Silver(55)

“I’m okay,” Sever said.

“Are you sure? We can call in the sapphire dragon,” Citrine said. “He is a friend of mine.”

Sever shook his head. “I’m fine now. I promise. Thanks to Adrien.”

“Please,” Adrien retorted, walking over to his friend and looking him up and down. “You are the one who made the sacrifice play. If not for that, Kelsey couldn’t have gotten my ring off.”

“I’m sorry,” Citrine said, looking at Mercury. “If I had any idea this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have left you. I…” He trailed off, running his hand through his hair again. “I have failed in my duties.” He looked around him. “The club is destroyed. The—”

“Stop,” Kelsey said, unable to watch such a nice man beat himself up like that. “It was all part of Mercury’s plan. He was waiting for you to leave. He set it up so Robbie would go, knowing you would follow.”

“I couldn’t find her,” Citrine said. “She was gone by the time I got to her apartment. I… broke in. She left in a rush.”

Kelsey walked over to him. “Mercury told some people who were looking for her where she was. I promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone, but I had no idea she was leaving. I’ll tell you whatever you want know.”

He gave her a weary smile. “It’s okay. I know you were just trying to be a good friend to her. We can talk later. For now, I need to call in crews to clean up this place, and tomorrow, I have to fly out for a meeting with the oracle. I’ll want everyone to kind of stay low key until I get back.

Kelsey nodded as Adrien came up, putting his arm around her. “Mercury was that women who kept coming in and harassing you, too.”

Adrien narrowed his eyes. “That makes weird sense. For some reason, we can’t sense him when he’s disguised. That’s how we suspect he tricked Sever into thinking the coarse metal dragons were responsible for our near deaths.”

She blinked. “What? Deaths?”

“Oh boy, there is a lot to tell you,” he said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to all happen this fast.”

“Why don’t you take your mate back to your room?” Sever said, pushing off the wall and walking forward. “I’ll stay with Citrine, and we’ll take care of things here. Call in the right people to take this guy back to the oracle. I’m sure we’ll learn a lot more when he’s questioned there. For now, just take care of Kelsey. And yourself.”

“Thank you, Sever,” Adrien said. “Again.”

“Yes, thanks,” Kelsey added, but Sever just waved a hand, urging them to go.

And honestly, Kelsey’s legs felt like rubber after everything she’d just watched, how worried she’d been about Adrien and Sever and even her own safety.

How much she’d just learned in an hour.

Adrien swept a hand under her knees and picked her up in his arms, carrying her to the broken doors and stepping over the debris to get through them.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I really didn’t mean for you to find out this way.”

“What, were you going to wait until I was totally in love with you to tell me you were a dragon?”

He frowned. “I don’t know.” There was plaster in his black hair, and she thought they could both use a shower to wash off.

“Well, it’s too late, because I’m already in love with you.”

He looked down at her as they reached the apartment. His face was covered with scratches that were rapidly healing before her eyes. “I see. Wait, really?”

“Yes, really,” she said, leaning up to touch his face and then place a kiss on lips that were still dusty. She didn’t care. He’d fought for her. She’d seen who he really was. Wanted to know even more.

She could still feel his ring on her finger, where she’d put it so she didn’t lose it while the fight was still going.

He pulled back and looked down at her hand. “Whoops.”

“Whoops what?”

“Well, that’s part of how we seal mating. By putting the ring on our mate’s hand.”

She flushed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She tugged on it. “Hm.”

“No,” he said. “Keep it there forever. Okay?”

“Sure,” she said. “It’s oddly comfy anyway.”

“It’s enchanted,” he said. “I imagine it became the right size when you put it on.”

“I see.” She unlocked the door and he pushed it open, and they walked together into her apartment, which felt all the more like home when he was there. “You know, when I left the restaurant, left my money with Bernard, had nowhere to go, I was sure my future was ruined. That I’d lost the only good thing to happen to me, even though life wasn’t great. I had the necessities. Food. A roof over my head, but I wasn’t happy.”