Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Craignamore Castle,

Dundaire, Scotland,

Present day…

Dragons were far less dangerous than men. And not just because they were mythical beasts and men were very much reality, but because dragons didn't take hours, days, and years to torment their prey. They torched those they despised in a single fiery breath.

Unlike the agony Zerek MacKenzie, dished out. The man had a penchant for antagonizing her and this afternoon's dose of his Highland snodgrassery had been the vilest of them yet.

"Jeez, Rye, that's one fierce grip you've got there." Taryn eyed her from the window seat.

Stopping midway through the sitting room, Rylie glanced down at her hand. Oh, for Pete's sake.

She flexed her fingers, easing up on the poor auction catalogue she'd been taking out her anger upon. "Zerek MacKenzie is an outright beast and I officially hate him."

Taryn closed the book in her lap. "Don't you think that's a bit harsh? Even for you?"

"Not in the least. And you'd agree with me if you were the one who'd stood for hours in five-inch heels just to get into that damn auction."

"I would have worn trainers."

Of course she would have. But just because Tar was the logical sister of the bunch, didn't give her the right to be smug. "You're such an imp."

"That may be, but at least I would have been an imp without sore feet."

Tar was right. "Fine. I admit to being partly at fault today for my choice of shoes, but it was also raining, and yes, I know you would have worn a rain slicker. But I needed to keep a professional appearance."

Rylie kicked off her shoes, relief flooding her aching feet. She peered down at her damp jacket and jeans; the scent of fresh cut rose mixed with ozone peeling from both. A damn rain slicker really would have helped, not that she was about to admit that out loud.

A click stole her attention.

Glancing across the room, Rylie focused her gaze on the upholstered wall as its hidden door popped open, revealing a blanket-wrapped Adyson. "It's so frickin' cold in this place." She shuffled into the room. "Even Kitty-the-Second won't come out of her covered pet bed."

"All Highland castles are frigid on rainy days." While Taryn was the sensible sister, Addy had grown to be the dramatist of the bunch. "If you're that cold, you shouldn't be wandering around without shoes. In the least put on a pair of socks."

"Socks are too confining."

Most things were too confining in Adyson's view. "Just be grateful that you weren't the one stuck outside for hours getting waterlogged."

"I take it you didn't win the bid for the quartz eagle." Addy flopped down in the yellow chintz chair next to the fireplace and snuggled under her down coverings.

"I would have. If I had been given the chance to place a bid."

Closing the book in her hand, Taryn stood. "What do you mean, if you had the chance? What the hell were you doing there if you didn't bid?"

She doubted her sisters were going to like the explanation. "Once I got inside, and mind you, there wasn't a vacant seat left by that time, I waited two more hours for the item to come up for sale. Then Zerek announced the quartz eagle had been pulled from the day's auction."

"That's very disappointing," Taryn said.

Adyson merely shrugged. "So you wasted a few hours out of a Saturday afternoon. You squander a lot more time than that playing with your silly sling shot."

"It's not silly. It's a serious sport. And for the record, I haven't shot Balon in years."

"Don't lie." Addy shot her an accusing glare. "We all know when you can't sleep you go out back and hurl marbles at the stone blockade Da installed around Balon after you shot the dragon's balls off."

"The blockade is not Balon. I honestly haven't taken aim at him in years."

"I don't get why you loathe the thing so much."

"It's a dragon."

"And…?"

"They sacrifice women."

"Technically," Taryn chimed in, "it's the villagers who offer up a virgin for sacrifice. Dragons don't just fly around snatching innocent women. And I don't see why that would be a concern for you anyway. You spent four years sleeping with Zerek during his tenure as a visiting professor at your university. Which by the way, was taboo to begin with as students really shouldn't be having flings with their superiors."

"He wasn't my professor. I wasn't in any of his classes."

"Regardless," Taryn continued, "your relationship with Zerek makes you ineligible to make any dragon's virgin list. I also never understood how you can go from hating a man, to loving him, to hating him again."

"It's complicated." She should never have told her sisters about the relationship she'd had with MacKenzie. Especially since it hadn't ended well. Leaving the man without giving him an explanation was truly reprehensible on her part, but how did one say, ‘Hey honey, do you know you have dragon scales running under the skin of your back when you sleep' without sounding deranged?

It was the first and last time she ever cared to imagine something like that. She obviously couldn't handle having a proper relationship at the time due to her stressful studies, or she would have never thought she'd seen what she saw that last night they were together. The night Zerek that nearly asked her to marry him. Thank goodness their romantic evening had been interrupted by a phone call from her cousin Bane. Ending things with Zerek was best for both of them. "Tell me, Tar, does it ever get tiring being a smartass?"

Taryn didn't reply.

Of course she knew better than to expect the same response from Adyson.

"She does make a point about dragons," Addy said. "They're not as dangerous as one would think. Would you have preferred mum installed a bear in the garden? The castle storage mews have tons of sculptures from the family's centuries-old collection. And they include wolves, bats, bears, you name it. All of those animals have been known to occasionally harm people. At least dragons aren't real."

She wasn't so sure of that fact. Dragons existed in all forms, including human, like Zerek MacKenzie. "That quartz eagle belongs to the St. George family."

Taryn sauntered over to the fireplace and tossed another log onto the crackling flames. "We don't know that for sure, sis."

"It's written in those damn books." Her mother had read her the story of the legendary Draco Slab, an artifact that supposedly dated back to one of the Roman cavalry units stationed along the Antonine Wall. It came to Craignamore via her mother's family, whose charitable ancestors had taken in a wounded soldier roaming the Highlands—a fair distance from the wall—after his bartering deal with a local clan chief had gone wrong. "It belongs to us. The quartz eagle, along with the slab, were given as payment to the MacHendrie family when they cared for that Roman. And Catriona MacHendrie gave both to Magnus St. George just before the Battle of Culloden. It was even written that it was Magnus who separated the eagle from the slab. Both are rightfully ours."

A burst of gusty wind rattled the windows.

Adyson jumped, then buried deeper under her blanket.

A piece of plaster fell from the ceiling.

Rylie swayed, but quickly steadied herself. It seemed that every time something broke at Craignamore, she felt sick. Of course so would anyone who just kept seeing the cost of maintaining their beloved home, continually surge rise. "Those written down stories are proof the eagle belongs to us."

"Those books don't exactly spell it out in those details, Rye. That Roman could have just forgotten the eagle and its slab behind after he was well enough to leave the MacHendrie's stronghold."

"It was implied that the Draco Slab embedded with its eagle was given as payment. And neither Dad nor Mum thought otherwise. They even said many times that both pieces remained at Craignamore until World War Two." Rylie gently slipped her satchel off her shoulder and placed it on the nearby Chippendale sideboard. "For all we know, the MacKenzie's could have stolen the eagle from us. They've been Craignamore's neighbors for generations."

Tar returned to the window seat and to her book. "We have no proof it was stolen. Not by Zerek's family or anyone else. It simply got lost over the years. Just like countless other artifacts do."

Not ones belonging to their bloodline. Both the St. George family and the MacHendries had been meticulous in their diaries. They could trace the whereabouts of just about everything they ever made, planted, bought, sold, etc... Save for the loves of their lives. At least in one specific incident, that was.

But the mystery of Catriona MacHendrie and Magnus St. George came about during one of the most turbulent times for Dundaire, never mind for Scotland as a whole. The loss of the details of their rumored love story wasn't much of a surprise considering they each supported opposite sides of the Jacobite war. And it was that love story that brought her parents together. They used to joke about it, saying the last MacHendrie and St. George union might not have been successful in love, but theirs was. "Zerek had no right stealing my chance to bid on the quartz eagle."

Taryn smirked. "You make it sound as if he did it to you on purpose."

"He did."

"And I suppose you have proof of that, too?" Addy asked, popping out from beneath her blanket.

"I do. He spotted me in the crowd, stared me directly in the eyes, and announced the quartz eagle had been pulled from the bidding."

"I don't think he did it solely because of you. How would he have even known why you were there?"

She had wondered about that one little fact, but the way Zerek stared at her said something more was going on. Something she couldn't explain. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's like Zerek gets under my skin and doesn't leave. I swear I can feel him there sometimes."

Taryn shot her a disapproving look. "You do realize everything you just said sounds beyond ridiculous. It's absurd."

"Outright delirious."

Great, now Addy was siding with Tar. "You two are the worst. You really are." She plopped onto the sofa and shut her eyes. At least her feet were feeling a bit better now that she was out of those damn shoes.

"Shit, Rye," Adyson said. "Zerek lost a ton of money by not auctioning the quartz eagle."

Rylie opened her eyes and looked Addy's way. "What do you mean?"

"The reserves alone were way more than what we agreed to bid." Adyson tossed the catalogue over to Rylie, but it landed on the rug instead. "Didn't you browse the listings beforehand?"

"Of course I did." Rylie reached down and grabbed the wrinkled brochure. "I wouldn't have gone if it was more than we could afford." She flipped to the page featuring the day's smaller items. As she scanned the listings, she gasped. "I swore it wasn't that high when I viewed it online last week."

"Maybe the online version was a mistake," Taryn said, "and that's why MacKenzie pulled it."

The notion was plausible. But she wasn't ready to give Zerek the benefit of the doubt. "At least it didn't go to someone else." She closed the catalogue then returned it to the table. "We still have a shot at it."

"I think more than just your clothes got drenched this afternoon. Your brain must have flooded as well." The look that crossed Addy's face rested somewhere between disbelief and outright frustration. "What part of ‘way more than what we agreed to bid', didn't you understand?"

Rylie sat up, a million thoughts zooming through her mind. "If the MacKenzies didn't steal the eagle, then how did it end up in Zerek's clutches?"

"Maybe there are several quartz eagles in existence." Addy was sounding nearly as logical as was Taryn today. "And perhaps Zerek's family came by it in a similar way ours obtained the slab."

"Mum never said there was more than one soldier who'd been wounded."

Taryn huffed. "She also never said there wasn't. It was eons ago. Who knew what really went on back then."

"I think Zerek was up to something today."

With a sigh, Adyson sat forward. "Such as what?"

"Maybe he was hoping to lure out whoever has the slab, so he can try to buy it for himself. You know, to put the whole thing back together again. It would be priceless if restored." She jumped up and paced, the thick fibers of the pink and green wool rug massaging her soles. "Though you might be right about one thing. I don't really see how he would have known we had it."

Addy pounded the chair arm. "Finally, you're talking sense! That proves he didn't pull the quartz eagle just because of you. It was probably nothing more than a simple mistake, like the difference in pricing between the online catalogue and the physical version."

Rylie plucked her shoes off the floor and jabbed her feet back into them. "I'm heading over to Dragoncross to make Zerek an offer on the eagle. I'll make him sell it to me."

"Are you serious?" Addy jumped off the chair, her blanket falling to her feet. "You can't just show up on the man's doorstep and demand he sell you an item he owns."

"Who says I can't?" She spun around.

"It's just not the neighborly thing to do."

"We could invite him to dinner," Taryn suggested.

Fat chance of that happening. She glared at Tar. "I will never have that man at my table."

Addy shook her head, her long brown hair swaying about her shoulders. "I don't get it. Why are you so adamant about getting your hands on that stupid piece of stone? It's just a thing."

No, it wasn't just a thing. The quartz eagle was the last connection to her late mother. "Mum worked her whole adult life trying to find that missing part to the Draco Slab. It meant everything to her and dad."

"Mum was an archeologist," Taryn said. "Of course it would have meant something to her."

"And it means something to me because Mum requested that I take up where she left off. She said it was my future in the letter she left and that I should choose my time of using it, wisely. And based on how this castle is falling apart, I believe that the time is now. There's no denying that we can use the intact slab to renovate this place. The roof alone should have caved in months ago."

"That slab cannot be sold." Adyson glared at her. "I'm sure Cousin Bane broke numerous laws by helping Mum bring the slab back to Scotland without declaring it. Which makes me think it doesn't rightfully belong to us. The law says only small items can be kept if found on your property. The Draco Slab is a major artifact."

"Then I'll sell it on the black market. I know a few people who we can go to."

"You've really lost your mind." Addy shook her head in disgust.

"We can't let Craignamore go. You know what Dad always said, ‘Keep it, restore it, or die with it when it goes down'."

"Da said a lot of things," Tar added in a mutter.

That he did, but maybe he'd had reason to feel how he felt about the castle and the town he'd grown up in. "What if the tales of Dundaire are true?"

Both her sisters now looked over to her, the surprise in their eyes more than evident.

"You mean you believe in those wild stories?" Taryn asked.

"I think Mum did. And I have to admit, going to university made me see things a bit differently. Dundaire is not a typical place. And before either of you mention the government projects Da talked about, I've come to the conclusion that was just a ruse. He had to find some way to explain things to his three little girls."

"But we grew up," Addy said, "and he still said he worked for the government."

"And what if that government was Dundaire itself? Mum believed in those tall tales."

"You're not Mum," Taryn stated.

"She's right." Adyson offered a sympathetic stare. "None of us are. We're not Dad, and we're not Mum. The three of us need to live life for ourselves, Rye. Figure out who we are, come into our own. You can't bring Mum back. None of us can. And we'll manage the fixing up of Craignamore. We always manage it. Maybe we can ask Bane for a loan."

"I've already spoken to him about that, and he said while he had no issue helping us, he believed it would be best if we rethought our plan. That Craignamore needed to be viewed as a living, breathing thing. And money can't heal an injured home. Only love can."

Taryn gave up a soft chuckle. "That makes no sense at all."

"Maybe not, but Craignamore is our responsibility. And as the oldest, it's on my shoulders to fix it."

Addy tugged at the hem of her blue sweater, her stare turning to one of great concern. "Selling the slab can get you into serious trouble, Rye. Don't do it."

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do. You're not me."

"Fine. But I don't think involving MacKenzie is wise."

"I'm with Addy," Taryn added. "You already have a strange relationship with the man. Push him over the edge with this nonsense and he can make your world more miserable than he already does."

Thank goodness she wasn't like her sisters. "I'm going over there."

"I'm sure MacKenzie has security with all the antiques he and his two cousins sell," Addy said. "The place is probably locked up tight by now."

"Not on sale Saturdays. The gates to the property stay open until nine when he runs an auction." She grabbed her satchel off the sideboard and then headed for the door.

Taryn sighed. "Just because the gates are open doesn't mean he won't have you arrested for showing up uninvited after the auction has ended."

As if she hadn't already considered such a scenario. "That's what my trusty slingshot is for. There are tons of targets at Dragoncross I can hit to shift Zerek's focus away from me so I can make a quick getaway. I won't get caught."

"I wish you'd reconsider," Addy begged.

She was not going to change her mind. "Don't wait up."

And with that, Rylie was out of the room and on her way to confront Zerek MacKenzie.

One way or another, she was going to get that quartz eagle.