To Hell and Back by L.B. Gilbert

Chapter Twenty-One

Rhys stood on the balcony outside his office, watching Valeria hike down the hill. She’d been down to see Sanaa and the babes, eschewing the offer of a ride. She preferred to walk now that her strength had returned, a full month after her accidental teleportation.

“Did you ever go back to Vienna? For your treasure?”

“Yes, but by the time I made my way back, the prize I sought was gone.”

She hadn’t understood, merely nodded, and resumed eating dinner the night after his revelations in the cave.

He was grateful she hadn’t pushed at the time, but he felt guilty for not telling her about Gabrielle. But now he couldn’t bring himself to confess, because she had finally started touching him.

It wasn’t very much contact. A pat of her hand here, a brush of her fingers there.

She kept trying to comfort him for the decimation of their small band. Rhys didn’t tell her his people weren’t tactile, like some shifters native to this world. But with her, that fact never mattered. He soaked up each of Valeria’s small caresses greedily, absorbing them like the parched earth drank the rain.

And she had begun to allow small touches back. He had to broadcast his intentions and never capture her unawares, but she no longer shied away. Not if he was careful. He was slowly building on that.

A sound behind him signaled his second.

“No harm seems to have come from confiding in her,” Naveen said, coming to stand next to him on the deck.

His clan’s sensitivity about the place aside, he had to ask… “What harm could she do down there?”

There were no longer any slumbering Draks to protect. Only the dead slept there now, making it a tomb in truth.

That had been Rhys’ first decree as the newly elected clan leader. They would no longer bury their heads in the sand, sleeping the years away. From that moment on, what was left of their people would rise and remain awake, living their life as part of a community.

War, peace…whatever happened next, they would go through it together. None would be left to stew in their madness alone. Even when an individual broke off to travel, they were required to stay in touch.

The only ones who could slumber were the injured or soul-sick. But not here. Never here. If someone needed to enter somnara, then they would find a secret place, near but not too near—within a day’s flight. But so far, no one had chosen to sleep, not since it happened.

“It’s said some witches will pay any price to get their hands on dragon bones,” Naveen murmured, his eyes tracking Valeria like she was prey.

Rhys weighed that for a moment, but only because that was his duty. “I don’t think that’s a concern.”

There was a short silence. “Are you sure she can be trusted? I hate to be the one to remind you, but she did betray you once.”

Rhys sighed, but it wasn’t relief or exhaustion. It was acceptance of the things he couldn’t change. Finally.

“I no longer blame Gabrielle for her weakness. She was a product of her times. In the end, she would have had no choice. “

There was a loaded pause, but Naveen eventually nodded. “My first, I did not mean to question your choices.”

His tone was apologetic.

Rhys turned, clapping Naveen on the back. “That is your job as my second. Never stop questioning me.”

Not allowing or accepting criticism was part of what had led to Markus going mad, to their loss.

“I do apologize, but my discomfort lies in the fact she circumvented all our safeguards so easily. She should be dead.”

Rhys nodded. “Yes, I know.” That had given him a shock as well.

Dragons did not do magic per se. But the closest they came to it had to do with their lairs. Protecting their hoard was something built into their DNA. Snares and traps were just the beginning. Dragons employed tricks of the mind, deceptions that had no name, but could drive a mortal mad….

Except for her. Valeria broke the rules without even trying. He’d stopped asking himself why she could do what she could do. The answer was simple.

“Valeria is magic. It’s in her blood. It practically seeps from her pores.” Rhys snorted. “The reason she found our sanctum is that she was wondering what I was hiding from her… She never guessed there would be more than one thing.”

Naveen’s answering rumble was somewhere between a laugh and growl. “Now I just feel sorry for her. Because if that’s true, those witches will never stop hunting her.”

No, they wouldn’t. “I won’t let them take her from me. Not again.”

His second smirked. “I suppose I knew that already.”

Rhys took his eye off his witch, scanning the horizon. “We need to keep a closer eye on the nearest human settlement.”

“That little town? Why? It’s so small that it doesn’t have a name.”

“You said it yourself. She is too great a prize. They will keep looking for her. When they find her, that’s where the threat will come from.”

Naveen grunted. “You’re right, of course. Well, keeping an eye on the settlement shouldn’t be too difficult a task. Enough of us have made ourselves known to the populace that people will talk to us. Not that a new group of humans could hide there. The place is so small that outsiders can’t blend.”

“Who would be best?”

“Well, actually, Kyrin has some friends in that community.”

Now that was a surprise. “Is he still upset?”

Kyrin had never forgiven his grand-sire Markus for what he’d done. It was one of the reasons Rhys didn’t like assigning him to guard the sanctum, but then, every member of his clan had difficulty being down here.

“Upset would be an understatement. But he won’t disobey an order.”

Of course he wouldn’t. That wasn’t the point. As the first of this clan, it was Rhys’ job to make sure his people were of sound mind as well as body. And Kyrin had yet to deal with his anger and pain.

“Do me a favor and don’t send him yet. Let a few others have a turn, show their faces in the township. Then Kyrin can go in.”

That would give Rhys time to organize a few community-wide events. They hadn’t had any recently, ever since Sanaa entered the last month of her confinement—the period when pregnant female dragons avoided flight in case the activity triggered premature labor.

But aside from Sanaa’s delivery, the clan hadn’t had a chance to interact with Valeria. He wanted her to become a familiar sight to his men.

I’ll just set up a movie night.

Sanaa did it all the time. How difficult could it be? It was just popping in a disc.

A short laugh escaped his second.

Turning a questioning gaze to him, Rhys followed Naveen’s hand down. A chortle got stuck in his throat as he spotted what had amused his man.

Valeria was being stalked.