Julie Wetzel
For the Kingdom of Dragons
Dragons of Eternity- 5
To Jessica,
From childhood to adult, you’re still one of my favorite people to get in trouble with.
I love you.
1
The queen of hearts taunted Carissa. She studied her hand, trying to decide if she should make Mary pick up the card or not. If she ordered it up, she would have the right bar, the king, and the nine of trump plus an offsuit ace.
Was that enough to take the hand?
She glanced across the table at Tilly. Years of living without a voice had taught her how to read people. What she saw in her best friend’s eyes didn’t give her hope.
Probably not.
She’d be on her own if she ordered up the heart. Since it was late in the game, Carissa knocked on the table, passing over the gamble. Evelin and Mary only needed three more points to win, and Carissa didn’t want to take the chance on going set.
“Hearts are down,” Mary said as she flipped the card back into the kitty.
“Spades,” Tilly called.
Carissa’s mouth twisted up in irritation. She should have ordered the heart into Mary’s hand and played out her luck. As it was, she wasn’t going to be of any help to Tilly. Carissa didn’t have a single black card in her hand. She shuffled her cards around so the high ones were lined up and watched as Tilly led out with the high bar in spades.
Halfway through the hand, a loud knock rang through the room. The door swung open, and all four women turned to look at the men interrupting their euchre game.
A smile turned the corner of Carissa’s mouth as she saw the shocking white hair of the man she loved. It was short lived as she turned her gaze to the man leading Michael into the room. Daniel’s face was grim.
“Lady Markel,” Daniel said as he and Michael came closer. “We need to talk.”
Concern washed over Carissa as she looked up at the head of Eternity. She laid her cards on the table before standing to face the men. Leaning forwards, she accepted a soft kiss from Michael so she could magically borrow his voice. “What’s the problem?” Carissa asked as she refocused on Daniel. There was something in the way he stood that worried her.
“There’s been an accident.”
Dread shot through Carissa. “What happened?” Taking a step away from the table, she reached to Michael for comfort.
He took her hand and moved so he was standing behind her.
Daniel glanced down at the three women still sitting around the table. He swallowed before meeting Carissa’s eyes again. “It’s your brother.”
Carissa’s knees went weak, and she was glad for Michael’s arms around her. She leaned back into him, steadying herself for the next words out of Daniel’s mouth. “And?” she asked, dreading the worst.
A forlorn look crossed Daniel’s face. “Earlier this afternoon Kyle left to meet with Minister Lewis.”
“Yes,” Carissa said. “They were going to talk about some new legislation concerning dragons.”
Daniel nodded. “He never made it.”
Carissa stared at him in disbelief.
“I got a call from FAA. About thirty minutes into the flight, air traffic control received a distress signal from Kyle’s plane.” Daniel’s voice was bleak. “They were having trouble with the engines. A few minutes later, they lost both radio and radar contact with the plane.”
A shiver of fear ran through Carissa. “Where did they go down?”
“Somewhere over the Northern Sound.”
A blip of hope bloomed in Carissa’s heart. There was a higher chance of Kyle surviving a water landing than a land crash. “And?”
Apprehension filled Daniel’s eyes. “The Coast Guard has a search and rescue team on the water, and I’ve already sent a flight of dragons to help,” he explained. “But I need you to prepare for the worse. The temperature in the sound is frigid this time of year. If they can’t find him within the next hour, they aren’t likely to find him at all.”
Tears welled in Carissa’s eyes and she opened her mouth to breath. Shivers raised goosebumps along her arms as panic raced up her spine. “Do what you can.”
“I will.” Daniel raised his eyes to meet Michael’s gaze. “I’m going to go help with the search. Stay with her.”
Michael nodded and tightened his hold on Carissa.
Daniel brushed his hand over her arm to comfort her. “I’ll call as soon as I know something.”
Carissa gave him a weak smile of thanks.
Turning around, he hurried out of the room to join the search.
Spinning in Michael’s arms, Carissa buried her face in his chest. Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes. This could not be happening. She tried to breathe through the fear and anxiety, but couldn’t bear the thought of losing her brother. Kyle had always been there for her. What was she going to do if he was really gone? What were the dragons going to do? The loss of their king would be a crippling blow to the whole community! She clutched Michael’s shirt, praying to everything that was holy that they would find Kyle alive and well. They just had to.
Carissa’s heart was heavy with misery as she pushed open the door to Kyle’s office. It had been three days since his plane had gone down. Three very long days. The first two had been filled with held breaths and hope, but as time ticked on, things became bleak. There had been a few moments of excitement on the second day when the Coast Guard had discovered some debris, but they hadn’t found anyone. Alive or dead. After three days, Carissa had to face the truth; Kyle was most likely lost in the frigid waters of the Northern Sound. That left her to pick up where he’d left off.
Turning on the light, she crossed the room to Kyle’s desk. She wasn’t ready to admit he was gone by taking up all of his responsibilities as ruling monarch, but she couldn’t leave his work with Eternity untouched any longer. There was too much going.
Kyle’s chair felt too large for her, but Carissa sat in it and looked at the desk. There were piles of paper everywhere. Drawing in a deep sigh, she pulled the first stack over and opened the top file.
Upon finding the report on Noah Byrd, her heart ached. His story had been a tragic case of wrong place, wrong time. Both she and Kyle had gone to see the young dragon when Daniel had brought him home. The poor man had been so damaged by Raven Nightingale’s death that he’d gone feral. There was nothing either of them could do.
Curious to see how things had turned out, Carissa read through the report. Her brow creased in confusion. There was something extremely wrong with the file. His medical records listed him as human, yet she clearly remembered him being a dragon. He’d been assigned to Miss Kara Rose, a therapist specializing in treating dragon separation issues. Carissa flipped through the rest of the file trying to piece his story together. She didn’t have any problems believing that a human could be made into a dragon. She’d read many old stories of dragons sharing their essence with the one they loved, and twice now she’d seen that miraculous transformation in person. Her own mate had been human before she’d accidentally turned him into a dragon. Yet, there was nothing in the report that explained how Noah went from being human to dragon or what his current status was. Closing the file, she slid it off to one side. She was going to have to follow up with Daniel on this one.