45. Rehan

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

REHAN

I sat at a family dinner. My phone lightly buzzed, and I peeked at it, hoping Jay finally checked in. She had not. Tyson and Ogden still chatted like teenage girls, complete with pictures of Tyson's room and even the inside of one of his security cameras.

"Something wrong, Rehan?" Tukaqu asked.

I tore my gaze away from my phone and flushed. "No, sir."

Only the core of my family sat around the table: Tukaqu, my dad, my uncle, and two of our family's advisors. Not even my younger brother joined us. I let my gaze rest on each face. Not a single female, human, or youth looked back at me. I shifted in my seat, unsure if my discomfort came from the missing diversity or from being aware of it after spending my entire life not noticing.

I exhaled, my chest uncomfortably tight.

"This is important." Tukaqu began. "We've all read the reports. Fire and earth have handed over their findings. Air claims they've also investigated and will share their results at the EM."

"What are they thinking?" My uncle hit the table with his fist.

"They are cutting off one of our wings!" One of our advisors added.

Grumbles and anger washed over the table—my growl was no exception. Whatever dragons disagreed on, the shield and the Ley Lines were problems that affected all of us. It was why elemental meetings existed.

"Three out of four is enough to get us started." Tukaqu continued after we'd calmed. "We have two issues, the Ley Lines and the volcanic eruption. We'll start with the Ley Lines."

My uncle picked up a sheet of paper. "The shield isn't failing, but power spikes are swimming in it." He swallowed. "Almost like a bloom of phytoplankton, except they remain still. We cannot locate the origin of the bloom, but whatever is in our shields is also in the connecting Ley Lines. I believe we need to reach out to earth's caretakers outside of our Island."

"Do you know who those would be?" My dad asked, a knowing smirk on his face.

My uncle raised his palms. "I do not. But I've at least looked past these walls to consider Tukaqu's words."

My dad and uncle locked their gazes while I ignored their long-standing bitter rivalry. Jay, Og, and I shared a similar conversation.

‘That is most definitely not how that works.' Jay had written on the notepad in Ogden's cave.

"How does it work then?" Ogden asked.

Jay glared at the pencil in her hand. ‘My hand is going to cramp. Look, in short, there isn't a society who controls or runs the supernatural world like what you have created on the island. No one is in charge of fixing Ley Lines. They are the world's circulatory system, and we're all just its blood cells. The eight billion people on the planet are the normal red ones, and the maybe three hundred thousand magic users left are the white blood cells, who may or may not know they have a job but float around making a mess, nonetheless. It doesn't matter what people are doing. Magic always flows.'

I scowled. "Our shield stopped that flow through our island."

Jay shook her head and wrote. ‘You just put a little clot in the stream and made it go around. Short of blowing up the planet, no one can stop the flow.'

"There's no one to contact," I said, pulling myself out of my memory and interrupting someone. "Our magic, our shield, it's all connected to the flow of magic."

"We don't know that." My dad cocked his head to the side. "You can't just make up facts, son."

I clenched my fist.

"Did these new insights come from your mate?" Tukaqu's asked too easily.

"Yes." I narrowed my eyes at my grandad, waiting for him to challenge me.

"Your mate ," Tukaqu leaned on the word. "Is a liar and here under false pretenses. She's barren. She wants to reap the benefits of being a dragon's mate without helping us. She is trying to destroy your future."

I looked my grandad in the eyes. I'd been waiting for this moment since my guard took Betty Strop's paperwork directly from me to him. Instead of the anger I expected to feel, disappointment gripped me. My family was just as fractured as the four elements.

I shot to my feet. "I know she can't have children. She's not on our island by choice either." I leaned forward. "She's a powerful mage who's had her very voice taken from her by someone capable of manipulating our system for their own gains."

I let that sink in.

"She survived a volcanic eruption fire claims she caused. Explain that, son," my father added, the same smirk on his face he'd given his brother.

I laughed. "Fire claims she's this magicless, Betty! How can a mortal cause an eruption in the first place? They are contradicting themselves in their own report." I punched the table. "She saved one of the fire priestesses by shielding her with her mortal flesh and bone…and by using her mate's magic."

"Her mates, as in more than one?" Tukaqu repeated.

I took a deep breath and owned up to everything. "Yes. Her mates, plural." I turned from Tukaqu and met the gazes of the rest of my family. "Our shields might still be functional, but the magic powering them is sick. Jay can help us. I know she can, but why would she even want to when we can't see past our scaly asses."

I turned to my dad. "Mom should be in this meeting. We've already isolated ourselves and our elements. How short-sighted have we become? When did we stop listening to all of our people?"

Sister Abby's cybernetic hand glinted in my memory. "How many generations will keep paying for mistakes we can fix?"

"There is no—" the older of our two family advisors began.

"No. The correlation in congenital disabilities is beyond clear." I pointed at him. "And even if you disagree, that's not what this meeting is about. Our shield is sick. We are sick. It doesn't matter what you believe or don't. We need to fix ourselves."

An awkward silence filled the room. Beads of sweat rolled down my back under my loose tank top, and my pulse raced like I'd run a marathon. I couldn't meet anyone's gaze. I'd spent my life in these meetings, listening and agreeing to keep things the same. But no more, I was rocking the boat.

Because Jay needed our help, but even more, we needed hers.

Tukaqu stood, one eye twitched. "I do believe you and I are on the same page, though in different playbooks."

I grunted.

"Your speech was moving but idealistic." He pulled a red folder out of his stack of paperwork. "We don't know if your mate… this Betty Strope, isn't exactly who the fire dragons make her out to be." He tossed the open envelope on the table with a second report I'd not seen yet. "She's been on our island for just under a month. In that time, fire and earth almost went to war. A volcano erupted. Our shield has been infested with unknown energy."

I narrowed my eyes. He had to know one person couldn't be blamed for all of that.

"She's a pretender, Rehan," Tukaqu continued. "Here to expose dragons to the world. The logistics it took to keep the volcanic eruption out of human media alone was almost our undoing."

I didn't even look at the papers. "You trust a fire dragon report over your grandson?"

The air in the room stilled as we all turned to Tukaqu and held our breaths. My family disagreed, fought, and moved away from the mansion to start our own lives. But we always came back together. Because that's what family did, we trusted each other.

Tukaqu sat heavily in his chair. "No. I suppose I don't."

I nodded. "Then trust me now." I brought my hands together. "I'm sorry you learned about Jay from the fire dragons, but I've known this entire time. My mate told me, at the Social, she couldn't have kids." I smiled. "I chose her anyway."

Our family advisors scoffed, and my dad blanched.

This couldn't be what pulled us apart. "Jay's complicated," I said into their shock. "Until we figure out what's going on, the family doesn't need to get involved."

I didn't doubt. But Jay was adamant it was a curse tying us to her. If it kept my family strong, I could give them that. I sank back into my seat and found Jay still absent from our chat.

I didn't make eye contact with anyone. "Jay thinks she's cursed, and once she breaks it, I won't want her anymore."

Tukaqu released a relieved breath, which made me want to punch him. "That doesn't sound like a bad thing."

I clenched my fist but left it.

"In less than two days." Tukaqu drew the table's attention again. "The Elemental Meeting commences. We're breaking for an hour to give everyone a chance to read over the fire dragons' report. Then, my grandson will bring us up to speed on his version of events, and we will work together."

Nods went around the table.

My dad drew my attention. "I've been waiting for this moment, son."

I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Every day, I've watched you grow into a better man, a strong dragon who sees the world differently than the rest of us." He squeezed my shoulder. "I don't agree with you, but I'm glad to see you finally taking your place at the table."

I waited. My dad loved his easy life, his wives, and the small piece of the world he had absolute control over. His words might be true, but he only said them so whatever came out of his mouth next would have more meaning.

He clapped me on the shoulder. "Remember, whatever happens with your mate, your family's here."

He gave me an encouraging smile. ‘Whatever happens with your mate.'

He expected me to fail.

Jay's smiling face filled my memory. What would she do if her dad said that to her?

She'd own his words.

"Family's in the heart." I thumped my chest. "Whatever happens, my family will always be with me."

It was my dad's turn to scowl.