Page 74 of Dragon Tempted

“You okay?” he asked in a low voice.

“Yes,” she answered quickly. But she wasn’t. They were in trouble, and Ryan was out there being chased by God knows who. And it was her fault.

He frowned down at her. “Take a deep breath. We need to look like a couple out having a good time.”

She sucked in a breath and then another before nodding. They strolled down the sidewalk and checked out the stores. There was a pottery shop, a craft store, a shop for everything baby, and the last shop on this side of the road was a drugstore. “Let’s head to the drugstore. Less chance of having to deal with clerks wanting to help us.”

They walked inside and headed down the candy and snack aisle. Sienna grabbed a couple of items without really looking. John still held her hand and stood sideways in the aisle so that he could watch both ends. That was something Ryan would do. She swallowed. If she hadn’t insisted that they needed to do business as usual this morning, they would have had backup. Instead Ryan was using himself as bait while she was hiding.

“Whatever you’re thinking right now, stop,” John said.

“But—”

“He’s doing his job, and he’s good at it.”

Before she could argue, John’s phone rang and he held it to his ear this time and answered. “Hello.” He listened for a moment. “Pharmacy. We’ll head out now.”

She dropped the candy back on the shelf, and they walked toward the front. The doors swished open, and moments later an SUV pulled up with Marcus in the passenger seat.

They climbed into the back and were off. Sienna glanced behind them and saw another SUV with guards following. “Have you heard from Ryan?”

“Both cars followed him. He was able to make it to a police station and park. I’ve got another SUV on the way to back him up so that they can get back to the clan house.”

Sienna’s chest relaxed and she pulled in a breath. “Do you think they were trying to scare us or actually run us off the road?”

Marcus turned to her. “I think they were trying to stop you.” He looked at John. “Were they after you?”

John frowned. “Possibly.”

Sienna wrapped her arm tightly around her bag. “They didn’t know John was with us. And they haven’t tried to stop Ryan and me in the past. They must have wanted to know what we found in the vault.”

She looked over at John, who nodded at her. He’d been calm as could be during the whole mess. But he’d spent his whole life on the defensive. It wasn’t the way she wanted to live, and she prayed that it would soon be the same for John.

Hopefully what her mother left them would help end this curse.

Chapter 26

John was worried. That in itself wasn’t new. He was constantly worried about breaking the curse—it was embedded in his every thought and what little feelings he allowed himself. Until recently. In the past two years he’d broken his cardinal rule. Somehow the walls he’d built around himself had started to crumble, and he’d gotten close to others. John had sworn to himself centuries ago that he would never rely on, let alone care for, anyone again. He couldn’t afford to. It distracted him from his one and only goal. And it hurt like acid slowly burning through his chest.

But desperation to end all of this had convinced him that he had to reach out to someone for help. He wasn’t getting the job done on his own. When he’d approached Megan and asked her about showing the Death of Magic painting at the museum, he had no idea that would send him and Clan Simonson down a dangerous path. It was one thing to be willing and ready to sacrifice himself. He knew that was the endgame here. But it was another to cause collateral damage along the way.

Now he was worried about Bella, and Lily, and their parents. And he couldn’t forget about Sienna. She had chiseled away at the hard shell around his heart. A heart that beat and did little else. When she had tried to kiss him, he wanted nothing more than to feel her lips against his. To breathe her in. To see if he could feel again.

But that would have been a mistake. Especially after today. He’d worried about keeping her safe more than about stopping the curse, and that was not good.

He couldn’t let his heart do anything but beat until it was time for it to stop beating altogether. They were close to the end of all this. He couldn’t afford the distraction, and she didn’t need a damaged husk of a man. A man with an expiration date.

He stood at the side of the room, listening to the newest Simonson clan debate. Well, now he could call it a debate. When they had arrived home, it had been hugging, followed by yelling, followed by hugging again. When Ryan came into the room, Sienna practically tackled him to the ground. He grabbed on and spoke softly to her until she finally let him go.

Now Eric, Adam, Megan, Tessa, Marcus, and Ryan sat quietly as Sienna read the story to them. What did the newest storybook truly mean about Evie’s quest? And why were the last few pages ripped from the book? He assumed whoever had ripped the pages out wanted to hide the truth. But was that because it described how to break the curse or how the fight was lost?

The ring and bowl sat on the table. Sienna picked up the ring and handed it to Eric. “The second storybook said that Evie would give her older brother a shield. This has to be for you.”

Eric held it in his hand for a moment before putting it on his right ring finger.

“We should see if it’s bespelled like Adam’s pendant,” Tessa said.

Megan took the scroll out of the safe and handed it to Eric. Everyone held their breath as they watched to see if the scroll’s words would change. A few seconds later, the words changed to English.