Page 16 of Dragon Revealed (Dragon Kings 1)
Chapter Nine
Why did Varek have to make so much sense? Jeyra didn’t like that he’d put questions in her head.
But the truth was, she didn’t know how many others the dragon had killed the day her family died. She wasn’t even sure what had happened to the dragon. She’d just been happy that it went away. Rankin had told her that she was safe, and she believed him.
More annoying than that was the fact that she couldn’t stop looking at Varek’s mouthwatering body. She wished he’d put a shirt on because she found it difficult to keep her thoughts on their discussion. “Are you ever going to put your shirt on?”
In response, he lifted his hands, showing the manacles and the chain attached to both of them.
She glanced at the discarded shirt near his feet, wondering how he had gotten it off. As if reading her mind, he lifted it and showed her the rip down the middle and along the sleeves so he could remove it.
So much for her getting him another tunic. There was no way he could get it on over those chains. But his nakedness was a distraction, to be sure. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know what a man looked like. She’d had her share of lovers, though none had developed into anything serious. That was as much her fault as it had been theirs.
She had to think of something other than Varek’s appealing body or what he might look like without any clothes on. “What kind of magic do you have?”
“As I said, a dragon can do all kinds of magic.”
Jeyra couldn’t help thinking that he wasn’t telling her everything. Then again, why should he? If she were in his place, she would keep as many secrets as possible, only divulging what she needed in order to get what she wanted.
“Do you have a wife?” She wasn’t sure why she’d asked that. Maybe it was thinking of her past lovers and the fact that she didn’t have anyone now that’d put her mind on that train of thought.
“I’ve no’ found my mate yet,” he answered.
His choice of words was interesting. “Mate and not wife?”
“One and the same. You say wife or husband. I say mate.” He shrugged as if that answered it all.
And she supposed it did.
“Do you have a husband? A wife?”
She smiled and shook her head. “I don’t have a husband, no.”
“I find that difficult to believe. You’re beautiful, strong, and intelligent.”
Jeyra was at a loss for words. After everything she had said to him, he complimented her? Her first instinct was to wave away the words as lies, but something in his eyes made her hesitate. As she stared into the dark depths, it dawned on her what it was. He was telling the truth. He really did believe her beautiful, strong, and intelligent.
“I’ve shocked you,” he said with a crooked smile.
If his bare chest, voice, and handsome face distressed her, that grin caused her lungs to seize. He was stunning at any angle, but that smile transformed him into something alluring and beyond gorgeous.
They were enemies, yet he treated her with kindness and patience. He had shared some of his past and listened to hers. He hadn’t rebuffed, chided, or ignored her. And the more she was around Varek, the more he fascinated her.
First, he made her feel remorseful for him. Now, she wanted to know more about him. This wasn’t right. It couldn’t be. He was her nemesis, the same type of being as the one responsible for her family’s horrible death. He needed to pay for those crimes.
Didn’t he?
“I’ll be back,” she told him and hurried from the dungeon.
She blinked against the bright light of the sun when she emerged. Everything was mixed up and jumbled. She wasn’t sure what was up and what was down anymore, but she did know one thing—she needed answers. Jeyra didn’t give any of the guards a glance as she left and went looking for Rankin. He was the one who could give her information on what she needed to know. It maddened her that she hadn’t thought to ask how many others had died the same day as her family, or what had happened to the dragon. Why hadn’t she asked those questions? Why hadn’t she pushed for more?
Because you trusted Rankin.
She had. He was a good man, a great warrior. He’d been a surrogate father when there had been no one else. He never spoke of that day, ever, unless she brought it up. It wasn’t right to be angry at him for not divulging specifics if she hadn’t asked him about them. But she was asking now.
Jeyra went to each of his favorite taverns, the arena, his flat, and even the council building, but he wasn’t at any of them. Thinking he might be on some mission, she realized that she would have to wait until he returned.
Then she remembered there was another way to get some answers. Jeyra went to the library and searched the archives section for the day her family had died. She read the notes taken at the council meeting, including the part where Rankin had asked to raise her.
As she flipped a page, she realized something was wrong. Upon closer inspection, she discovered that an entire page was missing from the archives. She flipped back several pages and saw that at least two other pages were gone, as well. One was her testimony. It was against their laws to remove pages from an archive. Who had taken them?
And more disturbing, why?
She softly closed the book and returned it to the shelf. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted one of the library workers watching her. So as not to look as if she were searching for anything in particular, she took out three other archives and rummaged through them.
Finally, she raised her gaze and met the librarian’s. “I’m trying to uncover any honors Rankin received. I’m doing something special for him. Do you know where I can find that?”
The woman’s pinched lips widened slightly into a smile. “Right where you are,” she replied in a nasal voice.
Once the woman was gone, Jeyra continued flipping through other archive books to see if more pages were missing. As far as she could see, it was just on the day her family had died. Particularly the part where she had told the council her side of the story, Rankin’s statement of how he’d found her and her family, and the other warriors’ testimonies.
