Page 61 of Dragon Tempted

What does the story mean? How can this help break the curse? Veronica asked. But she pushed her inner voice down and turned to the man who sat next to her. He had been a rock earlier. For some reason when she couldn’t sleep, she’d wanted to talk to him. When she saw the lights on in his cabin, she didn’t pause to think about bursting in on him in the middle of the night.

He was becoming a part of her thoughts more and more. She should have never asked him to dance. Never let him hold her close or breathe in his scent. Never let him knock down her defenses. And earlier when he stepped close to her and pushed her hair behind her ear? Something warmed her chest and she was pretty sure it was her dragon.

“What do you think?”

He frowned. “The oldest brother, Samuel, lost in the forest of fog could be a description of Adam’s memory loss.”

She nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. And Daniel searching for his lost brother and realizing that they should have stayed together after finding his brother’s shield. That mirrors Eric returning to the clan and finding Adam’s dragon sentry pendant.”

Her heart picked up. “But then they find each other and along the way, they’re joined by a mage and a scholar to help with their quest. And unless I’m mistaken, that sounds like Tessa and Megan to me.”

John leaned forward. “The possible coincidences in the first story can’t be brushed off now that we have the second book.”

Sienna’s nerves danced. “I know. And who are the trolls they’re facing? Are they the Templars? And the darkness that keeps closing in, is it the curse?”

“Yes, to all of it. But it still hasn’t told us how to stop the darkness.”

Sienna picked up the book again and gripped it tighter as she continued to read. The story talked about Evie giving a shield with the dragon sentry symbol to Daniel too so that both her brothers were protected. She flipped the page and looked down at the drawing in front of her of the sentry symbol. She held it up with shaky hands for John to see.

“It keeps coming back to the dragon sentries, doesn’t it?” John said.

She flipped to the last page to read that Evie had challenges to face, and then the story stopped. She gritted her teeth for a moment to stop from screaming. “Except this isn’t the whole story. They still haven’t saved the village.”

He nodded. “It sounds like the last book is Evie’s story.”

“You mean my story.” She looked up into his concerned eyes and then turned away. “There has to be another volume somewhere.”

He cleared his throat before responding. “We can search the rest of the cabin to make sure there isn’t something else hidden.”

They stood and started searching the rest of the room. “Thank you for helping me with this,” she said as she tried to calm her breathing.

He pulled the cushions off the couch and looked under them, feeling around with his hand. “Of course. Anything to finally put an end to this curse once and for all.”

She opened the kitchen cabinets and started rifling through them, pulling out dishes and stacking them on the table. It didn’t take long to finish searching the main part of the cabin. Sienna spent a few minutes searching the small bathroom while John moved into the bedroom. She joined him and after looking in the drawers and closet, they turned to the bed. John lifted the mattress to the side and she checked under it before dropping to the floor to see if there was anything under the bed. Other than dust and cobwebs the underside was empty.

She sighed. “At least we found the second storybook.”

He stared at her for a moment. “Are you going to tell Mia you found it?”

“Yes,” she said without hesitating.

“And you think that’s wise?” John’s frown grew.

“I think she knows more of what’s happening than anyone. Which means I’ll offer her some information, but not without asking her to return the favor. This isn’t one-sided. I don’t trust her, but that doesn’t mean we can’t tap into her knowledge to help break this curse.”

“Even if she’s a Templar.”

“Even then. The scroll’s second paragraph talks about Templars, which means they’re playing a role in this whether we want them to or not.”

“Not sure your brothers are going to be happy about you seeing her again.”

“They shouldn’t be surprised. I already told them I was doing it. Now more than ever we need to move forward with this.”

Especially since she was front and center in however this story would play out.

Sienna counted to ten silently to calm herself and Veronica down. A long sleepless night searching for the book followed by a longer chaotic day packed with discussions and more discussions about the newly found story had worn her down. As John predicted, emotions were extreme and divided. Excitement about the new story on one side. Worry about meeting with Mia and sharing what they’d found on the other. She loved her family and understood all their concerns, but that didn’t change her mind.

She was going to meet with Mia again. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to set some terms of her own. Sienna asked for the chat group information since she was going to contact Mia directly. There was no point of putting Megan in the middle. Mia had made her choice on who she wanted to meet with. And even though the quotes had inspired Mia to communicate, Sienna would be more to the point about matters.