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A couple of the shelves were empty, I guessed to make room for future contributions. I left the human occupation tablet on one of those so I could find it again easily when I had time to really payattention.
A glance into a closed cabinet revealed stacks of blank crystals that must have been for my or later dragon shifter’s use. Hopefully there was an instruction manual around here somewhere. I returned to pawing through the otherrecords.
Partway through the next row, an etching caught my eye with a pang of recognition. I pulled out thattablet.
On closer examination, the image wasn’t exactly the same as the one I’d remembered. It showed dragons and humanoid figures a little too tall and slim to be really human. The fae. I’d seen carvings like this on the pedestal in the mountain caves, where I’d found the truth-seeking flames that fae and shifter magic had createdtogether.
Dragons and fae stood together in the picture on the tablet too. One fae figure had its hand resting on the shoulder of the dragon beside it. Two others stood with their heads bent toward each other, a shape like a flame betweenthem.
It didn’t look like this one would say anything about vampires, but then, maybe our relations with the other dominant paranormal community would give me some insight. And I couldn’t deny I was curious how we and those wispy, shimmering beings had ever gottenalong.
I took my spot on the chair again and clasped the tablet to mychest.
“Dragon shifter Charlotte, 1842. I would like to record a joint project I’ve embarked on with our fae companions, and to detail the current state of ouralliance.”
An alliance, huh? That had obviously fallen apart a long timeago.
I managed not to tense up as this tablet’s vision spilled out before my eyes. Tall, slim, shining fae were flitting through an open forest amid a pack of wolves. A dragon, emerald green, soared byoverhead.
The fae weren’t fleeing the shifters or chasing them. I could tell from the flashes of smiles and the way they wove between each other’s groups that they were…enjoyingsharing the woods. Not an image I’d ever expected tosee.
But then, the only time I’d seen more than one fae at a time was in the vision that had showed a bunch of them killing my mother with theirmagic.
“I suppose it makes sense that we shifters and the fae can understand each other better than either of us relates to the vampires,” the former dragon shifter’s sweet voice continued. “Unlike them, we are both drawn to life more so than death. While some of us may enjoy a night-time run, every shifter I’ve ever met enjoys a good lie-about in the sun, which the fae worship. And my dragon fire has so much in common with fae magic, they assure me we can link the two together, their power sharing mine. I’m excited by thepossibilities.”
The image whirled around to show the emerald dragon breathing fire toward a fae woman—who was encompassing it in a stream of her own blue-ish magic. My breath caught, watching it. I eased the tablet away from me to get mybearings.
Blue and red, mingling together. To create the violet of my truth-seeking flames? Had this dragon shifter been the one to create the power I’d stumbled on nearly two centurieslater?
If we’d managed to createthatpower with the fae, what else might we be capable oftogether?
As soon as the question passed through my head, my throat tightened. Maybe the dragon shifters had been able to work alongside the fae in the distant past, but a lot had changed since then. How had we come to the point where the fae monarch would look the other way while her people slaughtered mymother?
How the hell could we ever trust themagain?
I didn’t know what had gone wrong, but I couldn’t answer any of those questions without knowing more. Inhaling deeply, I brought the tablet back to my chest to see what else my long-ago ancestor could tellme.
Chapter 14
Ren
My name reachedme as if from a huge distance away, across an ocean maybe. At first I almost didn’t hear it. Then it penetrated my focus even moreinsistently.
“Ren! Princess, if you don’t say something soon, I’m going to have to start clanging thesirens.”
I jerked the tablet I’d been clutching away from my chest. My head spun. My stomach pinched, deep into the hollow it had formed in mybelly.
How long had I been down here in the basement archive? I rubbed my forehead as if that would clear the mugginess around my thoughts and finally found the wherewithal to answer Marco. “I’m here! Sorry. I just got… reallyabsorbed.”
His chuckled carried, muted, down the stairs. “You might want to consider getting unabsorbed for a bit. I’m thinking it’s about time you ate something. And whileIhave full confidence in your ability to look after yourself, some of your other mates may be wearing holes in the carpet with their pacing uphere.”
I had been down here longer than I realized, then. That pinching in my stomach was a reminder that yes, at some point I should havedinner.
I pushed myself off the armchair. The muscles in my back twanged from so much time spent sitting. Sitting and gazing into visions of timespast.
But I still hadn’t found what I was looking for. Not the reason we’d fallen out with the fae. Not a reason to think we could ever count on them again. I bit my lip, nibbling at it in my frustration, as I climbed back up to the mainfloor.
Marco had stepped back from the doorway to let me through. “There’s my dragon shifter,” he said lightly. “Did you find anythinguseful?”
