Page 22 of Forgotten Arcane (Broken Ashes #6)

I am one hundred percent certain that we were all meant to find each other, and that we were all meant to be in each other’s lives. I also know that we all met when we were supposed to, although I do wish that I had met Neith sooner.

With an ease that shouldn’t be possible, we watch as Neith launches herself off Coen’s back, and my eyes widen as they both dive toward the ground.

Coen shifts back to his human form, pulling Neith into his arms and landing just in time, both of them with huge and stunningly beautiful smiles on their faces, while the rest of us all try to calm our heartbeats.

“Fucking hell, that was terrifying,” Reed mutters, his eyes still wide.

Neith chuckles as she kisses Coen before she hops out of his arms, and misses the look of absolute adoration on his face. He catches me looking at him and smirks as he shrugs, making my smile widen.

“We’ve done that loads of times before,” Neith replies flippantly, her eyes sparkling.

I knew that she loved taking risks and doing dangerous things, but I think we may have all underestimated just how much she loves it.

“That much was obvious,” River grins, bouncing on his toes, and then pulls her into his arms, taking a deep breath.

I share a look with Reed and smile. I think it’s interesting and very telling how, as soon as River has Neith in his arms, he always calms down. No fidgeting or anything, it’s like his whole body relaxes.

It’s pretty fucking amazing to watch the effect she has on him, especially when he’s gone alpha. I’m not sure if she’s aware of it, but she is the only person who can get through to him in that situation and calm him down. No one else could do it.

Not even us.

It’s so obvious that she’s his mate. At least it is to everyone but him. I’ll get him the proof that I know he’s going to need though.

“I can hear Coen’s thoughts,” Neith suddenly blurts out.

“Still?” Coen asks.

Neith shakes her head, “Sorry, I should probably have explained that a bit better rather than just blurting it out.” She looks at Coen, “No, I can’t hear your thoughts now, but I was telling the others that I can hear you when you’re in dragon form and I’m on you.”

“Is that normal?” Van asks.

Coen shakes his head, “We haven’t ever been able to hear each other’s thoughts before, and I’m not really sure if it’s normal or not, but I can’t ask Draith for obvious reasons right now.”

“Huh,” I reply. “I’ve never heard of it, but that doesn’t really mean much. Dragons don’t tend to share a lot of information.”

Coen grins, “Not even with younger dragons. It’s all done on a need-to-know basis, and the older you get, the more access to information you get. I’ve probably missed out on a lot of information since I was stopped from going back to the Keep.”

“That’s an interesting way of doing things,” I reply, intrigued.

Coen grins, “It stops the younger dragons accidentally sharing things that they shouldn’t.”

“That’s true,” Doc agrees. “I wonder how Kylen got away with not allowing you to go back to the Keep. Especially if there were things that you were supposed to be taught.”

Coen shrugs, “I honestly have no idea. Whatever he said though, it must have been convincing, because I wasn’t forced to go back, and no one questioned it as odd.”

Neith frowns, “He probably said that he would tell you everything that you needed to know, and there was most likely a long list of excuses that he used.”

Coen nods, “Yeah, he didn’t go back that often to be fair.”

“Oh, I know,” Ransom exclaims. Interrupting the conversation. “What about Sully? He might know what it means that Neith can hear Coen.”

Neith smiles, “Well, it’s worth a shot asking him.

I wanted to go and see him anyway. I would be surprised that he hasn’t rung me and demanded I go and see him, if it wasn’t for the fact that I forgot to put my phone on charge,” she winces slightly while she tries not to smile and adds, “and may have forgotten where I put it.”

I try not to laugh as Griff’s eyes widen, and he dramatically throws his hands up in the air.

Neith

“W hy am I not surprised?” he grins.

I shrug, “In my defense, it pretty much became a paperweight as soon as the battery died. I know that it’s in one of my bags, at least I’m pretty sure that it is.”

The guys all burst out laughing.

“She’s not wrong,” Reed agrees with a smile, and Griff just shakes his head.

“I’m going to find it,” I tell him. “I actually need to, not just because of Sully, but because he gave my number to certain people so that they could contact me if they need my particular skillset, like Niamh did. Oh, and Navy, and the guys, I need to talk to them too.”

Van smiles, “Why don’t we go and have lunch?” He looks at his watch, “late lunch. You can find your phone and put it on charge, and then we can go and see Sully before he opens.”

I nod, “Yeah, that sounds good to me. You guys were right before about burning a lot of energy, I’m fucking starving.”

“I’m not surprised you’ve done a lot of flying today. You did really well,” Reed smiles as we all head back toward the house.

I grin, “Thank you.”