Page 77 of Dragon Charmed

Ben flinched. “What? I…could do that?” Why would he banish his own brother?

“Oh, you could and you did.” Eric held up his hand. “But looking back on it, I understand why you did it.”

Ben didn’t understand. “How long did it take before we…reconciled?”

Eric and Sienna exchanged looks, which meant he wasn’t going to like what Eric was going to say.

“I was still banned when you went missing last year.”

Ben jerked to his feet as his stomach threatened to revolt. “How could I do that to you? Am I some sort of dictator?”

Eric circled the desk. “You did what was right for the clan at the time. I wasn’t listening to you. The clan was in turmoil after Father died. You were trying to keep it together and run the business, but I was too busy talking about changing things and breaking the curse.”

So he had banned Eric for something that ended up being true. “And I didn’t believe in it?”

“No. You thought it was a myth. But something changed last year. You reached out to me and wanted to reconcile, but before we could talk, you flew in front of me and took the brunt of the memory spell and then disappeared.”

“I’m sorry,” Ben said, his thoughts spinning out of control. “That might sound strange since I don’t remember, but I’m sorry I banned you.”

Eric blinked. “I know.”

They wrapped their arms around each other, and Ben looked over Eric’s shoulder at Sienna, who was smiling even with tears running down her cheeks.

They finally stepped back from each other, and Ben gave Sienna a hug as well before they sat back down. Ben reached for the leather-bound handwritten storybook he’d been reading earlier. “So that clarifies some of what I am reading in the story. Megan had mentioned that it somewhat mirrored the three of us, but I didn’t understand what was happening to the two boys in the story when they split up and went on separate journeys.”

“Yeah. It’s eerily similar, right?” Eric said.

Ben turned to Sienna. “There isn’t much in the story about you. The little girl stayed in the village to help the people.”

“Yes. Mom used to tell me the story about two brothers and a younger sister, but it would be about me and taking care of things in the village. And I learned the songs of the village and did a lot of singing apparently.”

“Except the story doesn’t end in this book.”

“No,” Eric said. “Like Megan mentioned, we think there might have been another volume that continued the rest of the story, but we scoured the house and the historical archives and haven’t found it.”

“Well, something made me change my mind and start believing the curse existed.” He tapped his head. “And it’s locked in here.” He clenched his fists. “We need to figure out how to release my memories.”

“It’s not like we have a witch we can ask,” Eric said.

“No,” Ben agreed. “But Tessa suggested a witch-dragon we can talk to.”

Eric frowned and Ben plowed on. “I know you don’t like the guy. But there is no one else who knows this curse better than he does, right? And if he is part witch, maybe he has an idea of how to help me.” Ben couldn’t sit around any longer and wait for something to happen. “It’s time to talk to John. Can we set up a meeting?”

Eric blew out a breath. “Yeah. I’ll have Megan talk to him. He listens to her most of the time. He might fight about you coming to his house. He barely tolerates me being there.”

“I don’t think Eric is the one we need to worry about.” Sienna smirked. “John isn’t going to want Tessa there, and she is definitely going to want to go. They can’t get along on the phone. I don’t know what would happen if they met face-to-face.”

“She’s right,” Eric said. “I’ll talk to Megan to see if she can convince John to let you come see him, and then if she can push for Tessa, she will. Let’s not say anything to Tessa until we know what he agrees to.”

“Fine.” Although it was far from it. As much as he hated keeping her out of the loop, if meeting John could bring back his memories, then he would bear her wrath later.

Not a good follow-up to the kiss. But hopefully she would understand if he was successful at unearthing his past.

Chapter 30

It was time to move things along. After Ben had his morning coffee, he went in search of Megan and found her on the phone in the office. She held up her finger, and he nodded and walked over to the painting hanging above the fireplace that John’s grandmother had painted.

Death of Magic.