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How had he missed this sign of longing before Aqua gave it a name?

She hadn’t needed to use a single ounce of her succubus magic to ensnare him as he’d suspected. His dragon had done all of that work for her.

She came back with a small well-worn children’s book, one that had a picture of an angry child at the front. He cocked his head to the side.

“For the fire-dragon that was with you yesterday. If you guys are going to work on your image issue, he’s going to have to learn how to at least pretend to be in a better mood. He damn near ruined the effect of your heartbroken moment. This helped me deal with my rage over the Coven butting into my life. It’s great.”

He couldn’t help the chuckle. “I’m sure he will appreciate it.”

Blaise wouldn’t, but it amused Alessandro.

Silence fell as they stared at each other. Her blue eyes showed her disappointment. Unlike her open seduction, she didn’t voice it.

“Oh!” She grabbed his arm before he phased out. “Before you go, can you tell me about the bear shifter attack? Was there some sort of priceless treasure at the heart of it?”

Alessandro narrowed his eyes. “Yes.” He said softly, “But one that had been with the Sleuth for a long time. It was their totem. The carnage stopped when we found it and repaired it.”

Rowan bit her lip and asked. “Do you mind showing me?”

“This is a shifter issue. Outsiders like yourself shouldn’t be so quick to become involved.”

She looked mildly offended at the comment. “Outsider? Soon, this is going to be a problem for absolutely everyone. One of my best friends is a shifter. Should I wait for whoever is behind thisto come after him to be involved?” She scoffed. “One incident is just an incident, but five of them are a planned attack. I fear that there are more waiting on the horizon.”

He thought so too. However, with the injuries that seemed to be common for her, he didn’t want her anywhere near the issue, even if it wasn’t his place to say so.

It was infuriating.

He growled at himself, “There were no signs of an intruder. The bear who broke the totem was under some kind of hypnosis and I found him amongst one of the fallen. Their alpha informed me he kept shouting that he could hear voices from it. He said the voice of his dead mother pleaded with him to break it. The others tried to stop him, but he had a special ability; he could make anyone combust into flame without requiring physical touch. They weren’t able to stop him.”

Rowan frowned and put a hand on her chin. “Did you feel any foreign magical signature?”

“No. I raked the compound over. But unlike the attack on Draconis, there was no lingering magic.”

“I couldn’t find anything with the wolves either. Could whoever set Elaine on Draconis have learned their lesson about that?”

Alessandro felt the hair on the back of his neck stand. If this reasoning stood, it meant someone had infiltrated Draconis and seen Alessandro find the signature or witnessed Naseem complete his investigation. The barrier that had kept out Japhet, one of the most formidable witches of modern times, had failed to detect an intruder.

Yet, it was only speculation. The turn around time of the attacks had been so small that it didn’t leave room for improvement if all the other attacks were to follow the same trajectory as the first.

“I’ll review the camera footage at Draconis.” He bowed his head and said, “Take care of yourself, Princess Rowan. If you continue down this path, you are in more danger than you have ever faced before.” He almost phased away with those as his last words until she touched his arm to stop him.

“Hey. This feels a lot like goodbye for good.” She whispered.

He remained silent.

“Not an ‘I’ll see you later after I settle my dragons and the world into peace’.” Her eyes searched his, willing him to say more.

He forced himself to shake his head.

She was absolutely unabashed when she asked, “Why?”

He hadn’t expected the question, or for her to actually expect an answer from him.

“Where exactly will continuing this lead us?” He leaned against her dresser.

“A very fulfilling sex life?” Her eyes flashed violet.

Alessandro crossed his arms and set a stony stare her way.