Dragon's Heart (The DragonFate Novels Book 3)

by Deborah Cooke

  Then Ryan was gone and Rhys was alone in the meadow, staring at his phone.

  A good break. As if.

  Was it a trap? What if Lila wasn’t his mate? What if she was? Had she been abducted or was she complicit with the guy at the bar?

  Could he ignore what had just happened and live with himself?

  No. No matter who she was, his mate or a treasure of the earth to be defended, Rhys had to help her. She’d been captured because of him, and he had to fix it.

  All he needed was the gem of the hoard.

  Nyssa picked up the shattered pieces of her phone, even though she guessed there was no chance of repair. She’d seen the older man come into the restaurant and had sensed the fire in him. He’d ignored them, though, and gone to the bar, so she’d stopped watching him.

  Big mistake.

  Was he another dragon shifter? Was he allied with Rhys? She had no idea, but he’d definitely had a plan. She’d only taken the barest sip of that drink and was still feeling dizzy.

  Lila had taken a big sip, then another. She’d trusted that it was from her dragon shifter, and maybe it had been. Either way, she’d obviously felt its effects right away.

  Then the other man had reappeared, handsome and solicitous. Nyssa had thought then that he had to be an employee or Rhys’ partner, given his dark suit and his scent of fire. She hadn’t trusted him long, but it had been long enough.

  He’d taken Lila so quickly that Nyssa knew it had been arranged in advance. The car had been idling at the curb, a big dark luxury sedan, and had disappeared into the traffic before Nyssa even stumbled to the curb.

  Now, there was just the scattered contents of Lila’s purse and Nyssa’s own broken phone. Nyssa had picked up Lila’s coat from the back of her chair and hugged it closer. At least Lila had her skin, because it hadn’t been left behind. That meant she had a chance to fight back or maybe even escape. Nyssa spotted the battery for the phone and the microchip when she was picking up Lila’s stuff. Maybe some whiz kid could get Rhys’ number off it. One thing was for sure: she was never going to forget that guy’s face.

  Maybe someone at Bones would know who he was.

  Or better yet, where to find him and Lila.

  Three

  “I knew I’d sensed a firestorm,” Alasdair murmured when Rhys had told the Pyr everything.

  “I’m not sure it’s real,” Rhys said again.

  “That’s Embron,” Rafferty said, tapping Rhys’ phone. The image had come through from the security camera at the restaurant, and even though the man had been turning away, Rafferty clearly recognized him. “He came to my shop, wanting to buy the gem of the hoard.”

  “But you had it then,” Kristofer said. “Why didn’t he take it?”

  “I lied. I told him it was sold.” Rafferty smiled. “I implied that Maeve had acquired it.”

  If Embron had allied with Maeve, that couldn’t be good news for anyone, to Rhys’ thinking. He cleared his throat, but his fellow Pyr continued to talk about Embron as if Lila wasn’t in danger. To his thinking, every moment counted and they needed to move.

  “But Embron couldn’t tell that you were dishonest with him, or that the amber wasn’t there?” Erik asked.

  Rafferty shook his head. “Apparently not.”

  “How curious,” Erik mused.

  “But that makes perfect sense,” Bree said. “He didn’t know that I threw a stone instead of the gem of the hoard. That was how we got away with it.”

  “And he didn’t know you had it all those centuries,” Kristofer added.

  “So, he can’t sense it,” Erik said with an approving nod. “That’s one thing in our favor.”

  “I don’t care about the details,” Rhys said, impatient with the discussion. “I need the gem of the hoard and I need it now.”

  That got Erik’s attention. “You can’t mean to surrender it to him!”

  “He can have it, if that’s what releases Lila.”

  “I thought you didn’t believe she was your destined mate?” Rafferty asked softly, his eyes glowing.

  Rhys flung out his hands. “Either way, she’s a treasure of the earth to be defended, and you’re all just standing around, talking. I need the gem and I need to find her, and I need to do it right now.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you raise your voice like this,” Hadrian commented.

  “Well, if you all keep being so obstructionist, you’d better get used to it,” Rhys snapped. He held out his hand. “Look. The sparks are flickering. She’s in danger. What if he kills her?”

  “If the firestorm’s a spell, that could be part of it,” Kristofer noted. “They could be trying to lure you in.”

  Drake spoke with measured calm. “They’ll expect you to charge in immediately. Any trap set for you will rely upon that.”

  “Then what do you suggest? Abandoning her to Embron?” Rhys asked with exasperation. “I need to fly down there and locate her while we can...”

  “You need to plan,” Drake interrupted firmly. “We need to approach slowly and discern as much as possible about her situation before revealing ourselves.”

  Rhys’ heart sank. “We’re not going to fly down there.”

  “It’s hardly subtle,” Erik noted.

  “It would mean a lot of beguiling to be done,” Alasdair said with a shake of his head.

  “But driving will take hours,” Rhys protested. “Hours we don’t have!”

  “You said yourself that the might be a fake,” Balthasar noted.

  Rhys heaved a sigh. “What if she is my mate? What if Embron kills her?”

  “He will not kill her until you come,” Drake insisted. “The gem of the hoard is his objective, and she is his means to gaining it.” He lifted a finger. “The true peril will be when he can grasp the gem of the hoard and perceives that she is no longer useful.”

  Ronnie caught her breath and averted her gaze. Rhys thought he saw her shiver, but Drake caught her hand within his own.

  Quinn cleared his throat. He was standing with his arms folded across his chest, listening with a frown between his brows. “What exactly does this gem of the hoard do? Why does he want it?”

  “It’s supposed to control all magick, but I’m not sure why,” Kristofer said. “Embron wanted it badly, though. He dove into the sea after it, then evidently sought out Rafferty to get it.”

  “But how did he even find Rafferty if he can’t sense the gem?” Bree asked.

  “He followed my scent, I’ll guess,” Rafferty said. “I was there after you brought him down.” Bree and Kristofer nodded as one. They both looked a little spooked, and Rhys couldn’t blame them. The plan to leave the gem of the hoard in their custody seemed like an even bigger invitation to trouble now. If Embron had followed Rafferty’s scent, he could follow Kristofer’s.

  “All the more reason to give me the gem of the hoard,” he said, but no one seemed to hear him.

  “Do you think Embron found Maeve?” Alasdair asked.

  “I thought she was trapped in Fae and all the portals were closed,” Rhys said. The night felt colder and more filled with menace than it had just hours before. The last individual he wanted to see again was the Dark Queen who had compelled him to dance endlessly. His feet still had sores on them and he’d started to wonder whether they’d ever heal.

  “I’m thinking he must have looked for her,” Hadrian said. “Otherwise, he would have followed Kristofer’s scent and ended up here already. He must have conferred with Maeve to have even found Lila.”

  “He followed her scent from the beach where the firestorm sparked,” Rhys guessed. “I don’t even know where it was.”

  “I’ll bet Maeve did,” Hadrian said. “We had gone through the portal at Bones, after all.” Rhys met his gaze for a moment, and knew both of them were recalling that painful dance. “Either you met Lila in Fae, or you went through another portal to wherever she was.”

  “Maybe it was where she works,” Kristofer suggested.
r />   “Maybe. But where is she now? How do we find her and save her?” Arach asked.

  “The firestorm,” Rhys whispered, looking at the faint glow around his hands. “I should be able to track her.”

  “Even if it’s not real, that might work,” Kristofer noted.

  “We might be able to follow his scent from the restaurant, too,” Hadrian said.

  “I think we should locate Lila and worry about Embron later,” Rhys said with urgency.

  “But you could be walking right into their trap,” Balthasar said.

  “I have to do it, though,” Rhys said. “I can’t abandon her, whether she’s really in danger or whether she’s under a spell.”

  They all nodded, none of them surprised.

  “You can’t go alone,” Alasdair said.

  “No.” Erik’s lips tightened into a grim line. “Give the gem of the hoard to him, Kristofer,” he ordered softly. “There can be no feint that Embron will believe. The dragon prince will want to examine it before he releases his hostage. He won’t be tricked again.”

  “And we can’t trick him because we don’t have magick,” Arach said with some bitterness.

  “No one has much anymore, because Embron has seized most of it,” Bree noted as Kristofer went to his hoard to retrieve the stone. He returned and surrendered it to Rhys without comment. Bree frowned. “He must have chosen to release Maeve from Fae, in order to ally with her.”

  That hardly sounded like a good thing.

  Rhys turned the gem of the hoard in his hand. He didn’t like the feel of it, which said something. He had an affinity to the element of earth, just as Lila had guessed, and most stones felt welcome in his hand. Not this one. It was a piece of amber, not quite perfectly spherical, about the size of a tennis ball. Inside its golden depths, there was a spider in the act of killing a wasp, trapped in that deadly pose for all eternity. The amber was cold in Rhys’ palm, cold enough to make him shiver.

  “Too bad we don’t know how to use it,” Balthasar said.

  “You won’t master magick in that short of a time,” Bree said. “Sorcerers train for centuries, eons even.”

  “Too bad we don’t know one, then,” Quinn said and Melissa gasped.

  “But we do,” she said to Rafferty. “That woman we met in Edinburgh said she was a witch. She knew Embron. Eithne was her name.”

  “But she’s in Scotland,” Hadrian protested.

  “No,” Melissa said. “She’s from Manhattan. She went to Edinburgh to visit the old lair with Embron, but she must be home by now.” She pulled out her phone and began scrolling through it. “She gave me her number.”

  “One solar day isn’t a lot of time,” Drake reminded them all softly. “We need a plan.”

  “I’m going after Lila,” Rhys said.

  “I’m going with you,” Hadrian said.

  “We’re all going with you,” Alasdair said. Arach and Balthasar nodded agreement. “Saving Lila has to trump our plans to find Theo.”

  “If Maeve is allied with Embron, finding Lila might lead us to Theo,” Rhys said.

  “I’ll seek out Eithne with Melissa,” Rafferty said. “She might know something of use.”

  “What about the book?” Drake asked. “We might need something to barter with Maeve.”

  “Arach and I will find the vampire, Sebastian, after we rescue Lila,” Balthasar said. “Maybe we can convince him to part with it.”

  “Good luck with that,” Kristofer said wryly.

  “I might be able to beguile him,” Arach mused. Rhys knew that Arach had apprenticed to Lorenzo, the illusionist and the best of the Pyr at beguiling.

  “You might,” he said, encouraged.

  “I promised to stop at Bones on Monday,” Alasdair said. “The Others might know more by then.”

  “We might know more by then if we get moving,” Rhys said, trying to urge them along. “We need to drive back to the city now.”

  “Let’s stick to our plan of staying here a few days longer,” Erik said to Quinn and that Pyr nodded agreement.

  “Absolutely,” Quinn agreed. “If Embron comes after Kristofer, he and Bree shouldn’t be alone.” He reached out and took Sara’s hand. “Who knows? We might have a prophecy soon, too. A firestorm has sparked, after all.”

  Sara nodded. She was the Seer of the Pyr and prophecies about firestorms often revealed themselves to her, or to Erik. “I’ll do my best.”

  “We’ll start by fortifying the dragonsmoke barrier immediately,” the leader of the Pyr said. “If Embron has any kinship with our kind, he won’t be able to cross it.”

  Rhys looked down at his hand and watched the light of the firestorm flicker, as if it might go out. He caught his breath and the others followed his gaze.

  “She’s in grave danger,” Rafferty said.

  “Or it’s a lure,” Kristofer said, folding his arms across his chest.

  “Either way, I’m answering the summons.” Rhys headed for his truck, pulling out his keys. “I’m driving,” he said to Hadrian.

  “No one is going to get in your way,” that Pyr agreed.

  “I will join you,” Drake said. “I have a favor to you, Rhys, to repay.” He shook hands with Rhys, then kissed Ronnie, advising her to remain at Kristofer’s lair with the boys.

  Meanwhile, Arach, Balthasar, Hadrian and Alasdair all rose to their feet. “Six against one,” Alasdair said with satisfaction. “I like these odds.”

  Rhys was reassured to have so many dragons at his back. Embron was old and powerful, and might be allied with Maeve. Even so, he dared to be optimistic about their chances.

  He just hoped they reached Lila in time.

  A Firestorm.

  Lila opened one eye and regretted her choice immediately. Even the shadowy light of her prison made her head pound. That drink should have been called an Atomic Bomb. It had hit her hard and fast. She’d only had a quarter of it, but its influence was impressive.

  Maybe there’d been more in it than fruit juice and alcohol.

  At that realization, Lila forced her eyes open and looked around. She was in a basement room, judging by the small high windows. They were made of glass blocks so there was no chance of opening one. The walls and floor were unfinished concrete but the ceiling had been finished with acoustic tiles. There was one lightbulb hanging from the ceiling at the far end of the room but it wasn’t turned on. The light was coming through the window, which meant at least one night had passed.

  She examined her hands, but the orange glow of the firestorm had faded to a glimmer. Rhys wasn’t close, then.

  Lila wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or not.

  Her purse wasn’t with her, of course, or Nyssa’s phone. She didn’t even have her jacket anymore—it was probably still on the back of her seat at the restaurant—and the room was cold. There was just an old mattress on the floor, which was where she’d been lying. There was a bucket in the opposite corner and as Lila realized the hopelessness of her situation, she feared she might need it. There were no stairs, but there was a door in one wall.

  She tried to keep from freaking out that she was trapped, her worst nightmare, and was managing pretty well until she realized she didn’t have her skin. She went through her own pockets frantically, even checking her favorite hiding place inside her bra, but it was gone. Panic rose within her like a cold wave.

  She tried to scream, but no sound came out.

  Her terror rose a definite notch. Lila’s heart raced at the realization that this was her worst nightmare.

  Trapped and silenced, without her skin.

  And too many hours away from the soothing caress of water.

  She tried to stand up and had to push herself to her feet, hanging on to the wall at the same time. Her stomach roiled at just that effort and she leaned against the cool concrete for a long moment, waiting for the room to stop spinning.

  Maybe they should call the drink a Sneak Attack.

  Why would Rhys send her such a drink?
Why did he hate her so much? It was one thing for him to be suspicious, but quite another for him to actively wish her ill.

  Let alone have her locked in a basement prison. The prickle of fear seemed to accelerate her body’s reaction to dry land. She’d spent hours in transit, almost a full day, and now this. How long had she been here? It could be the next morning, Sunday. It could be Monday. She had no idea.

  And there wasn’t a drop of moisture to be seen.

  Maybe Rhys had wanted to ensure she didn’t disappear. If he knew anything about selkies, he might have prepared for that—and she knew he hadn’t been pleased with her comment about kids.

  Still, this choice seemed extreme for him. She had a feeling he’d just call her and talk to her, trying to change her mind with logical arguments.

  He’d probably have them all arranged in order of relevance. Maybe draw up a spreadsheet to tabulate them accurately.

  Or maybe he’d just ignore the firestorm. He wouldn’t try to hurt her.

  He was orderly. Reasonable. Temperate, even when annoyed. She didn’t sense violence in him.

  Not like her captor, who simmered with hidden fire. Lila shuddered.

  She felt dirty as well as frightened and the taste in her mouth was terrible. She reached up to push her hair back from her face, wishing she had a comb.

  That was when she saw the red string tied around her wrist. She hooked a finger under it and tried to break it, without success. It wasn’t just strong string, though—she could tell it was magick by the way it left a burn on her finger and on her wrist. It seared the flesh when she tried to break it.

  Magick.

  A spell would explain why she couldn’t make a sound.

  Lila dismissed any wishful thinking and faced the truth. She was a prisoner and she was doomed. The Fae could just leave her here, without water and without her skin, and she would wither and fade to nothing within days. It was the easiest murder in the world—and there was nothing she could do to fight back, not without her freedom or her voice. There would be one less selkie in the world, as easily as that.

  But was Maeve her captor? This sure didn’t look like Fae. There was no silver light, no music, no dancing at the high court. There was no wine to tempt her to take just one taste, a sip that would trap her forever. There were no companies of loyal followers of the queen. There was nothing pretty or festive about this place.