225

The days passed agonizingly slow and eventually turned into weeks as he investigated Wynter’s death. He’d flown to Romania three days after the bond had snapped, spoken to Ivan himself, sat in his chambers and he couldn’t find anything. He had never been in Wynter’s room before but even then he couldn’t get a sense of what had happened.

The Elders had taken it hard refusing to let Wynter be replaced. Ryder had looked at the photo of Luciana on Wynter’s office desk, listened to Ivan’s stories about how much Wynter had loved her, how perfect they were for each other.

“He wasn’t in the right frame of mind, Sire.” Ivan’s eyes were still red rimmed, even after weeks.

“I lost my bonded half, Ivan. I know what he must’ve felt. At least I had both my children to live for.”

“We found his car three days after his death, abandoned in Bucharest. We don’t know where he went when he got there or if he ever arrived in Bucharest. There were no hotel bookings and no flight bookings either.”

“Thank you for gathering everything, Ivan. Is there perhaps a picture of the baby?”

“Just the one, Sire. Marian took it after her birth.”

“Wynter had a daughter?” Ryder swallowed down the emotions thinking of her short life.

“Yes, I believe her eyes glowed yellow shortly after she took her first breath.” Ryder smiled with pride despite himself.

“What about the Princess’s baby?”

“It was a boy, died in the womb, never took a breath. He was named August Grey de Haviland.”

“And his daughter? Did he name her?”

“Riley Grey.”

“Riley …” Without warning more tears gathered in Ryder’s eyes and Ivan took a step towards him.

“I’m very sorry for your loss, Sire, we all feel it daily.”

“Riley was my mother’s name.” Ivan’s emotions flitted across his eyes and he lowered his gaze.

“I know that your relationship was strained, Sire, but Wynter truly was a great ruler here. It took him only three months to turn things around and give the people a better life.”

“I blamed him so much and now … now I regret not reaching out to him.”

“We can send his belongings to you in America. I haven’t had the heart to pack up his things yet.”

“I’d appreciate that, Ivan. I would like to have something of him at home.”

“There’s also an unopened parcel in his sitting room. He never opened it, it was sent from Georgia.” Ryder had an idea of who had sent Wynter a package. It could only have been Nova. “One moment, Sire, I’ll get it for you.”

“And the photo of Riley too.” Ivan nodded his head and disappeared from the office.

Ryder looked around the office again and sat down in Wynter’s chair. His knee brushed the underside of the desk and a hidden drawer opened from the side of the desk. Ryder knelt down and pulled the drawer open.

“What were you doing, Wynter?” His words were a soft whisper as he pulled out a large envelope and opened it.

Inside he found copies of two passports for Wynter with new names and Riley’s original birth certificate, photos of Luciana and Wynter’s amended will. There was a newspaper clipping announcing his engagement to the woman and more photos of them together.

He tucked the photos back inside the envelope as he heard Ivan’s returning footsteps. He wiped the tears he hadn’t even noticed from his face and straightened up as the door opened once again and Ivan held out the package to him.

“It’s from Nova.” He had a sad smile on his face as he looked at her handwriting and tore the package open.

A new sob tore through him as he opened the box and looked at a replica of the Dragonstone rattle she had made when Maya announced her pregnancy. She had made one for Riley too and Wynter hadn’t known.

“I’m so sorry, Sire.” Ivan held a file in his hand and handed it over to him as he recovered himself.

“She’s beautiful.” Ryder looked at the picture of the small baby in Wynter’s arms, his smile speaking for itself. ‘She looks like her mother,’ he thought to himself.

Hours later he was led into the Palace in Bucharest and sat across from King Sorin as the man himself tried and failed miserably to compose himself. The Elders of Mintia had informed him of Wynter’s death soon after they had also felt the bond snap.

“Wynter held a special place in my heart, Ryder. I hope you know that your son was responsible for saving the Dragon Kingdom.”

“I saw the slaying of Florin. Wynter has always been fearless.”

“I know how hard this is for you. When Dorin died, Wynter brought him home, made sure I had a body to burn.”

“I’m sorry for your loss too.”

“We’ve commemorated the memory of Wynter Grey as Protector of Dragons for all time. The title will never be given to another again.”

“I appreciate that, my King, but I do have a flight to catch. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours.”

“Go in peace, Ryder. He was a mighty warrior, a good friend and a son to be proud of.”

As Ryder sat on the plane an hour later he realized sadly that he had no idea what Wynter had done for their realm. He didn’t know what kind of Sire or Duke he’d been or how many people’s lives he’d touched and changed for the better.

“Maybe you would have if you weren’t such an asshole and if you weren’t so fixated on Florin’s death, you would have realized that Wynter did the best with what he had.” Abeloth’s voice was filled with anger and Ryder didn’t blame him. He was angry with himself too.

A glimmer of hope had sparked within him when he found the copies of those passports because Wynter clearly hadn’t meant for them to be found. He needed to do one more thing though and he settled back to wait until he was back home.

Milo was withdrawn and sullen. His own guilt was eating away at him and most nights he sat on the deck of the dock house and talked to Wynter out loud. He had also felt their blood bond snap, the one they’d made when they were five.

“Milo.” He turned to look at Abigail as she joined him on the deck and sat down next to him.

“I can never make things right with him now.”

Abby took his hand in hers. “I thought you didn’t want to.”

“The bond for a vampire is a bit different than for you dragons. We feel protectiveness intensely and in my mind Wynter initiated that fight and I knew his end goal was to snap my neck, if he’d done that you would’ve died, Abby, and that’s what had me so mad.”

“But he didn’t snap your neck and I didn’t die.”

“I was mad too because when he loved Ally I supported him but when I fell for you he lost his mind.”

“He had a point you know. Before we acknowledged that bond you did literally screw everything that walked.”

“I know. Still wasn’t nice to have it thrown in my face.”

“I don’t think this pain will ever go away, Milo.” Milo pulled her into his side and placed his arm around her shoulder.

“It won’t and now I can never pin him against the shower wall and wash his back again.”

Abby laughed despite the sadness that had a hold of her heart. It was Milo’s way to try and make her feel better but she had a slight inclination that he really would miss doing exactly that.

“Given time we could’ve sorted it out. I know we could have.”

They sat on that deck, side by side, for a long time and wondered if things would ever get better. Nova had taken Wynter’s death very hard, so hard in fact that she’d kicked Ryder out of their room and hadn’t spoken more than two words to him in weeks.

“Maybe we should distract Nova with a wedding.” Abby glanced over at Milo not having found the right time to tell him yet.

“Dad’s going to insist on it very soon.”

Milo smiled. “I was wondering when you were going to just come out and tell me.”

“How the hell do you know when I only found out yesterday?”

Milo grinned at her. “I can sense my baby in there, it’s a vampire thing.”

“You seem happy with the idea of a baby.”

“Of course I’m happy, Abby. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Good because we only have about five months before he’s here.”

They were distracted with the car speeding down the driveway and coming to a screeching halt. Ryder closed the driver door and strode purposefully up the porch and into the house. Milo and Abby hurried to the house and found Ryder in the kitchen with his laptop open.

“Did you find anything?”

Ryder didn’t answer Milo but pulled the envelope from his inside pocket and placed it down on the table. Milo opened it, looking at the pictures, the birth certificate and the photo of a small baby.

“This one copy is an alias Wynter used in the Unit.”

Ryder looked at the copy Milo held up and nodded his head, pulled out his phone and dialed a number as Milo sat down and looked at him with worry in his eyes.

“Tweak, I’ve got two names for you. Justin Sumner and Gareth Holden. Yeah, sure. Thanks.”

Ryder put his phone down on the table and drank straight from the bottle of scotch. “Dad, what are you doing?”

“Tweak will run searches on those names. Find out where he went after he left Mintia.”

“He’s dead.”

“Then I want a body to burn!”

“Dad …”

“I’m not interested, Milo. He has a daughter, a little girl, somewhere out there and I’m going to find her.”

“If there was anything left of them they would’ve found something.”

“Let him do this, Milo, it’s his way of fighting his inner demons.” Nova stood in the kitchen door and Ryder looked up at her.

“Ivan will be sending his things home.” Nova nodded her head and walked towards Ryder and sat down on his lap, her arms around his neck as she rested her head against his.

“Find your answers and then you can concentrate on Milo and Abby’s wedding before she starts to show.”

“Does nobody in this family know how to use protection?” Milo started laughing and pulled Abby closer to him.

“Is this the part where you snap my neck?”

“No, Milo. It was a bitter lesson to learn the first time I felt that way.”

The moment was lost now as they all thought back to that day in Mintia when Ryder had fought against himself from breaking Wynter’s neck and ending his life.

As time dragged on and no answers could be found Ryder had to admit defeat that he’d never know how Wynter died. He had gone to the dragon realm and talked to Typhon but he was vague with his answers, only telling him that the baby was where Wynter was.

That night he lay in bed next to Nova and his heart broke all over again. “Typhon confirmed that Riley’s where Wynter is, she died with him.”