Skyborn (Dragons & Druids #1)(22)



“What was she?” I breathed.

“I don’t know,” she confessed.

All of the air whooshed out of me in a rush. “You don’t know. Then she could have been human.” Relief poured through me. My mother was an interesting person, with quirks like anyone else, but she would have told me if she was a freaking dragon!

Maybe she tried?

A memory came back to me then of things she said on her death bed. Crazy things. Maybe it wasn’t crazy. I pushed those memories down and hugged my arms to my chest, suddenly cold.

With one swoosh, Logan pulled off his shirt and handed it to me. “We can talk about this another time. I need to find us another house, make sure no one else knows about her. She needs to learn to control her dragon.” He spoke as if I wasn’t standing right there. He also spoke as if he thought it was all nonsense. I don’t think he thought my mother was my real mother and that scared the crap out of me.

I pulled his shirt on, forcing myself not to moan as his scent washed over me. Clearing my throat, I said, “I have one more question for Eva, but I would like to ask it in private.” I held my head high, hoping Logan wouldn’t be offended, and trying not to check out his abs now that he was shirtless.

Hurt crossed his face but was quickly masked. “Of course. I’ll wait outside.”

Eva called out after Logan: “I will wire the money for the scales to your account. I can do fifty for the black and a hundred for the red.”

Logan looked impressed. “Think it will fetch double?”

She nodded. “For a century, there have only been black scales on the market. This will fetch triple.”

He nodded. “Alright, send the fifty-K to me and Sloane can have the hundred. It’s her scale.”

My eyes widened. Fifty-K? Did he say K … as in fifty thousand? I heard the door shut and knew that Eva and I were now alone.

Eva looked at me. “Do you have your bank details on you?”

I shook my head in shock. People didn’t wire transfer one hundred dollars.

“How much for the red scale?” I had to ask. I needed to hear it again.

“A hundred thousand sweetheart. Just give me your full legal name and I can have my guy find your bank account.” She winked. “He’s good with that stuff.”

When I could get my mouth to close, I nodded. “Right. Okay.” Holy shit of all shits. One hundred thousand dollars for a single dragon scale. Maybe there was a bright side to this life after all.

Eva reached out and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. It was something my mother did and it caused a lump to form in my throat.

“I know what you want to ask, sweetheart, but I can’t make you human. Now that your dragon has come out, there’s no putting her back.”

Disappointment crashed through me, because it was what I wanted to ask. “But … you said there was a spell … that someone had hidden my powers. Can’t you do it again? I don’t want to be like this.”

Eva frowned. “Someone did hide your powers, honey, and when your mom died it slowly started to fall away. Now your dragon is out and your powers will be too and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

I don’t know why I felt like crying. It was stupid, really.

“You think my mom hid my powers, don’t you?” I needed to know.

Eva screwed the lid on a jar and looked up at me. “No. I think your mom paid a very powerful sorcerer to do it, and then she kept the spell alive with her own magic. Somehow. Then, when she died, the spell slowly died too.”

I shook my head. “My mom didn’t have magic.”

Eva shrugged. “Okay. It’s that or she wasn’t your real mother.”

Anger flared up inside of me. “You think my mother would lie to me? She wouldn’t! You didn’t know her.”

Eva set the jar down and placed her hands together in prayer pose. “Forgive me for saying hard things, but I was a mother once. I would have done anything, even lie, to protect my child.”

She shrugged as she made her point. I didn’t want to believe what Eva was saying, but I also knew that denial got me nowhere. Knowledge was power. “You think she was a sorcerer?”

Eva shook her head. “It would take a very powerful sorcerer to be able to mate with another dragon. A sorcerer that powerful wouldn’t have succumbed to cancer.”

My brows furrowed. “A shifter?”

Eva shook her head again. “Skyborn are purebloods, and shifters cannot produce offspring with them.”

“What, then?” My foot was tapping as the anxiety ran through my body.

“Sloane, sweetheart, I don’t know what she was. I’m just glad she kept you safe. Now, you need to stick with Logan and the pack to stay safe. Do you understand me?”

I nodded as I chewed my lip.

“I’m not kidding. Don’t run off. If you run, you’re dead,” she said ominously.

Great. That was confidence inspiring. “I won’t.” I didn’t have anywhere to go. Well, I guess I was about to be a hundred grand richer, but I knew nothing about being a dragon, and now that I knew my transformation signaled the hunters, I couldn’t afford to leave.

Logan wasn’t too bad on the eye either. Bonus for staying. My dragon purred inside of me at the thought and I just chuckled. She was totally still in heat. I didn’t care what anyone said.

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