“No.” Trinity looked at Raven and pleaded with her eyes, sweet for a moment. “Take the time. Follow your path. Follow...” She snarled and frowned, clearly back to her Múspellsheimr side. “Hell, no, do what you need to do to find your happily ever after and do it, fast.” She shook her head. “No time for romance.”
“What’s going on?” She frowned at Vicar, concerned. “Something’s not right with Trinity.”
“The same thing’s been happening with him.” Tor eyed their surroundings. “The higher we go, the more his two halves war with each other, struggling to stay on top.”
“What would cause that?” Raven got the feeling she wouldn't be able to control Trinity's personalities this time. She directed her frown at Cian. “What’s going on?”
He had no chance to answer before they heard a mighty roar ahead.
“It must be another memory because that’s my dragon.” Tor pulled her after him. “And he’s mad.Furious.Ready to kill someone.”
He was, and it turned out to be the last person they expected to see here.
Chapter Eighteen
“YOU HAD HER long enough,” Tor’s young dragon roared at a younger version of Cian. They were in a monstrous cave with yet another waterfall. This one even larger than the last. “She’s mine.” He couldn’t have been much older than fifteen winters or so. “You have done your part. Now leave!”
Though he spoke telepathically because he was in dragon form, like now, Cian clearly heard him.
“I have not done my part,” Cian roared right back. Because his voice was magically enhanced, several stalactites crashed to the ground. “And ye know it!”
“I can take care of her now.” Tor’s dragon reared his head and bared his teeth, ready to roar fire down on the intrusive wizard. “I can keep her safer than you ever could!”
“Ye can do no such thing.” Cian threw back his head and laughed as the two circled. “It has been out of your hands since the moment she came into existence. Out of everyone’s hands but his.”
Tor narrowed his eyes at that, sensing something just out of reach. A truly important memory.
“Who?” Trinity wondered. “If I didn’t know better, it almost sounds like we have a much bigger player in all of this than just you three.”
It did, didn’t it? But who?
“You say it was all him,” young Tor growled, “but it wasn’t.” He stood up to his full height and puffed his chest. “It was just as much me.” He lowered his dragon head close to Cian, narrowed his eyes, and bared his teeth again. “Always me. In the beginning and in the end, whether you like it or not, Irishman.”
“That’s arch-wizard to you,” Cian ground out, his aura growing darker by the second, along with his eyes. He notched his chin and managed to look down at Tor every bit as much as the dragon did him. “And let us not forget, I'm Keeper of Memories,” he narrowed his eyes, “your memories if need be, dragon.” A pompous, knowing smile curled his mouth. “And, of course, I’m not just an Irishman or an arch-wizard but a king.”
Before Tor could rev up and blow fire at him, young Cian threw back his head, laughed again, and vanished.
