Hidden in Shadows- Paranormal Romance Series- Book 1

Chapter 24

Jaz Laurent knew he was jaded as he looked around the room he'd been appointed in King Draven's home. They were offering him the highest level of hospitality in the hopes of dispelling the supposed insult that had been laid at the feet of his people.

He wouldn't let on that they needn't try so hard. In many ways, Marcan Erilur was incapable of feeling insulted. At times, he was incapable of feeling anything, or at least that was the impression he gave off.

A long time ago though, Jaz's sister had suggested that perhaps the King felt too much. It had seemed ludicrous at the time, but Arla had always been too perceptive by half, and time had proved her words to have some substance.

Jaz knew his King was an enigma to most of the Veil. He just knew better than to admit that he was the same to his own people.

He wasn't here for his King, but letting the Dragons believe so served his purposes well enough. He was here for Esi. He's failed her enough in the past, and he'd decided the moment he'd found her again that he wouldn't do so again.

He hated the shadows in her eyes, the signs of prolonged stress that seemed to settle in the curve of her shoulders, as though she carried the weight of the world.

He had a few hundred years on her and that gave him the benefit of experience and the corresponding long memory. He's known Esi's father and mother well, and could still see her as a babe in his mind's eye. She'd been a beautiful girl, the pearl of the House of Roydon. Even as a child, her father had treated her as he would any warrior. He knew she would have to be strong to survive.

Esi had gone through a few years where she'd resented him for that, and Jaz had always kept his mouth shut. She wouldn't appreciate knowing that he thought her father wise.

He'd known Talivus for decades before Esi was even born. Sometimes he forgot that she was still considered so young among the mortals of the Veil. It was easy to forget when she hadn't acted like a child in so very long. And even in her youth, she had more sense and control than most adults he'd come across.

She was one of the most supremely competent people he'd ever met, there was little she wasn't capable of overcoming. And yet he couldn't shake the feeling that she was in over her head with her Dragon, that she needed him.

He still loved her, in a way he always would. She wasn't his mate; he'd always known that. But when she'd been a young woman, he'd never seen anyone more lovely. She had the beauty of the Fae and the strength of a Demon. He thought she was strong enough to accept his shortcomings. He'd been right for a time.

He knew she was someone worth fighting for, and he'd promised long ago that he always would.

He would never forget the day they'd gone their separate ways. Esi had held a kind of fullness in her eyes that made him feel like they would swallow him up and he would never escape the legacy she left on his life.

He'd promised that no matter where the fates took him, she would always hold his loyalty, a piece of his heart.

He'd said those words and meant them... and then the war came and changed everything. He'd stayed with his King, allowing his duty to outweigh his vow to her. When he'd heard that everyone in the guard who'd refuted Kai's rule had been slaughtered, he'd worn the guilt, allowed it to shape him into a harder man.

Now he had her back and he had no intention of forsaking his vow to her again, not even for his King, not that Marcan would mind overmuch.

He'd taken enough of her blood years ago that he would always be able to sense her if she were close enough, a gift that had led him to her in Talia's castle and now led him to her again.