“What kind of others? No, perhaps that isn’t the question right at this moment.” She made herself turn to the mural, and back to what she’d been hired for. That too was fascinating, in a different sense. “These top pictures are saying something about the older ones. Almost a threat—”
“A claim,” Mikhail said. “I—”
The ground trembled.
Earthquake!
She dropped sketchpad and chalk, her arms coming up. Sick with terror, she turned her face skyward toward the implacable stone overhead as tiny rocks began to rain around them. A sharp sway sent her reeling. But before she could fall, Mikhail’s strong arms closed around her.
As the world rocked and stones clattered around them, he held her against him, and murmured into her hair, “You are safe, my Bird. Whatever happens, I will never let you fall.”
SIX
MIKHAIL
This quake was deliberate.
Mikhail sensed the power thrust into the cracks deep in the ground. But he could not shift in order to track the malicious intent to its source without endangering Bird.
Until now there had been no sign of any threat. Why now? Coincidence or deliberate? He couldn’t answer any of those questions, nor could he investigate while Bird was with him. Protecting her was the most important thing. Once she was safe, he could go hunting.
Using his dragon’s strength and agility, plus just a little bit of the magic that enabled him to fly, he lifted and guided Bird past the unsteady boulders, shielding her with his own body from sifting rain of pebbled and sand. As soon as they were out of the crevasse, he sped them toward the entrance to the cave.
The tide was still sufficiently out for him to set her down gently fifty paces from the cave entrance. She cast frightened glances around the cave, but was clearly unaware of how much of their retreat had defied gravity.
“Well, that was scary.” Her voice was high, and trembled a little at the end, but she met his gaze steadily. “We should probably wait to see if there are aftershocks before going back in. Oh! I left my sketches back there.”
The mate bond made them a match, but there were so many permutations of love. His gentle Bird’s bravery hollowed him to the heart. He lifted his hand, cupping her cheek as he said, “We’ll give it a day, shall we?” He saw the relief she tried valiantly to hide, and added, “Your discovery in there puts us way ahead.”
“Really? Her brow furrowed. “But I’ve no training. How can that be?”
“It’s your artist’s eye. On my first exploration, I wasn’t paying attention to the mural. I regarded it mostly as decoration, maybe even a distraction. I was concentrating on the structure of the stone and . . . other aspects that are more difficult to describe.”
He hesitated, looking into her wide eyes. All he saw, and sensed, was her vanishing fear, a little worry, and curiosity. But there was no anger, disbelief, or resentment.
Aware that this was a new step in his courtship, he said, “I would like to tell you about them, but perhaps in more comfortable surroundings?”
She bit her lip, looked at her hand, then raised her honest eyes and said, “I’d love that, but I promised old Mr. Kleiner—he’s a painter and he owns the property I live on—that I would come over and stretch canvases for him this afternoon. But . . .” She squared her shoulders and he sensed her coming to a decision, one that resonated with tentative trust.
Again appreciation washed through him. He could feel how difficult trust came to her.
“How about dinner?” she asked. “I don’t claim to be a great cook, but I could double one of my friend Doris’s recipes. I’ve been her guinea pig for years.”
“I would love that more than anything,” he said, tentative happiness washing through him.
An invitation to her nest! Our mate trusts us, the dragon trumpeted.
Mikhail shoved him back down. “Unfortunately, there is a reception tonight that I must attend. As I’m the guest of honor, I can’t refuse, though I would like to, very much, now.”
“Oh,” she said. In a bright tone, she said, “Of course you’re very busy.”
The way she tried to hide her disappointment caused a sweet sort of ache that he had never felt before.
Our mate must come with us, stated his dragon, humming again. Let us show her off.
I can’t drag her to a tedious affair among a lot of strangers, who except for Joey Hu have no interest in us, the book, or anything we care about. This is strictly cover.
She must come, nagged his dragon.