Page 73 of The Black Dragon
Ariel patted the spot on the bench. “Sit and watch the sunset with me, futurehusband.”
For several moments, they watched the gold and rose light play over the cliffs, making shadows dance. Justin slid an arm around hershoulders.
Nothing could break this moment of perfecthappiness.
“Will you sing for me?” sheasked.
Exceptthat.
“Sweetheart, it’s not a good idea.” Sweat formed on his temples, beaded on his back. DamnDrust.
He stood and went to the railing, bracing his hands upon it. She joinedhim.
“Drust said you have a magnificent voice, like an opera singer. A tenor so beautiful thatdragons would stop in flight to listen. You inherited it from your mother. She used to sing you to sleep and then you would join her.” Ariel leaned againsthim.
Chest tightening, he drew away from her a little. “When did he saythis?”
“A few minutes ago, when you were in the bedroom. He stopped by to tell me if I need help shapeshifting, he would be there for me. He urged me to askyou tosing.”
“That was longago.”
“You never lost the gift.” Her expression was gentle as she regarded him. “Drust said it’s important for you to sing, Justin. It will healyou.”
Don’t go there, he thought in anguish, his chest hollow.Ican’t.
“He also told me you never cried after your parents died. Not even on the day of their funeral. You didn’t talk for weeksafterward. You never grieved them,Justin.”
“Grief is for the weak.” But he knew his words were alie.
“I grieved. I wept for my mother when she died. I still cry now and then. It’s not good to keep it shut away because it will eat atyou.”
Ariel cupped his face and placed a gentle kiss upon his trembling lips. “Sing for me,Justin.”
He had not sung since the day hisparents died. Justin fisted his hands and left the bench. Raw grief tumbled through him. How did you deal with this? For years he’d pushed it back into a tiny corner of his mind, letting the anger control him. Because anger was better than crying all the damntime.
Damn he was tired of being angry. And this was Ariel, sweet Ariel, who asked little of him. Ariel, his futurewife.
“Please.” Ariel stood next to him, bracing her hands on the deckrailing.
He took a deep breath. “Once I sang. I had… a voice that they said could reach the heavens on a singlenote.”
To sing with such conviction, he must let his emotions guide his voice. After controlling them for so long, he wasn’t certain he could doit.
For a few minutes he looked at Ariel and then shefaded into the background. He saw his mother and father, laughing as they often did, leaving the castle. Saw his father put the picnic basket into the trunk and close it with a loud slam. Saw his mother kiss his father as if she would never see him again, and then slide into the car as his father shut the door behindher.
Saw them both wave to him as he stood on the stone steps with hisnanny, glowering at them because they were going into their own special world again, leaving himbehind.
Heard the crunch of metal, the shattering of glass, the scream inside his own mind. Now he was running, running so fast, wishing he could fly, running to the road and seeing the crushed car and the blood, so muchblood…
Justin sang, his eyes squeezed shut, letting the pain finallyengulf him. Were his parents happy in Tir Na Nog? They died together, his father’s body found on top of his mother, as if his last act of love was to protect her with hisbody.
They were together now, forever. They had left himalone.
One love and lifetime. He understood now, why his father devoted everything to Justin’s mother. Staying by her side, sharing each day with her, shuttingout the world. They shared a love so deep Justin failed to understand it, and it made him anoutsider.
Now he knew such devotion, such encompassing love his father held for Justin’s mother. A love so deep it shut away the world, even a belovedchild.
A world of their own, a love found only once in alifetime.
