Page 81 of Dragon Tempted

Sienna told her about the forest of fog that the oldest brother fought through and the younger brother reuniting with him to fight the trolls with the help of the scholar and the mage.

Mia smirked. “Hits close to home, doesn’t it? I assume you’ve come to the conclusion that the fog represents Adam’s amnesia, and Megan and Tessa are part of the merry band of dragons now.”

Sienna blew out a breath. “Yes.”

“The last few pages talk about the brothers returning to the village and Evie giving her brother a shield. And you brought home a ring to your brother. The story is proving itself time and again.” Mia sighed. “There obviously is another book we don’t have that tells Evie’s story.”

Sienna tried not to react. “I think that’s a possibility. Now it’s your turn.”

Mia’s eyebrows rose. “My turn for what? You already grilled me.”

“And I’m not done yet. The clock is ticking. No time for games,” Sienna said. “I want to know why the Templars are trying to destroy us.”

Mia checked her watch again. “That’s a longer story than we have time for today.”

“You can skip the history lesson and give me the highlights.”

Mia gave Sienna a long look. “The Knights Templars believe that anything supernatural is evil.”

“Like witches and dragons,” Ryan said.

“Yes. And when the Templars tried to destroy evil as they saw it, they faced off with the dragon sentries. The keepers of peace and balance where magic was concerned. Once the sentries were destroyed, the Templars underestimated the strength of magic. They assumed it would fade away. And when it didn’t, they instead worked at further causing a divide between witches and dragons. If they couldn’t destroy magic themselves, then they hoped that you would destroy each other instead.”

Sienna’s stomach dropped. “And it worked.”

Mia nodded. “Yes. Without the sentries as the peacemakers, the magical world split and fought with each other over the centuries, culminating in the curse.”

She bit back a growl of frustration. “And what? The Templars sat back and watched?”

Mia rocked on her heels. “Exactly. And as I mentioned earlier, their numbers dropped off until there was a small watch group to ensure that the curse did the job it was supposed to. They call themselves the Templar Ten. And until twenty years ago, they stayed behind the scenes, but rumblings of a mythical curse started gaining leverage in the dragon clans, and then more recently, when Adam attempted to break it.”

“Because of proof you gave him while you were trying to trick him and then, what? Had a crisis of conscience? Why are you a Templar?” Sienna’s voice ratcheted higher with each question.

Mia hesitated. “I’m not an actual Templar. I’m just one of their lackeys.”

“Were you recruited?” Sienna pushed. “Is it just for the money? Did they help pay for school?”

Mia crossed her arms. “You have been busy. It was never about the money. At least not in the way you think. I was given a grant for my schooling from an organization interested in art history. At the time there were no strings attached. And other than me providing them with different research they asked for regarding dragon mythology, it was all harmless for years. Until they approached me and told me that dragons and witches were real.”

“What did you think?” Sienna asked.

“That they were eccentric people with money who wanted fantasy to be reality. They kept asking me for more and more research. Pushing me to come work for them full-time instead of working as a professor. By that point I was married and quite happy with my position at Vanderbilt.” She stopped for a moment and looked away. “After my husband Paul’s death, I lost my way, and they made it impossible to say no.”

“Until Lily?”

“Yes. She opened my eyes to who I was working for. I had to hide her before they got their hands on her and poisoned her mind or worse.” She closed her eyes for a moment, and when they opened again, the sorrow Sienna had seen in them was now packed away and replaced with determination.

“Why are you still working for them then?” Sienna asked, no longer able to keep the frustration from her voice.

“I don’t really have a choice right now. But that’s working in my favor.”

Before Sienna could ask Mia what she meant, she barged on. “I have a question for you now. How did you even know the Templars were a part of all this?”

Sienna swallowed as her heart sped up. “What do you mean?”

Mia frowned. “Last year when I met Tessa, she saw my tattoo and immediately called me a Templar. Why? How did you all even make the connection? Templars are a secret society that history states no longer exist. No one is yelling from the rooftops that they are indeed still here and on a mission. Which means you have something that connects Templars to the curse. I assume the trolls in the storybooks are the Templars, but I don’t know how you would have leaped to Templars still existing, let alone being a part of all this.” She paced as if trying to work through something. “You must have found something with the Death of Magic painting.”

A statement, not a question. Did she want to tell Mia more?