Legend of the Forbidden (6 page)

“So why are you telling me this?” Ethan asked.

“I just want you to be aware of it, and be careful. Mostly because I think she's jealous of you and Danielle. Every time you come here, I notice how attracted you are to her. You try to hide it well, but my nose doesn't lie. Maybe you don't realize it yet because you're still young, but I'm telling you about it now. Nobody wants to see a heart get broken.”

“No,” Ethan whispered. “Look, about Dani, I don't want her. She's beautiful is all. It's hard to not notice, so don't get the wrong idea. I'm not trying to cause problems or steal her from Tyson. I wouldn't do something like that. As for Maya, I'll be more aware of her intentions, I guess.”

It baffled him that she would get jealous, though. Why? It seemed like such a waste of time. Ethan didn't think anything more of Dani than his best friend. A special best friend, but nothing more. She'd always be important to him, but he'd understood his place in her life right away. Besides, Maya being jealous implied that she had a thing for him. Maya didn't want to date him. The idea almost made him laugh.
We'd be a weird match.

“I need you to do one more thing for me,” Matthias said.

“Hmm?”

“Tyson, he seems to be pretty into Maya. Nip that one at the bud for me? I noticed how sad Danielle got over it, and it's not appropriate any more than you looking at my daughter is. They're spoken for. Their eyes should only be on each other. Don't do anything to mess with that, and help them to do the same. Whatever his fascination is with your friend, fix it please.”

“Okay,” Ethan said with a nod. He had noticed Tyson's infatuation with Maya, but didn't think much of it. Still, best to make it stop while things were simple and playful instead of intense.

With a small smile, Dani's father stood. He put a hand on Ethan's shoulder encouragingly. “Maybe you won't have to wait until school to find a good bride for yourself after all.”

“Huh?” Ethan asked, confused.

“You know what I mean.” He laughed. “Have a good nap.”

“Thanks,” Ethan mumbled and laid down on the couch.
What a weird conversation. Who is he thinking I can marry?
He shrugged and closed his eyes, willing sleep to come. It did, swiftly. His dreams were filled of visions of Dani in her beautiful white dress.

 

 

Tyson came back to Dani's house to collect her father, Ethan, and Maya. There was only so much talking about different shades of red and pink that he could handle. Neither were colors he was into. Red he tolerated, pink was bright and annoying, and it shocked him that Dani would be interested in it. She'd never been much of a girlie girl before. The dress she wore, and her whole attitude with him today, threw him off.

First she batted her eyes at him, giggled an awful lot while clinging to his arm, and wouldn't stop rubbing his arm with her hands. Did she get abducted by aliens? It wasn't like her at all. In a way, he sort of liked it. The attention was nice, and it accented a different part of her personality that he didn't get to see often. On the other hand, it didn't feel completely natural to him. He only wanted Dani to be herself.

He entered the house, knocking quietly before he did so to announce his presence for anyone inside. Dani's father had been outside working in the garden and would be done shortly, but Tyson didn't know what her brothers were doing, or Ethan and Maya for that matter.

Upon entering the house, he found Ethan asleep on the couch. In the kitchen was his cousin Brad, playing cards with a couple of Dani's brothers. Tyson did not know too much about the guy outside of he and Ethan apparently being close. One time Ethan mentioned something about Brad having a thing for one of the girls on the island, and that's why he liked to come along so often. Something both of the Oceina men kept from their parents no doubt, which made Tyson curious about how deep this relationship really was. Brad still smelled pure, but he might have been planning to marry whoever this girl was.

Hardly any dragon mated outside of marriage, given all of the genetic complications that came along with it. One would have to be a huge rebel. When the human woman made love to a dragon man, the dragon magic entered into the woman and changed her DNA. She became like a dragon, gaining magic and other attributes so she could bear dragon sons. Outside of Dani, all dragons born were male. The process of this change was referred to as the transition. It could be deadly to a woman sometimes.

Maya acts like she's stuck in a transition, with how sick she is. I wonder… if she were to mate with a dragon, would that make her better? Complete the process?
But how could she have been stuck in one? Tyson didn't know a whole lot about Maya's family or upbringing for that matter.
I'll have to ask Ethan.

Tyson walked over to the couch and shoved Ethan a few times to try and wake him. The guy slept like the dead, and it was near impossible to get him up without being rough. Tyson grabbed the pillow out from under Ethan's head and was satisfied to see his blue eyes snap open.

“What?” Ethan groaned.

“Time for lunch,” Tyson said with a shrug, and then went upstairs to see what Maya was doing.

Knocking on the door gently, he waited to see if she answered. When none came, he slowly turned the knob.

“Maya,” he said loudly, making sure she knew it was him. “Are you awake?”

He found her sitting by the window, looking out at the ocean.

She gave him a wide smile. “I am. Sorry, I should have answered I just…”

“Love the water?” he asked, moving behind her. Nervously, he put a hand on her shoulder. He didn't know how she would interpret the touch, or even how he wanted her to. But he did enjoy the softness of her skin. She felt warmer today than the last time he'd touched her, and she didn't smell so much of death. It still lingered on her, a subtle, bland scent that broke his heart.

I'd touch Dani or Ethan. I can do the same to her.
He decided, and relaxed.

“The water is wonderful,” she agreed. “But I just want to take in every moment I can.”

Tyson nodded and gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Feel up to eating something?”

“I'm starving.”

“Okay, because it's about time to go to lunch.”

She shifted her body so she no longer faced the window and carefully stood. When she stumbled into his arms, he frowned.

Maya shook her head. “I'm fine. I promise. I can—”

“You should probably stay here if you don't want them to ship you back home. But I'll tell you what. If you give me your order, I'll pick you something up, and we can have a little picnic up here? Eating alone wouldn't be any fun.”

“You'd do that for me?” she asked, her eyes wide and glittering.

Tyson beamed. “Of course! What kind of pasta do you like?”

He knew he shouldn't have been checking her out, or bending over backwards to make her happy. But if Dani got to indulge in a forbidden crush, why couldn't he?

 

 

“So you picked red and gold for your colors,” Ethan said as he walked Dani through the flower shop. She appreciated the company since Tyson wanted to go back to the house to take a break. Sure, her mother was still around too, but a friend made a much better wall for bouncing off ideas.

Dani nodded, looking at all of the flowers and not knowing where to begin. There were a lot of red flowers to choose from. “I like red. It's strong. At first I was going toward pink, because I thought it might be more appropriate or that Tyson would like it more.” She sighed. “Like me more.”

“Tyson loves you.”

“Not like that,” she said.

Glancing over at her, Ethan shook his head. “What makes you think you have to change who you are to get him to?”

“I notice things, is all. And I also noticed he wasn't into a lot of what I proposed. So I decided on red because it's a color I like and that symbolizes my people. And I chose gold because it's a symbol of his. In the end, those two things are more important than personal preference.”

“Probably true. What would personal preference have chosen?” Ethan asked.

Dani thought for a moment. “Probably purple with a red accent of some kind.”

“Interesting choice.”

They'd be our colors,
she thought. “I don't think they'd have gone over well. This seemed politically safe and included everything I wanted.”

“So what kind of flowers do you want?” Ethan asked. “You can't make this all about politics, Dani, remember? We're supposed to be enjoying the moment and making it fun!” There was a forced enthusiasm in his tone, and he jumped and clicked his heels together to try and emphasize the point. All it did was make him look silly.

It got a laugh out of her all the same. “To be honest? The only flowers I like are roses.”

“Then use those.”

“Would that be too simple?” she asked.

Ethan walked her over to the rose display in the shop and picked one. He cut the stem carefully with one of his claws. They were trimmed, but still sharp. He then put the flower in her hair. “Sometimes simple is best, you know. Don't try so hard; it's not like you. Being yourself is more than enough.”

I'm not so sure.
But she smiled and nodded, acting as if she agreed with him. Dani touched the flower he'd given her; their hands briefly made contact. “I'll try to keep that in mind, but when the whole world is watching, it's a little hard. People will expect something big and bold.”

“Forget about that. Although I do need to say, you look wonderful today. Talk about unexpected.” Ethan moved his gaze over her briefly, and she noticed the slight scent of cinnamon coming from him. Her cheeks went warm at the realization that he wanted
her
. Even if it was only for those few seconds.

“Thank you.” That was about all she could manage to say. Anything else might have opened up a can of worms she'd rather not deal with.

He nodded, then gave her a pointed look. “Roses.”

“Okay, I'll get roses.”

“And you can use gold ribbon.”

“Your big designer connections are paying off,” Dani teased, nudging him in the side.

Ethan nudged her back. “What can I say? My aunt taught me well. But she's gotta pass it on to someone, right? None of her kids are too into it. I can't help what fascinates me. Color is one of those things.”

“I know, and I think it's sweet,” she said. “Whatever you do in life, you're going to be a big success, Ethan, and you're sweet. You'll make whoever your future bride is very happy. And I'll get to tell her how good you are at this. Most guys aren't.”

“Tell me about it. But that's assuming I get married. How's Tyson doing anyway?”

“This isn't his thing at all.” She shook her head. “I can tell he's bored. I kind of am too, but it's more interesting with him gone. Most of the problem is, I don't think he cares enough to make a decision. It's obvious he doesn't like all of my ideas, but he just goes with it.”

Ethan winked. “I'll go knock some sense into him.”

She shook her head. “I'd rather not bother him too much about it. If he's not interested, then he's not.”

“You can't do it by yourself.”

“I won't be.” Dani pointed to her mother.

Ethan tapped his chest. “You're right. ‘Cause you'll have me.”

Gazing up at him, she got caught up in his small smile and blue eyes.
Having you is what makes this worthwhile.

 

 

After her lunch with Tyson, Maya fell back asleep. She didn't wake again until several hours later, and it embarrassed her. All she wanted to do was prove she could handle being about on her own, and she seemed to struggle with it. For the most part, her body felt fine. Outside of weak and tired, she didn't have any pain or nausea. It would probably help matters if she hadn't purposefully fainted in the kitchen earlier. But she couldn't stand watching everyone fawn over Dani. Tyson was the only one allowed to do such a thing. Not her Ethan.

Feeling awake and full of energy, Maya went downstairs to see if anyone was awake still. It was dark outside, but she wasn't quite sure what the time was since there was no clock in her room. The most she could tell was the younger children were in bed, because she could no longer hear them running or yelling from somewhere in the house, but it wasn't late enough to put Ethan and the others to bed. She could hear them in the living room. Maya peeked around the corner to see what they were doing.

“I must have a million things on my checklist to get done,” Dani said as she fixed her hair. She sat on the couch, sandwiching herself between Tyson and Ethan.

“It won't be as bad as you think,” Ethan pointed out. “All of those things are small. You'll get them done quickly, time to spare, piece of cake.”

“Speaking of cake…”

Tyson rolled his eyes. “Can we
not
talk about this right now?”

Dani scowled at him. “Will you ever want to talk about it?”