Before she could get up, the hatch crashed open, and the bottom of the ladder hit the stone floor with a crack. Kezari rushed down, completely naked in her elven form, and knelt beside Aris. “What did you do to him?” the dragon snarled.
“Me?” Selia blinked up at the dragon. “He went from pulling me close to shoving me away. With force. I didn’t hurt him.”
“Why is he not awake?” Kezari leaned over Aris to glare down at Selia. “I had to shift and learn the way of opening the hatch. Your magic hit him, and he fell.”
Selia uncurled her legs and groaned as she straightened them along the cool floor. The dragon leaned back, and Selia sat up. Pain shot through her thighs and up her back from the awkward strain of her previous position. Wincing, she twisted in a slow, tentative stretch to ease the twinge in her back.
Kezari’s brow furrowed. “You move like a decrepit daeri. Were you injured, too?”
“I caught him when he toppled over.” Selia rubbed her hands across her thighs. “I’m not injured, just sore.”
“I know your magic was to blame for Aris’s current state.”
Selia sighed, her shoulders slumping. “It was instinct. He was so lost, and I…I didn’t know what else to do. You can see for yourself that he’s only unconscious.”
The dragon lowered her hand to Aris’s forehead, and the solid, earthy thrum of her power vibrated against Selia’s shields. But Selia detected no threat, no hint of attack magic. It was a probing spell, though not one that she had ever used. Like a tune a few notes off, the enchantment was just familiar enough to be disconcerting without causing true alarm.
Kezari drew back, her posture easing as her magic winked out. “A different version of my own spell. Forgive my assumption.”
She couldn’t blame the dragon. She would have been suspicious, too, under similar circumstances. “Of course. Were you connected when he lost control? What happened?”
Kezari’s lips turned down as she glanced at Aris. “You should not have pulled yourself so close.”
“He hugged me,” Selia insisted.
“Lightly,” the dragon said. “Then you curled together like lovers entwining necks.”
Bemused, Selia stared at Kezari. “What?”
“Your bodies wrapped together.”
Ah. Perhaps dragons hugged with their necks? Despite the situation, Selia smiled. “It was an innocent embrace, not uncommon among our kind.”
“There is no innocent hold for Aris,” Kezari said sadly. “I will not tell his tale, but consider everything the woman might have done to him as part of his capture.”
Selia’s stomach lurched as she studied Aris’s sleeping face. She could think of one thing in particular that would have caused her touch to break him, and it wasn’t pretty. Anathema. Punishments for rape varied, but they were always harsh. If she had Aris’s tormentor in front of her now, Selia would cast a spell of pain so convoluted a healer would spend a solid week unraveling it.
Not that Lial would. In truth, he would probably help her devise the proper punishment.
“Aris must believe I’ll blame him. Reject him,” Selia whispered, caressing him with her gaze. The only touch she dared offer right now. “That’s why he can barely look at me.”
Kezari’s expression gave nothing away. “I cannot say.”
Selia peered at the dragon. The history books she’d read had contained very little about the bond between dragon and rider. Was the dragon usually so protective, or had Kezari and Aris formed a true friendship? “Thank you for guarding him so well. And for saving him. You couldn’t have known you were returning him to me, but I appreciate it regardless.”
Kezari gave a toothy smile. “I would have made sure he found you despite his fears.”
A voice echoed up the stairwell, and Selia scanned with her magic to find Lial approaching, an unknown presence behind him. “It’s the healer. I suspect he found another to help.”
“I smelled him,” Kezari said. “The tinge of herbs and frustration. The other carries the scent of flowers and smoke.”
Selia raised a brow. “Your nose is so keen in this form?”
“Some benefits I will not relinquish. It would be a quick shift if the prey smelled tasty.” The dragon’s shoulders lifted. “And scent reveals much.”
If the prey smelled tasty? Selia focused on the top of the stairs and tried not to wonder what qualified as prey. She’d read a few tales about the war. None of them mentioned the dragons eating Moranaians. Of course, she’d not paid a great deal of attention to the finer details, being more concerned with more modern events.
A scowl already marred Lial’s face as he appeared at the top of the stairs. He barely glanced at Kezari, naked though she was, and his stride didn’t break as he crossed the floor. Another man trailed behind, his short white hair bouncing with each step. The flower-embroidered robes of a priest of Bera, Goddess of Protection and Healing, flowed around his body like the peaceful energy that surrounded him.
“What happened?” Lial snapped.
Selia’s cheeks heated as she described the events leading to Aris’s current state. She should have known better—should have seen the signs. The way he’d drawn back from her. His shame and avoidance. If she’d considered the extent of his abuse, she might not have held him as tightly when he did reach out. Maybe she wouldn’t have let him hug her at all.
“Do not follow that river,” the stranger said softly. “You’ll be swept into the rapids.”
Her gaze jerked to his as Lial made an exasperated sound. “Dispensing wisdom before I’ve introduced you, Tynan?” he asked.
The priest smiled. “Please forgive my lapse in manners.”
“So long as you don’t have a method of reading minds without breaching shields,” Selia answered.
“I needed no such skill to guess where your thoughts were headed.” Selia scooted back as Tynan knelt beside Aris. “Only experience.”
Lial dropped to his knees on Aris’s other side. “I do not believe we should move him to my tower while he’s unconscious.”
“No. An abrupt change in environment—”
Aris groaned, and his head rocked gently against the floor. Too bad her spell hadn’t lasted longer, but it was only designed to give the caster a chance to escape—or a head start on preparing an attack. Prolonging such a state was too dangerous for a non-healer. As Aris’s motions became stronger, Selia stood and backed away until her calves brushed against one of the long benches circling the room.
He wouldn’t want to see her when he woke.
The deep murmur of voices—male voices—broke through the haze, one of them familiar. Aris struggled to catch hold of any words, some clue as to what had happened. Where was he? Smooth stone pressed against his back, but he was warm and dry. No…no chains. What had he been doing? He searched his memory, but his mind was slow to provide the answer.
He’d been talking to Selia. Hadn’t he?
Aris pulled upon the magic welling fitfully in his chest, feeding him information about the life around him. The healer he’d seen this afternoon perched beside him, Kezari leaning over his shoulder. A stranger knelt at Aris’s right, and the man’s life-force pulsed with the comforting steadiness of a priest. And yes—Selia was present, but she was at the far end of the room.
Why had she moved away? They’d discussed Iren, and although he’d unintentionally offended her, she’d accepted his explanation and apology. Then…what? He had touched her cheek. Drawn her into a tentative embrace. She hadn’t been upset by that. She’d curled close, and…
His eyes flew wide, and his breath hissed out as memory returned. He’d lost his senses entirely. A female had yelped in pain—twice. Gods, he must have hurt her in his madness. He cried out as grief and shame burned in his blood, and red tinged his vision once more.
No wonder she was on the other side of the tower room.
“Do not,” the stranger said, pressing a finger to Aris’s forehead. Power flowed into him until h
is vision began to clear and his heartbeat to steady.
“Selia,” Aris forced out through parched lips.
The healer, Lial, stared down at him. “She’s fine.”
Lial might be correct that she was physically unharmed, but mentally? His mouth went even drier as a new thought hit. “Gods, I’m like Perim. I pushed Selia. I can’t believe I—”
“No,” the priest interrupted, the flow of his magic increasing.
“I can’t believe she didn’t flee entirely,” Aris whispered. “I am tainted.”
The scuff of her shoes sounded across the stone a moment before her face appeared alongside the others. “Is that what you think? I…didn’t think you’d want to see me. After what I did.”
He lifted his shaking hand to swipe a hair from his damp cheek, and the priest shifted back. “What you did?” Aris asked.
“You don’t remember? I used my magic to put you under.” She nibbled on her lower lip. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not.” He shuddered. “I thought you were Perim in that moment, ready to…ready for more torment. I don’t know what else I might have done.”
“You didn’t hurt me,” she said.
His brow furrowed. “I heard you cry out.”
“I stumbled and fell on my bottom when you pushed me away, but I was more surprised than injured.” Selia glanced at Kezari. “And a bit frightened when a dragon started slamming on the hatch.”
“You were in distress, skizik.”
A choked laugh escaped Aris at her tone, a blend of contrite and chiding. “Sorry.”
“You must stay at the top of the tower,” the dragon said. “You will be warm on me.”
The priest coughed into his hand. “That type of comfort is not wise right now.”
“You think that…” Shaking his head, Aris pushed himself upright. “Kezari was not offering sex. Did you miss the part about her being a dragon?”
Tynan flushed. “Lial mentioned the dragon’s presence, not a naked woman’s.”
Aris ran his hand through his tangled hair. “This is not her natural form.”
“Forgive me for my earlier assumption,” the priest said. “Perhaps you should formally introduce us so that I might begin to repair the others’ impression of me.”
Aris lowered his trembling arms to his knees. Though shaky from his attack, he had to agree with the newcomer. Once the introductions were complete, Aris could request treatment, as this evening’s disaster proved how much he needed it. He would not risk harming Selia again. He might never be whole or healed, but the priest would know better than anyone if he could ever be trusted around others.
“The sooner the better,” Aris said.
Fen paced in front of the bank of windows overlooking the city of Chattanooga, but he’d stopped being fascinated with the view days ago when the odd waves of energy had begun. How much longer was his uncle going to keep him here behind this blood-magic shield? Fucking ridiculous. So he’d helped that bastard Kien escape to Moranaia in order to save Maddy. The prince of Moranaia had ordered him to do it.
Sure, Fen had once been part of Kien’s crew. Fen’s Unseelie mother had abandoned him as a baby, leaving him to fend for himself with little guidance. Sticking it to the fae had sounded like a great idea at the time. How could he have known that Kien was a sick fuck? As they’d traveled the world setting up nodes for the energy poisoning web, the guy had been normal enough. At first.
Then Kien had started dismembering the people in the group who displeased him.
Fen had tried to ease himself from the gang then. But escaping a guy who decorated the camp with body parts was easier said than done. Safer, he’d thought, to pretend to go along with the poison web, send Kien back to Moranaia, and then dismantle the bastard’s work. Too bad Fen sucked at planning.
“Don’t you enjoy my new home?” Vek asked smoothly.
Fen swiveled to face his uncle where he leaned against the broad archway leading to the kitchen. “If you’re going to kill me for my part in the energy poisoning, just do it.”
Vek laughed. “You know very well that I’m not going to kill you. You would’ve been dead days ago if that were my intent. I don’t play with my prey.”
“That’s all I am to you?” Fen couldn’t stop himself from asking, the old hurt surging within him. “I should’ve expected no better treatment from my family, I suppose. You’ve never paid me any heed.”
Eyes narrowing, Vek shoved himself to his full height and strode closer. “I admit I should have done more for you after my sister’s coldness, but I dared not approach you too often lest my father notice. The king’s attention would not have been the boon you believe.”
Fen snorted. “Sure. Must be a hardship growing up in a palace. Hell, you bought this house from a fairy with a handful of diamonds. You probably have a chest full of the damned things.”
“Material wealth is nothing.” Vek waved his hand dismissively. “You’re barely twenty. Were you not wasting your time on revenge, you could have acquired some of your own.”
“Spoken like someone born with money.”
“Enough, Fen,” Vek said. “This argument wastes time.”
Fen lifted a brow. “You started it.”
“How did I—” Vek’s eyes closed for a moment before he glared at Fen. “Never mind. I have my reasons for holding you here. Get used to it.”
“You are such a bastard,” Fen muttered.
“Technically,” Vek countered, shrugging. “But it isn’t a point of importance to our kind.”
Vek was a child of one of the king’s many affairs? Fascinating. Fen didn’t know a great deal about the Unseelie Court, but by all accounts, it was a cutthroat place, full of people vying to be named heir. The queen’s two children from her marriage to the king had little advantage in the contest, as strength and purity of magic counted more than being born from a wedding alliance.
“I don’t suppose your reasons have something to do with gaining the crown?” Fen asked. “You were supposed to take me back to face the king’s judgement. Or kill me yourself.”
Vek’s cheek muscles flexed. “I don’t give a fuck about the crown, no matter what my father… No, it isn’t that.”
“You owe me an explanation.” Fen speared his fingers into his hair. “None of this ‘I have my reasons’ bullshit. You may think of me as a child, but I’m an adult in this world.”
“Not a well-trained one,” Vek said. “Or you could break free from your confinement.”
That was it. Fen darted across the space between them and shoved his uncle’s chest. He would probably die, but whatever. “Dammit, Vek. Don’t you feel the storm building? The energy is warping, changing, and I’m stuck in here like a toddler in a playpen. The energy poisoning spell should have been destroyed, and Ralan sent word that Kien is dead. But I have to get back to the cave to make sure.”
“Well, well,” Vek drawled, a mocking smile crossing his face. “Maybe you’ll figure it out after all.”
What the hell was that supposed to mean? Fen took a step back, studying his uncle. Only one explanation made sense—Vek wanted to keep him from the cave. But why? If something was wrong with Earth’s energy, Fen was well-suited to find and fix the problem. He’d worked with those energy fields extensively when he’d helped create the initial spell.
But perhaps his uncle didn’t want the potential crisis solved.
“What game are you playing?” Fen demanded.
Vek’s lips pinched. “Not the one you’re thinking.”
A series of chimes rang out, interrupting the question Fen was about to ask. Vek cursed, eyeing the front door with a scowl. “Visitors,” he said. “That Seelie girl and her friends.”
Fen’s brows rose. “Maddy?”
“Yes.” Grumbling beneath his breath, Vek headed for the door. “And from the feel of their energy, I have a feeling this visit isn’t for pleasure.”
Would it ever be? Maddy was taken, he reminded himself as he braced to se
e her once more. And she’d shown no interest in him even if she hadn’t been. It didn’t matter that he’d been drawn to her from the moment he’d seen her huddled in that cave, held captive by Kien. Fen had tried to help her as much as he could without blowing his cover, but so what? She would never see him as anything but the asshole who’d helped start this whole mess in the first place.
Seeking absolution would be an epic waste of time.
Chapter 11
Maddy wiped her damp palms against her pants as she waited for the door to open. Night had fallen hours ago, and the porch light wasn’t on. Only the bare glow of a single street light at the end of the driveway illuminated the area. The house’s windows were mostly dark, a single a line of dim yellow gleaming between the nearest curtains. Figured that the Unseelie would prefer the shadows.
Delbin’s sigh sounded from behind her left shoulder, and beside her, Anna shuffled her feet. Poor Anna. When Maddy had called to tell her where they were going, her love had insisted on joining them. She wanted to thank Fen, too, she’d said, but her eyes had been shaded with fear as they drove toward Vek’s house. Thanks to Maddy and her friendship with Cora, Anna knew a few non-humans, but she’d never met any of the Unseelie before.
“Perhaps they are not home,” Inona said from behind Maddy’s other shoulder.
Wouldn’t that just figure? But before she could worry too much about that, the door jerked open. The pale light from within barely illuminated the person blocking the opening, but the man’s dark energy was unmistakable—Vek. Maddy squinted until she could make out the scowl on the prince’s face.
“Well met, Maddy,” Vek said, though his expression indicated otherwise. “I trust you are not abusing the knowledge I gave you of my home.”
She hid a wince and pulled her shoulders back. “Not intentionally. We need to see Fen.”
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