Free Dragon Mine (A Hidden Novella) by Jaime Rush Page B

ever get past all this?”
    He saw her pain, a mirror to his own. “When something matters enough, you just do.”
    The words hung in the air, as thick as summer humidity.
    She swallowed hard. “Sometimes you can’t. Sometimes you have to walk away. But I can’t walk away from what my father might have done. I think we should go to Stein’s house. The Shadow Magick blocked me, but that’s only been at the scene of the Conjuring. You said his bedroom was tumbled. I want to try sensing what happened.”
    *  *  *
    Elle knew she’d never sense a thing if she couldn’t untangle her mind from the man walking next to her. Kirin could have kept his secret, but he had shown his honor by admitting something he knew would upset her.
    She had her own truths to face. Like how much she still loved him, and how making love to him had sealed her fate in ways she couldn’t yet contemplate. He was giving her time to sort through everything, but she got the sense that he’d made up his mind: they were going to be together, one way or the other. That certainty shook her.
    Mine.
    Kirin pulled out his key as they reached the front door. “Let me check to see if anyone’s here.” After checking the house, he returned. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here recently. Including Lyra, who still hasn’t called me back.”  
    “Maybe she’s onto something.”
    “That’s what I’m worried about. You know Lyra.”
    Impulsive. Rash. Elle only nodded and started to walk in. When she touched the door frame a barrage of emotion and images hit her. Her father pounding on this door, her mother’s open journal in his hand. His anger was palpable. The words at the bottom of the page shook as her father held the book open.
    I saw the Zensu Deuce today. She confirmed what the test said, the test I was sure was wrong…five times. The fatigue, the flu-like symptoms, and the extra pounds I already didn’t need—I’m four months pregnant! Yeah, the extra weight hid it well, even from me. At fifty, the last thing I would have suspected. I know Crescents age slowly, but this is crazy. And the Zensu gave me the news that it’s a Dragon. Must talk to Stein.
    Stein never answered the knock, and her father stalked down the stairs muttering “I’m going to kill him.”
    She snapped out of the vision. “My mother was pregnant.” That news hit her with the impact of a cold wave of water. “With your father’s baby.” She told him what she’d seen.
    Kirin smacked the wall. “That’s what he wouldn’t tell us. I never believed he would hurt her, but I knew he was hiding something.” He started pacing on the porch. “So she came to tell him, and then what? He rejects the baby, her? I don’t think so. My father had dated no one since my mother’s death. If he slept with Tara, she meant something to him. And by all accounts, they had been seeing each other for a while, so it wasn’t some one-night stand. He learned she was pregnant and wanted to marry her.”
    “She refused, and he killed her,” Elle said, joining his speculation. “By accident. His temper flared. Maybe he hit her, and she fell and bashed her head.” She could barely push out the words, “Then hid her body.”
    “Or your father found out, and he killed her in an act of rage.”
    “Except it appears my father just found out about the pregnancy, which is what triggered him to create the tulpa.”
    Kirin released a long breath. He obviously didn’t want to think his father was a murderer. But now they were pretty sure Stein had been seeing Tara and gotten her pregnant. Now not only was Elle’s mother lost to her, but so was her half-sibling.
    “But in the note, she was thanking him,” Kirin said. “Maybe she decided to have an abortion. Pop supported her, went with her to a clinic. Or worse, to some backstreet so-called doctor who messed things up.”
    “I can’t imagine my mom doing that.” Elle rubbed the bridge of her nose, a headache blooming