Page 6 of Dragon Charmed

Tessa leaned back in the lounger. “True. Where is my amazing niece?”

“She’s taking a nap. She’s teething, so she’s been a bit cranky.”

“Not Bella. She’s perfect.”

Megan shook her head. “Between you and the rest of the people in this house, you’re spoiling her.”

“Nah. She needs a village to raise her, Megs. Especially since she might be the first human-dragon in existence.”

Worry lines sprouted in the middle of Megan’s forehead. “I know.”

Crap. Tessa shouldn’t have brought this up. She rested her hand on Megan’s arm. “Don’t start heading down the worry path, my friend. We’re all here to love and protect her. Tell me about how your research is going.”

With Megan’s master’s degree in art history, she had become the de facto historian for the dragon clan, researching the past documents to find out more about dragons and the curse that they’d determined was slowly taking away their dragon powers. Because Tessa hadn’t just landed in a world of dragons—nope, she’d landed in a world where curses were handed down by angry-ass real-life witches.

Tessa had spent much of last year in full-on protector mode. A pregnant and scared Megan had been thrown into a supernatural soap opera including a secret dragon baby and attempts on her life. No way was Tessa letting her face that alone. Megan was her sister by choice, and she had promised Megan’s grandmother before she died that she would watch out for her. She just hadn’t realized it meant taking on winged and witchy baddies. And she would do it again in a heartbeat. Along the way she had become close to the clan that had brought Megan into their fold. They hadn’t realized at the time that Tessa was part of the deal.

“I’m learning about the five clans in North America, especially our clan and the clan that split from us,” Megan said.

“They aren’t talking about uniting the two clans again, are they?”

Megan huffed. “No. Not with Wallace in charge.”

Tessa didn’t want to bring up bad memories for Megan, so she quickly asked another question. “Have you found anything more on the oracles?”

Megan nodded. “Yes. As you know, the oracles were female dragons born in the clans who were known as seers. We’ve checked with the other four clans, and there are no oracles living that they’re aware of.”

“Have you told them about the oracle mark on Bella?” Bella had been born with a red birthmark on her hip in the shape of a flame.

Megan shook her head, and the lines were back on her forehead. “No. Eric and I want to protect her. She’s too little for the mark to mean anything right now. Maybe when she’s older and can speak to us, we’ll see if this mark makes her a true seer.”

Arabella was under Tessa’s protection, if Tessa had anything to say about it. “What about the legend of the dragon sentries?”

Megan’s eyes lit up. “That’s been interesting. There are so many legends wrapped around the sentries. They were truly the peacekeepers centuries ago and when they were lost, the witches and dragons battled, which ended in the witches cursing them.”

“Except it backfired on those bitchy witches since the curse impacted all magic.”

“Right. But I told Eric we’ll figure it out.”

Tessa patted Megan’s hand. “Of course you will. Now that we know about the curse, hopefully breaking it won’t be far behind. Has John been able to find anything?”

Megan shook her head. “Not yet. Ever since the scroll we found in the frame of the Death of Magic painting showed us the curse, he’s been researching a way to break it. He's become obsessed about it, to tell you the truth."

“Can you blame him? His grandmother created the curse with his blood, and because of that the guy has been alive for over four hundred years! I’d be more than a little obsessed if I were in his really old shoes.”

Megan chuckled. “Stop it.”

Tessa winked at her. “What? I should pick his brain about fashion over the centuries. Maybe it would give me a leg up in the business.”

“You know that John’s a bit of a recluse. He doesn’t like visitors. So I don’t think he’ll want to talk with you about fashion.”

Before Megan continued, the back door opened and Marcus came outside carrying Arabella. Megan narrowed her eyes.

“She was crying in her crib,” he blurted with a chagrined look on his face.

Megan sighed. “Marcus. It’s fine if she fusses. She can be on her own for a bit.”

Tessa chuckled—she couldn’t help herself—and now she was the recipient of glares from Megan and Marcus.