Darian glanced toward the doorway, but Celia was gone.Did she even know his last name to share it with them?She always called him Darian, so why did Flame use his last name as if it was a title?
“What does it mean?”he asked.
The baby dragon spat out a tiny flame.It means you are the Emberlin.
Well, that didn’t explain anything.
“Thank you for the help,” he said, sarcasm lacing his tone.
If the dragons picked up on it, they didn’t say anything.She needs your help, you know,Flame said.
Darian glanced from Flame to Sizzle and Spark, who were nodding sagely.
“She doesn’t really need me.”He shook his head.Celia had showed over and over again that she didn’t need him.
Yes, she does,Flame said.She doesn’t know it, but she needs you.She’s too alone.
“Well, aren’t you a wise little thing?”Darian asked, his mind churning.How did they know that Celia needed him?They were babies.
She’s better when you’re here,Spark said, and Sizzle nodded.
He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to feel about that, but he couldn’t help agreeing with them.She did seem better when he was there—not that he had any idea what she was like without him, but he knew there was something about her that came alive when she started disagreeing with him.
Maybe it had something to do with the spark that Spark had pointed out, or maybe Spark was simply pointing it out because it was his name; he had no way of knowing.
Baby dragons didn’t seem like the most trustworthy informants.
“I have no intention of leaving,” he told the babies.“Well, I have every intention of coming back,” he amended.“I do have to go home soon, but I wanted to make sure she made it home safely first.”
Because you are a good mate,Spark said, humming in satisfaction.
“I’m a good mate,” Darian mumbled to himself.The idea of Celia being his mate felt both confusing and absolutely right.
Celia appeared in the doorway of her home again, and something flared to life inside his chest at the sight of her.Maybe the hatchlings were right.Maybe there was something special about this, something more than normal, because this certainly felt like more than he would expect.He’d had a few crushes in his teenage years, and they hadn’t felt anything like this.
And if the baby dragons knew his name, perhaps there was more to the story than his uncles had told him–or more than they even knew themselves.
Whatever the truth was, he wanted to discover it with Celia.
And that didn’t scare him nearly as much as it should have.
Chapter nine
Celia
Ithadbeennearlyten days since Celia had sobbed all over Darian, and she was doing a wonderful job of trying to forget it had ever happened.
Well, perhaps not a wonderful job.She couldn’t forget it.
More specifically, she couldn’t forget how delightful it had felt when he held her in his arms, and she’d felt safe and whole again for the first time since she had lost her first love.
“He’s not coming,” Celia told the dragons, who were chittering and complaining, probably because Darian hadn’t arrived yet.He’d come out every day since then, riding their horse, who seemed to be enjoying the exercise more and more every day, but he’d told her yesterday that the horse would be needed for the store today.
“So Darian isn’t coming,” she finished explaining.
All four of them squawked at her.If only she could understand what they were saying.She’d never wished more that she had Darian’s talent.Try as she might, she was never able to discern any difference in the chirping and the squawking, no matter how many times he translated.
She sighed and got to her feet, picking up her empty bowl and taking it over to wash it.
