Page 10 of Must Love Dragons (Sable Cove #4)

Note to self: Just because a dragon is your truemate doesn’t mean he won’t be an emotionally stunted idiot.

She’d simultaneously never been so sexually pleased and so emotionally devastated as she watched Zay get up from the bed, pull up his jeans, and stride from the bedroom like nothing had happened.

Like nothing had happened.

She clenched the sheet beneath her fingers, a hard knot forming in her chest. How could he think that what happened between them didn’t change anything, when it changed absolutely everything ?

He hated magic users so much that he couldn’t get over the fact that she was a witch even though they were truemates?

It boggled the mind.

She felt exposed and vulnerable, and she didn’t like it one bit.

Nysa purred as she sauntered into the room and Kinsley sat up, her body still humming, the places he’d held her tightly tingling and aching.

“Hey, kits,” she murmured.

Did she want to curl up into a ball and cry? Hell yes.

Was she going to do it? Abso-freaking-lutely not.

She might be cracking at the seams right now because of Zay’s behavior, but she’d promised to help him find his uncle and she was going to follow through.

Not to mention that warlocks tapped into dark magic were dangerous to everyone , not just dragons.

She knew that Delaney had reached out to the Council of Magic and informed them of a dangerous warlock coven near Sable Cove.

But the Council moved slowly and wouldn’t be able to get to the area to investigate before they harmed Zay’s uncle, assuming they hadn’t already harmed him.

She stared at the doorway, listening to Zay pacing in the family room.

With a sigh, she got up from the bed and dressed, ignoring the way her heart was breaking, and headed to her study to prepare the spell to locate the warlocks and hopefully his uncle.

Zay was retreating again, taking two steps backward and throwing up a two-ton steel wall around himself every time he got a little bit close to her. But that didn’t mean she was going to go back on her word.

She had a spell to conjure and an uncle to find.

If Zay wanted to act like nothing happened, then that was fine with her.

She could play that game too.

* * *

Kinsley ignored Zay’s presence in the family room and went directly to the study where her workbench, spell books, and supplies were.

Nysa followed, murmuring little meows and chirps as she moved, bumping into every single piece of furniture before jumping up on the workbench and sitting primly at the corner.

Kinsley retrieved a vial of mugwort that would amplify her magic, a jar of crushed obsidian, and finally, a few dried stems of vervain that would help her locate the dark magic bloodroot and charred cedar bark the warlocks used.

Setting the items on the wood floor, she went to one of the bookshelves and pulled out a basket of maps that she had collected over the years, then picked up her spell book from the workbench and sat on the floor.

It had been a long while since she’d used a tracking spell for a specific magical ingredient. Normally tracking spells were used for people or lost items, but they worked the same no matter what the witch was searching for.

She laid out a map of Sable Cove and the surrounding area, then used a small scoop of crushed obsidian to make a circle on the map around Sable Cove, then scattered the mugwort over the map. She was aware when Zay stopped in the doorway. He didn’t say anything, so she ignored him.

She crushed the vervain in her hand and whispered the incantation, allowing her magic to flow through her. The vervain burned slightly, and she smiled in relief to know the spell was working.

For a long moment, nothing happened.

The map remained scattered with ingredients, the dark circle of crushed stone didn’t change at all.

But then from the center of the map, the location of her home, a thin red mist curled upward from the surface.

It twisted and writhed in the air like a snake, moving smoothly over the map before stopping over a town called Mariner’s Bluff, about ten miles north.

She sat back on her heels as the mist circled around the town.

The coastal town had once been bustling but was now mostly abandoned.

She’d visited before with her friends—there was a small theater with amazing popcorn—but more importantly, the town’s empty warehouses and deserted streets made it a perfect hiding spot for a warlock coven.

The mist circled the town, pulsing like a heartbeat.

She reached out, flicking her fingers through the cold mist and it slithered toward the window.

Rising smoothly, she brushed her hands off and moved to the door. “It’s time to go.”

He didn’t move.

For a second she thought he might say something, anything, but then he stepped aside to let her pass.

Not a freaking word.

Coward .

She grabbed her keys, scooped up Nysa, and walked outside.

Whatever mess was going on between her and Zay could be dealt with later.

Right now, she had a warlock clan to track and an uncle to save.

Buckling Nysa in the backseat so she wouldn’t go strolling around the vehicle, she waited for Zay to get in and turned on the engine.

Spying the red mist in the air, she headed down the road, following it.

Fifteen minutes later, they passed into Mariner’s Bluff, the red mist leading them right to the port and disappearing into one of the warehouses.

The row of warehouses was all dark, with broken windows and trash everywhere.

She turned off the engine and got out, anxious to be free of the stifling interior of the car and the dragon who wouldn’t talk to her.

She inhaled sharply at the dark energy that lingered in the air.

Dark magic stained everything it touched, even the air.

When Zay got out of the car, she finally looked at him. He was tense, his expression still a mask of indifference, but his eyes were stormy with emotion. She could see his hands clenched at his sides, knuckles white as he dug his fingers into his palms.

He seemed to be barely holding it together.

For sure he was worried about his uncle, but it wasn’t just about him, it was about her too. She was so tempted to push him to admit that what they’d shared meant something to him, but she knew this wasn’t anywhere close to the time she should do that. They had bigger fish to fry.

First, she’d help him find his uncle, and then once they were all safely back in Sable Cove, she’d ask Zay why the hell he was so stubborn.

Even if she was pretty sure she wouldn’t like the answer.

She shook her head and focused on the red mist that led to a particularly dilapidated warehouse.

Leaving Nysa in the car, because she didn’t know what they were going to be walking into, she reached into her pocket for the defensive ward—a smokescreen that would make it seem like they disappeared so they could get to safety if needed, and an offensive ward—a vial of a magical toxin that would blind anyone attacking them temporarily.

As she walked toward the warehouse, her gaze on the red mist, Zay joined her. “You need to be more careful,” he said with an aggravated tone. “You’re just walking over there like it’s a grocery store.”

“Excuse me?” she rounded on him, fury rising. “I’m the one who got us here, remember? And I have spells to protect us; I’m not skipping in there blindly. But sure, Zay, by all means, please take the lead.”

His jaw ticked. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Then say what the hell you mean for crap’s sake.” Her patience was fraying. She was stressed and brokenhearted, and underneath all that she was worried that it had been too long since his uncle had been taken and he might be dead.

For a moment his gaze softened, his eyes flashing to his dragon, and then just as quickly it was gone, and he shut her out again like a safe slamming shut.

Holding both wards tightly, she deliberately turned away from him and moved toward the warehouse, ready to face whatever was inside and hopefully rescue his uncle.