Aspen (The Dragon Kings #2)(8)

She left the room, and Skye wouldn’t meet his eye.

“Told you this would happen,” Theo said.

“I’m not going to stay away from her.”

“Did she see Skye kiss you?”

Sid nodded, picking up his phone again.

“Then your problem is fixed for you. Let it go. Skye can keep you company. I gotta run though. I’m spending the night at Ella’s. See you two lovebirds later.” He left the room, and Sid wished he could just erase the last forty-eight hours.

Skye sat a few feet from him. She hadn’t said anything since he laid into Pearl. He closed his eyes. He wasn’t angry with Skye, but he didn’t love her anymore. Not the way she loved him, and he didn’t want to give her the wrong idea. He also had to think of a way to get Aspen back.

“Can I show you something?” Skye asked, her voice soft.

He opened his eyes and looked at her. Her beauty took his breath away. It was different than Aspen’s but anyone would appreciate her looks.

“Sure.”

She took her boots off and then removed her socks. She put her feet in his lap, and he tensed.

“Look,” she said.

He examined her ankles. “Your mark is gone.”

She grinned. “Yep. That’s why Pearl came to me. She thinks I can show you how to make yours go away too.”

“What if I don’t want it to go away?”

She shook her head at him. “You’re in over your head.”

“Maybe. She captured me in a way that I didn’t think was possible.”

Skye frowned. “I felt that way about you.”

Sid leaned closer to her. “But you don’t anymore?”

“Nope.”

“I thought sealings took several years to fade.”

She met his eyes. “You only think you know how they work, but I know more.”

Sid smirked at her, enjoying the ease of their conversation. You don’t spend a hundred and sixty-two years together and not be comfortable with one another. “Oh yeah, how’s that?”

She frowned. “This isn’t a happy story.”

He leaned closer to her and brushed one of her platinum strands out of her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to cause you pain.” He meant it. He still cared a great deal about her.

She took a deep breath. “I know. When Pearl asked me to come here, I said no. But you know how your sister is.”

He laughed. “I do know. I want to hear your not-happy story though.”

Her face was expressionless. He wished he could tell what she was thinking. He was surprised by how much he still cared for her. It was nothing compared to the way he felt about Aspen, but he didn’t like to see her sad.

“When you became king, I was inconsolable. Beyond wrecked. Those first few days were pure agony. I wanted to die. But one day I woke up and realized I still had a choice. The unrequited sealing is so rare that most of us don’t remember it’s not permanent. I took my sadness and fury and channeled it into finding answers.”

Skye was probably one of the best researchers he’d ever met. If answers were to be found, she’d find them.

“What’d you do?”

“I sought out every dragon who had ever had an unrequited sealing. Most of them had the same response. After several years of separation from the one they’d sealed themselves to, they would eventually stop pining for them, and the mark would fade.”

That lined up with what Sid already knew. He was positive Skye had already known that as well.

“But that wasn’t good enough for you, was it?”

She shook her head. “No. I thought of you constantly. It took every ounce of my willpower not to come here and ask you to go on the run with me. I missed you so much. I didn’t want to wait several years for that to go away. I kept searching, and I found the one dragon who had all the answers. I can’t tell you who he is. He made me promise if he would help me, that I wouldn’t tell anyone about him. I intend to keep that promise.”

Sid was curious, but he understood. “But will you tell me what he taught you?”

She nodded. “You already know there are three levels to the sealing. Most dragons skip step one and go straight to sealed, but the first one, the one where only one dragon loves the other, that’s where anything can happen. It’s not a true sealing.

“I was taught how each level worked, in detail. Beside the dragon who taught me, I probably know more about the sealings and the bondings than anyone else. Most sealings happen after years of love, and that is why they take so long to fade. But he taught me how to get rid of it instantly.

“I ran into Pearl a few days later and told her I’d gotten rid of it. That’s why she sought me out when you got into your mess with Aspen. I don’t know how she convinced the council to let me come, given our past, but then again, she’s Pearl. She could convince a lizard he was a dragon.”

Sid didn’t care about any of that. He was still stuck on something she’d said minutes ago. There was only one dragon living that would have the answers she sought. “How’d you find Everett?”

“I never told you it was Everett.”

“You didn’t have to. Seriously, how’d you find him? He only comes out once every five hundred years, and there are dragons who are actively searching for him. No one can find him.”