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“I was murdered and they never found the killer. But I know who it was. Can you tell the police where to find my killer? I need justice before I can leave this place.”
Her voice is all around me in the night. Soft and yet strong. A whisper that seems like a shout in my head. Her soulless eye sockets point to a ledger stone with her name. Carinna Duchet. She’s been dead for over fifty years.
“Your killer is almost surely as dead as you are,” I say coldly. Hoping against hope that that satisfies her.
But I can see that it doesn’t.“I need justice to find peace. Even if it’s just to smear his damned name and the name of his family after him.”
“Do you think that’s fair? What if his family doesn’t know what he was? They would be innocent and you’re attempting to hurt innocent people. Doesn’t that make you just as bad as him?”
Her head shakes wildly, bobbling. And then she reaches out to touch me and I step back, knowing that that would be way too much. And that the force of her anger might shred my resolve. Blow apart all my protestations and force me to do as she asks when I’m not certain that it’s right.
She moves closer and I step away, one foot then another behind myself. I can feel the other souls gathering around, sensing my weakness and I touch the ruby necklace burning at my throat. It feels like it’s on fire to my touch and I moan in pain.
“I can’t do this. Why did you send me to this horrible place, grandmother?” But although she’s gone as well, she appears to be the one soul that doesn’t want to talk to me.
Carinna moves closer, burning with anger, resentment and pain. It’s pouring off of her in waves of unrelenting emotions and it feels like I’m being buried under them.
“Help me,” she insists, her voice echoing in my head. I put my hands over my ears, closing my eyes, desperate to close out the emotions all around me.
A chill wind wafts across me and there’s a huge, echoing roar. My eyes fly open, not sure if I want to see the creature that can make that sound and yet needing to. There’s a tug in my belly so strong that my hand reaches down to claw at my stomach.
The air gusts around me, making my hair fly into my eyes and the wretched souls shriek in anger.
A loud, angry, deep voice in my head roars.“Leave my mate alone, you worthless humans!”
Putting my arms around myself, I press my body into the side of a vault, trying to shrink away from all the voices and the pain and the anger.
It’s too much. I can’t take it anymore.
My hands cover my ears and I scream, “All of you…leave me alone!I can’t help you!”
And it’s true. I’m barely hanging on. A loud thump in front of me makes my head turn and then the world whirls around me. I shake my head, sure that I’m hallucinating. That one of the souls tearing at me has twisted my brain enough to make me as crazy as they are.
A huge, dark gray dragon is in front of me. He stomps through the cemetery, not caring that he’s toppling people’s final resting place. Not caring that he’s disturbing the last vestige of someone’s life.
His pale blue eyes burn with a ruby fire as his gaze meets mine.“Mate!” His deep voice screams in my head.
“No, I’m not yours. I can’t be.” I back away from him, my hands lifting to keep him away. But he moves closer and closer, his bright gaze unholy in its emotions. I can feel the happiness and desire slamming into me like a freight train.
“I’m not who you think I am,” I whisper desperately into the freezing air, feeling the chill all the way to my bones.
The big head shakes, moonlight and the light from the lantern shimmering on his dark, silver-gray scales. They shimmer with energy and change colors to green and gray and gold. He’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and my gut tells me to go to him. That he’ll protect me no matter what.
Fear holds me hostage. I can’t move, can’t breathe, can’t break free from whatever strange hold he has over me.
“I-I don’t know what you want.”
“You. Only you. My mate.”
My head shakes. Certainty rises up in me that he’s right. That this is my fate standing in front of me.
But I can’t accept it. Nothing is going to keep me from doing that last request from my grandmother.
Not even the dragon eyeing me like a tasty treat for the taking.
“I’m not. I’m just a human. You’re,” my hand waves in front of me, pointing at him and the air all around us. “magical. I’m just plain Artemis Falconer. Nothing special.”
“You are the only thing special in this godforsaken world and I’ve waited centuries to find you,” he growls. “I’m not giving up. You’re mine.”
