Bleu frowned as he grew aware of another’s eyes on him and looked across at Loren, finding his prince watching him with a touch of curiosity mixed with satisfaction in his expression.
He raised an eyebrow at that, and how Loren leaned to his right and pressed a kiss to Olivia’s shoulder where she stood beside him, talking to him about something. Olivia lifted her dark eyes away from the map, settled them on Loren and smiled. When she leaned over for a proper kiss, Bleu looked away.
His gaze snagged on Taryn.
She walked away from the map, drifting towards the tall doors on his side of the room beside the windows.
A messenger entered the room.
An unmated male.
Bleu closed the distance between him and his little dragon, but the threat the unmated male posed to his position as her mate wasn’t the reason he wanted to be closer to her again. He needed her near him.
He felt empty when she was so far away from him.
It was only a small distance, a few metres at most, but fuck it felt like a league to him.
Loren looked at him again as he spoke with the messenger, and this time his prince looked concerned. His violet gaze shifted from Bleu to Taryn where she stood near the doors onto the balcony and back again before returning to the messenger.
The male saluted and left the room.
“The First Realm will arrive soon, and our other guests are en route. Perhaps we should take a break until they arrive and we can begin our meeting in earnest?” Loren was meddling again. Bleu didn’t need to catch his pointed look at Taryn’s back to know it, nor the not-so-subtle jerk of his chin in her direction as she stepped out onto the balcony.
Bleu glared at him and followed her. He didn’t need his prince telling him to go after her. It wasn’t as if he could keep away from her, would follow her to the ends of Hell just to be near her.
How had he managed to stay away from her for so long?
He found Taryn on the balcony, her hands braced on the pale stone balustrade, eyes scanning the vast panorama. The entire elf kingdom stretched before them, green hills rolling into the distance where they met mountains. A glittering blue river snaked between them. Her head tilted downwards and he looked there as he came up beside her, watching the troops moving around the orchard.
Dacian stormed along one of the pale grey paths that led away from the central portal, heading towards the garrison.
Bleu’s right eyebrow arched when the portal flared and Fynn’s sister strode out of it, looked around, spotted Dacian and went after him. Interesting.
“It is beautiful,” Taryn whispered in the dragon tongue and Bleu tore his focus away from Dacian, returning it to her.
He looked out at the view she admired, leaned on his elbows on the railing, and frowned.
“I prefer the one from my balcony at the rear of the castle.” He looked to his right, at Taryn. “It is the same as yours since our rooms are adjoining.”
“I know… I can feel you there… close to me but so far away.” She smiled but there was sorrow in it, hurt that clawed at him, sinking talons deep into his heart.
Bleu cast his gaze down at the courtyard and picked at the lichens on the stone with his right hand. “I’m sorry. I was busy and whenever I finished with my work it was late and I feared I would wake you if I came to you.”
Her eyes didn’t leave the horizon and her hurt didn’t lessen, and he wanted to soothe it away. He just wasn’t sure how.
“I wanted you to come to me,” she whispered. “I do not like it here.”
He frowned and looked across at her. “You are safe here, Taryn.”
Her eyes closed. “Am I?”
Bleu pushed up, resting his palms against the balustrade, and growled, “Has anyone made you feel threatened?”
She shook her head.
“Of course not… because…” She opened her eyes, fixing them straight on him, and the coldness in them froze his blood in his veins and chilled his heart. “Because I cannot leave my room without you… I am locked in there… in a gilded c-cage… in a ca—”
Bleu caught her wrist.
Her dull eyes dropped to it, brightened again, and then sharpened and she yanked her arm free of his grip. Wrong move on his part, one he should have known would upset her. She was feeling confined again, a captive, and he had only worsened that feeling by seizing her so tightly. Gods, he needed to learn the right ways to handle his little dragon. It was hard when his instincts said to hold her when she was hurting though, to touch her to bring her back to him and shatter the hold of her memories.
“I need to fly,” she whispered and her hands shook, her breath coming fast, causing her chest to heave against the tight confines of her white leather corset. “I need to fly.”
Bleu hunkered down, lowered his head to her height, and carefully reached for her. He placed his hands under hers, not taking hold of them, just allowing her palms to rest against his. Her pain flowed through him, rife with fear and desperation.
It wasn’t growing weaker. It was growing stronger.
“I’m sorry. I should have considered how you would feel. I should have known and I should have taken you with me… although I am not sure how much you would have enjoyed being shut in my office with me for hours on end.” He risked curling his fingers over to press against hers and she looked down at their joined hands, her eyebrows rising high on her forehead, a faraway look shining in her striking eyes. He was losing her. He could almost feel her slipping away. “I’m sorry… it is not a cage, Taryn. I was only trying to protect you.”
“I know,” she murmured, distant and quiet. “I tried to bear it… but I need air. I need to fly.”
“I will take you out when the meeting ends. I will take you somewhere far away where you can feel free.” He looked back inside at Loren, found his prince still watching him, and then looked in the other direction, towards the hills and the river.
It was only a short distance from the castle, and Loren would be able to keep an eye on their guest, reassured that they would return and Bleu hadn’t gone rogue with her or lost control of her. He caught hold of her hands and willed his portal.
Green-purple light chased down his arms and up hers. She gasped and darkness swirled around them. When it receded, they were standing in the long grass by a bend in the river.
Her violet-to-white eyes widened and she looked around them, drawing back and slipping free of his right hand. He kept his left hand on hers, twisted it to slip his fingers between hers, and watched her as she took it all in. The fingers of her left hand brushed over the tips of the swaying grass that reached past her knees. A smile played on her lips.
“You cannot fly. Promise me that, Taryn. I will take you somewhere to fly soon.”
She looked across at him and nodded.
Bleu led her down the slope to the water, where the grass was shorter, and released her. He sat on the bank of the river, leaned back and propped himself up on his elbows. Taryn looked down at him and then slowly turned around, her eyes scanning everything, bright and wide as she took it all in.
“It is even more beautiful from down here.” Her smile blew him away.
He had never seen her so happy.
“I agree… the view is even more beautiful from down here.” He didn’t take his eyes off her and she looked at him, her eyes widened a little further, and a blush climbed her cheeks when she caught the meaning behind his words.
She was more beautiful.
She turned her back on him, crouched and reached out to touch the water. Her hand shot back to her before it hit the surface and she looked over her shoulder at him.
“Will it hurt me?”
Bleu laughed. “No. Of course not. It is only water.”
She frowned at him. “There is a substance like it in the dragon realms and some of the demon ones that is poisonous.”
“I suppose that is true… but this is only water. Nothing here will hurt you.”
She muttered as she
turned away from him again, “Nothing but the elves.”
He sighed. “I swear they will not touch you. Is my word not enough?”
Her head dipped and she idly ran her fingers through the crystal clear water, her sorrow flowing through him. “It is… I am sorry.”
“You do not need to apologise to me, Taryn.” He sat up, bent his knees and rested his forearms on them. “I know my kin have not treated you well… I have not treated you well. I have given you no reason to trust me.”
He lowered his right hand, plucked a blade of grass and twirled it in his fingers, his eyes on it. Hers roamed to him, heating his skin, but he kept his locked on the grass as it spun, a green blur against the pale blue of the water.
“I do trust you, Bleu,” she whispered and he smiled as those words warmed him, chasing away the rising hurt before it could seize hold of him.
She sighed, the sound soft and melodic, and kneeled beside the river. The hurt he had feared would take hold of him gripped her instead and he rose onto his feet, walked over to her and sat opposite her.
“You think of your brother,” he said and she nodded. He reached out and caught hold of her right hand, drawing it away from her purple leathers, and brushed his thumb over the back of it. “I know this is hard for you, Taryn.”
She lowered her head and let her left hand drift back down to the water, stared at it as the river rushed between her fingers, glittering in the light. “You left me alone and all I could think about was my brother and everything we have shared… how he changed… how it drove us apart… and now I must end it all… I must end—”
Bleu leaned over and pressed the fingers of his free hand to her lips to silence her because he couldn’t bear the pain. He couldn’t allow her to keep hurting herself. She lifted her eyes to him and the tears that trembled on her lashes tore at his heart.
“I swear,” he husked, voice thick, clogged with the emotions she stirred in him—the need, the love, and the desperate desire to make her happy again. “If my presence keeps those dark thoughts at bay then you will not be able to get rid of me. I will stick to you like glue.”
“Glue?” Her eyebrows pinched together. “What is glue?”
He swept his thumb over the back of her hand. “It is a product that mortals use to fuse two items together. A sticky substance. I hear it is sometimes made from animal bones.”
The pain in her eyes faded, curiosity rising to replace it. “You know the mortal realm well?”
He nodded.
She leaned closer. “Will you tell me about it? I cannot go there but I would like to know it.”
Her and all dragons. They were all fixated on learning about it since they had been banished from that realm, cursed to have their powers stripped from them the moment they entered it and to die if they lingered there.
“I will tell you everything about it. Whatever you want to know.”
Her smile could have illuminated all of Hell.
Gods, if he had known the mortal realm was the way to her heart, he would have been telling her everything about it since the moment she had driven back the darkness in him in that cell in Tenak’s castle.
She opened her mouth to speak.
Someone appeared beside him and she was behind him in an instant, her hands clutching his shoulders and a low snarl escaping her.
Loren arched an eyebrow at her and then flicked Bleu a very emotionless look that he presumed was meant to conceal the myriad of feelings that were shining in his eyes. His prince had always been rather poor at hiding his emotions.
“Our allies have arrived,” Loren said, deep voice smooth and calm, but still not hiding his amusement or his twisted sense of satisfaction.
He was gloating.
Bleu scowled at him. So what if he had found his mate and it was obvious he had feelings for her? He was still behaving in a more sane and reasonable manner than Loren had when he had met Olivia, or any of the damned males he knew had acted when they had met their fated females.
Although, using his incomplete bond as an excuse to punch his meddling prince in his perfect face was starting to look appealing.
Loren frowned back at him, his acute senses clearly warning him of the imminent threat.
His prince held his hand out to Taryn. “Would you like me to teleport you back to the war room?”
Bleu shot to his feet and growled at Loren. There was little point in concealing his feelings when Loren knew he felt something for Taryn.
“Hands off.” He smacked his left one against the one Loren offered to Taryn, knocking it away. “I will escort Taryn back.”
Loren smiled wickedly. “Very well… but I do have one request. You laid a hand on me, and I am required to report such behaviour to the council so you may be punished.”
Damn. His prince was up to something. He had provoked him on purpose in order to get something he wanted in exchange for not snitching on him to the council.
Bleu had the sinking feeling he wasn’t going to like whatever it was.
Loren clasped his hands together in front of him and cracked a grin that made Bleu reconsider punching him because it couldn’t make his punishment any worse than it looked like it was going to be.
“We have a special guest. I will not tell the council about what you did if you are nice to him.”
With that, blue-purple light chased over Loren’s body and he disappeared, leaving a lingering outline of himself behind that faded as Bleu glared at it. A special guest? More like a living hell to Bleu. A week ago, he would have immediately thought Loren was talking about King Thorne, but now there was only one male who roused Bleu’s anger and pain.
There was only one male who Loren would do anything to make sure that Bleu was nice to, even resorting to setting Bleu up so he could blackmail him into it.
“What was that all about?” Taryn whispered from behind him.
Bleu huffed.
“Prince Vail is coming.”
CHAPTER 32
Bleu teleported into the main courtyard of the castle and set Taryn away from him, but refused to relinquish her right hand. He clutched it firmly in his left and battled the desire to take her far away from this realm where she felt so unsafe and threatened, to a place where they could be alone.
A place with no other males around to look upon her curves with hunger in their eyes.
He scowled at every unmated male in the courtyard, his glare lingering on those who didn’t immediately look away, holding their gazes until they eventually backed down and turned to leave.
Beside him, Taryn was quiet, but he could feel her eyes on him, studying his face, warming his skin, heating his bones.
When every male had finally turned their focus elsewhere and the dark urge to fight had faded to a more manageable level, he shifted his gaze down to her. She smiled, a small one that spoke of knowing and also satisfaction. His little dragon was pleased that he was so fiercely protective of her, had silently challenged every male present and had won against all of them, driving them away.
He flexed his fingers against her hand, locking his more tightly between hers, showing her that his protective behaviour was born of more than a mere promise to keep her safe.
It was born of a deep and dark possessiveness.
It welled from his heart, from his most base and primal instincts as her mate.
She was his, and all who gazed upon her would know it, because he would make them intimately acquainted with pain and suffering, and death.
He tugged her forwards, turning his black glare on the soldiers ahead of them who guarded the grand entrance of the towering castle. The males wisely kept their eyes forwards, focuses locked on a point far beyond him. It didn’t stop him from snarling quietly at them as he passed or pulling Taryn closer to him, switching sides with her so he could have his arm around her while still holding her hand, practically pinning her to his side.
He was surprised he didn’t send his black formal attire away and replace it with the new armou
r Loren had given to him, or call his obsidian blade to his hand.
Fuck, being away from her had really messed with his head and his heart, and had apparently driven him deep into his instincts as her fated male, rousing them and bringing them to a point where he felt he was beginning to lose control.
He glanced down at her where she walked beside him, her footsteps faltering as she struggled to walk while held against him, her right arm pulled up by his, locked with his hand where it rested over her shoulder.
It hit him that he was acting exactly as he had vowed he would never behave on finding his mate.
He was behaving like a prick.
But she was his.
Mine.
He felt it in every molecule in his body as he gazed down at her. It drummed in his blood. Beat in his heart. Roared in his mind.
She was his.
Mine.
That word was a low possessive growl that rumbled through him.
It made him want to scrub a hand over his face and groan.
Hadn’t he told Loren and Kyter that he would never act like this? Snarling such thoughts, or saying them aloud, felt stupid and cliché to him. He had said he wouldn’t act like the other males he knew, but here he was, growling ‘mine’ over Taryn and getting in every unmated male’s face, threatening them whether they had looked at her or not.
Gods help him.
He led her up to the war room, lost in his thoughts, in possessive and dangerous imaginings that had him aching to take her back to her room and stamp his claim on her. She wriggled against him, ramping up his desire as she turned his mind firmly towards thoughts of touching her again, and having her touch him.
He needed her.
The way her fingers toyed with his, thumb caressing and teasing his hand, and the feelings that flowed through their link, said he wasn’t the only one indulging in wicked thoughts. Two days apart was far too long. He wasn’t sure how he had survived that long without touching her.
He twirled her and had her pinned against the glittering pale grey stone wall of the corridor before she could even react, and had claimed her lips before she could loose a gasp. He swallowed the shocked sound as it turned into a groan, and joined that moan with one of his own as her hands came up to press against his chest, fingertips digging in hard through his black jacket. Her mouth was hot on his, desperate and wild, her kiss so fierce it made his blood catch fire. He gathered her closer, snaking his left arm around her waist, and kissed her harder, as desperate for more as she was.
Possessed by a Dark Warrior Page 34
