by Abigail Owen
She paused, swallowing around words that appeared to lodge in her throat. “Pytheios found her there, alone. He didn’t know about us yet, I think. Mother was barely pregnant when she fled…after he murdered our father.”
Ladon stayed quiet, listening, attuned to her in a way he rarely experienced with anyone.
“The day he found us, he got to her first. Lodged a knife in her back just as she managed to teleport to where we waited for her. She turned to ash before our eyes. Her last act as she died was to teleport us each to safety.”
The fact that she was sharing this at all was like a gift he hadn’t expected to receive. He should just listen and be grateful. But he couldn’t ignore the tone in her voice. “And you blame yourself?”
She looked away. “Who else? It should have been me.”
“So Pytheios could kill you instead and possibly find your mother and sisters anyway?” An element of anger filtered into his voice, but she didn’t look at him. “Even if he didn’t find them, I doubt there is much worse pain than that of a mother losing her child. Do you think she would have wanted that?”
Still she didn’t look his way. “The logical side of me figured that out a long time ago.”
“But you still blame yourself.” A statement, not a question.
“If I hadn’t been so selfish, so focused on what I wanted—”
“He would’ve killed you.”
“Better me than Mom. I can’t—” She swallowed hard.
“Can’t what?”
She winced.
“Skylar?” he prodded when she didn’t speak.
“I can’t keep my sisters safe,” she threw at him, still looking away. “I’m not strong enough. Not like Mom.”
“Skylar, look at me.” He waited, tempted to make her. But if he knew anything about this woman, it was that forcing her wouldn’t work.
Finally she turned that glacial gaze his way, a wall up behind her eyes that he had a feeling she always kept raised. He understood because he did the same thing himself. Emotions, especially strong ones, weren’t helpful as a king.
“I think you’re putting too much pressure on yourself,” he said.
Skylar sat up straighter, away from him. “I can’t even teleport myself,” she pointed out. “Mom could send anyone anywhere with a thought.”
“And you think you should be able to do that?” How many times had he said the same to himself about a hundred different things? Especially since he’d become king.
“Yes.”
“Bullshit.” That kind of pressure wasn’t good for anyone. A lesson learned the hard way, every damn day.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. That is total bullshit. Your mother had centuries to hone her skills. You’ve had what? A year?”
“I don’t have centuries. I need to keep my sisters safe now.”
A low growl reverberated from him. “Stubborn woman.”
She scowled. “Damn straight. Stubborn women keep the world from falling to shit.”
Ladon snorted and leaned forward, taking her chin in his fingers, needing her to hear this. “Do you even realize what you’ve managed to do in just a year? Learned your powers, found Kasia and tried to rescue her, and agreed to give a king a chance. All to protect your family.”
She didn’t pull away, if anything pushing into his hold as she stared him down. “My mother survived Pytheios and managed to hide herself and four children for ages,” she shot back. “Hell, she used the last of her strength to send each of us away to safety.”
“Exactly,” he shot back. “To safety. So, stop kicking yourself for no good reason. Instead, how about you use the resources you have…me, Kasia, Brand, an entire clan of dragon shifters…and figure it out?”
Harsh, but maybe words she was supposed to hear.
Skylar’s scowl eased. Had his words scored a direct hit? Found a way over those walls of hers? Blame didn’t solve anything. Neither did self-pity.
“I’m not used to asking for help,” she grumbled.
The look in her eyes told him that maybe, just maybe, she wanted to. And suddenly, he wanted to be the man who took that weight she’d been lugging around and shoulder it for her.
Why, he had no damn clue.
But he found himself leaning toward her, his gaze held by her hypnotic eyes. Wounded eyes. Fuck, she was like gravity, drawing him in. Or a black hole, about to crush him.
Closer, her heat warming his skin, her lips and eyes drawing him in. So damn close.
Before he could claim those lips, and whatever the hell came next, a knock sounded at his door, shattering a tension that had taken hold of them both.
CHAPTER SIX
“I’ll go clean up a bit,” Skylar blurted and disappeared into the spare bedroom with an en suite bathroom that he’d shown her last night.
With a frustrated sigh, Ladon answered the door, letting Kasia and Brand inside. A whine outside the window had Kasia crossing the room to let Maul in. The hellhound had trouble fitting through the human-sized doors and preferred to teleport to the beams the dragons used, rather than directly inside. Some kind of hellhound honor system was Ladon’s best guess.
Maul lumbered inside, bringing his smoky scent of rotting with him, the glow of his red eyes brighter than usual in the dim morning sunshine manifested by their lighting system.
Kasia gave him an absentminded pat.
“I hope you and Skylar got all caught up, because we have a lot to talk about,” Ladon said.
She grinned. “I figured.”
“Breakfast would be nice, though,” Skylar said from behind him.
He turned to find that she’d changed into clothes Kasia had had brought up last night. Another black outfit more suitable for fighting than any activity she’d be engaged in today—skintight pants and top, zippered pockets, sleek toolbelt, her black hair back in a long braid that he could picture wrapping around a fist as he pounded into her body.
Where the hell did she hide the knife?
He scanned her form for any possible location and came up empty. He had no doubt she had it on her somewhere. Probably a good idea to figure out where before he tried anything with her.
“I ordered food to be delivered in a half hour,” he said with a glance at the clock in his kitchen.
“Wait,” Skylar said. “What kind of breakfast?”
The rank suspicion in her voice had Ladon’s lips twitching. Again. He managed to stuff the reaction back where it belonged. “Don’t worry. Not a full Scottish breakfast. A proper American one. I’ve been around Kasia long enough to know that.”
Kasia patted his arm on the way to a chair at the rough wood dining table tucked to the side of the kitchen.
Skylar sat beside her sister, beating Brand to it. On purpose if the way she stared down the gold dragon shifter was any indication. For his part, Brand grunted, grabbed the chair at the end of the table, and plopped it down at an angle to Kasia’s so that she sat between his legs.
Skylar rolled her eyes and turned to Ladon, still standing. “You wanted to talk. So, talk.”
Challenging woman.
He took the seat opposite her, but his first question was for Kasia. “Why didn’t you tell me about your sisters earlier?”
Deliberately he lowered his voice, speaking softly, and Skylar turned a look his way that he couldn’t quite interpret.
Kasia shrugged, unrepentant and apparently unconcerned. “There was no need as long as they remained hidden and safe.”
No need? When their mere existence was inexplicable with far-reaching implications he had yet to fathom? “Do you know where the other two are?”
“Why?” Skylar taunted. “You need more than one to pick from for your fuck buddy?”
He flicked her an impatient glance and didn’t reply.
Kasi
a sighed. “I know where Angelika is. She’s safe there, for now.”
That was apparently news to Skylar, whose lips parted in a silent gasp. “Where did Mother send her?” she asked. Then held up a hand, sliding Ladon and Brand looks ripe with distrust. “Never mind. Tell me later.”
“No,” Kasia said slowly. “They can hear this.”
Skylar’s lips went white she clamped them so hard. “I’m not ready to go that far.”
Kasia considered that, then nodded. “Where did she send you?”
“Somewhere safer than you, apparently,” came Skylar’s dry reply.
Maul let out a wheeze that came off like a grumpy grumble, and Kasia chuckled. “Brand didn’t find me where I was sent. I left to go to that clinic Mom told us about.”
“The one in Wyoming that treats paranormal illnesses?” Skylar scooted forward. “Why?” Urgency laced the word, and she sat up straighter. “Are you sick?”
Again, Kasia chuckled. “I get visions, but at first they came with migraines, and I’d sort of explode when it happened, lighting everything on fire. I couldn’t control it until recently, after I mated Brand.”
“Visions?” Skylar burst out. “Wait. You can teleport yourself and you have visions? Damn.”
At her disgruntled expression, Kasia raised her eyebrows. “Is that a problem?”
Skylar flopped back in her chair. “No. My gift just sucks in comparison.”
Ladon sat forward in his own seat, his hands on the table between them as though reaching for her in a gesture unconsciously made, but one that immediately had him frowning. This need to be near her, as though a string attached them, tugging him along in her wake, was growing. Way too quickly. He didn’t have space for weaknesses like that. “What did you get?”
She waved a hand. “The teleporting thing, except I can only send others, not myself, and I have to touch them to do it. Not exactly awesome.”
“I don’t know,” Ladon grumbled. “Seemed to work well for you earlier.”
She visibly brightened, releasing a low chuckle that shot straight through him, arrowing to his groin. Only this time, Ladon didn’t push the response down as it dawned on him that he should be using it against her, to convince her their mating was the right move.
He couldn’t be the only one feeling this. He’d seen that flash of awareness in her eyes before she’d tossed him out of the room. And, before Brand and Kasia had shown up, when he’d wanted to claim those lips, she’d leaned toward him, too. Was she drawn to him the same way?
He leaned forward and brushed his fingers over the back of her hand, studying her reaction. Her smile faded, but otherwise she didn’t move, except her pupils dilated. With what? Fear? Interest? “Any other skills?” he prodded.
She scrunched her nose, refusing to pull her gaze away. “Not that I know of.”
Her stare held a significance he could easily guess at before she slid her gaze to her sister, eyebrows raised in question.
Kasia shifted in her seat. “I can’t tell yet if one of us or all four of us will be the phoenix. Mother’s stories made me think the…effect…would be immediate, though, so…I don’t think I am.”
Both women stared at each other, depths of pain in their gazes, though their eyes remained dry. Still, heavy emotions swamped the room—a sadness so deep neither seemed able to voice it.
Was this the first time they’d seen each other since their mother died?
Kasia covered Skylar’s hand where it lay on top of the table and squeezed. They both took a deep breath.
Kasia cleared her throat and continued. “If I was, Brand wouldn’t still be fighting for his throne, right?”
“Who knows?” Skylar answered. “There have never been four before. Maybe we all have to mate for it to work? Or maybe only one of us will inherit that power? Even Mom didn’t know for sure. We seem to be splitting things up.”
Maybe they should secure the other two then.
“What kinds of other powers does a phoenix have?” Ladon asked.
Both women turned his way. Skylar frowned. “You don’t know?”
Ladon shrugged. “I was young when the last one died.” He paused, realizing that was no longer correct. “Or we thought the last one did.” He’d have to get used to history rewriting itself. “It seems only those in direct contact knew most of the details. In five hundred years, facts have turned to rumors and become myth.”
“I see.” He could practically see the wheels turning in Skylar’s mind.
Before they could discuss more, his cell phone rang. Ladon yanked it out of his pocket, intending to silence it and call whoever it was back later. Until he saw the number on the screen. “I have to take this.”
As he walked toward the door, planning to go somewhere more private for this call, he hit the button to answer. “Yes?”
“You found another phoenix.” The nasal voice on the other end stopped him in his tracks.
Ladon didn’t speak.
“I take it by your silence that I’m correct,” his informant from among Pytheios’s clan murmured.
After ten years working the back channels together, this man was familiar with Ladon’s silences.
“How did you know?” Ladon demanded.
“Pytheios knows. You were seen with her by one of the Gold Clan’s spies watching your mountain. You really should keep a prize like that out of plain sight.”
Ladon turned slowly back to the room to find both women on their feet. “How the hell did they know what she was?” he asked.
“Her scent.”
Ladon closed his eyes. Of course. Phoenixes smelled of smoke, like dragons, but with a sweeter undercurrent.
He’d been a complete fucking fool to take her up to the top like that. Once he plucked her off that mountainside, he should’ve flown her back inside immediately, but he’d suspected she would’ve fought that, and it wouldn’t have earned the miniscule amount of trust she’d placed in him. She’d already be long gone.
“Have you mated her yet?”
Ladon snapped his eyes open. Rather than answer, he rapped out his own question. “Did you know more than one existed?”
“No. I would’ve shared that with you.”
“Of course you would.” While his informant had been critical to Ladon’s success in taking the throne, and keeping it, he was still a red dragon. One of the false High King Pytheios’s Curia Regis, his king’s council, the shifters who were his closest advisors and held positions that helped him run his kingdom. Ladon would never entirely trust this man.
No need to tell him two more phoenixes were out there. He wouldn’t betray Skylar that way.
“Anything else?” he asked instead.
“I’d let her know that Pytheios is aware of where she had been hiding.”
Did he truly know? Or was this a ploy to try to find out?
“His witch had tracked her to South America, but then she disappeared, presumably to go to your mountain. She can’t return to Abaddon’s people.”
So they did know. Shit. “What about the other kings? Do they know?”
“Brock and Fraener were there when Pytheios received the report.” Gold and Green, the two clans that had banded together to attack his mountain. And almost won, if Brand hadn’t taken out Uther.
“I don’t know about Volos or Gorgon,” his informant said of the Kings of the White and Black Clans. “But if Brock’s spies saw you, most likely we aren’t the only ones with spies circling that mountain.”
Pytheios sure as hell wouldn’t share that tidbit with more men who could benefit from mating a phoenix. In fact, Brock and Fraener’s knowledge would likely drive the red king to act faster in trying to get to Skylar. It didn’t take a strategic genius to figure that one out.
“Thanks for the heads-up.” Ladon gripped the phone harder. “When is he coming f
or her?”
“Two hours. Tops. He’s gathering his warriors—all of them—to protect him. His witch will teleport them to you.”
Fuck. Ladon wanted to hurl the phone at the wall.
Just one break. One day without something going horribly wrong. Apparently even that was too much to ask.
His gaze landed on Skylar, who stared back with wary curiosity. “Inform Pytheios that she’s already mated,” he said.
“What the hell?” Skylar jumped to her feet.
“Is she?” his informant asked, almost idly.
“She will be before he gets here.”
Ladon hung up the phone. For a long beat, he stared at the three people in the room watching him with combinations of concern and determination and fury.
“We need to move up our timetable,” he said. “Pytheios knows. He’s coming for Skylar.”
“I am not mating you just to save my ass.” The words almost jerked from her body. “Or yours.”
Ladon shook his head. “He’ll be here tonight.”
“Then let’s kill him,” Skylar said. “Set a trap.”
Tempting. That had been his initial thought as well. Except that was short-term thinking. As king, he had to think beyond the immediate. See the entire board.
“He’s bringing his warriors. All of them.” The Red Clan were tough sons of bitches, basically tanks with their heavily armored bodies. Hardest to kill of all dragon shifters. Deadly fighters. “We’re still recovering from our recent battle, and to win this war, we need the gold dragons as allies. Which means we need that throne. If we mate now, it could buy us more time.”
“Could?” Skylar demanded.
“If he would’ve risked this kind of attack for a mated phoenix, he’d have come for Kasia sooner. As it stands, that was only ever just a matter of time. Pytheios doesn’t take risks like that unless his back is to the wall.”
The fact that he was willing to come get Skylar himself, with an army at his back, said a lot about the frame of mind of the false High King.
“The green and gold kings were there when he found out. If the others don’t already, they’ll know soon. Which means every dragon king will be after you until you are claimed,” Ladon said. Maybe even then, especially once their bond solidified. Kill one mate and take out both a phoenix and an enemy king at the same time.
