Truth of Embers
By Caitlyn McFarland
Dragonsworn
Months after bonding with Rhys, Kai is finding her place among the Wingless—humans who have heartsworn to dragons. Determined to help her new people, she’s delving deep into her magical training and is the first Wingless to ride into battle with her dragon mate.
Going against customs as ancient as dragons, Rhys is forming his own vision for dragonkind. But the Council have plans of their own that don’t include a Wingless queen. Meanwhile, the war with Owain is finally here and the fight for control of dragonkind could destroy everything—including humanity itself.
When unbreakable bonds are torn asunder, Kai and Rhys will learn exactly how deep their love goes. The battle has begun, and no matter what happens, this one will be the last. If they can’t come together, their lives are forfeit—as well as every other life they hold dear.
Book three of the Dragonsworn trilogy
109,400 words
Dear Reader,
You know what goes great with holiday cookies, long checkout lines (or queues, for those of you not in North America) and a stressful holiday season that makes you want to sneak off and steal a few seconds for yourself? Carina Press books! Buy them from your phone or iPad and read them while hiding in the closet with a batch of cookies, or while leaning against your shopping cart in line while you try to block out the incessant holiday tunes being piped in over bad speakers in the store.
Right in time for those days off over American Thanksgiving is the release of Controlled Burn, the second in Shannon Stacey’s Boston Fire series. The firefighters in this book are so hot, you’ll be tempted to light your turkey on fire in order to get a visit from your local firemen, but please don’t do that. And for those of you not in the US, you might not have Thanksgiving days off, but that’s okay—you’re not going to want to wait to read it anyway, so go ahead and call in sick to work! Not to worry, if you haven’t read Heat Exchange, the first in this trilogy, these romances stand alone so you can read Controlled Burn now and have another steamy hero to look forward to later.
Geek extraordinaire Lexi Carmichael is back in this newest mystery romance, and she’s a fish out of water without her beloved technology in the deadly jungle of Papua New Guinea with Chinese thugs on her tail. She’ll need to survive on wits alone...how hard could that be? Pick up No Room for Error by Julie Moffett this December, or go back to the beginning of this zany, romantic series in No One Lives Twice.
If you love Lauren Dane’s books as much as I do, you’ve been waiting not-so-patiently for a year to see Rowan kick some butt in the newest Goddess with a Blade urban fantasy, At Blade’s Edge. Rowan Summerwaite is no ordinary woman. Raised at the knee of The First and honed into a weapon by the Hunter Corporation, she wields ancient knowledge from the Goddess Brigid...and is newly married to a powerful Vampire scion. But instead of being on a much-anticipated honeymoon, Rowan is in London gathering her allies and the evidence necessary to drive out the rot within Hunter Corp. and expose whoever is at the top. She’ll let no one get in her way.
Kate Willoughby has another sexy, fun stand-alone contemporary romance for us in Under the Spotlight. Veteran NHL hockey player Joe Rutherford is accustomed to being in the spotlight, but when he falls for an actress whose career is just starting to take off, he must face the fact that his own might be ending sooner than later. And don’t miss On the Surface, Across the Line and Out of the Game.
We welcome Annabeth Albert to the Carina Press lineup with her new #gaymers series. In Status Update, a quirky video game designer is stranded, and a charming but reclusive archeologist comes to his rescue. Their sizzling attraction blooms in the middle of a snowstorm, but forging a future together means thawing out frozen hearts and unlocking closet doors.
Last this month is the trilogy end we’ve all been waiting for—book three of Caitlyn McFarland’s Dragonsworn trilogy. We fell in love with dragonlord Rhys and his dragonmate Kai in Soul of Smoke, we cheered and cried for them in Shadow of Flame, and now we finally get to experience the end of their journey, the thrilling conclusion to the battle...and the beginning of their HEA in Truth of Embers.
That’s our new-release lineup for this December, because we’re taking a few weeks off from new releases over the peak of the holiday season, but never fear, we have a backlist of nearly one thousand titles for you to browse, including an incredible selection of holiday-themed novellas you may have missed the first time around!
Paranormal romance fans should definitely read A Galactic Holiday, or Winter Wishes with novellas by Vivian Arend, Moira Rogers and Vivi Andrews. For those who love male/male romance, take a look at His for the Holidays, or Men Under the Mistletoe, which features Josh Lanyon, K.A. Mitchell, Harper Fox and Ava March. If a little extra heat in your holiday is what gets you moving, check out erotic holiday romance anthology Season of Seduction, or Red Hot Holiday with Anne Calhoun, Leah Braemel and K.A. Mitchell.
And if you love a good, sigh-worthy, make-your-heart-happy contemporary romance, we have quite a selection for you to choose from, including anthologies like Romancing the Holiday, All I’m Asking For, Holiday Kisses, and novellas by Jaci Burton, Shannon Stacey, Brighton Walsh, Kat Latham and more. And don’t miss one of my personal favorites—Starting from Scratch by Stacy Gail.
Whatever you read and wherever you are, the team at Carina Press thanks you for making 2015 an incredible year of publishing and wishes you the very happiest of holiday seasons, with only wonderful books to help you make it through!
And, as always, until next month here’s wishing you a wonderful month of books you love, remember and recommend.
Happy reading!
Angela James
Editorial Director, Carina Press
Dedication
For Mom and Dad.
Without you, I wouldn’t be who I am.
Because genetics.
But also because of your hard work, time, wisdom, laughter, tears and love.
Thank you.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Soul of Smoke by Caitlyn McFarland
Author Note
Acknowledgments
Also by Caitlyn McFarland
About the Author
About the Dragonsworn series
About the Never Deal with Dragons series
Copyright
Chapter One
Ice and Darkness
Hell was not a place of fire. It was a place of ice and darkness.
A place of pain.
Rhys ap Ayen, King of the Eryri dragons, knelt in mud. He wore his human form, and snow melted by the flames of his magic formed a puddle that soaked into his knees and the toes of his boots. The frigid arctic air whistled over the top of the narrow chasm he’d chosen. Not too far from the camp, but hidden from the sky by an overhang in case Owain’s scouts flew overhead. He didn’t want them to see the glow of his fire when he lost control—when he could no longer stand Kai’s torment.
“Kai?”
Kai Monahan, his mate, wept inside his head. He pulled her close through the bond that connected them, despite the agony. Ancients, Owain had given her to an Air Elemental this time. The man had tied Kai to a metal frame and was sending bolts of electricity through her, increasing the current until her muscles spasmed and her throat was raw from crying out.
Rhys slammed his fists into the mud. It sizzled and smoked. Tongues of flame licked over his hands. “Hold on, cariad. It will be over soon. I’m here. Hold on.”
She didn’t reply. For fifteen or twenty minutes, now, she’d been beyond words. He could sense her fighting not to throw herself into him, to hold on to her own anguish so he wouldn’t feel it.
So Rhys wouldn’t be tempted to give Owain what he wanted: Rhys’s life.
Tonight, Rhys would take Owain’s life instead.
“Let me take some of your pain, Kai. Please.”
She wouldn’t.
Nothing he could do. She was in agony, and there was nothing he could do.
The weight of it bore down on him until his forehead almost brushed the churned earth. He sucked in air and loosened shaking fists as if he could breathe for her starved lungs, relax her clenched, spasming muscles. This was the last time. It had to be the last time.
She screamed.
Oh, Stars. Let them stop.
Thirteen days she’d been screaming. Weeping. Begging. Until only constant guard—and sometimes physical restraint—kept Rhys from flying to Cadarnle to turn himself over and end her suffering. If it hadn’t been for Seren’s vision, for knowing this would all turn out all right for his mate and his sister, who had both been abducted, he would have.
He would rather die than let Kai go through this.
Snow crunched as Morwenna, only arrived from Eryri hours ago, paced across the canyon mouth a dozen feet away. Normally, Cadoc would’ve been standing guard. Since he’d broken the curse that forced him to attack Rhys on sight, the former bard had stuck to Rhys’s side like a barnacle. But everyone in the vee—the small military unit he’d trained and lived with since childhood—knew the cold bothered Cadoc’s maimed hand. Despite having just arrived after the week-long flight from Eryri, Morwenna had volunteered.
Another shock ripped through Kai. Rhys dug clawed fingers into wet earth, a primitive, animal sound forcing its way past his lips. He tried to send her comfort, but he was as bare as a scraped hide. There wasn’t much left to give.
But he had to try. All this was his fault. He’d trusted Jiang—handed Kai right to her and watched them fly off. Too late, he’d discovered the jade dragon wasn’t only a spy, she was also Owain’s heartsworn.
“Not...your...fault,” Kai grated. He could feel the strain it took for her to form words. “Jiang’s fault. Owain’s. They...are going...to die.”
Rhys bared his teeth. “A few more hours, then by your hand or mine, cariad, it will be done.”
No answer but venomous hate, a shudder, another cry. Rhys bit the inside of his mouth to hold in an answering howl, tasting salt and copper blood.
Two weeks of torture had changed Kai. She wasn’t broken, but she’d been boiled down. The silly awkwardness and carefree attitude had been stripped away, replaced with flashes of visceral fear and stunning rage. He’d tried to save as much of her as he could. If—when—he brought her out of Cadarnle, he hoped he could salvage at least part of the girl he loved.
The electric shocks stopped. A moment later, Kai’s fear lessened, her fury-shot dread ebbing bit by bit, like a lowering tide.
It was finished. For now.
Rhys tried to rub away the headache gnawing at his temples, but all he did was smear rapidly chilling mud over the side of his face. “Kai?”
They’d drawn close enough that he could sense her body shake, how she tried not to weep in relief or feel gratitude toward whichever thug Owain had given her to for not hurting her anymore. “Still alive. I just...need a minute.”
Fighting his instinct to wrap her up tighter, Rhys relaxed his hold on their connection and let Kai pull away.
Now, if today was like every other day in Cadarnle, Owain himself would clean her up. The thought of his cousin touching his mate made Rhys’s hands squeeze into white-knuckled fists. Perhaps, at this moment, a little distance was for the best.
Rhys had stayed with her after torture enough to know what was happening, despite the lack of immediacy in their connection. Owain would carry Kai to the bed, which was in the same room where they tortured her—a demented space that was half lavish guest room, half dungeon. He’d prattle on about how necessary her pain was. How her suffering served the greater good, because the more Rhys felt her pain, the more likely he was to take Owain seriously, to give himself up so that Kai could be safe.
When Owain had taken Kai, he’d given Rhys fourteen days to turn himself over. If he didn’t, Owain would execute Kai. Publically, grotesquely.
Though the sun didn’t rise this far north in winter, Rhys had become precisely aware of the passage of time. It was the thirteenth morning, and everything was nearly ready.
Twelve more hours.
In twelve hours, Rhys’s army would attack Cadarnle, and they would win.
Seren had seen it.
A bolt of pain from Kai snatched Rhys’s mind back to the dungeon/bedroom. He reached for her, but Owain and his henchman were gone. The cut had come from the old Quetzal woman who took care of Kai’s wounds. She’d sliced Kai’s arm just below the elbow, drawing out blood she would use to heal any internal injuries. Then the woman left, and Kai was alone.
Relief swept through him like the arctic wind, and with it, exhaustion.
“It’ll be over soon.” Kai’s voice was empty and matter-of-fact. Her emotions, once so vibrant, had muted. She’d locked them somewhere so deep even he couldn’t find them. He doubted she could, either.
Mud squelched when Rhys shifted his weight, but he heard it as if from a distance. “By tomorrow morning, I will have you out of there. When the battle starts, make sure to barricade the door.”
Her dulled emotions spiked into something sharp and icy: fear for him. Knowledge of what his capture and death would mean. Not only for dragons, but for the human race—for her family.
“What if the vision was wrong? You should go home. Forget me. The Council can probably figure out how to re-heartswear you once I’m gone. Or maybe when the mantle is fixed you can do it yourself.”
“No.” He wasn’t the one being tortured. He had no right to say he was suffering. But to witness it—to know the extent of her pain and be unable to save her from it—that was torture all on its own. “I won’t leave you.”
Something stirred in her. Sadness? Regret? She put it down so fast he couldn’t tell.
“You can’t die. You’re the only one who can save the freaking world.”
One side of his mouth curved. “I will. Tonight.
And if I don’t, Deryn can. She’s more than capable.”
Thank the Ancients for that. He’d sent his sister home to Eryri literally kicking and screaming in the company of Evan—their vee mate and Deryn’s lover—and several guards. Even so, Rhys had to use the power of the mantle to make sure Deryn wouldn’t come flying back to help him. If Rhys died, Deryn would inherit that power, and it would be her job to keep it from Owain. As long as either he or Deryn lived, the war could not be lost.
Kai didn’t appreciate his pretend flippancy. Doubt crept into his mind, and Rhys shifted in the mud again. Wetness was climbing from his knees up his thighs and calves. Behind him, Morwenna let out an impatient sigh.
“What time is it?” Slowly, Kai’s Wingless healing abilities and whatever magic the Quetzal had done were easing her pain. Her stranglehold over her emotions relaxed, and she lessened the distance between them.
“Getting on to midmorning.”
“It’s New Year’s Eve.”
“Yes.” For some humans, anyway.
He felt her rising panic that she wouldn’t see another year. Another holiday. Might not ever see Rhys or her family—
“You will.” He wished he could touch her, smooth the worried lines from her face.
She thrust her rising emotions down into that mental vault and slammed the door. When she spoke, her feelings were muted again, giving her thoughts a flat, hard edge. “I’m going to sleep for a little while.” She hesitated, softening. “I love you. Whatever you’re planning, be safe.”
Rhys had to push away a few of his own emotions. He didn’t want to let her go, but she needed rest, and he needed to make sure his army was ready. “I love you. I’ll see you soon.”
She didn’t respond.
Rhys inhaled, coming all the way back to himself in a puddle on a frozen island some few hundred miles from Cadarnle. He wiped his filthy hands on his coat and caught a glimpse of his dirt-streaked palms. The bottom halves were scarred with countless half-moons where his nails had pierced the skin, all created since Kai’s capture.
“Why do you do this to yourself?”
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