Page 65 of Under the Dragon's Spell
"That tends to happen to children when a few years go by."
"I realize." He straightened in his seat. "How's your mother doing?"
"You broke her heart, thank you for asking." But that was not what I'd come to discuss.
He sighed. "It was her who threw me out."
"You simply ran one night."
He shook his head. "You were young, and I'm not surprised that's how you remember it, but that's not exactly how it happened."
I raised an eyebrow at him. He couldn't even own up to his actions now? That wasn't going to impress me.
"I know you don't believe me, but it's got everything to do with the very ritual you're so curious about."
"The bonding?" Judging by my mother's reaction to the topic, I could believe that it had sparked some dissent between the two of them. "You two are fated mates?" That was a bit harder to believe. If they felt that same pull toward each other that I felt toward Adrian… how did they manage to stay apart? In my mind, I was still in the hospital with my mate, where I belonged.
"I realized it when I read the books," my father said.
"But how could you be fated for Mother when you couldn't resist her magic?"
A soft smile died on his lips. "I could have. I chose not to."
"What about my magic?"
He shook his head. "It's more difficult with the dragons you're not fated to."
"So you ran."
"It wasn't because of you, Ty."
"Don't call me that. I'm not a child anymore." And now that nickname was reserved to people much closer to me thanhe was. Mostly, I liked the way it sounded when it fell from Adrian's lips.
"You may have grown up, but you'll always be my child."
I huffed before I could stop myself. This man was endlessly frustrating. If only he'd just tell me what I needed to know already…
"I didn't run because of your powers," he continued. "Your mother threw me out after I tried to get her to do this ritual with me, and now that you're sitting in front of me, I kind of understand her reasons… I don't want you to do it."
"Don't act like you care about me after you picked Kylan all those years ago." No matter what he said about his reasons for leaving, he'd still made a very clear choice.
"I couldn't take both of you. I couldn't have done that to your mother. After everything I still loved her. Even now." He looked so sad as he said that, I almost believed him. "I didn't pick you because you would not have been happy living with me in the human world. I couldn't have raised you right, but it seems your mother did a fine job of that."
"Kylan's a disgrace to the family name," I said, because I didn't know what else to say, and because I couldn't let this man get to me now. Not after everything.
He had the audacity to laugh at my words. "Maybe. But he's happy. At least he was last time I checked."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Tell me how the bonding works. I have a mate to get back to and I'm not going to keep him waiting forever."
"There's nothing I can do that'll stop you, is there?"
I shook my head. Nothing could stop me from saving Adrian.
"At least be aware of what you're doing. You'll be tying your life force together. He won't age as quickly as normal humans anymore. He'll be stronger, and he'll be by your side until you die. But when he dies… so will you."
"Then I just have to make sure that nothing happens to him."
"I'm sure a lot of dragons thought that way back when this ritual was still popular, but it was eventually discarded because a lot of your kind died way before your time, further decimating your numbers. Have you never wondered why there's so few dragons you fit on a few small islands around the world? I'm not saying it's the only factor, but it surely plays into it."
