Eleanor’s ring glowed to life, and Raven watched a pulsing, magical shield expand between the guard and Gabriel. His talons bounced uselessly off it.
“Careful, Gabriel! If you want Raven in your bed tonight, you will follow my commands. Privileges are only given to those I can trust.”
Gabriel looked back at Raven with desperate, frantic eyes, the muscle in his jaw working overtime. Raven feared he might crack.
“It’s okay,” she said, although she dreaded what would happen next. She couldn’t watch Gabriel tear himself apart trying to protect her. “I’ll go. I was fine yesterday. I’ll be fine today.” She pushed off the blankets and rose from the bed.
“See. Your pet understands.”
“She’s my mate, not my pet,” Gabriel said through his teeth.
Eleanor raised her chin. “Get dressed and meet me in the dining hall. There’s much to do today.”
“What about Raven? She needs breakfast too.” Gabriel gestured toward Raven.
With a sway of her chin, Eleanor said, “I’m not a monster, Gabriel. She will be fed. Now move.”
The guard took Raven by the elbow, and with one last glance back toward her husband, she was ushered from the room and back to hell.
She didn’t think it was possible, but her cell felt even hotter than before. She returned to the far wall, back into the dark corner that seemed minimally cooler than the rest of the cell. Despite Eleanor’s promise, she was offered no breakfast, but there was water and it was still cool when it flowed down her throat.
“Did you get it?” the stranger asked through the iron grid between them.
“No. I was never allowed to leave my husband’s room.”
He growled. “You must try harder. If they let you out tonight, do whatever you need to do, but get that box. Without it, we are both doomed.”
“How can I trust you? You could be working for her, trying to get me to do something that would land me in here permanently. She’d love the excuse.”
The dragon beside her laughed low and deep. “Smart. It’s true, that would be something she’d do. I bet Gabriel warned you to think that way, didn’t he?”
“Yes. He’s less trusting than I am, thank goodness.”
“There is no goodness in this palace to thank, my lady. As always, Gabriel’s training has made him as annoying as a jurinfly during summer.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
He laughed. “Of course you don’t. He met you on Earth. You’ve never been here before have you?”
She remained silent rather than explain her previous visit.
“A jurinfly is a biting insect that is attracted to sweat. Even dragons sweat in summer. A cloud of jurinflies will pick the flesh off your bones if given the chance.”
Something occurred to her and her eyes narrowed in the dark. “You said as always. Do you know Gabriel?”
“Everyone in the kingdom knows Gabriel.”
“But does Gabriel know you?” Silence. She was on to something. “Why don’t you tell me who you are?”
“It wouldn’t help. He wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
“The box. If you bring me the box, I can get us out of here.”
She’d had just about enough of this. “If you want to get in my good graces, stop calling my husband an annoying insect and tell me more about this object you want me to steal. What’s inside the box? Why do you want it so badly?”
He hesitated. She tried to look through the grate but could only see flashes of pale skin. Not enough to build a description for Gabriel.
“Inside the box is a stone,” he said. “A jewel. Specifically, a garnet. The stone holds my magic. It was taken from me before I was imprisoned here.”
Raven furrowed her brow. A dragon’s magic when they were in their human form was housed in a gemstone ring made from the same jewel as their heart. As far as she was aware, there was no way to remove the ring without killing the dragon. This man had said he was a dragon, a dragon whose power was taken from him. Who was he? How had Eleanor taken his ring? Why was he here?
“How long have you been in this dungeon?” she asked.
“A few weeks.” His voice cracked. “At least I think so. The only way I know to gauge the time is by marking off when they bring food and water.”
Raven lowered her voice. “Where were you before that?”
This time he hesitated even longer. “An island off the coast of Everfield.”
“Everfield. That’s the fairy kingdom?”
“Yes.”
“Where Aborella is originally from?”
“Yes, although the people there would be loath to claim her as their own. They consider her an abomination.”
She chuckled. “I believe I’d enjoy meeting the people of Everfield.”
He sighed heavily. “You’d love it there. The food is like nothing you’ve ever tasted. Fairies have a complete connection to nature. They can collect the pollen from a flower as easily as any bee, and they cook with it. When you bite into a crizzle roll, it tastes like spring come to life in your mouth. The people themselves glow in the dark, and when they sing…”
He trailed off, and Raven could have sworn she heard a sob on the other side of the grate. “Everfield is home for you,” she said softly.
“Yes. I was born here, but Everfield is home, and if I had it to do again, I would have never come back here. This place was always a prison. I was stupid to think I could make a difference.”
“I’m sorry. I hope… I hope somehow you find your way back there.”
His voice was all grit the next time he spoke. “Find the box and I will.”
Chapter Thirty
Nathaniel dressed in his finest suit. There was no label. The oreads had made it for him out of a fabric they’d woven themselves. It was as light as linen but draped like the finest wool, perfectly tailored to his athletic physique. The suit was important, not because he wanted to impress anyone but because it had pockets, hiding places, and built-in enchantments that came in useful in a pinch.
He loaded those pockets with his pipe, his tarot cards, and a selection of Warwick’s specialized tobaccos. He also brought his shadow mail candle. He didn’t bother with weapons; he was no good with them anyway.
He joined Alexander, who seemed comfortable in a white T-shirt, leather jacket, and jeans, and Rowan, who was dressed in a red sundress and a pair of Louboutins.
“Really, Rowan?” Nathaniel shook his head at her stilettos. “We’re going to Paragon to recover our brothers, not a garden party.”
She shrugged. “If you can wear a suit, I can wear this dress.”
“Can you even run quietly in those?” He furrowed his brow.
She rolled her neck. “As well as in a pair of Nikes.” Rowan ran her pinky nail along the edge of her perfectly applied lipstick. “I’m a dragon female, Nate. I have all sorts of secret talents.”
“I can attest to that,” Nick said. “I have personally witnessed her run up a marble staircase in high heels without making a sound. It’s uncanny.”
“It’s a gift.” She beamed at her mate and directing a flirty wink in his direction.
Together they were an unlikely set, Nathaniel thought. Alexander looked pale and wired. Rowan looked like a contestant in the Miss New York pageant. And Nathaniel might have been attending a play or the opera. But they were three dragons. That kind of magic could not be underestimated.
“So, who opens the portal?” Rowan asked nervously.
“I do,” Nathaniel said. “I can target the palace grounds, inside the wards.”
Rowan did a double take. “I know you said something about that before, but how? The wards are specifically designed to be impervious to magical invasion.”
Nathaniel grinned. “I know. I helped design those wards. You might say I have a key to the back door.”
Alexander shook his head. “You don’t think she’s changed the locks since we’ve been gone?”
&nb
sp; He shrugged. “I’m not sure Mother ever understood the spell to begin with, but I suppose it’s possible. There’s only one way to find out.”
Rowan regarded him with mounting respect. “Why do I feel like there’s a lot Alexander and I don’t know about you, Nathaniel? Didn’t we grow up in the same palace? When were you helping Mom with wards?”
“We may have had the same parents, but we didn’t have the same childhood,” Nathaniel said. “Tonight I’m going to show you a part of the palace you likely never knew existed. It’s time.”
The three turned to their respective mates to say their goodbyes. Nathaniel took Clarissa in his arms as Rowan allowed Nick to sweep her off her feet as if she were human, and Alexander and Maiara embraced.
“Keep your head attached to your shoulders,” Clarissa said.
He raised an eyebrow. “If Grindylow couldn’t take it off, I think my chances are better than average.”
“Are you going to have the world’s worst family reunion?” she asked. “Make up for three centuries of missed Mother’s Days with a ricin-flavored ice cream cake?”
“I prefer mustard-gas-emitting lilies. What do you take me for, Clarissa? I have some standards after all.”
“Some.” She rose on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear in her most sultry voice. “Thankfully, for my sake, not too many.” She gave him a kiss that belonged in a bordello, and he was of half a mind to delay their quest and haul her to bed for another few hours, but she pulled back before he could get carried away.
“Seriously, this is safe, right?” she asked softly.
He scoffed. “We are going to sneak into the Obsidian Palace, free my brothers and the witch, and if all goes well, few others will even see us.”
“If all goes well…” Her face softened, all the teasing and levity melting away. “Please come back to me.”
He reached into his interior pocket and showed her the silver taper. “Stay close to your shadow mail candle. I’ll send a message if I’m delayed.”
She nodded. “Will it work?”
He winked. “Theoretically, yes, but time flows differently between our worlds. Try not to worry if you don’t hear from me for a few days.”
“Days! Nathaniel, what happened to in and out?”
“Think of it like two rivers running parallel to each other. The water in each flows at a different pace. When I open the portal, I will be effectively jumping from one river into another. At the moment of my crossing, there is a temporal connection between the two streams. We could theoretically call it X or just the starting point. But as I stay in Paragon, hours and days will pass at a different rate than your river here. X + P in Paragon, X + E on Earth. There is no exact equation to predict when I will step back into this time flow, although I will attempt to make it soon.”
“I’ll keep the candle with me always,” she promised.
He backed away from her and turned to his siblings. “Ready?”
They parted reluctantly from their mates and gathered at the edge of the Persian rug in the parlor. He lit his pipe and held out his elbows for Rowan and Alexander to link to.
“Here goes the old college try. Let’s hope Mummy hasn’t reset the password.”
Blowing a smoke ring, he waited for the magic to form a dial, a pentagram with ancient runic symbols in each of its quadrants. His amethyst ring glowed brighter, and he drew the symbol for Paragon in the air. Reality ripped in two like a sheet of paper, its edges curling as if someone held a lighter to it.
Nathaniel inserted his fingers into the dial and twisted and turned like he was cracking a safe. The magic glowed brighter, then dissipated. Everything went dark, then split open to reveal a Paragonian sunset. Together they took one giant step forward.
Chapter Thirty-One
Paragon
Raven woke sore and thirsty on the stone floor of her cell. Her tongue felt like a dry slab of leather in her mouth, but there was no water to be had. The guards had not refilled the trough between her cell and the stranger’s that afternoon. The stranger had allowed her the last hot, sulfur-smelling cup, suggesting she needed it more as a human. That might have been true, but she suspected it was also a ploy to earn her trust. He’d gone quiet after that, and she wondered if he regretted his choice.
Two guards arrived at the door of her cell.
“Come with us now!” one yelled to her.
“I can’t,” she rasped. Her muscles were cramping, likely from dehydration. No way could she walk on her own.
The guards entered her cell and hauled her to her feet, then ushered her up the stairs and back to Gabriel’s room. When Gabriel saw her, he rushed to gather her into his arms. A moment later she was in his lap and cool water poured into her mouth. She sipped it. Turned her head to cough, then greedily drank the glass dry.
“What did they do to you?”
“The dungeon is hot. Too hot for a human without magic.”
He sat her in a comfortable chair and poured her another glass of water.
“There isn’t enough water for both of us, me and the dragon I told you about.”
“By the Mountain, I will kill her,” he murmured. “Did she even feed you?”
“No.” Raven tried not to cry. She wasn’t sure she could produce tears anyway.
Gabriel removed a cloth from his jacket and unfolded it. There was a pastry inside. Without a second thought, she snatched it from his hands and took a bite. The warm, savory flavors, similar to beef, garlic, and thyme, filled her mouth. She ate quickly, desperate to sate her hunger.
“I didn’t take any chances. I snuck this from the buffet.”
Buffet. A flicker of anger and jealousy sparked within her. While she was suffering in the dungeon, he was flirting with princesses from the five kingdoms at banquet after banquet. She ate what remained of the pastry, shaking her head.
“Raven, I wouldn’t play along with Eleanor if I didn’t know she would kill you if I didn’t.”
He reached for her hand, but she pulled it away, covering her face as she choked back tears. Her skin felt crusty where her sweat had dried.
“I’m tired,” she said.
“Do you want to go to bed?” he asked softly.
“I need a bath. I’m covered in sweat.” She ran her hand over her hair, which was now matted and caked.
Gabriel shook his head. “I won’t let her take you again.”
“How will you stop her, Gabriel? She has an army. She’s separated you and Tobias to weaken you. She’ll snap my neck at the first sign you aren’t compliant.”
“I’ll refuse unless she betters your conditions.”
“Don’t kid yourself. Eleanor is a master of lies and deception. The minute she’d appeased you, I would get more and worse. And if you push her too far, she will kill you Gabriel, the same as Marius. And she’ll find a way to twist it in her favor. You broke the law when you mated a witch. She’s within her rights to call for your head. She’ll pretend she didn’t know.”
“I hate this.”
“I do too.”
He swept her out of the chair and carried her into the bath, started the water running.
While he was helping her get undressed, she made up her mind. “We have to find the box so I can bring it to the prisoner in the dungeon.”
“Raven, we talked about this. We can’t trust him.”
“He told me there’s a stone in it. I think it’s his ring.”
Gabriel poured bubbles into the water and stirred them in with his hand. “Impossible. Our rings cannot be removed.”
“He all but confirmed it. I think your mother figured out how to magically amputate it. He has no magic now. He says if I bring him the ring, he can bust us both out of the dungeon.”
Gabriel shook his head. “Now I know he’s a fraud. The dungeon is near the center of the mountain. There’s no way out but the way you went in. And you know as well as I do that the cells are impervious to dragon magic. We were in one with you the day we were brought here, re
member?”
“I don’t think he’s a fraud. He knows about you. He said he was born here, and you know, Gabriel, I got the sense he meant here, like in the palace.”
Gabriel’s face fell. “Then why won’t he tell you his name?”
“I don’t know.”
She slipped into the cool water and washed herself quickly while he retrieved a fresh set of clothes for her. When he returned to her side, his expression was cold, somewhere between rage and calculated resolve. “You can’t do anything about this stranger’s ring, Raven. You need to rest.”
“But—”
“Trust me.” He lowered his chin and fixed her with a fiery stare. “I will find a way to make things better for you.”
She did trust him, but she wasn’t sure this was something he could fix. Could anyone? And as for the ring, even if she’d wanted to find the box, her body wasn’t strong enough to leave this room. Gabriel was right that there was nothing she could do.
He helped her out of the bath and into bed, but he didn’t crawl in beside her right away. From beneath the blankets, she watched him walk the periphery of the room, his emerald ring glowing as he muttered something and drew symbols in the air. He was warding their room, the same way dragons, for all of their existence, warded their treasure. She was his treasure and would always be.
She’d tasted Eleanor’s power and Aborella’s. She knew the ward wouldn’t hold once mommy dearest decided to take it down. The empress would drain the magic from the room or threaten her life or Tobias’s until her beloved removed it. But he was doing what he could. Gabriel knew this world. He knew his mother. And Raven trusted him.
She closed her eyes and allowed herself to sleep.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Nathaniel appeared at the side entrance of the Obsidian Palace with his brother and sister flanking him. This wasn’t the beautiful front garden where the royals of Paragon entertained their Highborn guests. It was a servants’ entrance—wild, overgrown, and infested with vermin that feasted on the rubbish waiting for disposal. Humidity hit him squarely in the face along with the tropical scent of overgrown vegetation that warred with the stench of refuse.
The Dragon of Cecil Court (The Treasure of Paragon Book 5) Page 18
