and perhaps fear more than any other emotion spoke
through her clasped hands with the white knuckles and the
tightened jaw. Paladin curled his fingers into a fist to keep
from touching her in hopes of reassuring her.
“What’s her name?” Calis asked, waving a serving wench
over.
Paladin had neglected to ask her. At the time, it hadn’t
been important. While he stared at her, a strong premonition
filled him. He’d caught a flicker of life within her, separate
from her own force. His stomach threatened to empty into
his throat. The sensation grew until he knew without a doubt
the truth to it.
“I’m Seren.” She held out her hand to Calis. His first mate
cocked a brow at her hand. She pulled back, clasping hers
together in her lap. “Never mind.”
“Yer name is Seren Nevermind?”
Struggling to keep the bile down, Paladin forced a chuckle
past his lips. “No, her name is Seren. Nothing else. My sweet,
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this strapping gent is my first mate, Calis Mer. And of course,
you know who I am.”
Calis grunted. “Ye dern right she knows. Probably why
she sniffed ye out. Any woman in her right mind would want
bragging rights on bedding Captain Paladin Fulcan.”
Paladin grinned and winked at Seren. She rolled her eyes,
her lips twitching. Well, she took that comment in fine form.
With another grunt, Calis stood. “I suppose I’ll leave ye
two for a bit. I’ll tell Alice, that lazy wench, to bring a platter
for the mite here. Remember, Sire, we don’t have much time
before we sail.”
At Calis’ slip of the tongue, Paladin stiffened. Calis dipped
his head, pivoted on his heels, and hurried to the counter.
Paladin stared at his retreating back, knowing his first mate
realized his error by the slump of his broad shoulders.
Fool, what was he thinking to call him by his long
forsaken title? He’d given up his royal vestiges many years
ago, yet Calis seemed to forget the fact. He glared at the man
disappearing amid the occupants and tables. The woman
cleared her throat, bringing his attention to her.
She laid her palms flat on the table, angling a look at him.
“Do your men call you Sire very often?”
“You have discovered a secret. Not many know of it,” he
said, lifting his tankard and taking a sip. He watched her
over the rim. Calis’ misled loyalty might cause complications
with her.
“So I screwed royalty last night.” She closed her eyes,
swallowed, and then faced him. “Look, I want to go home. I
have friends, people I work with who’ll worry about me if I
don’t contact them.”
He set the tankard down, relieved that the fact he was of
the royal line did not affect her. His interest caught on her
smooth features. The soft curve of her lips tempted him to
lean close enough to cover her mouth with his. She spoke
again, forcing him to pay attention to her words.
“You said the dragons were the ones who opened the
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door. I need to see them. Can you tell me how?” She started
then stopped with a shake of her head. “No, that’s not right.
Can you take me to them?”
Her gaze sought his and she hesitated a moment before
she continued. “If you go, maybe they’ll listen to you more
than me. Then they’ll send me home. To Earth.”
Had she practiced her words before she came to meet
him? Tilting his chair toward the wall behind him, he draped
an arm over the back. “No, I cannot. No one goes to see the
dragons unannounced. A request must go out across Avaris
to the great clan leaders. If they agree to meet with us, a
gathering will then take place.”
Silence passed between them for several moments. She
opened her mouth then shut it. He watched her internal
battle pass over her features. After a few moment of
consideration, she found the strength to speak.
“Fine. Tell me how to send the requests. They have to
listen to me.”
He glanced at the rough surface of the table, trying to
think of a way to make her understand. Taking a breath, he
said, “No matter what you and I desire, I believe the dragons
opened the portal for a reason. They want something from
you, and possibly, me. I care little for their manipulations,
but there is nothing I can do to fix this without their help.”
Taking a chance, he covered her hands with his before
continued. “I deeply regret bringing you here. For now, we
will travel to the land of Bae to visit the other off-worlder.
Perhaps there, we will learn of another way you might return
home.”
She released a shuddering sigh. Her body sagged as a
small smile passed over her lips. “Thank you.”
Under his palm, he felt what had to be relief surge
through her body, making the blood race in her veins. It
spiraled to end at the base of her belly, reminding him, even
verifying what he’d sensed earlier. He had never been a man
to keep silent if another needed important information. She
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needed to know this, now, not later. Still, he hesitated for a
moment before he spoke.
Paladin cleared his throat, turned away from her for a
moment, glanced around the room, cleared his throat again,
then turned back and met her eyes directly and spoke
bluntly. “You carry my child.”
She flinched at his words and shook her head in denial.
He tightened his hold on her hand.
“You do. I could sense it when you came downstairs. The
child’s dragon blood cries out to his sire,” he explained. With
disbelief radiating from her eyes, she seemed unable to
comprehend what he spoke of.
She slipped her hand from beneath his. Fisting it, she hid
it on the other side of her body, her arm formed a protective
barrier across her stomach. He focused on her abdomen. Yes,
a slight flicker. He still sensed it there, growing stronger with
each passing second.
She glared at him. “There isn’t any way you can tell if I’m
pregnant. It’ll take weeks before my body will start showing
signs.”
He half-smiled. Her ignorance of his world made it
difficult to explain things like this. “If the child was pure
human, yes, but this babe carries the white dragon blood in
its veins. A male child.”
Seren opened her mouth to speak, but Alice appeared.
She dropped a platter on the table.
“’ere ye go. Fresh cooked.” Sliding the plate filled with
fluffy eggs topped with plump sausages toward Seren, she
grinned and winked at Paladin before flouncing away.
Grateful for the interruption, Paladin lifted his tankard.
He kept an eye on Seren. She gulped, took a deep breath, and
then picked up the tine. She frowned at it, shrugged and
stuck the two-pronged, metal implement
into the eggs.
One small bite and she glanced at him. “Needs a little
salt.”
“Salt?”
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“It’s a seasoning,” she said.
He tilted his head toward her. A seasoning? Ah, to flavor
foods. “They have brine sticks. Some prefer to take a lick
before each bite. I’ve never cared for them.”
“It’s okay. I’ll pass,” she murmured, ducking her head
after another small bite.
He studied her, calculating the changes due to occur in
her body from this babe she carried. Her rich human blood,
untouched by magic, would affect the child’s magic. In what
manner, he dared not begin to imagine.
He narrowed his eyes, assessing her slender frame above
the table, watching the vein pulse in her neck. Her blood
carried no magic. He tried to understand why the dragons,
knowing this, granted his wish. She had mentioned a white
dragon. Lior, leader to his clan, was the only white dragon he
knew of who possessed the ability and power to implant
visions.
If Lior wanted to give him a child, why do it this way? The
baby would battle against Seren in his effort to survive.
Paladin stared into his tankard. Sorrow mixed with guilt over
touching her.
For all Lior’s help, the great white dragon chose the
wrong female for his child’s vessel. No matter her reasoning,
Lior should have found a different woman, another
dragonseed, to carry his child. Not a full blooded human. He
intended to assist Seren in her search to find a different way
home, yet he dreaded the idea of having to approach the
dragons to request help. The overlarge beasts were at the
best of times temperamental. He never knew what to expect
from them.
There was also the strong possibility of her miscarrying.
This weighed heavy against her. To his memory, no woman
without dragon blood had ever transfused their human blood
for dragons in order to give birth, nor to his knowledge, had
one carried a full-term dragonseed babe.
These other women had been born and lived on Avaris all
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their lives. Their blood soaked in the magic from the planet,
but even this had little effect on the outcome of their terms.
The babes had always died, taking the mother with them.
Seren had human blood from Earth, a place where magic lay
dormant under the inhabitants’ disbeliefs. He cringed. Their
child had little to no chance of survival.
Yet another son of his was destined to die. He had been
careless. Last evening, with all the drink, he’d allowed his
staunch guard to slip. He had needed a woman, any woman
to fill the emptiness inside him. For just once, he had desired
a woman to want him, not because of his ancestry, but
because of him. Now, he’d have their deaths on his
conscience.
She set her tankard on the table. The sound pulled him
out of his morose thoughts. He smiled at her. Her eyes
widened, and then she lowered her gaze to her plate.
When he saw she had eaten a sizable amount and showed
no sign of partaking more, he stood, offering her his hand.
She looked at him, watching his every move.
His stare wandered over the fragile length of her neck to
the sweet slope of her breasts where her shirt gaped. “I travel
to the Black Dragon stronghold of Velhavin. We will detour
to Dene and speak with Leo, the other off-worlder. He is a
close friend with a powerful wizard there. Perhaps, we can
discover from him another pathway to Earth. From there, we
will decide what to do next.”
A spark of hope flared in her eyes. She stared at him,
chewing on her bottom lip. From the expression on her face,
she considered reaching the other off-worlder. For now, that
was fine. She had enough to worry about with her arrival on
Avaris. He, however, had decided. Her future and his were
tied to each other. He refused to let her slip away from him.
He slid his fingers under her arm, and helped her stand.
“Come, we must be off. The winds are picking up. The time is
best to depart while they are strong.”
“I get sea sick easily,” she blurted out a second before
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they reached the front door of the common room.
He chuckled, her innocent response on venturing into the
unknown cast a bit of light on his darkened thoughts.
“Indeed, that would cause a problem if we traveled across
the seas.” Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the look she
aimed at him, a frown marring her heart-shaped face. “You
will see soon enough.”
Still holding her arm, he moved through the door which
led to the inn yard. Her pulse jumped under his fingertips. It
annoyed him that her fear and nervousness increased with
each step. He’d give anything to calm her fear.
Wide-eyed, she surveyed the locals scurrying throughout
the yard. She gasped, coming to a complete stop. He glanced
in the direction she stared. The Solrai moon floated white
and full in the blue sky. Shadowing the pearly circle, the
second moon appeared in crescent shape.
He leaned closer to better hear her soft words. Her hand
trembled as she pointed toward the moons. “There’s a design
in the center. On the surface. How did it get there? It’s a
For a moment, he stared at the silvered disc in the sky.
The dragon skull image covering the entire surface appeared
normal and comforting to him.
“Why would it not be possible?” He’d never realized how
different her world was from his. Books told the basic facts,
of how each planet had a moon in orbit around it. He could
not recall if Earth had one or two moons. Still, how different
were these when compared to her world’s moon? Her strange
ideas intrigued him more with each second he spent in her
company.
She frowned at him and lowered her hand. “They’re in
outer space. Thousands of miles away. You’d need a space
ship to fly there along with several decades to do something
of that magnitude. ”
He tilted his head, enjoying the wide-eyed surprise
mingled with amazement etched on her features. “It may be
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impossible for your world but not ours. Great magic formed
the dragon’s skull which marks the Solrai moon. In turn, the
moon guides our world.”
“How? How does it guide you?” She pulled backward.
“In the ways of our lives.” Paladin smiled, realizing he
had confused her more. Without knowing how to explain the
answer she needed, he released her arm. He started to walk
once more, drawing away from her while he spoke. “The
moons show us the seasons, planting crops, wars, all things,
including the times of birth.”
Seren’s wooden clogs clopped over the cobblestones in
the yard. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Good,
she followed. Silence reigned between them for several
minutes while they moved away from the inn and onto the
path leading into the main section of the port city. Each time
she lagged, she came to a halt, staring at what he assumed
was something exotic to her. Paladin slowed and waited,
giving her time to assimilate the differences of their worlds.
Excitement raced through him like a dragonseed who’d
just gained their wings and had taken flight for the first time.
He couldn’t understand why, but he wanted her to be pleased
with his ship. Perhaps it was his guilt over knowing that he
was responsible for her presence here, but reality told him it
was more than that. He liked her, enjoyed being with her,
and genuinely wanted her to be happy here. He was proud of
his vessel, and he wanted her to think it spectacular.
A gift from his deceased father, he took great pride in the
vessel. Sleek and swift, the air ship cut through the skies like
his blade through the flesh of his enemies. He moved away
from her, beginning the trek to the dock,
When too much distance formed between them, Seren
called to him, “Wait up.”
“Fear not, I will never leave you. My responsibilities are a
duty I always tend to,” he said over his shoulder.
Once she reached his side, she spoke, icy anger lacing her
words. “I am not your duty, nor your responsibility.”
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Paladin chuckled. “Are you not? How do you expect to
survive without me to fulfill your needs and offer protection
until you reach Dene?”
She remained silent for a few seconds, so he continued.
“Do you realize how vulnerable you are? You have no
knowledge of the customs of our world. How do you expect
to survive if you leave my side?”
“Just shut up, will you?” she snapped.
Several feet in front of her, his back to her, he grinned,
confident she wouldn’t notice and become more irritated
with him. Seren’s fiery spirit held great promise for her
ability to cope in this world. He sobered a second later. If she
survived, that is.
The stone path leading from the inn to the docks
overflowed with vendors and customers. He sidestepped a
child that darted into his path. When he realized the child
might collide with Seren, he reached out, snatching the
young one by the collar, halting him.