Page 90 of Dragon Tempted

Eric grabbed Megan’s hand. “What the hell?”

Sienna’s thoughts exactly. “And my name for my inner voice is Veronica, which Lily knew. When Veronica realized that the girls could hear her, she shouted that they deserved cookies. Which is when Bella started yelling for them.”

John’s arm tightened around her. “And from Ryan’s reaction, he knows about Veronica?”

“Yeah. I told him about her when we were kids, and he knows she’s still in my head. I always wondered if there was something wrong with me. I don’t understand why the girls can hear my imaginary voice in my head.” She turned to John. He looked like he was trying to figure out a puzzle. “Do you have an idea of what this means?”

“I might, but it can’t be the reason.”

Before Sienna could ask why not, Ryan jogged back toward them carrying Lily’s drawing book. Sienna’s stomach dropped again. Now what?

Ryan stopped and knelt down. “Lily and Bella are fine. Marilyn is watching them. When we got into the kitchen, Lily kept talking about Veronica and I asked her how she knew her. Lily told me that she had drawn a picture of her.”

Let me see! Let me see! Veronica’s singsong voice made Sienna flinch. John pulled her tighter to his side.

Ryan swallowed hard as he opened the sketchbook and turned it around to show everyone.

Sienna blinked and then blinked again as Veronica’s joyful laugh filled her head.

The drawing was of a sparkly yellow dragon.

Chapter 31

John had experienced a lot in his lifetime. But the last few minutes topped the what-the-actual-hell meter. When Sienna had talked about her inner voice, alarm bells sounded in John’s head. The conclusion he was coming to couldn’t be true. But Lily’s drawing of a dragon solidified his suspicions. He didn’t know how it was possible, but he’d found that the Simonson clan often did the impossible.

Ryan was still holding the drawing up, and no one was speaking. It was like they were all frozen—waiting for the punch line maybe?

Sienna finally tore her gaze from the picture and looked straight at him for answers. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“Dragon song,” he answered calmly even though he was feeling the opposite.

“And what is that, exactly?” she asked.

“Losing our full dragon on the outside wasn’t the only thing we lost as magic leeched away. You may sometimes hear some grumbling in your chest from your dragon or if you’re lucky, a word or two?” He glanced around at the group and they nodded. “Originally our full dragons spoke to us. And I don’t mean whispers of thought or feelings. I mean they shared space up here.” He tapped his temple. “It was called dragon song.”

“Why didn’t you mention this before?” Adam asked.

“Because it doesn’t exist any longer.” He looked at Sienna. “Or so I thought.”

Sienna swallowed. “You’re telling me that this inner voice that I’ve heard my entire life is my dragon?”

“Yes. It sure sounds like it.”

“And Lily and Bella can hear her dragon. Why?” Tessa asked.

John shook his head. “I don’t know for sure. There were no oracles in our clan growing up. But I guess I’m not surprised they can hear her. It’s all magic in the end.”

“A magic we lost,” Adam said.

“Until Sienna,” John answered, taking in her drawn expression.

Megan sat up straighter. “That’s it.”

Eric reached for her. “What’s it?”

“The storybooks! They talk of Evie singing to the village and keeping them calm. That the dragons listened to her. We thought that was because of her being the clan leader, but it could be this dragon song, right? You are the only person who can talk to their dragon. We already suspected that you were going to bring back the sentries, and now we just confirmed that since the voice of the dragon Mia talks about has to be you.”

It made sense to John as well, but the scared look on Sienna’s face had him swallowing back his agreement. “This is a lot to take in. Do you want to take a break?”