The Dragon Kings Book Fifteen

Liam has one goal—

keep Isa alive.

But the guardians are thwarting him at every turn. He tries to convince Isa of their treachery, but she’s not having any of it.

After they throw him in the dungeon once again, Liam realizes it’s time to tell Isa the whole truth—

including why he came to the island in the first place. Will Isa forgive him or will she end it all?

Damon had chickened out. He didn’t want to invade Ruby’s privacy, so he’d stayed out of her room even though he wanted to see what was in those books. He had crashed in Liam’s room for the past two nights, not wanting to go home.

He’d gone to school and spent the afternoons with Skye’s family. He’d never been much of a kid person, but now he understood why Ruby liked Hughie best. He’d become quite fond of the little guy. The others, not so much.

Two days had passed, and Ruby still wasn’t home. The mission Sid had gone on was dangerous, but Sid wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Then again, if Sid didn’t know yet that she was there, she might get hurt.

It was the middle of the night, and he couldn’t sleep. He glanced at his phone.

Two-thirty.

He sat up, pulled on a pair of basketball shorts, and headed down the hall. He meant to go to the kitchen to get a drink, but he found himself standing in front of Ruby’s door again.

He stared at it.

Before he could stop himself, he pushed it open. He closed the door with a quiet click and flipped the light on. He blinked at the brightness and let his eyes adjust.

The room was so Ruby.

A deep purple comforter and green throw pillows covered the bed, and there wasn’t a stitch of mess on the floor. He perched on the edge of her bed and examined the books on her nightstand.

One was a biography of Alexander Hamilton. Another was a silly romance, and the third was called How to Win Friends and Influence People.

He came in here to snoop through the books she’d brought from Oregon, but he wasn’t ready to do that yet. His heart twinged a bit. He liked being in here, surrounded by her stuff. It made him feel close to her.

He could smell her all around him. He missed her. She said she’d remove the seal, but he didn’t think it was really possible.

Or if it was, he didn’t think she’d actually go through with it. He didn’t believe, for a second, that she didn’t feel the same way about him. Something was holding her back, but he didn’t know what. He had to get to the bottom of it before she got rid of her mark.

Because if she did, he’d be miserable forever.

As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t stay here. If she found him in her bed, she’d kill him. Oh, how he wanted to see that fire in her eyes.

He got up and explored the rest of the room. It had her touch, but it still looked like a guest room. He’d spent plenty of time in people’s guest rooms. He didn’t dislike his home, but his parents were older than his friends’ parents.

They’d basically retired when he was ten, and his home was boring and sometimes stifling. So he escaped.

Sometimes to here.

Sometimes to the Purple Dragon.

Sometimes to other friends’ homes.

His parents didn’t seem to mind as long as he checked in via text. It wasn’t that they didn’t care. They were just too tired to make a stink. Occasionally, his mom would demand he come home, and he always did because if he listened, they’d let him do what he wanted the rest of the time.

He found the bag Ruby brought back from Oregon. Inside were the books they’d found together. This was what he had been looking for.

He hadn’t read any of them—reading nonfiction wasn’t his thing—but now, they piqued his curiosity. Something in here caused Ruby to go chasing after Sid on a very dangerous mission.

And even if he didn’t find that, the books would definitely put him to sleep.

Damon hefted the books from Oregon onto her squashy bed, flung off a few of the green throw pillows, and settled in.

The first book he picked up, A History of the European Dragons, was a real snoozer. Not enough to make him actually sleep, but it was so dry that he barely even comprehended the words he was reading. If all of the books were like this, he’d never find what Ruby discovered. He dropped that book and picked another one.

The Healing Power of Dragons. This one was slightly more interesting. He’d met Sequoia, and he’d seen Aspen heal Liam on countless occasions. Once when they were about ten, he and Liam were on the trampoline and were seeing how high Damon would bounce if Liam dropped him from different heights. After one particularly high fall, Damon bounced off and shattered his tibia.

Liam ran into the house for his mom, and the second Aspen touched Damon’s leg, the pain disappeared. It was as if he’d never even broken it.

But Liam was grounded for two weeks after that, and they got rid of the trampoline.

The book talked about the healing power of the woodland dragons and speculated on where that power came from. But overall, it was useless for his purposes. He just wanted to find what motivated Ruby to go with Sid.

He shivered and climbed underneath the covers, not really thinking about what he was doing. He still wasn’t sleepy in the least, but he was cold. Dragons ran hot, so the air conditioner was always on in Sid’s house except during the dead of winter.

Damon thumbed through a few other books, but none of them seemed to hold any information of value.

He got somewhat excited when he found a book called The Royal Dragons of Europe, but its history literally ended five thousand years ago.

He stacked the books on the other side table as he finished them—well, his version of finishing anyway. He just skimmed. Ruby probably found something in one of the boring books, but he didn’t have the patience for that.

He picked up a book that didn’t have a title and wondered how it got in here. The first few pages were more boring history, and he flipped forward to see if there was anything more interesting. He found a cutout in the middle of the pages, and nestled inside was a smaller book.

It stuck when he tried to pull it out. Ruby hadn’t found this.

He was careful as he pried the book from its hiding place. The hidden book had a bright green cover and couldn’t be more than four by five inches. It, too, had no title on the cover or spine.

He cracked open the book.

The Dragon Shifters.