Page 14

“We are as ignorant of the meaning of the dragon as we are of the meaning of the universe.”

—Jorge Luis Borges

“Lizzy, you’ve been holding out on us!” Serena exclaimed, practically shrieking across the other side of the hemisphere, almost seven thousand miles away.

Lizzy held the phone away from her person as she shook out her ears, fearful of busted eardrums.

“Mom!” she complained.

She found a niche against the base of an ornate lamp on the writing desk to prop the phone against and sat in the desk chair to have a proper catch up. Though she left the double doors of the bedroom open, she didn’t worry about privacy. Besides, there wasn’t anything to hide from Ben. It was just her parents.

“If you didn’t pack condoms and lady lube, be sure to get some at the nearest supermarket,” Serena instructed. “I hope they carry those wherever you are in Egypt!”

Oops. Maybe she had something to hide after all.

Lizzy grappled with the phone to turn the volume down, glancing at the sitting room frantically to make sure Ben wasn’t listening in.

He seemed to be in the middle of a conversation himself, speaking in low tones.

It always amazed her a little that he didn’t use phones. She supposed there were plenty of people who used their smart watches too, but his communicator was something else. A technology far more advanced.

Moreover, she knew he could communicate telepathically with other animal spirits. She often saw a play of words amongst them on their faces and with their eyes. Ben also seemed to read her mind with startling accuracy.

It was kind of unfair when she thought about it.

“Mom, keep it down,” she hissed, glaring at the image of her mother on the phone.

“I’m on the pill and…and…anyway, we’re not talking about this,” she stated staunchly.

She looked at her father beseechingly, as if to say— rescue me from this mad woman!

David Winters cleared his throat and interjected, “Our Lizzy is an independent woman, as you pointed out, love. Let her handle her affairs accordingly.”

“I’m telling you, Elizabeth Rose Winters,” Serena squeezed into the frame by pushing her husband to the side, “that man is a keeper. At the very least for a few hot days and nights. Don’t let a once in a lifetime opportunity like that slip through your fingers.”

“Mom…” she wailed, thunking her head on the desk in mortification.

“This is taking the Asian tiger mom stereotype to a whole new extreme,” David cut in. “Let me talk to Lizzy for a bit. You get the movie popcorn started for us.”

Thankfully, Serena listened and pulled away from the screen, leaving Lizzy alone with her father.

Her sensible, rational, wise, and socially intelligent father.

“Thanks, Dad. You’re a lifesaver.”

David chuckled.

“Your mother means well. She’s probably too excited by the fact that you’ve finally introduced us to a man.”

“He’s just a…friend,” she stuttered, the label feeling wrong on her tongue.

“Mmhmm,” was all her father said.

Lizzy sighed.

“Dad, I like him a lot. I like him soooo much.”

She hadn’t meant to gush and let it all hang out like that, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

“I’m in big trouble here,” she admitted.

“You only just met?”

“In the flesh, yes.”

She flushed all over at the Freudian slip and cleared her throat.

“In person, I mean,” she amended. “But I’ve always admired his work.”

David nodded. “I remember you telling us. But isn’t that Professor D’Angelo much older?”

“Oh, he says it’s his relative. Apparently, being an expert in ancient civilizations runs in the family.”

But Lizzy knew otherwise now.

“I’m glad you’ve met someone who clearly makes you so happy, baby girl. I’ve never seen you this radiant,” he observed.

Lizzy patted her heated cheeks.

“Am I? Radiant?”

Her father smiled.

“The loveliest version of you I’ve beheld to date,” he confirmed. “And that’s saying something. Because my little girl is a rare beauty.”

“Dad…” she mumbled, both pleased and embarrassed by his praise.

“How long have you known him?”

“Just a few days,” Lizzy admitted shyly, a little worried what her father might say about impulsiveness.

“We met at the conference in Bangkok, and, well, we’ve been traveling together on this project. I’ve met a few of his friends already. They’re super cool, from all parts of the world. Asian, European, and recently a couple of guys of maybe Eurasian or Middle Eastern descent. This evening, we’re going to meet up with a couple more friends here in El Gouna.”

David whistled.

“You are certainly well traveled, Elizabeth Winters, Tomb Raider.”

She wrinkled her nose.

“I prefer Indiana Jones.”

“Noted. You know, there’s something familiar about your man…”

She almost said, he’s not my man , but somehow, the words got stuck in her throat.

“…I feel as if I’ve met him before,” David was saying.

“If you have, I must not have been present. Because I would never have been able to forget him,” she said with absolute conviction.

David quirked his lips in a lopsided smile.

“He has your full attention, does he?”

Lizzy blushed harder. It seemed wrong that her father likely guessed just what sort of “attention” she’d like to lavish on Ben.

“I never forget a face,” David said, squinting a little in thought.

“I think…yes, I think he might have been the man who rescued your kite way back when. We were at the Chicago Zoo. You probably don’t remember. You were very little.”

But now that he mentioned it, Lizzy did remember. Vivid images flashed before her eyes.

Of her running after her tiger kite. Stumbling and falling to the ground. Of the fear and worry of losing her treasure when she just found it.

Until a tall, broad shadow eclipsed the sun. And handed the string of her kite back into her tight little grip.

“I remember,” she murmured.

“But I never saw him clearly.”

“Well, it could just be my fanciful imagination,” her father said. “The man who saved your kite was quite memorable. But it can’t be him. He would have been about the same age as this Benjamin. Which means he would likely be in his fifties now.”

Lizzy shivered with a strange feeling.

A knowing .

Ben was an immortal dragon. It could very well have been him at the zoo. But her father wouldn’t know this.

And this was likely not the time to reveal the immortal, magical world to her parents.

“Dad, you have to instill some sense into me,” Lizzy said in a low voice, her tone a bit desperate.

“Tell me I need to step back some. Put some distance between me and Ben. Tell me it’s too soon to fall…in something more than lust at this stage of our acquaintance. Tell me it’s just hormones and some moon magic or something. I’m…I’m really freaking out here. What I feel for Ben is a thousand—a million!—times worse than the craziness I felt with the Mexican. I don’t know what to do!”

Her father’s eyes softened with sympathy.

“Oh, Lizzy. This isn’t something I or anyone else can comment on. No one but you feel what you feel and have the experiences that you have with this man. But here’s what I can tell you—”

“I need to refer back to my relationship algorithm?” Lizzy inserted.

“Anything but that,” David said definitively.

“Oh.”

“Lizzy, relationships can’t be determined by logic and scientific equations, because ultimately it’s the heart and soul that know what’s right, not just the mind. Feelings and emotions aren’t logical. And time has no meaning in how quickly or slowly love could develop.”

Lizzy slumped in her chair with a huff, feeling lost.

David seemed to sense this and went on to say, “When I first met your mother, I knew she was the one for me right away. You might think I’m being fanciful, but it only took a few seconds of looking into her eyes. Now, she, on the other hand, took a bit of convincing. But it didn’t take years or even months. She’d tell you that she held out and put me through my paces because she was trying to be logical, just like you. But I think she knew who we were to each other just as soon as I did. She simply didn’t admit it until later.”

“I’m not…” Lizzy started and broke off abruptly.

“I’m not in love, I don’t think,” she said slowly, as if the syllables were loathe to roll off her tongue.

“I mean, it’s too soon to throw the word ‘love’ around.”

“Have you ever been in love, sweet girl?”

“Well…I guess…no, not exactly,” she said. “The Mexican was definitely not love. Just a brief obsession.”

“Then how do you know you’re not in love?”

“But how do I know if I am ?” she cried rather balefully.

David was quiet for a long while, simply taking Lizzy in. In the background, Serena was telling him to hurry up because their movie marathon was starting.

Serena never prioritized calls with her daughter unless Lizzy specifically asked for her mother. They were like two cats that preferred their independence, whereas David was more like an affable dog who knew their habits, gave affection when they needed it, and protected his pack.

“I can’t tell you that, Lizzy,” her father finally replied.

“Only you will know. But I’ll leave you with this—before your mother gets impatient with me for missing the opening credits—what are you afraid of? It seems to me that your emotions are tugging you toward love, but your logic is holding you back. Would it be so bad if you allowed yourself to fall? What would be the worst thing that could happen?”

“A broken heart?” she whispered.

“Last I checked, we don’t die of broken hearts,” David said. “Wouldn’t you rather be brave and try than hold yourself back from something magical and rare? You believe in dragons, Lizzy. Why is it so hard to believe in love?”

“I do believe in love,” she said. “Anyone who knows you and Mom would believe in love.”

“Why not for yourself, then?” David argued.

“Don’t you want to find your soulmate too? And, Lizzy, there’s no need to be with anyone. I hope you know that. I would be remiss, and your mother would have my head, if I didn’t remind you that you are perfectly imperfect and wholly independent unto yourself. But if you could choose someone to share your life with, could you imagine this man in that role?”

Oh, she didn’t just imagine it. She couldn’t see anyone but Ben by her side.

“Well, I think you know better than you think,” David said, apparently seeing the unspoken answer in her expression.

“Be brave, my Lizzy,” he encouraged.

“And bring D’Angelo by to meet us when your trip is done.”

It was only after she said goodbyes to her parents that Lizzy realized what David implied:

He was fully expecting to meet Ben in person.

As if Lizzy’s future included him.

She put away her phone and rejoined Ben in the sitting room at the small dining table to eat a late lunch/ early dinner. He was apparently done with his calls too, already seated with utensils in hand, waiting for her before he dug in.

“Everything good?” he asked, getting started on the food.

She nodded.

“My parents like you,” she blurted. “Dad wants me to bring you around to the house when our trip is done.”

She felt her cheeks heat at the presumption she was making and added, “If you’re in the area, that is. Obviously, you don’t have to make a special—”

“I’d love to meet them in person,” Ben cut in. “They live in Elkhorn, Nebraska, right?”

She blinked at him.

“How do you know?”

“Lizzy, I think you’ve gathered by now that I have access to all sorts of intelligence, both human and supernatural.”

“Oh.”

She tucked into her blackened shrimp salad and said around a mouthful, “So, what other intelligence do you have on me? And not just the human me, but…whatever the other Immortals believe about me. What’s my role in all of this?”

Ben slowed his eating and even put down his fork and knife, sitting back in his chair. Silently, he regarded her as he finished chewing. She wondered if he was purposely stalling for time.

Finally swallowing, he said, “Do you believe in souls and reincarnation?”

“Well, I believe in dragons, so…I think anything is possible until proven definitively otherwise.”

Ben nodded once.

“You have a Pure soul,” he told her. “It is the only type of soul in the Universe that can be reincarnated in different forms, across different times.”

She kept eating, asking with her eyes for him to keep talking.

“In fact, you are the first immortal being to grow a soul. The Pure Ones were created in your image.”

“Wow,” she murmured, blotting her lips on the napkin.

“I must have a really old soul. What kind of being was I exactly?”

He didn’t answer right away, simply holding her rapt gaze.

At length, he said, “A Goddess. The most powerful god that ever existed in the universe.”

“A-a-god…?” she whispered, her ears suddenly ringing as her mind struggled to grasp what he was telling her.

“Yes.”

His eyes drilled into her with such intensity that Lizzy felt paralyzed, ensnared.

“You created the Immortals that exist today. You imagined them into being. You created the dragons that you dream of…” he trailed off.

Lizzy couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. It was too much to absorb. Too mind-boggling to be true.

Her ears felt stuffed with wool. A massive, throbbing headache threatened behind her temples. Dreams collided with fantasy, melded with reality, intertwined with memories. Past conflated with present. Darkness embraced light.

“Y-y-you…” she uttered, breathless, her voice gone.

“I-I know…”

“Aye,” he said, his aquamarine gaze the only comfort in the chaos, the touchstone that kept her from floating away

“We’ve known each other in our past lives. You created me.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

This was it.

He’d delayed this moment as long as he could. He didn’t know how she would handle the truth. Whether she could come to terms with it. Not be bogged down by it.

He was taking a leap of faith that his Lizzy would be strong in the face of past trauma and pain. That she wouldn’t use it as a measuring stick for the future.

For once, he couldn’t hear what she was thinking, as if she’d unconsciously tapped into the ability to hide her thoughts. All animal spirits and telepathic beings could erect walls around their consciousness purposefully. But people who weren’t used to the Gift often didn’t know how.

“I…created you…” she repeated, her eyes taking on a faraway look.

She was visibly trying to process what she heard. Trying to remember past lives she hadn’t yet Awakened to on her own.

He gave a slight nod, his eyes unblinkingly intense on her face. He needed to see every flicker of expression. He would stop this dangerous trip down memory lane at the slightest indication that it was too much for her.

“I do not recall everything from my first incarnation. Only feelings. Impressions,” he started slowly, voice low.

Lulling. Comforting. Doing everything he could to ease her into it, like helping her wade into a dark pool where neither of them knew how deep it was and where lay the precipitous drop.

“Tell me,” she commanded.

Though this was still Lizzy, and her voice was low and lyrical, the tone was cold and firm. Reminiscent of how she used to command him as the Goddess.

Ben shivered at the ghostly reminder.

He was no longer hers to command in that way. But he was still, and always would be, fundamentally hers .

“The first impressions I recall were of brilliant, dazzling light amidst a seemingly impenetrable dark unknown,” he said.

“And the first feeling I had was of your smile.”

“You felt my smile?”

“Yes,” he murmured.

“Or perhaps it was the pure joy you radiated that I felt. I don’t know that I saw lips smile, because I couldn’t really see your features. You were simply brilliance and light. But I heard your laughter…”

His gaze became unfocused as he tried to pin down elusive memories.

“…the way children giggle…completely without guile or fear or restraint. You simply burst with happiness like champagne bubbles, as if you couldn’t help it. And I felt it vicariously.”

“I was ridiculously happy because you came into being…” she mumbled.

She was looking at him, but also through him. As if their shared memories were playing like an old home-made movie behind him.

“We were playmates, I think,” he continued, digging into his own archives.

He’d avoided them for the most part until now. They had always been there for him to access, but it had always hurt too much to do so.

“In the beginning, we had been companions.”

“You never left my side,” she whispered as if in a trance.

“Except when…”

“The other gods lured me away.”

“And then…”

Suddenly, her elbows slammed onto the table and her face fell into her palms as she cradled it, covering her eyes.

“Lizzy…”

She shook her head. Whether it was to ward off any more talk for the time being or to deny what the memories revealed, he didn’t know.

He held his tongue and waited.

For the longest time, she hid her face in her hands and simply breathed. Great bellows of breaths, in and out, in and out. Every couple of gulps, her whole body shuddered before settling into a continuous tremor.

It might have been thirty minutes or an hour. He didn’t know. Didn’t care. He’d stay with her in silent comfort and companionship for as long as it took. He wished he could confront the past for her, take the burden of it from her.

But these were her memories. Her experiences. He couldn’t carry the weight of them for her.

Eventually, she raised her head and refocused her eyes, staring straight at him. Seeing him, as if for the first time.

But there was bleakness, despair and regret in those beautiful gray pools that hadn’t been there before.

Ben’s heart plummeted.

“Lizzy—”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she cut him off. “I don’t really remember my past lives. Not in any detail. But I-I- feel things. And I think I know…the sequence of events…I need time to process everything.”

Ben simply nodded.

“Let’s focus on the quest at hand,” she said determinedly, curling the corners of her lips up in a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“I can’t wait to meet your friends and find the treasure together. What makes you think it’s here? Tell me about your friends.”

Ben did as she bid. They both distracted themselves for the next hour or two with the hunt for the next dragon egg. Acting as if everything was normal. Business as usual.

He caught her up on intel from the Cove.

They’d ruled out Kirana Sinaga as a catalyst for unrest. Her curiosity in the egg was superficial. When nothing visible happened immediately after Lizzy touched it, she lost interest. While by all accounts Sinaga was pro Dark rule, she kept mostly to herself. As long as no one aggressed upon her territories, she returned the civility. There were no Pure Ones residing on her land, and she preferred to keep it that way.

Upon assessing Ben and his friends’ reports, the Cove also believed that Alexander Galanis and Imran Bayat were unlikely instigators of discontent between the Dark and Pure Ones of their regions. Apparently, after witnessing the lackluster result of Sinaga’s stunt with Lizzy, they both left the conference to pursue other business.

Galanis headed to New York City to meet with key investors for his latest project. While in town, he requested and was granted audience with Ramses. They met as recently as yesterday, in fact. Under the careful scrutiny of Eli, Lord Wind, Maximus, the Commander of the Chosen, and the Dark King himself, Galanis proved himself to be a calculating businessman at heart.

His interest in the myth of dragon eggs was purely for their “collectible value.” Like precious metals and stones, it was demand, supply and marketing that drove their prices. Perhaps dragon eggs could have become their own category of rare commodities. Although, after the conference and Lizzy’s “performance,” he thought not.

As a businessman, Galanis adroitly avoided taking sides. He was the neutral Dark One that Ryu had identified.

Meanwhile, Bayat was floating on a yacht somewhere near Trinidad and Tobago with a dozen or so supermodels and wealthy socialites by now. One of the party was an undercover shadow assassin in Ryu’s retinue. Based on their intel, Bayat had joked about the topic of dragon eggs like a great lark with his acquaintances, and then spoke nothing of it again.

He was also pro Dark rule, often providing his support through weapons and money. But such activity was commonplace, and the Cove dealt with it through their usual channels. It did not require Ben’s Beasts’ direct involvement.

They still didn’t know who attacked Zai and Sin in Nii Jima, just that they were vampires.

Ben tried to ignore the fact that Lizzy’s effervescent light had dimmed as they discussed all of this. That her gaze was opaque, and her thoughts hidden.

There were no more casual touches and sunshiny smiles. Even though he could feel her body’s pull on his, a call for her Mate to cover and comfort her, she always kept distance between them. Whenever he tried to reach out to her, she’d pull away or sidestep.

Her physical, mental and emotional avoidance hurt him.

But he understood the need for it. She was reconciling the various jagged pieces of her soul. Trying to make sense of past and present. Dreams and reality.

His Lizzy was strong. He had to have faith that she would find her own way. He just wished she would let him help her however he could; let him provide whatever she needed.

When the sun began sinking into the horizon, they headed out to rendezvous with Heba and Shai.

As they walked through Downtown, surrounded by the lively bustle of the tourist-oriented resort, Ben took hold of Lizzy’s hand.

Her fingers were cold and limp and loose for a couple of minutes, and she didn’t react to his touch except for a slight tremor that shook through her entire body. But at least she didn’t pull away this time. He didn’t think he could take it if she did.

When she allowed the touch to stay, he wove their fingers together, warmed her palm with his.

She looked over at him, her eyes shadowed by her lashes and the darkening night. He looked back, hoping she could feel his support and comfort even if she couldn’t see the details of his expression.

Her lips twitched slightly on a wan smile. And then, unexpectedly, she brought their twined hands to her lips and kissed his knuckles one by one.

As if she were the one supporting and comforting him.

“Benjamin. Has it really been weeks since we’ve seen you?”

The exotically accented words brought them out of their own little bubble. Standing not ten feet away were the celestial dragon, Shai, and his now immortal human Mate, Heba.

The couple looked at Ben and Lizzy’s joined hands. Lizzy tried to tug her hand loose, but Ben only tightened his grip.

“You guys are hard to pin down,” he said by way of greeting, leaning forward as Shai did to clasp each other in a brotherly half hug.

With Heba, he added kisses to each cheek. All the while, he kept a secure hold on Lizzy’s hand.

“We’re traveling the world, as you know,” Heba said, though she kept her curious gaze on Lizzy as she spoke.

“And how has that been going?”

The couple shared a look of sheer happiness and excitement.

“Better than I could have ever dreamed!” Heba sighed.

“But we are being impolite. Please introduce us to your…”

“My Lizzy,” Ben said, both managing to avoid putting a label on their relationship while at the same time staking his claim.

It was a good thing Lizzy’s right hand was free for handshakes, which she delivered in short order. Because Ben was not letting go of her.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Ben’s Lizzy,” Shai said with a knowing grin when the introductions were done.

Lizzy ducked her head shyly, but Ben noticed that a blush of pleasure suffused her cheeks.

And then she said:

“If I’m going to be called Ben’s Lizzy, then he should be called Lizzy’s Ben. I believe in equal rights.”

“Oh Lizzy!” Heba crowed with a beatific smile. “I like you so much already! I just know we’ll be the best of friends!”

“Well, if you’re really the Khnumetamun Hatshepsut, then I practically worship the ground you walk on,” Lizzy returned. “I might faint from ecstasy if I could call you my friend.”

The two women immediately got thick as thieves, and Ben had no choice but to release her hand so that Lizzy could link her arm through Heba’s.

They chatted in rapid fire half-finished sentences as they walked a few steps ahead of the men, as if they couldn’t be bothered to complete their thoughts because they had so many bursting to get out. Despite that, they seemed to understand each other perfectly fine. It’s as if they’d already known each other years, not minutes.

“So…” Shai said, matching his long stride with Ben’s as they followed the women at a small distance.

“‘My Lizzy’, eh?”

“Hmm,” Ben rumbled.

“She must be special.”

“She is.”

Shai simply nodded. He perfectly understood.

“She knows about us.” It was not a question.

“Yes.”

“And yet, you have just met?”

“In this lifetime.”

“Ah.”

After a few beats, Shai said, changing the topic to the reason they were gathered here, “We have already scouted and secured the area. When we reach the edge of town, we can fly the rest of the way.”

“To?”

“The Red Sea Mountains,” Shai replied.

“In one of the rocky gorges we found a cavern. It connects into the sea if you dig deep enough. We think…no, we feel the treasure that is hidden there. It calls to us, Heba and I. I’ve never felt this before. Like a compulsion. A gravitational pull almost as strong as the one I feel for my Mate.”

He paused in his steps to search Ben’s eyes.

“You called us here, Dragon King. You told us there is treasure to find. You never mentioned that it would be uniquely ours. Heba’s and mine.”

“I didn’t know until now, either,” Ben admitted.

He looked down at the two glowing rings on each of his middle fingers—the Dream and the Song.

“They led us here. They prompted me to bring you here. And the same with Rui and Wolfe, come to think of it. Same with Sin and Zai.”

“They found their treasures?” Shai asked, hope and anticipation blazing brightly in his eyes.

“Yes.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

His question ended on a roar as he transformed.

They had reached the edge of town, where a vast, shadowed landscape stretched before them, jagged mountain peaks in the distance, soft lights from the resort far behind them.

“Wow,” Lizzy breathed just as Ben reached her side. She was looking up in awe at Shai while he shook out his scales like a dog shaking its fur.

“I’ll never get tired of seeing this.”

Before them, Shai had become a gigantic winged dragon the color of sea glass, mostly in shades of green, blue and white, but there were also hints of purple, yellow, pink and amber. He looked like the last light at sunset over a tranquil ocean.

Then, as Heba took her seat on Shai’s back and Lizzy got on Ben like a pro who’d been dragon riding for years, they shot off together into the night sky, becoming one with the darkness.