Page 47 of Dragon Compelled
Honestly, since it’s not even dawn yet, I can’t help but wonder if she didn’t sleep even when Aries took over watching Mag a couple of hours ago. “I thought I might find you down here.” She closes the door and moves down the stairs toward me. “You okay?”
“How’s Mag?” I ask because unpacking the can of worms that is my current mental state seems like a poor idea.
“Alive. Tough bastard.” She shakes her head, eyeing the book he’d come out of as it lies off to the side. No one’s touched it since that moment, and thankfully, it hasn’t moved on its own.
“How are you handling him being hurt?” I eye her closely, noting the telltale signs of a relationship I’d somehow missed.
She levels her steely gaze on me. “I’m assuming you’ve figured it out, then.”
“Anyone within a ten-mile radius of you two would have figured it out. When did it start?”
“A few weeks ago,” she replies, sighing. “I needed someone and he was just—there.”
From the looks they were giving each other, I’m pretty sure he means more to her than just being “there” at an opportune time. But I don’t point that out when she’s clearly not ready to admit it yet. “Mag is a good man. Once you get past his more—”
“Irritating qualities?” she questions with a grin.
“Exactly.”
She hesitates. “So, you’re not mad?”
“Why would I be mad?”
“It’s technically against the rules for keepers to date.”
“Look, I’m not saying you should send an announcement to the council members, but I’m not going to stand in the way of your happiness. You both deserve the best. And besides, it’s not like I have any room to talk. I’m in love with a man who I accidentally and unknowingly ripped from his world.”
Blossom laughs. “I guess you wrote the book on forbidden.”
“Ha-ha. Good one.”
“I thought so.” She takes a drink from her coffee. “But seriously, thanks, Paige.” Blossom looks relieved.
“Is that why you kept this from me? Because of the rules?”
“No,” she admits, her cheeks flushing. “I mean, come on. It’s Mag. My rep is built on hating him.” We both laugh, and she shakes her head. “I don’t know when it happened, but I really like him. Seeing him hurt like that—” She shakes her head, looking far more vulnerable than I ever remember the unicorn shifter being. “I don’t know what I would have done if he hadn't pulled through.”
I sling an arm around her and squeeze gently, wondering if she realizes that she’s in love with the gargoyle. Because now that I’ve been in it, that particular emotion is one I recognize well. “I know exactly how you feel, and all we can be grateful for is that he did survive.”
“When Aries was hurt, how did you not lose your mind?”
I think back to finding Aries with a basilisk bite, bleeding out on the floor of my bedroom after he’d come through a tunnel Constantine used to get in and out of my apartment. It had been full of creatures he’d released, and Aries walked right into it without backup. “Honestly, I had you, Hoc, and Mag. I knew with all of you on my team, he’d be fine.”
“And now we’re down one.” Blossom shakes her head. “I know I’m here to serve what essentially equates to a prison sentence, but I really liked Hoc.”
I nod because my throat tightens.
“I’m really sorry you lost him,” she tells me. “I know he was like a father to you.”
“The only one I’ve ever known,” I reply.
She glances at the stacked books. “If you want to keep looking—”
“No. Hoc wouldn’t want us risking our lives for him. In fact, he’d be rather disappointed.”
Blossom laughs softly. “Can’t you hear it in his Hoc voice? ‘Paige, you are being reckless again. You need to stop, or you’ll end up with your memories wiped. And Blossom, you know the rules about fraternization. Now, both of you, stop giving the gnomes candy.’”
We laugh, and instead of focusing on my grief, I’m allowed a brief moment of joy at the memories I shared with him. “He was a great man.”
