Page 88 of Dragon Tempted

Megan flipped the page on her notebook. “In several places, Mia noted the ‘voice of the dragon’ giving the designation to members of their clan. And what’s interesting is that it looks like one clan contained all the sentries. Which either meant one clan led the others, or there weren’t separate clans a thousand years ago. Maybe the loss of the sentries not only pitted the witches against the dragons but the dragons against each other. But that’s just conjecture.”

Sienna tapped her foot as frustration threatened. “So where do we find this voice of the dragon?”

Megan hesitated for a moment before facing Sienna. “The storybooks all talk of Evie singing to keep the village safe. That makes her a bard. Historically, bards were known to be the storytellers. They passed down the histories through song or poem. Maybe you are the voice of the dragon.”

Sienna shot to her feet at the same time her stomach dropped. “I can barely carry a tune. And I’m not a poet.”

Tessa’s eyebrows rose. “No. But as clan leader technically you are the voice of the clan. Maybe you’re supposed to bring the sentries back.”

Sienna started to pace. “How? I don’t have any powers.”

“That you know of,” Tessa said. “I didn’t know I was a witch. And the only power I seem to have is being able to interpret the curse. All of this is leading us somewhere. I know it in my gut.”

And so did Sienna, but that didn’t make it less frustrating. And now on top of everything else, everyone was counting on her to bring back the dragon sentries too? She stopped her pacing and looked at John, hoping for…what? Some sort of answer to all of this? He was such an enigma most of the time, but the more time she spent with him, the more she was starting to see beneath the mask he kept. Today his eyes were filled with concern. For her? For their future?

She wanted to figure all of this out and soon. The weight of her responsibilities was threatening to push her to her knees.

It had been three days since the meeting about dragon sentries. And since then, everything seemed to have ground to a halt. Megan continued to look at any clue as to what their next steps were, with Jonas scouring the Internet for anything that might help. Sienna had reached out to Mia to ask for another meeting, but she had gone radio silent. Which didn’t leave Sienna with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Did she decide not to work with them? Was she back on team Templar? Or did they find out she was double-crossing them? Any of those scenarios made Sienna’s nerves rattle down her spine.

Sienna soared over the valley and landed on the outcropping of rocks hoping that her favorite spot would help her regroup. Her flight so far hadn’t done the trick. She stretched her wings out for the sunshine and breeze flowing through the valley. After a minute she heard a rustling and glanced back to see John walking toward her. His presence calmed her more than anything else had in the last seventy-two hours, and that gave her pause. What was she supposed to do with that?

He looked her over slowly, spending time admiring her wings. A mix of emotions ran over his face, and she had a hard time discerning what they meant.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

She shrugged. Her wings flared out a bit. “I thought I would take a flight to clear my head. I was wondering if you would like to go with me.”

A mask dropped over his face immediately, and he shook his head.

She tried not to let his quick refusal upset her. “Okay. Sorry I asked.”

John held up his hand. “Wait. I’m sorry. I would love more than anything to fly with you.” He cleared his throat. “But I can’t.”

Her stomach bottomed out. “You’ve lost your wings,” Sienna whispered.

He responded with a jerky nod.

She reached for his hand and grasped it before he could back away. She looked out over the valley so that he couldn’t see her expression. She knew he wouldn’t appreciate the emotion. “That’s terrible. Is it awful of me that I wish your grandmother was alive so that I could beat the snot out of her?”

He huffed out a surprised laugh before turning to face her. “You astonish me, Sienna.”

“Is that a good thing?” she asked.

His eyes danced. “It’s a very good thing.”

“Can I give you a hug?”

He looked like he was going to protest, so she plowed on. “I could really use one.”

He nodded and she wrapped her arms around him and then wrapped her wings too. Like they were in a cocoon. Just the two of them safe from all the obstacles they faced. He took a shuddering breath and then another.

She breathed slowly herself, taking in his forest scent for a few minutes until they broke apart. She furled her wings, still holding on to his hand. “Let’s go for a walk.”

They walked past the cabin and toward the clan house, not speaking. She didn’t think that John needed a bunch of superfluous words right now, even though Veronica kept trying to get her to sing “You Are My Sunshine” to him. Sienna’s mother used to sing that to her when she was sad or scared. But this was not the time for that. Of course Veronica didn’t agree and decided to sing a spectacularly bad version of it herself.

When the clan house came into view, the girls were in the yard running around while Ryan flew above them and then down to tap them on the heads, making them squeal. Tessa and Megan sat on a blanket in the grass with what looked like the remnants of a picnic lunch. John dropped her hand when he saw everyone, and Sienna tried not to take it personally.

Tessa and Megan waved them over. As they crossed the backyard, Veronica’s singing ramped up several decibels.