The envelope crinkled under her fingers as she drew out the first letter. The slanting words were practically carved into the paper, and Norah took a moment to accustom herself to the spiky handwriting before she started to read.
“Well,” she said after finishing two letters, “you certainly had some opinions about The Millbrook's bad reviews. I take it you thought it was being unfair to the The Chalice and the Wyrm?”
“They were being more than unfair,” Val said hotly. “Honestly, if you read the reviews, you would have seen that they probably never even read the thing.”
“And you very much liked that … what was it, a serialized novel?”
“Yes. It was published every week in The Annulet.”
Something about Val's sulky words made Norah take a second look at him, and she covered her mouth with her hands.
“Val … did you write The Chalice and the Wyrm? Did you call the editor of The Millbrook a simpering fool who would not know decent writing if it crawled up his-”
“Yes! Yes, it's me, all right? It's all me. I wrote Chalice, and I was very proud of it, and I guess I sort of lost my temper.”
“You lost your temper seven times over two weeks, I see,” Norah said, skimming the rest of the letters. “Did you really challenge the editor to a duel?”
“I did. He declined because I sounded like a raving lunatic.”
He sounded so miserable that Norah draped her arm over his shoulders, hugging him close and trying to hide her smile.
“You didn't sound like a raving lunatic,” she lied. “But why did you want the letters back? They were just sitting in the collection, and as much as I love this archive, it's very likely that no one would have come looking.”
Val made a face.
“I'm supposed to be the smart, calm one in my family,” he complained. “I'm the oldest in my generation. I have to set an example. If word got out that I, ah ...”
“Called the editor of The Millbrook a whey-faced poltroon not fit to shine the shoes of the Devil in Hell?”
“Yes, thank you. That I had behaved like such an idiot, I would never hear the end of it. Honestly, Norah, I swear to you, my family is wonderful, but they will not let a thing die a gracious death.”
“I've got four sisters, I know all about that,” Norah said philosophically, kissing him on the temple.
“You do?”
“Yes. And we should arrange a get-together. If you're my fated mate, you have to meet my family, and it really sounds that I have to meet yours. But first things first.”
“You let me take you to bed, and I get to forget about The Millbrook for a few hours?”
Norah grinned.
“No. You tell me where to find a copy of The Chalice and the Wyrm immediately. I need a copy for the archive.”
Epilogue
∞∞∞
Four Months Later
The desert sky opened over them like the pale blue pages of some enormous book, and Val looked up as if he could read the future there. Of course he couldn't. He was a dragon, not a fortuneteller. Anyway, his future was standing behind a steep rise, practically dancing in her excitement, and with a grin, he trotted back to her.
“Hey, ear protection,” he said, and obediently, she inserted the ear plugs he had given her earlier. Val put in his own and then nodded.
“All right, are you ready?”
“Yes,” Norah said immediately. “Yes, absolutely. Born ready. Ready yesterday.”
“All right, here you go.”
The remote detonator was large in her plump hands, and Val shook his head.
“You know that the whole point of this exercise is to get to the vein of rubies in the earth, right?” he asked. “The explosives are just a means to an end.”
“Speak for yourself,” Norah said. “Can I now?”
Val signed and nodded, and Norah actually giggled as she unlocked the switch and flipped it.
Immediately a low, resonant boom shook the ground, sending bedrock up in a controlled birst of grit and gravel. The air filled with the sharp hot scent of cordite, and even through the ear plugs, Val could hear a dim echo of the blast. Norah was laughing so hard she would have gone right down on her rear if Val hadn't steadied her.
“Oh that was fantastic,” she said. “That was amazing. It was exactly what I wanted it to be, and I want to do it again.”
Val could never deny her anything, and he started to say so, but then her eyes focused on him.
“I want you,” she said with that bright intensity. “Can I have you, Val?”
With a groan, he pulled her back to the truck, kissing her as he went.
“Whatever you want, darling,” he promised her fervently. “Anything, everything, any time and any place.”
Norah's laugh was as brilliant as rubies, as wide as the desert sky.
“You,” she said. “Always you.”
A Note From Zoe Chant
Thank you so much for reading The Dragon's Lost Letters! I hope you enjoyed getting to know Norah and Val as they fended off book thieves and lending permissions on their way to true love!
If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please click here to be added to my mailing list. You can also visit my webpage, or join my VIP Readers Group on Facebook!
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Also by Zoe Chant
Shifter Bites
Cute But Prickly
Unicorn Vet
Gray's Hollow Dragon Shifters
The Billionaire Dragon Shifter's Mate
Beauty and the Billionaire Dragon Shifter
The Billionaire Dragon Shifter's Christmas
Choosing the Billionaire Dragon Shifters
The Billionaire Dragon Shifter's Baby
The Billionaire Dragon Shifter Meets His Match
See Zoe Chant’s complete list of books here!
