Treasure Of Dragons, Royal Dragons Book 1 Chapter 52

Ria

I watched my son's face as he nursed. He was so sweet, and he was old enough now that he would watch me and he cooed and made all sorts of baby noises. His sisters had full-blown conversations with him, about what was anyone's guess, but they seemed to understand him.

I was sitting on the floor in the toddler room, watching the girls play, and talking to them, in between staring into

my son's face.

Eli came up and softly patted his head, and said something. I got baby, mama, and her doll, but I missed part of that. Isobel was sitting on the side of her bed just watching the lot of us.

“She may be the smallest of them, but she makes up for it in personality.” I laughed with Isobel, completely agreeing.

“Yeah, I've noticed she's definitely the leader of the pack, and she's extremely protective of them, too.” I saw Isobel nod in agreement.

“So, it seems to me that you need some serious downtime after all the bullshit tonight. After you're done feeding him, why don't you take the rest of the night to yourself? I have those bottles you made, so I can handle Brand’s feeding. I promise I'll let you know if I need you.” She smiled at me softly.

I had given her a very abbreviated version of events. I was still reeling actually, so having time to decompress would be good. The guys were all gone on a mission, so I could have some peace and quiet.

“That actually sounds good. I think I'll take you up on that.” She beamed a huge smile, and I couldn't help but smile back.

I was alone in the bedroom and most of the lights were off. I had the fireplace on, and one light in the bathroom. I was brushing my hair, trying to just shut out everything in my head.

I looked at the wall, and there was a generic picture hanging there. As I looked, I saw my reflection in the glass. Suddenly I had to get rid of it, all of the pictures had to come down. Anything with a reflective surface I absolutely had to get rid of.

I pulled every single picture, anything with a surface I could see myself in. I hauled it all to a storage closet down the hall. When I was done I felt better, nothing reflective.

Then I walked into the bathroom and was confronted by my reflection in the mirror. Suddenly it was just too much. This was why I created those special mirrors in my old room.

I had to destroy all of them. I ran back into the bedroom and found a heavy wooden lamp. I ripped out the cord and tore away the shade. Then I used it to utterly destroy every single mirror in the bathroom.

The floor was covered in glass by the time I was done with the mirrors above all of the sinks. I didn't feel it if I stepped on any. I dropped the lamp base and walked into the shower. Then I turned it on as hot as I could stand it.

Drago

Well, earlier today had been a fucking epic failure. Nothing really got solved on the Stoica front. They just weren't able to wrap their head around everything she'd said.

They weren’t the only ones either. It had been very dark in that room after she had left. I think we all felt the weight of what she'd said.

There was nothing to do about it other than what we were already doing, so I wasn't sure how to process all the info. She'd warned me that what I'd hear would be bad.

After we'd said goodbye to the Stoicas, and sent them to their hotel, I went to check on Ria. We had a mission tonight, so we'd be leaving soon. I didn't want to do that without checking in on her.

I figured she was in the garden. She normally went there when she was distressed. I'd been surprised to see Arabella out there with her.

Then I'd heard the conversation. I saw Arabella's face, and I could tell she was both confused and distressed by the whole thing.

I wasn't surprised that Ria knew I was here. I'd stepped out so Arabella could see me. For a moment I was actually worried she'd take the bracelet off, but when she saw me, she refused.

Then after Ria's scathing comments, she'd quickly retreated to the house. I'd known she'd wanted to meet Ria, but I hadn't encouraged it. I knew that if Ria ever discovered she was the one responsible for the magic of the cuff, there'd be issues.

I followed her back to the house. We had a mission to prepare for, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about the Ria situation right this moment.

I could tell as I watched Arabella interact with us, that the easy dynamic we'd always shared was no more. Her view had been forever altered.

“I think perhaps it would be best if we found another witch to work with you on missions. I will be requesting immediate transfer to another location.” I watched her fidget and not be able to look at us.

I saw all the guys gawking, unable to comprehend the abrupt change in a very long-standing friendship.

“Okay, if you feel that's what you need to do, then we'll respect that.” I watched her nod.

Then she looked me right in the face with a mix of confusion, sadness, regret, and even a bit of anger, “If I stayed, I'd never be able to tell her no again. It would eat away at me until the only thing I could possibly do, would be to remove it.”

After she said that she left fairly quickly. The guys were all looking at me questioningly.

“She talked to Ria in the garden. Ria discovered she's the one responsible for the magic in the bracelet. Ria told her quite a lot, then asked her to remove it. Arabella saw me standing there and said no. Ria said she was as guilty as us and everyone else. Arabella had to retreat. That's what she was talking about.” The guys jaws were on the ground.

“Thank fuck she's leaving then. We could never let her take that bracelet off Ria.” Ash looked almost pissed.

I just nodded, and we finished prep, then left on the mission.

We had no idea what we'd find when we returned.