I’d miss them all—which is why I made them promise to write to me. And why I told their parents to contact me if there were ever any problems.
Which left us with one task—returning the ring.
And I just had to hope that the two-month delay in finally getting the ring back to his father hadn’t affected Trae’s sister in any way.
I looked out the car’s side window, seeing nothing but the shadows of dusk and huge redwood trunks. We’d taken the fastest and quickest route to get his clique’s base in Stewarts Point from his home in San Francisco, and had been driving for nearly two and half hours. Now, we were finally on clique lands. And better yet, I could smell the sea.
“Is your mother still planning a meet and greet with the rest of your family?” It was a question I’d probably asked before, but I swear the pregnancy was sapping brain cells, because my memory just wasn’t up to scratch lately. And if it was this bad now, how bad was it going to be when I neared full term?
He snorted softly. “She’s planned a whole damn party, and invited every relation she could think of. Some of them I don’t even remember.”
I glanced at him. In the growing dusky light of the oncoming evening, his hair gleamed with slivers of sunlight, and gold speckled his unshaven chin.
It was a look I was seeing a whole lot more of lately, simply because I loved it. And, gorgeous man that he was, he was willing to indulge my fantasies.
“I thought you told her we didn’t want anything big?”
His smile touched his eyes, crinkling the corners and easing the tension that had been gaining ground since we entered clique grounds.
“Oh, I did, but when she gets something in her mind, there’s no persuading her otherwise.” He glanced at me, blue eyes bright. “You know she thinks it’s twins. A boy born of water and a girl born of sun. Her words, not mine.”
I touched my stomach, and the barely there bulge. “If she’s right, you’ll be doing your fair share of diaper changing.”
“Love to.”
I snorted softly. We’d see how positive he was when actually faced with the task.
We came out of the trees and into the fading remnants of the day. The rugged coastline curved away to our left and the surge of the sea was high, the waves riding high up the cliffs. A weapon I could call if things went wrong with Trae’s dad.
We swept up a slight incline and, at the top, the heart of the clique became evident. The buildings were a mix of wood and stone structures and, in many ways, the whole place reminded me of an ancient walled village. It even had a wall, in the form of a post and wire fence that separated the housing area from the rest of the valley.
The main house was a two-story stone affair that was big and formidable looking. The houses that clustered closest to it were also stone, but as the ring of houses moved farther away, they became a mix of wood and stone, and then finally just wood. The outer ring looked just like houses you’d see in any suburban city.
“This is more feudal than what I expected,” I said, after a moment.
“Yeah, the Jamieson clique is one of the originals.” His voice was dry. “If my father had his way, there’d only be originals. He can’t abide having the line diluted.”
“So he’s not going to be happy about you further diluting the precious bloodline by mating with a half-breed sea dragon?”
“Not at all.” His voice was decidedly cheery, although the look he gave me was full of concern. “If you’re at all worried about him, you can stay in the car. Or go see Mom.”
“No, I want to meet the bastard who made your and Egan’s lives such a living hell.”
He nodded, and drove into the nearest parking space. He helped me out of the car, then, with an arm around my waist, guided me into the cavernous stone entranceway. The huge wood and iron doors were open and led into a room that could have easily stepped out of the medieval era. Stone walls, huge tapestries, and heavy wooden furniture that looked worn with time and living.
Our footsteps echoed as we crossed the room, but no one came running out to see or greet us.
“He does know we’re coming?” I whispered, studying the growing shadows uneasily.
“Yeah, but he’s making a big deal of it,” Trae said, his voice filling the silence with contempt.
“This isn’t exactly what I’d call a big deal,” I muttered. “I think it’s more the cold shoulder the unwanted relatives get.”
“Oh, it’s that, too.”
The set of doors at the far end of the room began to open as we approached them. The next room was warmer, but it was almost as empty. Almost. A red carpet led the eye down the length of the room to the steps and the huge gilded throne that dominated the top of them. On it sat a man.
A small, frail man with golden hair that was thick with gray and golden eyes that held a malicious glint.
“And Egan couldn’t beat this?” I whispered, as we walked toward him.
“What you see is the result of the ring being gone too long.” His voice was clipped, and there was tension in the arm that held me so protectively. “My father in his prime was a dangerous man to cross.”
I stared into his father’s golden eyes and saw the anger and hatred hiding there. He was still a dangerous man, even if the shell was failing.
We stopped in front of him. His gaze skimmed Trae, his expression one of cold contempt, then he looked at me. A long, lingering look that slipped down my body and made me want a shower to wash away the feel of it.
“What news do you have of my sister?” Trae snapped, his voice full of ice and his grip on my waist tightening a fraction more.
“What news do you have of the ring?” the old man said, his voice a mocking echo of Trae’s.
“We have it.”
“Then give it to me.”
Trae glanced at me briefly, then said, “Do you think I would be foolish enough to bring it into this place, without first getting the information I need?” He snorted softly. “If you taught me one thing, Father, it’s not to trust your fucking promises.”
The old man laughed. It was a cold, cruel sound. “Ah, if only my real son had half your balls, he would have made a grand king.”
Trae’s hands retreated into a fist and dug slightly into my side. But he didn’t give in to the anger I could feel in him, and simply said, “And if you’d had half the honor and courage that Egan had, this clique could have been a great one.”
The old man lurched forward in the seat. Trae released me and stepped forward, his body slightly in front of mine. I began moving my fingers, feeling the magic of the dusk swirl around me, fireflies of energy only I could feel.
“Give me the ring,” the old man said, voice soft and all the more deadly because of it, “or I’ll fry that pretty little thing by your side to cinders.”
“If I see even a spark, I’ll drown the lot of you,” I said, keeping slightly behind Trae regardless of my threat. I wasn’t a fool, and he could protect me from fire, as Egan once had.
“Drown?” The old man laughed again. “Lady, we’re a long way from the cliffs and the sea here. As threats go, that’s pretty empty.”
“Not if you bother looking out the windows, old man,” Trae said quietly.
The old man’s gaze darted sideways, and his mouth dropped. Because the sea had answered my call, and she was rushing over the cliffs and down into their valley home in ever-increasing waves.
“Give me what you promised,” Trae said.
“She’s a sea dragon?” He sat back in his chair, annoyance and a surprising touch of humor in his expression. For one brief moment, he oddly reminded me of Egan. “I didn’t think any of them were left.”
“More than you might think,” I said, “and that water is almost here. You might want to hurry up and give us the information, before people start drowning.”