria. That ship sailed the moment Ilota whispered in my mind.

Cliff will be here to walk me to breakfast any moment, but my brain is still stuck on why I haven't heard from Cameron. Does he have nothing to say, or has he moved on from me?

And why have I not seen him around the campus since that first chance meeting in the library?

I flip through all my notebooks and pull the sheets from my bed, but nothing falls out.

It's probably a stupid decision to leave a note for my stalker, but I do, because I don't think I can settle without answers on where he went.

Find someone else to keep your attention?

The note flutters down to the top of my desk. If he's still checking up on me, he'll see it. If he's not, and I come back to my note still there, then I'll have to figure out how to find this Alpha in person.

I have too many questions for him to disappear, and besides, I owe him dinner.

I regret the note the minute I stepped out my door, yet I don't run back and put it away. It has to be a bad idea to poke at my stalker, but I guess that's where I am now.

What is going on with me? Who misses their stalker?

And one that tried to choke out Cliff, to boot.

"So uh," I clear my throat, trying to figure out how to start this conversation. "Remember that note you got to check on me in the library?"

Cliff met me at my door this morning, same as he has for weeks, and walked with me to breakfast. Things feel as easy as ever, and it loosens a bit of the knot in my chest that worried he was going to be angry at me for the bond.

His bite is hidden beneath a high collar, and I want to rip it off so everyone can see my claim, but I keep my cool. He's not hiding it because he's ashamed of me, but because we have to.

Cliff looks up from his pancakes, fork halfway to his mouth. "Yeah? You said it was from Cameron, right?"

I tear up my napkin to keep from having to look at him. "I think so. It wasn't the only note he'd left. I have a lot of them."