by Susan Illene
I expelled a breath. If things went bad, would I need to step in? Could I?
“Good,” Xanath said soothingly. “Now put that key in the lock.”
Danae’s brows wrinkled. “It won’t turn.”
“Don’t force it. You must believe it will open—only then will it do so.”
I felt helpless, wishing there was something I could do to make things easier for Danae. It was my fault she was even here.
Xanath continued, helping her work out the problem. Sweat began pouring from both their foreheads as they fought to open the barrier. The sorcerer didn’t waver once and continued to speak in an encouraging tone that would make anyone want to follow his directions. Soon, Danae’s expression took on a razor-sharp focus. She muttered something about Verena being a bitch and that this would never happen again. She would get that barrier down.
“Got it!”
Xanath took a shuddering breath. “Now you must pass through the door. I will be directly behind you.”
They stopped talking after that. Whatever they were doing now, they didn’t need to voice it aloud.
Time seemed to pass slowly as we waited. So slowly, in fact, that the ache in my stomach started to ease and the healing process began in earnest. I glanced at Aidan through lowered lashes, studying him. His head turned ever so slightly, and I caught a heated look enter his eyes. It warmed me to see it even as I told myself nothing more could happen between us no matter how much we wanted it. The bond between us might be incredibly strong—the kind that would make us risk our lives for each other—but it was also dangerous. The stab wound in my stomach emphasized that point. Neither of us had wanted it to happen, and yet we’d both willingly participated in the act to protect each other. What other lengths would we go to? Just being near him made me want to do things no rational person would consider. I wished the others weren’t around so we could talk and work this out. No matter how we felt about each other, we had other factors to consider.
Danae cried out. My gaze shot to her, and I found her convulsing in her seat.
“What’s wrong with her?” I cried, leaping forward.
Aidan grabbed my arm. “Xanath has found something. Do not interfere.”
“But she’s in pain!”
“You will only make it worse,” Nanoq said, taking my other arm.
Between the two men, I couldn’t move. They each held me with an iron grip I couldn’t hope to break away from in my current condition. “If she dies, I swear I’ll…”
“Patience,” Aidan whispered in my ear. “You must trust me that Xanath would not be hurting her unless he found something dangerous to us.”
“I can’t stand to see her like this,” I said, my voice nearly breaking.
Sympathy entered his gaze. “I know.”
Danae continued to convulse in her chair. I waited helplessly, watching my friend shake and cry out as the sorcerer worked on her. What could possibly be causing the problem? As far as I could tell, she’d been cooperating.
“I’ve almost got it,” Xanath said through gritted teeth. He looked about ready to fall over. His fingers dug hard into Danae’s head as if he was trying to reach her mind physically and mystically.
Then all of a sudden, she slumped into her seat, completely still.
“There.” Xanath breathed a sigh of relief.
He took a moment to collect himself before resuming the mind probe. Another fifteen minutes passed by with no more outbursts or convulsing. I wanted to ask what had caused the earlier problem but knew I had to wait to find out. Did Verena tamper with Danae’s mind that much? Was it my fault for letting them work together? Maybe I should have stopped Danae from training with the sorceress, but there’d been no one else to teach her. And her powers had helped a lot of people, even saved a few lives, so it had to have been worth it, right?
“It is done,” Xanath said, pulling away. “But she will need to rest for a while. The process was very difficult for her.”
“Is she still…whole?” I almost choked on the question.
“I do not believe there will be any lasting damage.” The sorcerer rubbed his face. “She eased my way as much as she could, but her mind was filled with barriers and traps. There was also something else.”
“What?” Nanoq asked, his expression darkening.
“This young woman had a command buried deep inside her mind.” Xanath looked at me. “After you acquired the orb, your friend was to take it from you if you did not bring it directly to the sorceress. She would not have had a choice.”
And I would have had to fight her for it—even if it meant one of us dying. Verena had to have known about the orb for a while now if she’d planted the command before Danae stopped going to see her, though who knew if my friend remembered that last meeting correctly. For all we knew, they’d met yesterday. Verena could have even snuck into the house while Danae was asleep to place the compulsion.
Nanoq grunted. “Was there anything else?”
“Nothing else significant.”
The pendragon put a hand on Xanath’s shoulder. “You may rest for a while. Come to see me later when you’ve recovered, and we will speak further.”
Something told me they were going to have a lengthier conversation about Danae when I couldn’t be around to hear it. The sorcerer was in her mind for a long time and must have discovered more than what he’d revealed so far. I watched the older man go with a foreboding feeling. Was she really out of danger yet? Or was it that she’d seen things while with Verena that could be of use to them? It was hard to be sure.
“What about my friend and me?” I crossed my arms.
“You will both be taken to a cell. I will inform you soon about what will happen next,” Nanoq replied, then turned toward the door.
“Which cell do you want them in?” Aidan asked.
Nanoq paused and turned his head. “Put them in the one across from your brother. Zoran could use a little company.”
Aidan’s features twisted. “With all due respect, milord…”
The pendragon shook his head. “They will be fine there. I suspect their presence will make your brother more miserable than them.”
Chapter 8
Bailey
We’d been stuck in a dungeon cell that barely had enough room for us to stretch out for two days. I estimated our accommodations to be about five feet by eight feet. Danae and I took turns sleeping on the stone floor since neither of us wanted to lie near the chamber pot we’d been given to do our personal business. I’d thought outhouses were bad, but I’d since revised my thinking. At least the guards gave us a clean cell that didn’t smell too bad, and they took the chamber pot away twice a day to be emptied, bringing it back freshly rinsed. Each morning, we were also given water to wash ourselves. It was more than the prisoner across from us was getting and most of the stench I caught came from that direction.
While sitting, I couldn’t see Zoran, but if I stood up and looked through the barred window on the cell door, I could usually spot him. He paced the tiny space he’d been given for hours at a time. If he caught me looking, he’d stop and glare at me. It had been a while since I’d had trouble controlling my slayer instincts, but his feral expression, even in human form, made me itch to fight him. He just looked like he needed killing.
Danae made a noise, drawing my attention to where she slept on the floor. She’d barely said a word since they put us in our cell and spent most of her time resting. I’d only talked to her enough to ascertain the sorcerer’s mind probe didn’t do any serious damage. When I’d tried bringing up the things Xanath found in her head—the commands that might have made her attack me—she’d looked away ashamed. I’d told her it wasn’t her fault, but that didn’t seem to make a difference.
Standing, I stretched my legs and walked the three steps that took me to the back of the cell. If they left us down here for much longer, I was going to get bored out of my mind and do something really stupid. Though I couldn’t hear anything from the
fortress above, I could smell the scent of dragons everywhere. Being that close to so many of them and not able to fight or kill was pushing my slayer instincts to the edge. I hoped they realized they couldn’t keep me in here long, or I’d end up as wild as the guy in the cell across from us.
I peered out the twelve-inch by twelve-inch window and caught Zoran pacing again. He made a weird grunting noise as he did it.
“Are you able to formulate any words or is grunting all you’ve got?” I asked.
He paused, snarled at me, and began moving again.
“Oh, good, you’re expanding your vocabulary. There may be hope for you yet.” This was about as far as our conversations had gone. He wasn’t much of a talker. “Can you say ‘hello, dragon slayer’ for me? Come on, be a good boy and try.”
He growled and rammed his door. It was made of out zaphiriam, a fire-proof metal the shifters used for all sorts of things, including weaponry. The coloring was mostly black, but there were hints of red veins running through it. Neither Zoran with all his brute strength, nor me with my slayer strength, could break our doors. The metal was thick and built to withstand even the most powerful creatures.
“He probably can’t understand you,” Kayla said, coming down the corridor. “I don’t think he’s bothered to learn English.”
Well, that was disappointing. You could only have so much fun taunting someone if they didn’t understand a word you said to them.
The sixteen-year-old human girl came into view, holding a couple of steaming bowls in her hands. She was on the skinny side with long, straight red hair and ivory skin. There seemed to always be a hint of mischief in her sparkling green eyes. Kayla had been living at the fortress for a couple of years, since accidentally crossing over to Kederrawien—the dragon realm—and when the dimensions collided, she’d returned to Earth. She didn’t have a home to return to here since her parents had passed away when she was younger, so she chose to stay with the shifters. They protected her and provided for all her needs. Aidan used her as a spy sometimes, but mostly she just worked in the castle kitchen.
“Is that dinner?” I asked.
She looked down at the bowls of stew. “They call it midday meal here, but to us, it would be dinner. The sun just set an hour ago.”
I appreciated the way she helped me keep track of time while locked down here. We’d become friends a couple of months ago, and while she couldn’t do anything about me being locked in the cell, she did do all she could to make it more comfortable. Anyone who thought a sixteen-year-old wouldn’t make a good ally had never been in this kind of situation before.
Kayla knelt down and passed the bowls through a small hatch in the door that could only be opened from her side. I grabbed the dishes and handed one to Danae, who had just woken up. She might be in a bad mood, but she didn’t miss a meal.
“Thanks. It smells good,” I said to Kayla. It really did smell amazing, especially when you considered I’d been living off of canned food and plain pasta for months.
She beamed. “I made it just for you and Danae with some leftover beef from last night. You don’t want to know what the shifters are eating right now.”
“That bad?” I lifted a spoonful of the stew and blew on it.
“Well, they prefer their meat cooked and flavored, so it’s not horrible, but they’re less picky than humans about what kind of animals they’ll eat.”
I took a moment to savor my food before looking at her again. “At this point, I’m half tempted to make them lock me up more often if I get this kind of food while I’m here.”
She giggled. “Why do you think I haven’t left?”
Shouts came from down the corridor.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
She glanced in the direction of the sounds, her brows drawing together. “I don’t know. Someone in the kitchen said some intruders were caught trying to sneak into the fortress. They must be bringing them down here.”
“You should probably go. I don’t want anyone knowing you’re giving us special treatment.”
Kayla gave me a weak smile. “Aidan told me he’d cover for me if they said anything.”
That was good to know. I wanted to ask more, but the loud noises were getting closer. “Still, it’s better if you’re not here right now. I’ll talk to you later when you bring the next meal.”
“Alright.” Kayla nodded.
She moved out of my line of vision, disappearing down the corridor. The interrogation room wasn’t very far away—around the corner and about a hundred feet down the passageway—but she was going in the opposite direction, so whoever was coming wouldn’t see her.
“Bailey,” Danae called from behind me.
I turned. “Yeah?”
She looked up at me in consternation. Her pride had been stung by having her mind manipulated, and she was still processing that she’d allowed it to happen, even if she couldn’t have stopped it. Of course, it was partly my fault it happened in the first place. I felt almost as guilty as she did.
“Thank you,” she said, lifting her chin.
“For what? Getting you locked up in a dungeon cell?”
The corner of her lip turned up in a half-smile. “No, for talking me into letting Xanath clear my head. I was kind of angry with you about it at first, but I’m beginning to realize I’m thinking more clearly than I have in months. It was like I was moving through fog before.”
“Really?” It hadn’t felt that bad to me, but Verena hadn’t messed with my mind as much.
“Yeah.” She set her empty bowl on the stone floor. “While Xanath was in my head, he showed me all the places where Verena had invaded. It was…hard to take at first. The idea that someone could manipulate you like that and not even know it.”
Sitting in this cell, I’d had a lot of time to ponder about that. If Danae didn’t know she was being tampered with by a sorcerer, and she was one herself, how would I be able to recognize it in the future? This could happen again, and we wouldn’t know it.
“It sucks,” I said, sitting down next to her.
“There’s got to be a way to protect ourselves from that happening again.”
I met her gaze. “Let me know if you figure it out.”
She nodded. “I will.”
The loud noises and shouting had grown even closer. One voice, in particular, drew my attention. I jumped to my feet. “Is that Conrad?”
Danae joined me, both of us trying to peer out the barred window despite the fact we wouldn’t be able to see anything.
“It sure sounded like him,” she replied.
“What has that crazy idiot done now?”
Chapter 9
Aidan
Aidan soared through the skies on the western border of their toriq’s territory, checking to ensure none of the Thamaran dragons had crossed. The dividing line between the pure and shifter’s land was at what the humans called Interstate 35. He might have been relieved of his duties in the other part of the state, but Nanoq wanted to keep him busy. The pendragon still didn’t fully trust Aidan and intended to keep him away from the fortress as much as possible until he left on the journey to recover the orb.
He hated being kept from Bailey, especially while she remained confined in the dungeon, but arguing wouldn’t help his cause. It would only make Nanoq more suspicious of their relationship, and he’d already questioned Aidan heavily after seeing them together. The pendragon might not know everything, but he suspected a lot. At least Kayla would keep an eye on the slayer and ensure she received proper care. Aidan would have to find a way to thank the human for that.
Donar flew next to him. His cousin wasn’t required to patrol, but he liked getting out once in a while and taking a break from his masonry duties. They also hadn’t had many opportunities to spend time together in the last couple of months. In all the years they’d known each other, this was the longest they’d gone without seeing each other that Aidan could recall.
We should return to the fortress, he s
aid to Donar. The Thamaran are quiet this evening, and I see no sign of them attempting to cross.
His cousin grunted his agreement. They never do. Their territory is more than enough for them, and they know it.
In fact, it had always been the Shadowan—who’d been pushed to the north—that gave the Taugud the most trouble. His toriq only continued their patrols along the western border to keep the pure dragons from getting any ideas. Bailey might battle the Thamaran often, but only because she entered their side of Norman to track them down. A slayer could roam wherever they wished. They might choose a safe place to rest, but they fought wherever they could find dragons near them. Bailey had to travel farther out now that she didn’t have the Shadowan to attack anymore.
Aidan was surprised she didn’t relocate to make things easier. He had visited his secret lair earlier in the day and found evidence she still inhabited it during his absence. At least, she must have been spending part of her time there. Many of her things were still in the house, and her scent lingered. He had asked her to stay there, but after his being gone so long, he hadn’t been sure if she continued to do so.
Donar moved to fly on Aidan’s right. It must bother you that the slayer is in the dungeon across from your brother.
Nanoq has reassured me he will not keep her down there for much longer.
His cousin glanced over at him and narrowed his yellow eyes. Still, I cannot imagine you like that he put her down there.
Aidan snarled. You are not helping matters by reminding me. I assure you she would not be there if I thought for a moment it would do her any real harm.
You always were the patient one. If I cared for a female, I am not certain I could allow her to be subjected to such treatment.
Why are you baiting me, cousin? Aidan asked, annoyed. You’ve never even liked the slayer and must enjoy her being locked up.
Perhaps, but not as much as you think. She’s grown on me—a little. I’m half-tempted to get her out of there myself.
Aidan jerked his gaze to Donar. You can’t be serious?
