Eden’s Voice/Priceless Bonus Scene

Warning!!

Contains Major Spoilers For Eden’s Voice!!

When I was writing Eden’s Voice, I knew partway through that Evan Tagget would be the hero of Book 2. I wanted to be sure his backstory, motivations, and actions were exactly right, so I took my first draft of the climax and rewrote it in his point-of-view. Only after I had his part the way I wanted it did I revise the scene to put it back into Eden’s POV. Here’s that scene from Evan’s side.

Evan stormed through the doorway, ready to give the Caldwell brat a proper set-down, only to find his beloved barreling headlong toward him.

“Eden, darling.” He held out the box with her dragon. “Forgive me for keeping her. When my men brought her to me, I knew it would in turn bring you to me.”

She yanked the box from his hands and freed her pet, pressing her cheek against the dragon’s metal head.

She glowered up at him. “How was I supposed to come to you when I was tied up and thrown into a sweltering hellhole?”

Fury erupted through him, worse than his anger at Caldwell. Those goddamned fools!

“They will be dismissed immediately. I would never give such an order. That was reserved for him.” He threw a look at Caldwell. “I hope you have a good explanation for the police, Mr. Caldwell.”

Eden took a step backward and linked arms with Caldwell. “You mean, you hope we have a good explanation.”

Evan’s heart lurched. “No. I will not hold you responsible for his stupidity. I’ll press no charges.”

“Then I’ll confess,” Eden declared. “I admit my crime freely.”

“No!” He lunged toward her. “My blossom, you can’t. I won’t let you be trundled off to jail.”

Eden pressed herself tight to Caldwell’s side. “Where he goes, I go.”

Evan fought back the panic. He could do this. She only needed convincing.

“My love, be reasonable. Why can’t you see it? I can give you everything he can and more.”

“Fuck off, Tagget,” Caldwell snarled.

Evan matched his furious stare. “You, boy, are going to wish you had stayed in that rat-infested tunnel. I will see to it that you never see the light of day for the remainder of your long, painful life.” The clop of hooves announced the presence of his reinforcements. “Ah, here comes an officer of the law now.”

Caldwell pulled Eden toward the car. “No one will ever catch us.”

Evan laughed and pulled the trigger device from his pocket. The motorcar’s engine coughed, sputtered, died. Ah, excellent. A successful test.

“You run that fast?” he taunted.

“So that’s what you’ve been doing with Dynalux,” Caldwell said. “Impressive. You’ve tweaked the recipe so you can disable a car remotely without destroying it.”

Evan smiled. “I isolated the component in the fuel that reacts to sound waves and separated it out from the chemicals that made it volatile. Terribly useful, isn’t it? I intend to control all aspects of motorcars in the future.”

“You intend to control everything,” Caldwell retorted. “That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? Control. That’s why you’re obsessed with wireless teletics. You can’t let them replace your wired network until you can find a way to spy on the transmissions. You’d hate to give up all that power, wouldn’t you? You don’t want to sell Randall’s technology. You want to suppress it. You were even prepared to destroy his research as a last resort.”

Smart. Not just a pretty face. Altogether too dangerous a rival.

“You’re cleverer than you look, Caldwell. Which you must be, I suppose, for my beloved Eden to be so fond of you. Pity your mind will waste away in prison from now on. Excuse me, I believe the police have arrived.”

Eden leapt to bar his path. “Tagget, no, please.”

“It’s for the best, my garden of delight,” he soothed her.

She shoved him hard enough that he stumbled. “I am not a paradise!”

“What seems to be the trouble here?” The police officer’s voice rang with authority.

Evan lifted a finger to point, thrilled to take his revenge. “That man…”

Eden grabbed his hand. “No. Stop. I’ll do anything. Don’t do this. Don’t hurt him.”

Evan would not back down. He wanted the competition gone, and he wanted it done now. “He brought this on himself.”

“No! You brought it on. You stole Vox! You threw us in the steam tunnels! You’re a thief and a liar and a horrible person, and I hate you!”

“Miss, do you think you might be able to tell me what the trouble is?” the officer asked.

“Him,” Eden hissed, pointing an accusatory finger at Evan. The fury in her voice tore into him. He seized her hand.

“Eden, my floweret, what has he done to you? Officer, that man has harmed my…” He froze, eyes on her wounded wrist. “My God, you’re injured!” Sweet Jesus, what had his goons done to her? He would kill them both. He raised her hand to soothe her hurt with kisses. “I’m so sorry, my sweetheart.”

Eden jerked from his grip and hammered on his chest with her fist.

“I am not your sweetheart! I will never be your sweetheart.”

Evan forced himself to remain calm, though inside he was a seething ball of rage and fear. She had turned against him. Someone would pay. Since the Baffords were not in his line of sight, it would have to be Caldwell.

“Officer, that man stole my car. There are plenty of witnesses. He was riding around with Miss Randall here, and I’m frightened to think of what he may have done to her. You see how distraught she is. There was talk of rats and a tunnel. She may be drugged. I would like to press charges of theft, kidnapping, attempted murder…”

“No,” Eden cried. “No.” She thrust Vox at him. “Vox, friend.”

“What?” Evan stared down at the dragon nuzzling him.

“Take her. You can have her. You can have anything. Please, just leave us alone.” A tear dribbled down her cheek. She ran to Caldwell and clutched his shirt with both hands. “Do whatever you want,” she continued. “Study her, take her apart. I’ll tell you everything I know. I’ll give you the schematics, and the new research.”

Evan gaped at the dragon. “You would… but, why?”

“You should be flattered Tagget.” Caldwell’s calm, cold voice washed over Evan like an icy bath. “She doesn’t do that for many people.”

Eden crumpled against her lover’s chest. “For you. Only for you.”

The sincerity in her words shattered Evan’s heart. He had lost. He had lost her. The only thing that mattered. For once, he couldn’t simply pick up and move on to something better. Better didn’t exist.

“Damned kids and your romantic troubles,” the policeman muttered. “I ought to arrest all three of you.”

“Eden,” Evan pleaded, holding the dragon out to her, desperate words spilling from his lips. “You don’t need to do this. Come with me. Let me give you the world. You can have your dragon. I’ll keep it safe from everyone. I don’t want it. I don’t want your father’s research. I only want you.”

Eden turned her watery eyes on him. “Vox is the only part of me I can give. The rest is taken.”

“No.”

‘Give it! It’s mine!’

The memory consumed him. Panic. Rage. His most precious possession, torn from his grasp.

“No. Eden, please. Eden, I will give you everything. We will attend the symphony in Vienna, take in an opera at La Scala! I will buy you private concerts from the finest musicians in the world. You like my Mercedes? It’s yours. I’ll purchase a fleet of them, if you so desire. A train. Your own airship. Name it. Ask anything of me.”

Eden’s gentle voice brushed over him. So soft. So beautiful. So devastating. “The only thing I want is for you to leave me and Bruce in peace.”

The fruit, red and sweet and ripe, held aloft, just out of reach.

All Evan could see anymore was the blue of her eyes, driving him wild with yearning and mad with grief.

“Jewels, gowns!” he raved, flinging his hands in the air, her dragon still dangling from his fingers. “You can have your fancy corsets designed by the House of Worth! What else? God, what else? Beer! I’ll take you to Germany. Buy you a damned brewery! I’ll… I’ll buy you the New York Giants!”

Her gaze locked with his. Anything he needed to know was there, on her face, for all to see. He would never hold her again. Never call her his. His whole body sagged.

“I’m so sorry, Evan.”

The last spark of hope died when she whispered his name. She cared. And it wasn’t enough.

The crack of a hand across his cheek. ‘Get back to work.’

His world imploded in a rage of pain and loss and youthful nightmares.

“You were mine,” he gasped. “You were mine, and he stole you! You stole her from me! I had something precious and beautiful and you took it away from me and now I have nothing! Nothing! All I have left is a stupid, worthless dragon!”

He swung the dragon with all his might. Eden’s eyes widened in terror and a primal scream tore from her lungs.

Oh, God. What had he done?

Metal and brick collided in a screeching, twisting wail of horror.