room. “Soon they’ll be too big for this space. They’ll need a place of their own to create nests.”
Nests. Of course.
“Tonight, after everyone has gone to sleep, we’ll fly them to the stable I mentioned. The one I planned to have you clean.”
“And where is this stable located?”
“The Enchantian Forest.”
He couldn’t be serious. “No. Not happening.” I shook my head for emphasis. “Anyone could stumble upon it and hurt them.”
He flicked his tongue over an incisor. “Ophelia used her magic to hide the stable from anyone uninvited. The dragons will be fine. And I will pay for a magical doorway between the secret passage and the stable, allowing us to visit the dragons anytime we wish, without anyone the wiser.”
“How do you know the secret passage can hold a magical doorway?” I didn’t know how big or small it was, or even where it led.
He gave me a little grin, making my heart flutter. “Before your father’s invasion, this was my room.”
I’d been sleeping in Saxon’s bed all this time? The fluttering worsened in the best way. “What if someone finds the secret passage and therefore the doorway?”
“None of your father’s people can find the secret passages in this palace, for good reason. King Challen had battle magic. He saw wars coming years in advance and formed strategies to win before the enemy ever even considered striking. One of those times, he paid a royal witch to prevent anyone but his immediate family and a few select others to even see the doors. The same spell was used to hide the stable.”
Okay. All right. This was shaping up to be a plan I could support. I knew how well the secret passage had been hidden. I’d been trapped inside this room for six days, and never noticed it.
One last worry kept me from agreeing with his plan. “Why are you being so agreeable, Saxon? What’s happened? What’s changed?”
He came to me then, stopping just in front of me. “I don’t want to be your enemy anymore, Asha. I don’t know if we can be friends, considering everything that’s happened, but I think I’d like to try.”
“You would?” I...couldn’t... The fairy tale was unfolding right before my eyes? This was happening?
He gave a brittle laugh. “I’m being as foolish as my past incarnations. I don’t know if Craven can ever fully forgive Leonora for what transpired in their lifetime, and I don’t know what I’ll do if you betray me in mine. But I know I don’t want you harmed.”
It was. He liked me. I’d charmed him somehow. A slow grin spread, and he scowled at me. My grin only widened.
If he was willing to work with a reincarnated version of Leonora, he might be willing to work with the girl possessed by her spirit. Time would tell. I would wait, and I would watch. If he’d meant what he’d said, if this wasn’t some kind of trick, his actions would prove it, and I would disclose the full truth about my circumstances.
And oh, wow. How drastically my life had changed between one minute and the next. This morning I’d been a single mother on the hunt for jobs. This evening, I had a dragon father and a tentative friendship with the avian handpicked by fate.
What part of the fairy tale would come true next?
“Yes,” I whispered. “I’d very much like to be your friend, Saxon.”
He nodded, satisfied. “Then we’ll head to the stable at midnight.”
18
The future both is and isn’t fixed,
the past and the present intermixed.
SAXON
For hours I sat in the backless chair at the desk, riveted by the sight of Ashleigh and the dragons. Anytime she glimpsed them, love shone in her emerald eyes, and it looked as if stars had fallen in a lush meadow. The tenderness, awe, and reverence inherent in her every touch filled me with envy. When she held the dragons, she acted as if she held a priceless treasure. Had anyone ever viewed me in such a way?
Had I ever viewed anyone in such a way?
Even though exhaustion clung to Ashleigh, she readily played fetch anytime the dragons brought her a toy—like a hand-carved clock or a priceless antique. The trio was already a family. The kind of family I’d always desired for myself. They were so at ease with each other, secure in the knowledge that one belonged to all, and all belonged to one.
Was this the reason Noel and Ophelia had given two dragon eggs to a reincarnation of Leonora, risking my