The cold lashed Nik’s cheeks and bit into his lungs. His heartbeat drummed in time to the dragon’s beating wings until he hazarded opening one eye.
A few meters in front of him, Connor dangled from Shun’s talons. Nik couldn’t see Joe, but could sense him somewhere behind them, at ease and trusting of the creatures who held all their lives in their lizardy-grip.
Nik glanced down and immediately regretted it. His stomach turned, but the dark within his closed eyelids only seemed to make it worse. He opened his eyes, narrowing his lashes against the wind. In the distance, the huge peaks of a purplish mountain came into view. He didn’t know the modern name for the mountain, but all Maori knew it ancestral significance— the mythical, colossal, Dragonmount.
24
Anna pulled against the shackles over her head. Dammit! Honest-to-goodness medieval shackles. Torches burned along the walls, scorching the stone behind them and casting flickering shadows through the cave.
This had to be a sick joke. She ran her fingers beneath the thick metal collar chaining her neck to the wall. Dragons were bad enough, but this Game of Thrones crap was a little much.
She giggled a tiny, nervous, crazed sound as Gale crept toward her. His jeans rubbed against his long, dark coat, making a scraping sound that cut though her with each advancing step. Behind him, the walls reached into a cathedral ceiling that seemed to have no apex, except for a scattering of multicolored glow worms that blinked in the distance, feigning the night sky.
A smile spread across Gale’s face as he neared. “Comfortable, my love?”
Back in the alley, that first night, he’d done something to her, hypnotized her into wanting him, into being completely at ease with his touch. Now, he wasn’t so merciful. Now, she knew him for what he truly was.
“I am not your love.” This animal probably wasn’t even capable of love. She held her chin up, doing her best not to quiver.
“True enough. We’re not even bonded.”
“And we never will be.” At least, she hoped not. Deep within her, she could feel a longing, a pull to something in the distance. Puff’s big, icy-blue eyes filled her thoughts, warming her from within. He’d bound himself to her. She didn’t know how, or why, or even if he’d had a choice in the matter. But his essence ran through her, comforting her even in his absence.
They were intertwined, melded in a way that she never dreamed possible. She wouldn’t give up this beautiful sense of belonging, and she certainly didn’t want any of this magical Draconic blessing tainted by the monster leering at her. “Keep away from me.”
His smile turned wry. “Fear not, lovely. I have no intention of bonding myself to you. It’s far too inconvenient.” His gaze flicked to the floor, where a circle had been etched in the stone around her. He remained on the outside. They all did, come to think of it. But Puff hadn’t kept away. They’d spent each night together, her snuggled under his wing. Then, when he was a man, she’d cuddled against him, drinking in his warmth.
“Proximity,” she whispered. “You can’t come close to me, or you’ll bond.”
His eyes flashed. “Smart girl.”
But it must have something to do with the amount of time, as well. She hadn’t bonded to Gale while he’d carried her, and she hadn’t bonded to the dragons who’d tied her up here. The ring must have just been a precaution.
The chains jangled as she reset her footing. She’d spent an entire night trapped inside Puff’s wing after he’d saved her from Gale, and then she’d slept covered by that same wing each subsequent night. Every morning she’d felt closer to him, more at ease.
She was as bonded to her little white dragon as he was to her.
Gale prowled back and forth in front of her, stepping over the chain that anchored her right ankle to a chain that disappeared into the floor several yards away from the wall. “Luckily enough for me, I don’t need the bond to plant my seed within you. I need only to touch you when we mate, and when you give birth to my fledgling.”
She gulped. “And then what?”
His eyes darkened. “You’ll do what every good mother does. You’ll feed him.”
She had a bad feeling he wasn’t talking about nursing the baby.
Anna yanked against the shackles, choking down the terror building in her chest. “You can’t do this. I belong to someone else.”
But he didn’t care. She could see it in his eyes. She was a means to an end for him, nothing more. Puff be damned.
She looked up toward the ceiling, where several flying dragons circled in their own private sky. “Help me, please!”
“They’re my people,” Gale said. “They’ve come to see me confirmed ruler once more.” His gaze lingered on their lazy flight pattern. “The only help they’ll provide, is holding your legs apart, if I ask it of them.”
A whimper escaped her throat, and she hated herself for it. Yes, he held all the cards, but he would not conquer her soul. She needed to keep her wits about her. Eventually, one of these godforsaken reptiles would be careless. It might only happen for a split second, but it would happen. She needed to find her chance to get away, and take it.
A dragon roared overhead, followed by another. Streams of flame blasted through the sky, lighting torches mounted to the rock face for what looked like a mile above her.
The walls began to move.
No, not the walls. Dragons. Hundreds of dragons sat perched on shelves lining the bulwark high into the darkness above. The worms no longer comforted her with their light.
Gale turned from her. “Brigham Solstice has ended!”
The dragons bellowed in answer, the sound echoing off the stone walls.
“Once again I stand before you, as your king.” He pointed to a line of gray dragons on the floor, some small, some large. “My sons will soon have another of my brood to teach the ways of governance and law.”
Those were all his sons? How long had he been king, and where were the previous mothers?
Gale’s words hissed through her mind. You’ll do what every good mother does. You’ll feed him.
Jesus, he wasn’t just trying to scare her. He was serious.
Anna propped her foot against the wall and pulled. Dammit! Shackles always came loose in the movies. Why not now?
The dragons drummed their talons on the rocks. The sound reverberated off the stone like the march of an army. When she turned, she no longer faced Gale the man, but the largest dragon in the room.
Anna’s back slammed against the wall, and she realized she’d retreated. The dragon lowered its head until its eyes were level with hers. She wasn’t going to back down though. If Gale wanted her, she was going down fighting.
Joe’s icy-blue eyes filled her mind. She reached to them for comfort, for the warmth she’d relished in the caves, but the vision broke away, splintering until nothing was left but the sight of the yellow-eyed dragon before her.
Gale’s gaze bored into Anna, making promises and threats that she knew he had every intention of keeping. But she found life in those threats, new meaning. A haze coated the room as his warm breath encompassed her, she reveled in the essence of smoke and endless power.
She was his queen, the only woman in New Zealand who could bear him a child. And she would.
She sighed, breathing him in, knowing he’d soon make her his. Lolling her head, she bared her neck in submission, accepting him. Wanting him.
Gale raised a talon, snagging the edge of her pants.
“Yes,” she whispered, leaning back and exposing herself to his might.
“Gale, stop!” The voice rang through the chamber. The drumming of talons stopped, leaving the air empty and wanting.
Three men stepped into the light. Two dark, and one fair with ghostly white skin.
Gale lowered his talon.
Anna weakened from the loss of his touch. “No,” she begged. “Please.”
The dragon ignored her, turning to the newcomers, growling.
The pale man lifted a torch
into the air. “This female is mine, bonded to me by right. She was taken unlawfully and forced here against her will.”
Gale roared at them. The heat of his breath tingled through the room, Anna twisted, coating herself in his glory.
“I will not back down, Gale. She is mine, and I will not allow this.”
Throughout the room, the dragons galloped in place. Gale puffed three times, snickering.
Who was this boy to challenge a full-grown dragon? Blood would be spilled today, and Anna thrilled at the thought.
She laughed, swinging from her bindings. “He’s going to kill you,” she sing-songed. The massive gray dragon glanced back to her, and she leaned toward him. “Do it. Slit his throat and be done with it.”
The dragon growled and spun on the intruders. The pale boy took a step back, but his gaze remained pinned to Anna’s. His forehead wrinkled, his eyes weary and pleading.
Did he think that she’d want him? Ridiculous, when she already had someone so magnificent.
Anna blinked, and the haze about the room cleared. Gale had his back to her, his tail twitching at the floor between her feet. She shook her head, clearing the rest of the fog before the remainder of the room came into focus.
Joe’s presence screamed into her psyche, calling, caressing, and promising to end this madness. No, not Joe— Puff. Joesephutus. Her dragon. He’d come for her.
25
Nik shuddered as the dragon’s gaze hovered over each of them. Beside him, Joe reset his footing, easing his right side away to hide the severity of his injury as Gale loomed overhead.
The dragon bellowed. Hot, rank, smoky breath rolled over them as the creature grunted and clicked.
Joe tilted his torch, illuminating Nik’s face. “This man is my Kotahi, blood and mind bound to me.” He pointed the torch at Connor. “And this dragon chooses to stand beside me as second.”
According to Connor, another dragon could legally stand as Joe’s second to aid him due to Joe’s current handicap— being trapped in human form. But with both of them stuck as humans, and Gale very much a six-ton dragon, Nik didn’t see how having a second set of hands would help much.
Gale shook his patchy gray mane. The air around him wavered, like looking through the heat of a campfire, before the dragon shrank into human form. He was taller than Connor, with sallow skin and dark brown hair that threatened gray at the temples. His smile sent a shiver down Nik’s spine.
“I am not unreasonable.” Gale spun, addressing the dragons in the circular theater above. “This crystal pup was too young to fly in the competition, yet in the interests of sept harmony, we didn’t protest. Now this insignificant toddling has delusions of being king.”
The grays roared in protest, while the rest of the dragons sat on their perches, quietly watching.
Gale turned back to Joe, his gaze hovering over the wound he’d ripped into Puff’s hide with his own claw. “I give you the chance to step back and rejoin your people without retribution, runt.” He glanced at Connor. “All of you. Our numbers are small. We should not be fighting among ourselves.”
He’d said that almost like he gave a damn. Hate seethed across the bond between Nik and Joe, but the boss managed to keep his cool. Well, on the outside, at least. Inside, his mind whirled, cataloging each possible weapon a human could use against a dragon, noting the ledges above, the torches within reach, the chain running along the floor, anchoring Anna’s ankle to the platform behind Gale, and counting the distance and how long it would take to get to her.
Nik had to give the kid kudos for bravery. The only thing Nik was looking for were the exits.
Joe waved his torch, casting mottled shadows on the lower walls. “Gale is a dragon murderer and not fit to be king.”
Okay, that was a bit blunt and to the point, and not at all what they’d discussed him saying. Connor glanced at Nik and reset his footing. Nik agreed, the kid needed to keep to script or he was going to get his head bitten off before he made his point.
The cavern erupted in growls and hisses from all angles.
Gale’s eyes narrowed. “You better have proof to back that up, boy.”
Joe quaked inside, but stood his ground. “When the dragons took flight for the Seventeen Year, Gale and his sentries knocked Elor from the sky.”
A collective growl rumbled the room. The section of yellowish-gold dragons clawed at their perches.
Gale sneered. “Ridiculous. Stand back. Your adolescent foolishness will only stay my patience for so long.”
Joe pointed to the gilded dragons. “The golds had a strong contender this Seventeen Year, and the grays knew they couldn’t outfly him.” He turned to Gale. “Elor barely made it past the leveling range before no less than seven adult grays set upon him.” He reached into his backpack and withdrew a long, dark claw. “This was found lodged in Elor’s corpse before Gale’s sentries burned the evidence.” He pointed the claw at Gale. “Missing something?”
Gale fisted his right hand and drew it behind his back, hiding his missing digit from the dragons overhead. His eyes flashed. “Enough. If you are going to challenge, do it so I can finally disembowel you.”
Like the asshole wouldn’t have done so earlier, had he seen the chance, but here, at what Joe had just turned into a dragon version of court, there were rules that even their dictator-king needed to follow.
Joe handed the torch to Connor, his eyes not leaving his opponent. “I challenge in the name of the crystal dragons, and Draconic law.” He pointed at Anna, careful to keep Gale fixed in his sights.
Nik looked at her for him and sent Joe calming thoughts that she was okay, that they’d gotten to her in time. The last thing his boss needed was to be worried about the girl, when there was a larger, seething problem a few feet away, gunning for blood.
“The female is mine,” Joe continued, “and your life is forfeit to the golds in exchange for the future you stole from them.”
Yup, all those years of being forced to study Draconic law, what he thought were just boring fictional tomes, had paid off. He’d been able to help Joe and Connor craft the perfect speech to rally the rest of the dragons to their cause. He wasn’t sure about those above, but the golds shifted and scratched their perches, their eyes reddened in what could only be fury.
Joe took a gutsy step forward. “Your reign is over.”
Gale roared, the sound echoing through the compartment as if he’d taken dragon form, but it was a human fist that swung at Joe. Boss tried to duck, but Gale’s fist skidded across his jaw. Joe hit the ground, and bounced to his feet before Gale landed on him. They rolled, Joe squirming away, using his slight stature to his advantage as he evaded Gale’s flailing fists.
Connor swayed slowly beside Nik, his hands clasping and unclasping. His movement mirrored the swaying anticipation of the dragons above. It must be killing Connor, not being able to shift and bite Gale’s head off to be done with this.
Joe skirted a blow, but Gale countered with a hook that landed on Joe’s injured side. Boss huffed out a breath and fell to his knees, wheezing as he held his side.
Nik’s breath hitched as Joe’s pain rolled over him, stinging as burning as if he’s taken the blow himself. Gale hissed, kicking Joe’s injury repeatedly until the kid stopped fighting.
Nik dropped to one knee. His lungs seized. His chest stung.
A smug grin covered Gale’s face as he dragged Joe up by the hair.
“Enough.” Connor yanked Joe out of Gale’s grip.
The boy sprawled across the floor, lifeless beneath the ledge holding the growling and hissing gold dragons. Nik cringed as the ribbon of energy floating between him and Joe blinked out, then eased back like a tired ooze. Boss was alive, but just barely.
Connor hazarded a glance at Nik, his nose flaring.
Jarred by the sudden attention, Nik slid toward Joe and grabbed his boss’s backpack. The drumming of the gold’s talons pounded louder beneath their perch, echoing off the stone walls.
“
Boss!” He pulled Joe up and leaned him against the wall. “Don’t give up on us now. We’ve got that bastard right where we want him.”
Yeah, right. Even playing nice in human form, Gale still had the power of a dragon, while Connor and Joe were injured, and Nik was just, well, Nik.
He rummaged through the pack until he found the jar of salve Tyler had made out of the dragon venom. Shaking, he poured the thick black liquid over Joe’s bare, bleeding side. Nick was no doctor, but the gapping red wound didn’t look good.
The venom sizzled over the blood.
Nope, not good at all.
Connor shuffled his feet, keeping himself between Gale and Joe. His muscles stretched against his plaid shirt, as if his dragon form lay just below the surface, waiting to spring free.
“Ah, Quenor.” Gale’s smile was the stuff of nightmares. “You know, several dragons called you out as a contender this year. What you lack in girth, you even out with strength, yet you didn’t use this to your advantage. I find this puzzling.”
Gale tried to circle him, but Connor kept pace, keeping himself the only thing defending Joe’s unconscious form. He’d have to get through Nik too, of course. Nik tried his best to not think about the possibility of Gale tearing out his meager human innards and throwing his lifeless body to the side before slamming a killing blow against the defenseless kid in his arms.
He stiffened. No. Not on his watch. He unscrewed the lid from the second potion.
“Why would I stand out as a contender, when that would only put a target on my tail?” Connor said.
That’s it, bro, keep that psychotic reptile talking. Nik tilted Joe’s head back and opened the kid’s slack mouth, pouring the potion between his lips. He hoped Joe was cognizant enough to swallow.
Gale’s snicker radiated through the room, which had grown strangely quiet. “So you took up with the runt.”
Sirens and Scales Page 373
