Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

The booming voice came from out in the hall and the study door was flung open. Enna leaped out of the way of the wildly swinging entrance but found herself hidden behind the wood as Vargas stomped into the room. She slammed her palms on the desk and glared at Will.

“What in the world are those ruffians doing here?” she snapped at him.

Will lifted an eyebrow. “You know them?”

She curled her lips back in a sneer. “Know them? Everyone knows the Bred brothers and their foul ways! How could you allow them into this house without having them arrested?”

Will resumed his seat in his chair and crossed his legs before he set his hands in his lap. “They are very useful for my purposes.”

“What hideous purpose could you have for using such nefarious fiends?” she questioned him.

Will lifted his chin slightly and met her gaze with a cool one. “We need men with their unique abilities to find that girl whom even Ware can’t track.”

“There is some witchery going on with that girl!” Ware shouted as he marched into the room and stood beside Vargas. “But I must also protest to your using those men . They are known thieves and worse.”

“Their resumes don’t include murder if that’s what you’re worried about,” Will assured them.

“But the theft of priceless artifacts and kidnapping is fine with you? How could you face any of their victims and tell them you allowed those fiends to run free?”

A snort escaped me but the noise didn’t escape Ware who glared at me. “I see nothing to laugh about in this matter.”

I pointed at myself. “I’m one of the kidnapping victims.”

Both their jaws hit the floor and the expression on Will’s face made me regret that I’d brought up the subject. Vargas’ mouth flopped up and down a few times before she recovered and whipped her head about to glare at Will. “ You kidnapped your bride? ”

He smiled. “It turned out for the best.”

“How could you do such a thing?” Vargas snapped as she stabbed a finger at me. “You are supposed to find her yourself!”

“There were certain complications regarding that matter that forced me to hire out,” Will replied.

Ware shook off his shock and his bushy eyebrows crashed down. “What sort of complications could there be that you hired out the most important decision of your life?”

“Rose is not from our world.”

Dead silence fell over the room. Ware and Vargas looked both shocked and confused. The lord was the first to swallow his surprise before he eyed Will with a careful side gaze. “Not from our world? What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I say,” Will told him as he crossed one leg over the other. “Rose is not from our world.”

Vargas’ face filled with red from the tip of her chin to the top of her brow. She balled her hands into fists and her body quivered. “You damned fool! How could you allow those fiends to use such dangerous magic and cross into another world?”

Will narrowed his eyes at her and I could see his body tense. He spoke in a low, sharp voice that gave the other dragons pause. “It was the only way to find my bride. She had not been born in this world for five thousand years. That meant her soul was elsewhere.”

Ware shook his head. “You could not have been certain of that! Perhaps she had just not been born yet!”

“You two sound like a pair of jealous idiots!” The door was slammed shut and Enna revealed her irritated self. She tilted her chin back and sneered at the pair of ancient dragons. “It’s all nice and dandy to make guesses yourself but when His Lordship here makes the right guess you scold him for it.”

Vargas examined Enna and some of the color drained from her face. “Enna Wolf. I should not be surprised to find you here when the two brothers are about.”

Enna sauntered over to the front of the desk and took a seat on the corner farthest from the pair. She folded her arms over her chest and scoffed. “I don’t care if you’re surprised or not. Here you are scolding one of your own for finding someone he’s been looking for for thousands of years and all you can do is throw a bunch of rules in his face.”

“The rules are there for a reason!” Ware snapped.

“And this one was broken for a damn good one!” she growled back as she stabbed a finger at me. “Otherwise, that girl wouldn’t have been found and you’d have one less dragon to count in your roster. Is that what you want? To just wither and die and have everyone forget about you lot?”

Vargas stretched to her full height and lifted her chin. “We would do no such thing.”

“Oh really?” Enna challenged her. “Then how come there aren’t many of you flying around, huh? Tell me that.”

“Because we do not choose to make a show of our presence!” Vargas countered.

Will stood and all eyes fell on him. He glanced at Enna. “That’s enough.” She pursed her lips but remained silent. His attention then fell on the two dragons. “It is true I broke the rules and had my bride fetched from another world, but I have no regrets. If you wish to take the matter up with the rest of the dragons then I will stand in judgment before them and accept whatever punishment that falls on me. However, I ask that Rose be allowed clemency. She did nothing wrong.”

My heart pounded in my chest and I raced up to wrap my arms around his. “You’re not going anywhere without me.”

Will set a hand over one of mine and smiled down at me. “It’s alright. We would only be apart for a short while.”

I frowned. “You don’t know that. They could send you away for thousands of years.”

Vargas and Ware glanced at one another before the dragon lady rolled her eyes. “Do you think us fools?”

Will lifted an eyebrow but I was more blunt. “What do you mean?”

“None of the other dragons would dare separate another from their bride,” Ware pointed out as he crossed his arms over his chest and gave a harumph. “They have all found their mates and would hardly vote to take you from yours.”

Will studied him with a careful and hopeful eye. “Then you will say nothing of this to the others?”

Vargas threw her arms up in the air. “How could we? If we did other guilds would hear about it and they would clamor to cross over to the other world. It would be complete chaos! The worlds would collapse from all the portals being opened!”

My heart leaped for joy and Will smiled at the pair. He bowed his head. “Thank you.”

Ware shook his head. “Do not thank us yet. You have yet to make amends for causing the darkness to spread from the elven forest to your own and now it is harassing your people.”

Enna lifted an eyebrow. “Come again?”

“The creature you need to protect Rose from has bothered others,” Will told her.

Vargas gave Enna another careful and distasteful examination. “You are to exterminate those creatures?”

Enna shook her head. “Only if I have to. My job is to make sure they don’t get rid of her.”

Vargas knitted her eyebrows together as she looked between us. “You are to protect Lady Thorn?”

“That’s the gist of it.”

Vargas stiffened before she spun around to face Will. “Why did you not request that I protect your bride?”

“Because I didn’t want you to discover her secret,” Will replied.

“I have found it out and yet you would keep this. . .this creature-” She waved a hand at Enna, “-to protect your bride for whom you broke one of our most sacred rules to find?”

“I can think of none better,” Will countered as he wrapped his hand around mine. “But if you are finished with your questions, I would like a word with my bride. Alone.”

Vargas still didn’t look pleased nor did Ware, but the pair left. Enna followed them with a smirk on her face. She shut the door behind them.