by Mandy Rosko
She pushed against Hargreave’s chest. “Let me go.”
His expression changed, concern in his eyes as he did as she asked, but Amanda didn’t have time to tell him he hadn’t hurt her or whatever he was worried about. The ground tilted a little too sharply beneath her feet, and she fell to her knees. Amanda sucked back several deep breaths, putting her head down and hands on the grass.
Hargreave was down with her in an instant, hands comfortingly on her shoulders. “You are not accustomed to flight.”
He said it not as a question, but a revelation.
She didn’t know how to tell him that she was used to flying, but only inside a plane that was big enough to have a couple hundred people in it, and strong enough for her to not feel any of that turbulence that was making her shake and tremble right now.
The men behind Hargreave chuckled at her. “Delicate little thing, is she not?”
No one had ever called Amanda delicate before, and try as she might, she really wasn’t feeling good enough to glare at…whoever it was that said that.
Hargreave took her by her arm, gently pulling her to her feet. “Come. You can rest and have water. Go tell the cooks to bring bread.”
Amanda didn’t know who he said that to, and she didn’t care, either. Crackers and soft sips of water were usually the thing she needed to make her stomach stop acting up. She leaned against Hargreave like he was her lifeline, and as queasy as she felt, she could totally tell how much he liked that.
“Don’t get any ideas,” she said, holding a hand to her stomach. “I’m just…not used to flying like that.”
He didn’t seem to pick up the like that part she added to the end of that sentence. His expression remained concerned as he helped her to walk over the grass and gravel.
Amanda had to admit, even though she thought of herself as a strong, independent woman, for the most part, it was nice having a guy holding her hand like this, as though he was waiting to spring into action to catch her if she happened to faint from the shock of the trip.
He didn’t need to go that far. Amanda was already recovering. With every step, her body felt more and more grounded. The world stopped tilting in a lousy attempt to throw her off her feet, and she was able to walk with a straight back instead of bent over because her stomach was still acting up.
She didn’t pull her hand away from his, however. His grip was warm, and his red eyes soft with compassion.
She’d written him to have red eyes because she’d thought it would make him more villainous. Not that it mattered because she clearly hadn’t written this world, and now, as she got lost in his stare, she also knew that red wasn’t a villain’s color. It actually managed to look both pretty and handsome on him at the same time. They looked like a hero’s eyes.
Amanda had to look away. It was one thing for her to be feeling these things for him, to be looking at him like he might be heroic, but she wasn’t going to be sticking around for long.
The second she found that skeleton key, she was out of here.
The thought made her chest ache. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
“Are you well? Did I…frighten you? When I took you from the castle?”
Why did he have to be such a bad boy who was so…right? That was like her kryptonite whenever she was writing her fictional heroes. Strong, risk taking men who lived on the wild side, but knew how to read the emotions of the women in their lives.
“I was just…thinking. You didn’t scare me. Not really. This is all just so new.”
Hargreave nodded. “I do not know where you came from, but I will promise you this, you will feel more than at home in my castle. It does not have the same…comforts as Eldric’s castle.” He said that with a certain bite to his tone. “But it’s still home.”
Amanda smiled. “I can’t wait to see it.”
She wasn’t lying. Considering how different everything else had been that she’d written, she wanted to see Hargreave’s castle. She wanted to know what was different and what was the same.
Amanda only then realized they were walking up a hill. Not a steep one, at least it didn’t seem that way, but when she looked back behind herself, she saw how high up they were. She’d thought Hargreave had landed on a flat surface. He hadn’t. He’d landed on a hill, and the higher they went, the more the yellow grass thinned and died out, leaving grey and black rock with sharp edges everywhere. Olga seemed to be having a difficult time walking around it, but that blond held her hand as tenderly as Hargreave held Amanda’s.
If these were still characters in her books, she might have thought something was going on there, but at this moment, she didn’t want to butt into anyone’s business.
“I didn’t know your home was on top of a hill,” Amanda said, looking up to see if she could make out the top of the black spires and decrepit towers of Hargreave’s hellish castle. The castle she’d imagined as being hellish. Something the dragon from Shrek would’ve spent time chained up in with a moat of lava and skeletons hanging all over the place.
She didn’t see that yet. The castle must’ve been a ways away from the edge of this hill.
Amanda realized Hargreave hadn’t answered her. She looked at him, saw the firm set of his jaw. He was still holding her hand, so she squeezed his, needing to get his attention. He looked at her.
“Are you okay?”
He frowned. “Okay?”
He said the word slowly, like he was testing it out on his tongue.
Oh, these people didn’t use that word around here. Good to know something was the same as how she’d written it. “It means all right. I’m asking if you’re all right?”
Hargreave nodded, understanding dawning. “Yes, I am sorry. I am…okay,” he said, grinning at her.
God, that smile. She couldn’t help it. She grinned back at him. “Good to know.”
“We are almost there. You should know, my castle used to be on this hill, but, it was almost destroyed. Much of it sank. I was fortunate to find it still intact.”
Amanda frowned, not understanding until they made it to the top and she realized that the hill didn’t extend beyond this spot. It stopped at a steep drop off. Amanda gasped as she looked down.
The gray stone of the castle was blackened in some places by fires. Many of the roofs looked patchedly repaired, while some of them looked as if they had been given up on entirely.
Now that she stood here, at the edge of this cliff, she could smell the crashing sea salt air of the ocean over her own stink. Would have been a nice smell and a lovely sight had the castle not looked as though it had been halfway in the water, like someone had pushed it in to the waves.
“Eldric’s father could not get in, the fortress was too strong for him, so to draw out the warriors left inside, he attacked the land and tried to sink the castle itself. He only half succeeded.”
Amanda couldn’t look away from the sight in front of her, beautiful in its destruction, but Hargreave stared at it with fondness in his eyes before turning that eager stare to Amanda. “Come. I will show you to your chambers.”
Guess that meant it was still livable, and Amanda said nothing, letting Hargreave pick her back up.
Unfortunately, she realized too late that also meant another brief flight when he spread his black wings.
At least he warned her this time.
“Brace yourself, sweet. We need to jump down.”
Amanda clutched tightly to him, letting him do what needed to be done while she worked to keep from screaming her head off this time around.
Chapter 9
It wasn’t so difficult on his woman the second time around. She clenched her body tightly, squeezing her eyes shut like a child riding with its mother, but when Hargreave put his feet down on what used to the be the stone balcony that overlooked the courtyard, but now was his courtyard, Amanda opened her eyes, and he was so proud of her.
She wobbled on her feet, prompting Hargreave to quickly reach out for her, grabbing her by the arm, steadyi
ng her.
The other woman took it better than his Amanda did, but still glanced around in fear as Hargreave’s men—the ones who had returned from the battle, and those who had stayed behind to defend his castle—gathered.
Amanda leaned closer to Hargreave, eyeing his men warily.
“They will not harm you.”
Amanda shook her head, eyeing the warriors before her with their blackened eyes, some with blood spilling from minor wounds in their rusted armor and chainmail. Some still carried their weapons in hand. “You really sure about that?”
She had such a manner of speech. He couldn’t place her accent, but after the flight with her, and listening to that interesting tone of her voice and the language she used, it was most clear she was not from these parts. She was likely not used to seeing such sights, as it should be with any lady.
“Of course I am sure.” He took her by the hand in that moment, lifting it high for his men to see. “My people! Your mission was a success! I thank you for your service! Here is your queen!”
They cheered for her, for Hargreave, and for themselves.
Hargreave’s chest filled with an intense pride, and when he looked down at his woman, the way her grey eyes widened, her pink lips parted, intensified it.
“I don’t have much, sweet,” he said, lowering her hand, kissing her knuckles. “But what I do have is now yours.”
She swallowed. “You don’t know me.”
He nodded. “I don’t. Instinct does not need it. You are mine and I am yours. I know you feel it, too.” The heat that he felt pulsing from her, the way her breath quickened and the blush he saw blooming on her cheeks was proof enough he was correct. He kissed her knuckles again. “I swear to you. Everything and all of it. Even…” He hesitated. He didn’t want to say it, not in front of his men as they witnessed this, but he had to get it out. “Should you decide to leave this place, I will let you. You and the servant girl. I will have no man follow.”
“You would send me back to Eldric?” Her raised brows let him know how much she believed that claim.
And it made a miserable heat creep into his heart. “No. Not to that vile son of a bitch. I would never. I would find you a small village. Somewhere you could live at peace, away from him, and from me. Say the word now and it will be done. My gift to you.”
His men watched intently. Hargreave felt their eyes on him, their anger that he would offer such a thing after risking so much to have her brought here, as well as the understanding a commitment such as a mating brought about.
It wasn’t always about being together. Sometimes, the instinct to love and protect came at the price of being apart. Those of his men that did not want to see this now would see it in time.
Hargreave held his breath. He waited, watching intently as Amanda turned her eyes away from him. They were still wide, the blue rings around the grey appearing as intense as a rainstorm.
Blasted woman, could she not put him out of his misery sooner?
“Can I…can I think about it? I’m sorry, I want to say…I just can’t. This is too intense. Everything you’re offering me looks amazing and great, and you seem great, but I really need to think about this. I don’t want to make a decision on instinct or mating or whatever. I need to think about it seriously.”
It was almost as painful as hearing her say she wanted to be gone from this place. At least if she had denied him now, he would have heard it and it would have been over. He could suffer the pain and work through it.
This felt like a rusted dagger only halfway pushed into him and staying there in his skin instead of a fast stab that pulled the metal out of his skin quickly.
He forced a smile. “Take as long as you need.” Hargreave had to look away from her before she could see his weakness, his disappointment. He faced his men. “Tonight! We feast!”
They raised their arms and cheered.
Amanda wasn’t sure how she’d gotten into this mess, and not sure how to get out of it either.
She didn’t want to get out of it. That was one of the bigger problems she had to deal with, and as much as Amanda kept trying to think with her head instead of her heart and her libido, the only thing she wanted to do was stay.
Even though she missed her computer, writing, the Internet, and reading stupid comments on Reddit, she wanted to stay here. She wanted, needed, to be where Hargreave was.
Now that she was in his castle, near him, able to see him, touch him, and talk to him, she didn’t know how she’d managed to stay at Eldric’s castle for two weeks straight without losing her mind.
This felt too right. Even Olga had calmed down, though Amanda got the feeling that had more to do with the blond warrior who had volunteered himself to be her guard.
If Amanda had been writing this world, she definitely would have made a couple out of them. The blond was openly making eyes at Olga, and not in a weird, creepy way either. Olga blushed and tried to hide her smiles whenever he did it.
Hargreave seemed to notice this as well. At one point, he looked back at them, caught what they were doing, and turned back around, shaking his head, smirking.
Hargreave took Amanda into his castle, giving instructions to the blond-haired warrior to not harm Olga, and to see to her safety, which the warrior seemed only too happy to comply with as he walked down another stone hall with Olga.
Olga barely seemed to notice how she and Amanda were being separated, and Amanda felt kind of betrayed by that, even as she also thought it was cute.
Hargreave put his hand on Amanda’s shoulder. “Your servant will be well.”
Amanda felt the warmth of Hargreave’s touch through the sleeve of her dirty gown and shivered at the pleasant sensation.
Hargreave clearly took it to mean something else, cleared his throat, and removed his hand. “Come. I am having a bath prepared for you.”
Amanda stopped abruptly. “A bath?”
Hargreave stopped and looked back at her, a confused frown pulling at his brows. “Yes?”
“With…with you?”
The frown melted away in favor of something entirely too entertained and amused. “Only if you wish it.” He turned around and started walking again
Amanda swallowed down her embarrassment. She followed quickly, wanting to make light of the situation, to pretend that hadn’t just happened. “I guess it’s easy for you to get bathwater around here. Fresh water is probably a little harder though, right?”
He glanced down at her, a soft smile playing at his lips. “Easier than you would expect with enough fire dragons.”
“Oh, right.”
Amanda knew this. She’d researched how people had turned sea water into drinking water in the times of the Greeks so she would be able to write that into her books. For some reason, she’d forgotten it in that moment.
Not exactly a big deal, but she definitely didn’t like the idea that she’d made herself look like an idiot in front of Hargreave. Risking a quick glance up at him, he was still smirking, as if he was pleased with something. She nudged him, feeling oddly brave. “Shut up.”
“I said nothing.” He was still smiling.
She smiled back at him.
The castle didn’t feel too damp, considering it was half underwater. Amanda wasn’t sure how that had happened, and she was curious. “This place must be really big to have so many dry halls in it despite all the water. It’s warm, too. Is it because of the fires you talked about?”
Hargreave nodded. “The fires burn constantly in the lower floors, closer to the sea water. The men down there work endlessly to boil the water and collect the condensation for our drinking water. It also keeps the upper floors dry and warm, as you say. A pleasant side effect that is worked very hard for. These halls were not so pleasant before the fires started burning.”
“I can imagine,” Amanda said as they rounded another corner. “Why did Eldric…his father, I mean…why did he want to put your castle in the sea?”
Hargreave’s lips thinned. “
He wanted what did not belong to him. He took much of it, but not all.” Hargreave smiled again, as if he’d just shared some secret.
Amanda thought she knew what it was. “Your family’s money?”
He looked at her, not all that surprised by her words, and nodded. “Yes. They wanted our wealth, our lands, everything.” Hargreave clenched his fists. “I know not what they told you of me, but I can assure you, it’s all lies.”
Amanda nodded. “I want to know the truth.” She needed to know how much of what she’d written this world to be was fact and what was part of her imagination.
Hargreave snapped his gaze to her, red eyes wide for a brief second before he smiled. He looked relieved, and so handsome Amanda had to look away from him before she got caught up in him.
“I am…grateful that you would give me the chance to explain. Most would not.”
“I’m not most people.”
That seemed to make him that much happier, even though Amanda was telling the truth. People who got sucked into the stories they’d created, into any world at all, with magical skeleton keys couldn’t be all that common, could they?
“I will explain everything to you. I suppose it would not be right to ask you to be my queen until you know all.”
Part of her really wanted to throw caution to the wind and be his queen anyway. What girl didn’t want to be a princess or a queen? It was the Disney girl inside her.
Focus. Focus. He wasn’t prince Charming, and as interesting and amazing as this place seemed, it wasn’t a fairy tale castle.
Which was about when Amanda realized they were still walking. “Where are we going?”
“To my chambers.” He laughed at the look on her face. “Fear not. There is nothing for you to be concerned with. Your virtue is safe with me.”
“I haven’t been virtuous since college.”
That came out so wrong, and even as Hargreave finally stopped in front of a door, he looked more like he’d been frozen in place. There was a horror in his eyes Amanda had never thought Hargreave the Horrible would be capable of making. “Someone took you against your will?”
