Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I hesitated for about three seconds before I plunged after Mick, locating him by bumping into his back.

Mick slowed, and I caught hold of his waistband and let him tow me along. Who knew how large the passageway would be, or when the floor would drop out from under us? Mick could react to those dangers more quickly than I could.

I did not like underground spaces, but I seemed to find myself constantly inside them. In the same adventure when Mick's lair had been destroyed, I'd been dropped into a sinkhole that had nearly swallowed me. I'd had to fight a battle with Mick himself at the bottom of that sinkhole. That was a few months after some gods had sealed me into a mountain so they could have a talk with me.

Nope, underground and me did not get along.

"Any chance of a light?" I asked into the inky darkness.

"Don't want to risk it yet. I can see fine."

Good for him. He meant that he didn't want to perform any magic that might awaken, or upset, whatever was possibly lurking in the darkness. The small amount of magic I could do to make a light was also out. I'd have to keep it tiny, and now that I sensed heavy rains begin outside, I might not be able to contain it. I was glad we'd shut the terrace door so the beautiful living room wouldn't be ruined.

"What happens to the lair, now that Cesnia's gone?" I asked in a murmur as we inched our way forward. "The kid inherits it?"

"If he wants to. He might obliterate it, to guard his mother's secrets."

It would be a shame to destroy this lovely house, but dragons valued privacy more than they did material objects.

"And if he decides to never come back here?" I asked.

"Then we, or Drake, will have to destroy it for her. Dragons who raid another's lair can amass too much power. Also, it's a desecration for another dragon who isn't the heir to move in."

"Too bad. It's a sweet house."

"Junior might want it, when he grows up. It would save him the trouble of building a new lair from scratch. Of course, many kids want the exact opposite of what their parents had."

"Like me," I said. "What about you? Did you take over your parents' lair, or decide to go your own way?"

Mick was silent for a couple of heartbeats before he answered. "My parents were dead before I hatched. I was raised by three other dragons, who are likewise gone now."

I stopped in my tracks. Mick, pulled back by my hold on his jeans, turned to me.

"A dragon born without sire or dam," I said, stunned. " Like in the legend Nitis told us about. That means you . Have you slayed a dragon lord?"

Mick was quiet for so long, I almost brought up a ball of white magic so I could see his expression. Only my caution, born of horrific experiences, made me wait in the dark.

"Yes," he answered.

"Shit, Mick." I thought the ground rocked, but no, it was still solid.

"It was a long time ago."

"More of your past you don't feel like revealing?" I demanded. "When you know every iota of mine?"

The unevenness in our knowledge of each other had always bugged me, though I'd come to understand that a dragon telling you casually how he was doing on any particular day was a huge expression of trust for them.

"A very long time ago," Mick said. "When I first came of age. I was arrogant, selfish, and sure I was right about everything."

A chill wove around me. "You were a teenaged boy, in other words."

"The equivalent of a human adolescent stepping out into the world before he's ready." Mick shifted his stance, as though he didn't relish the tale. "The dragon lord at the time was a cold-hearted shit who was wreaking havoc on innocents, simply because he could. He was in danger of exposing us all when we preferred humans to be ignorant of us. I decided to save the dragon world, and incidentally the humans he was hurting."

I relaxed slightly. "Okay, I don't blame you for going after him. But you thought you could best a dragon lord? Wait, you were made one because you won this huge battle. Is this the one you're talking about?"

"No, that came much later. Dragon lords aren't pushovers, which is why the other dragons hadn't stopped him. I decided they were all wimps and that I could do better." He breathed a short laugh, deriding the conceited youth he'd been.

"But you were able to kill him."

"Barely. I didn't realize what I was up against until we were well into the fight. None of the other dragons would help me—they figured that if the dragon lord won, they'd be toast if he knew they'd assisted. Plus, I'd be one pesky young dragon they no longer had to deal with. Natural selection, if you will. The dragon lord very nearly killed me. You are looking at one lucky, stupid-ass dragon. Or you would be if it wasn't pitch dark."

My throat went dry as I tried not to picture the immense violence the battle would have entailed, not to mention how close I'd come to never meeting Mick.

"I'd say it was more than luck," I told him shakily. "You must have been a better fighter than you realized."

"Maybe." Mick was always modest about how badass he was, apparently very different from the youth he'd been. "I didn't tell you before, because it's embarrassing. I was a complete idiot to go up against him, though I learned a lot during that fight. However, the other dragons didn't pat me on the back and hand me a coronet for ridding us of a dangerous dragon. They backed off and gave me space. Waiting to see if I'd become drunk with power and decide to take out more dragons for the hell of it. If I had, they'd have ganged up to stop me. "

"Did you become drunk with power?" I asked, keeping my question light.

"Shit, no. I could barely move. Took me decades to recover. The dragon lord had been a truly bad guy, and that battle beat the stuffing out of me. I was very polite to other dragons for a long time. I didn't want another fight until I got over the terror of that one."

I had a hard time envisioning Mick cowering in fear, barely speaking to anyone, but I imagine the battle had given him the first taste of his own mortality.

"Did you know about the legend?" I asked. "Is that why you thought you could best the dragon lord?"

"No, I'd never heard of it." Mick's regret for the past fled, and his present curiosity returned. "Nitis telling you is the first time I've become aware of it. Keep in mind he might be making it up for reasons of his own."

"Well, it came true, didn't it? A dragon born without sire or dam slayed a dragon lord. I'm really sorry about that, by the way. Losing your parents." While I'd had a weird upbringing, my dad had always been a pillar of strength beside me. My heart went out to Mick, a child on his own, never knowing who was on his side.

"Thank you." Warmth infused his answer. "It was difficult for me to understand what I'd lost at the time, though I grew to realize it later." Mick paused. "It is interesting that the legend seems to have come true in the past."

"Interesting, he says." I sighed in exasperation. "A revelation that could kill him in the future, and he finds it interesting ."

Mick chuckled. "Not everyone clutches their face and screams when something unnerving is revealed. I'd have rubbed my skin off years ago if I did. "

I couldn't laugh. I'd had too many crazy revelations for one lifetime. "Like you said, Nitis could be making it up."

"He could be. Why he would, is the mystery."

Mick turned around again, done with the conversation and ready to move on. I grabbed his waistband as before. I did not want to get lost in here.

Mick kept his pace slow, probably for my sake. As frustrating as he could be, I had to acknowledge that he always looked out for me.

After a while of silence, Mick stopped again. "I don't sense anything in here but us. Shield your eyes. I'm making a light."

I turned my back and closed my eyes tightly, knowing a sudden illumination after a long time of darkness would be painful. A flare reddened my lids as a ball of dragon fire went up.

I waited until the glow softened before I blinked open my eyes. I let them adjust and then I looked around.

And gasped.

Mick's fireball illuminated a place of stunning beauty. A cavern soared above us to a ceiling dripping with stalagmites, which appeared tiny in the distance. The walls of the massive cave glittered red, green, blue, amber, pink, and purple, as though every kind of gem in the world had been embedded in its stone.

Not far ahead of us lay a flat pool of water that shimmered under the dragon fire. Its clear surface revealed more jewel-like rocks on its bottom.

"Are these real?" I asked. "The gemstones? Or are they just different colors of quartz?"

Quartz could manifest in a rainbow of hues. Granite also glittered with multiple shades, because it was made up of quartz and feldspar, sometimes with mica thrown in. I'd learned this from my friend Jamison, who was a sculptor and knew much about the bones of the earth he dug out to make his art. He always thanked the earth for letting him borrow a bit of it.

"Some are quartz," Mick confirmed. "But also diamonds, amber, sapphires, emeralds."

"Diamonds?" My eyes widened as I caught their sparkle. "And no one has blasted their way in here to mine them all away?"

Mick scanned the cave in reverence. "These probably didn't occur naturally here. Dragons collect, remember? Cesnia created this place."

"So, this is her lair? I thought you said it was high in the cliffs."

"There's a cave there, yes. That's the lair she'd have let other dragons see. Drake, for instance. Titus. Any of her lovers. This one was special. Private."

"If it's so private, how did you know it was here?" I was as curious as Mick about all of this, but I also felt awe, worry, and confusion.

"I didn't. When I looked around her bedroom, I realized the wall behind her bed was there and not there at the same time. She created that illusion. Since Cesnia is gone, her magic is weakening and the illusion fading, just enough for me to sense it. The remote control was a nice touch," he finished in appreciation.

"Her personal space," I said. "Her woman-cave."

Mick grinned. "I think it's called a she-shed."

"Hey, women can have caves too." Not that I had much personal space of my own—Grandmother had raised me to believe that sharing space was more important than isolating yourself.

"I suppose," Mick conceded. "And men can have he-sheds."

I wanted to laugh. "We're getting ridiculous."

Mick slid his arm around my waist. "I like being ridiculous with you."

He melted me in the best way, I thought as I sank into his side. If we continued to find nothing more ominous on this island than Cesnia's beautiful treasures, perhaps we could take a little time for ourselves before we went back home.

Almost as soon as the thought formed, Mick's pocket vibrated. Not from his phone. I suppressed a groan of annoyance as a small voice issued from the region of Mick's hip.

"Hey, let me see what's out there. I'm sensing something bad , sugars."

Mick immediately pulled a chamois bag from his pocket and loosened its drawstring. He drew out his shard of magic mirror and flashed it around the cave. "What's up?" he asked it.

The mirror was a shit, but it was also canny and perceptive. If it said there was a problem, then there was.

"Wow," it sang. "This place is awesome. But there's something on the other side of the pool. Something seriously dangerous. How about you leave me here to look at the pretty rocks while you go check it out?"

"Not a chance," Mick said, and headed at once for the silvery sheet of water.