by Bianca D'Arc
Oh, he wasn’t taking credit for stumbling over her, but rather he felt pride and wonder in her. Riki was down and beaten, but she clearly had never given up. He was glad he could fly, allowing them to escape easily from the nest of vipers Lucan called a court. Nico was proud he could help her and amazed by the courage of the small woman clinging so desperately to life and probably to her sanity.
Nico flew as long as he dared, but when dawn kissed the sky to the east, he knew it was time to find a safe place to land. His black wings would stand out too much against the day-lit sky. Plus, he was still somewhat drained from the torture session and beating the day before.
While Riki had managed to heal the worst of his hurts, he was not fully cured. Abused muscles protested each sweeping downbeat of his wings while recently healed slashes and burns pulled at his skin both on the surface and beneath. He’d had very little sleep and fatigue was creeping up on him no matter how hard he fought against it.
Riki was probably tired as well and would need a break. Nico had to find a safe place for them to pass the hours of daylight. Until they were able to leave Skithdron behind, they would travel by night, when his black dragon form would help them hide safely in the dark sky.
Nico kept a careful eye out for a likely place to rest and, before long, found a village. Not quite large enough to be considered a city, the place was still big enough that they could blend in with relative ease. There were also small fields with crops growing all around that would make good places to hide. There were only a few rocky outcroppings on the otherwise flat plain and the small tributary that wound through the area allowed crops to be grown.
Nico picked a rock cluster, knowing most of the skiths that normally lived in such places had already been herded toward Draconia. He didn’t see signs of the nasty creatures from the air, so he weighed his options as the sun peeped more fully over the horizon. He had to land. Quickly.
Setting down as gently as he could, Nico searched the rock formation fully while still in dragon form. As a dragon he could fight any remaining skiths and probably win, but if he were caught in human form, it would be difficult indeed. Finding no skiths, he scraped his belly along the ground to make it easier for Riki to climb down off his back.
Riki was bone-weary as she stumbled down off the dragon’s broad back. She’d been tired before, but not like this. This was a good kind of weariness that came after the greatest exhilaration Riki had ever known.
There was a stir of movement behind her and then two strong, human arms came around her, steadying her as she wobbled on her shaky legs. Nico. Her savior and her protector. A dragon in human form and a spinner of tales about her family. A bringer of hope.
But what manner of man was he, really? Riki had been too badly deceived by those she’d trusted before. So far, Nico had been all that was good and kind to her. Fierce when necessary, he was also gentle with her when she’d had so little gentleness in her life.
“Drink first,” Nico said softly in her ear. She blinked open her sagging eyelids and saw his hand stretched in front of her, pointing toward a small stream. Suddenly she realized just how thirsty she was. “Then I can heat the little pool and you can have a bath, if you like.” His hand moved slightly and Riki followed it with her gaze to a small area where the stream fed a shallow pond just to the right.
“That sounds like heaven.”
Nico chuckled as he released her, slowly, as if to be certain her feet would support her. She stumbled toward the fresh, flowing water and sank to her knees on the soft bank. The water sparkled at her in the early morning light, beckoning her to drink her fill.
Riki didn’t know how long she knelt at the stream’s edge, repeatedly cupping water into her hand and bringing it to her mouth, but the cool freshness of the water roused her from her lethargy. She was aware of Nico drinking at her side. After a while, he moved off to rustle around behind her. Riki had no idea what he was doing, nor did she particularly care. No, at that moment all that mattered was the fresh, clean taste of the water against her tongue and the astounding feeling of freedom.
She hadn’t been outside the palace walls in more than a year and hadn’t seen the sun in months. Lucan kept her chained in his room and there hadn’t even been a window for her to glimpse the outside world.
“Now to get those manacles off you.”
Riki looked up to find Nico standing at her side. She pushed back from the edge of the stream, but didn’t—couldn’t—rise. Her legs were numb. Nico crouched down next to her. He had two rocks in his hands. One was large and somewhat flat and the other was fist-sized with a sharp edge. He lay the rocks down next to her and took her hand, rubbing lightly at her sore wrists.
“I know these must hurt.” His hushed words went straight to her heart. “But we’ll get them off one way or another.”
The manacle was welded shut around her wrist, with the remnants of chain trailing down her arm. Nico, in dragon form, had snapped the chains easily, but once she’d gotten a good look at his wickedly sharp dragon talons she realized why he’d left the delicate work ’til now. Still, his strength had astonished her and continued to do so as he inserted the forefingers of both hands into the topmost link of the chain and pried it apart.
“That’s amazing.” Those were thick iron links. No man should be able to bend them as if they were malleable lead. She blinked up at him.
Nico chuckled. “One benefit of my heritage. Some of the dragon’s strength remains even in human form. Now, let’s see if this will work as well.” He tossed the chain into the deep part of the stream and it was immediately swallowed up by the rocks below the surface. He then squeezed those same two fingers into the manacle, next to her sore skin. She couldn’t help but wince when he rubbed a particularly sensitive welt, and he immediately stilled.
“I’m sorry, Riki.” The look in his eyes spoke of anxiety over hurting her, however unintentionally.
“It’s nothing. Please, keep trying. I’d suffer almost anything to have these things off my wrists, and you really didn’t hurt me. I’m just a little sore.”
He continued after a moment’s pause, slower than before and twice as cautious. The idea that this big, powerful man would temper his strength for her was humbling.
He pulled and pulled, but though the welded iron creaked a bit, it wouldn’t give. Riki could see the bolt loosening, but it refused to break off, even under Nico’s enormous strength. It was better than it had been, though.
“I think we need to try this another way.” Nico removed his fingers easily now the manacle was looser, then took her hand to the ground, laying her wrist on the flat rock.
“What are you going to do?” She thought she had an idea, but she wanted to be sure.
“The rock here is some of the hardest in the world,” he explained as he positioned her wrist just so. “I’m going to try to bust the head off that bolt and push it through, and then I should be able to bend the iron wide enough for you to wiggle your hand out. He lined up her hand, picking up the other rock in his fist. “Don’t move now.”
Riki held her breath as he swung the rock at her wrist, but his aim was true. The loud bang of rock against metal made her want to jump, but she knew how important it was to keep still. She’d learned every level of control over her body and emotions while being held prisoner, so this was relatively easy to accomplish. Riki just kept the end goal in mind. Freedom for her aching, bloody, bruised and welt-ridden arms.
With a few more well-placed whacks, Nico’s plan worked. The head came off the weakened bolt and the shank fell through to the ground. Nico was able to wriggle his fingers inside and bend the iron wide enough for her hand to escape.
“One down.” He smiled at her and she felt tears of joy slipping down her face as he rubbed her poor wrist. Bringing her wrist up to his lips, he placed a tender kiss on the bruised skin and then placed it gently in her lap, only to lift the other hand and repeat the process of removing the iron chain, then the manacle.
; When both her hands were free of the heavy cuffs, Nico wet a square of linen he’d had in his pocket and washed her wrists with gentle pats and swipes, removing the grime and caked blood with the fresh, cold water. The care in his expression warmed her, but the little zing of his energy had her pulling her hands back.
“You can’t!”
Nico sat back and looked at her. “I must, Riki. Please let me do what I can. I’ve never been much of a healer, but I can make you a little more comfortable at least.”
She shook her head. “I know how tiring healing can be. You need your strength, Nico. There’ll be time enough to heal after we’re out of Skithdron once and for all.”
But he scooped her hands up in his and pulled them into his lap, resting her palms on his knees. He held her wrists almost exactly where the manacles had been for so very long, but instead of hurting, Nico’s hands were gentle and healing, as he poured little zaps of his own energy into her.
She was weak, but she felt her own power responding, rising, mingling with his and multiplying.
“Stop!”
“No, wait. It’ll be all right, Riki. You’ll see.”
She tried to tug away, but it was too late. Their energies met and meshed, concentrating healing energy on her poor, abused wrists, but oddly, it wasn’t draining. Not much anyway. And her own energy seemed to be working on her injuries, which it never had before.
“What’s happening?”
Nico pulled back, letting her wrists go with a broad smile. They were healed. Completely healed for the first time in months.
“I thought this might work.” He blinked with fatigue, but she couldn’t see the bone-weary tiredness that always came after she performed a healing of this magnitude.
“What did you do?”
“It’s something that happened to me only once before. Riki, I’ve never been a strong healer, but when your mother was hurt, I tried to help and her energy rose to direct me, just as yours did a moment ago. Kelzy said it’s our blood recognizing each other. I would never have managed this level of healing on my own, but with your energy to guide me, it was possible.”
“I’ve never been able to heal myself before.”
Nico shook his head with a sigh. “Most healers can’t. You probably still won’t be able to do so, but if we mesh our energies, some of your skill guides and amplifies my own power. At least, that’s my guess as to what happened.”
“You did this with my mother, you said?”
Nico stood and tossed the rock away. “I did. She’d been clawed by a dragon, accidentally of course. Kelzy felt terrible about it, but it was the only way to save your mother’s life. At the time she was clinging to the top of a tree with a horde of skiths circling below. Kelzy had to grab for her, but it’s hard to be accurate with such sharp talons. She saved Adora, but wounded her in the process.”
Riki still couldn’t quite believe he was talking about her mother. Her mother! Alive and living in Draconia, reunited with the dragon from her childhood. It was a dream come true, and Riki was almost afraid to believe she might also be reunited with her mother and sisters—if she and Nico made it out of Skithdron alive.
Riki marveled at her healed wrists as she drank a bit more water from the flowing stream. Distracted by a whooshing sound, Riki turned toward the small pool off to her right. Nico smiled over at her, his face so handsome, it made her stomach clench.
“Your bath is ready, milady.”
Riki stared mutely, unable to move, until Nico came to her and lifted her by the shoulders.
“Are you all right?” His tone was gentle.
Riki nodded, unable to form words to express the feelings inside her. Confusion, fear that this moment of freedom wouldn’t last, thankfulness to this wonderful, perplexing man, and much more churned within her.
Nico put his arm around her shoulders and guided her to the small pool. Incredibly, she could see little tendrils of steam wafting off its surface. He had somehow used his dragon magic to heat the small pool of water.
“It’s warm now and will stay that way for a while. I suggest you hop in if you want to bathe. I’ll turn my back if you like, but I won’t leave you. Not even for a moment.” He surprised her by placing a chaste kiss on her temple. “I won’t let anything harm you ever again, Arikia.”
The whispered words and the way he said her name caused a tremor to course through her. He let go and turned away, leaving Riki to decide her next move. The steamy water called to her and she realized she hadn’t bathed properly in far too long. Not even bothering to remove her thin dress, she stepped into the small pool and immersed herself in the shallow water.
It was heaven. Riki just lay there for a few moments, floating, allowing the warm water to surround her and warm her. Flying atop a dragon in the dead of night had left her chilled through and through, but she would never complain. The cold flight meant freedom and that was too precious to complain about.
After a few minutes of warm bliss, Riki looked around to find a plant she was familiar with from her youth growing along the pond’s edge. Scrubweed, it was called. It didn’t lather like soap, but the sinuous blades, when wound together, made an excellent sort of sponge and emitted a slippery substance that cleaned almost as well as soap.
Looking to make sure Nico’s back was turned, Riki pulled the wet dress over her head, letting it soak in the water for a bit. First she wanted to clean herself. Then she’d wash the dress. Riki grabbed handfuls of the scrubweed blades and wound them into hand-sized pads. Sweeping the slightly abrasive plant fibers over her skin had never felt so good. The warm water, the soothing green scent of the scrubweed and the heady feeling of freedom combined into a sparkling moment of happiness.
Riki giggled as she washed herself, giddy as a child.
“Sounds like you’re having fun.” Nico’s voice floated to her as he sat on a rock, facing away from her. He was being quite the gentleman and she was touched by his chivalry.
“I haven’t taken a bath in so long. And not in warm water since I was very young.”
“Sometimes it’s handy to have a dragon around.” His tone teased.
“I suppose it is.” Riki started to work on her dress, cleaning it as best she could. It would be soaking wet when she put it back on, but it couldn’t be helped. Unless…
“Nico, can you produce just enough heat to dry my dress without burning it?” Her words were hesitant and shy, but also curious.
“Throw it over here and I’ll see what I can do.” His wry chuckle sounded as she rolled the thin dress into a ball and took aim.
Unfortunately, she smacked him right in the head with the wad of sopping fabric, but he only laughed as he unwound the mess from his neck and laid it out over the rock he’d been sitting on. He touched the rock with both hands, and within moments, steam started to rise from the wet material.
“That’s amazing.”
Nico looked over at her and winked. Riki was glad she was still immersed in the water, but the look in his eyes was teasing, not predatory. Still, she was relieved when he turned back around so he couldn’t see her. After a few more moments, he lifted the dress by the shoulders and it looked mostly dry.
“I think that’s about as good as I can get it.” He tilted his head as if considering the simple dress, then squared his shoulders. “I’m turning around now.”
Riki gasped as he turned, his gaze traveling over what he could see of her naked body beneath the water. She crossed her arms over her breasts, though Nico didn’t seem threatening. No, his hot gaze was more admiring than dangerous. Still, there was fire in his eyes, heat in the way he stalked closer to her, holding her dress out before him.
“It will do you no good to have a dry dress if you put it on over wet skin.” His voice was a sultry rumble. “Come out of there, sweetheart, and let me dry you.”
Gathering her courage, Riki tried to decide what to do. This man was tempting in the extreme. He’d saved her, he’d taken care of her to this point, but could sh
e trust him not to try to take more from her than she was willing to give? If she lost her virginity, she lost everything—her power, her safety, and most probably her life if Lucan ever found her. But this man was temptation itself.
Handsome, thoughtful, kind and incredibly strong, he was appealing on every level. He’d suffered Lucan’s torture with a dignity she’d never seen before and a courage that put her to shame. He was such a noble, brave being, and such a magical one. She had to keep reminding herself Nico was half dragon. It was incredible. Even after riding on his strong back for hours in the inky night sky, she could hardly believe it was all real.
“Come on, sweetheart. You know I’d never harm you. It would kill me to see you hurt in any way.” He shook the dress invitingly, his dark, hazel eyes watching her reactions carefully.
Riki couldn’t deny him. Tucking away her self-doubts and her fear, she rose hesitantly from the cooling water to stand before the man who had quite literally saved her life. Without him, she would still be back in Lucan’s palace. She owed him so much, yet he treated her as if she were precious. The thought humbled her. Nico was proving himself to be a man of honor in every way. She just hoped she could resist his charm enough to retain her virginity and with it, her power. Without that, she was too vulnerable. It was the only thing of value she had and it would be suicide to allow it to be lost.
Yet something inside her yearned for this man. She wanted to know him—to know what his lovemaking would feel like. He stirred things in her she’d thought long dead and curiosities better left alone.
Chapter Four
Riki stepped from the pond to stand before him and Nico’s mouth went dry. She was so beautiful, even skinny and hurt as she was. Her poor little, battered body touched something deep inside him. Nico knew what she would look like when her wounds were healed and she was healthy once more. He had, after all, seen her twin sister Lana naked in the bath with his older brother, Roland.
