by Alisa Woods
Leonidas scowled. I’ve tried a hundred times—
“Not with this level of magic.” Leksander had a gleam in his eye.
What are you talking about? But Leonidas sat up a little in his spot leaned against the wall.
“Your curse was born of love and death. Ancient magic.” Leksander was stroking his chin, thinking. Leonidas’s hopes lifted, probably cruelly, because there was no way his brother could conjure a solution to this. Could he? “Now you’re in love—with a witch—and also facing death. More ancient magic. There has to be some way to connect it. Some way to cancel out the curse by redeeming yourself with this witch.” He snapped his fingers and pointed one at Leonidas. “That’s it! That’s why you’re drawn to her. She has to be connected to Meridi.”
The original witch who cursed him? What in the name of magic—
“Witches live a long time.”
Not that long. Leonidas scowled at him. What was Leksander after?
“You said she was a purebred witch, right? And a powerful one. There just aren’t that many covens, and there have only been a few generations of witches between now and then. There’s a decent chance she’s actually descended from Meridi—or at least related to her. In a broader, more ancient sense, all witches are sisters. And if that’s true…”
You think she could connect to the curse. Leonidas shook his head. How could that be?
“It’s possible. If you can redeem what you did to Meridi by making it up to Rosalyn, then maybe, just maybe... you can break the curse.”
Leonidas rose to his feet. A rush to his head made it feel like it was floating. But I already love her. That’s what Meridi wanted, and Rosalyn has it.
“There has to be more to it,” Leksander insisted. “What else did you fail to do? What triggered the whole curse in the first place?”
Leonidas frowned and flexed his talons, searching his memories. They were seared into his mind like it was just yesterday that he was wrapped up in Meridi’s arms in bed… and watching her die. He squeezed his eyes shut, focusing, trying to remember… he snapped his head up. She wanted to be a witch. But it didn’t work out. Holy fuck…
“What?” Leksander demanded.
Rosalyn’s magic is broken… or at least, she’s untrained. Untapped. She’s powerful, but she wasn’t raised in a coven, so she hasn’t been able to access her power. He was pacing the cave again now, and he nearly grabbed Leksander by the shoulders with his razor-sharp talons, stopping at the last second. I have to fix that. Get her into a coven but make sure that this time she comes into her powers. Not like Meridi.
Leksander was nodding furiously. “Then the curse will break! Then you can win her as a man, just as you would have, eventually, I’m sure of it, my brother. Your time was just cut short by the curse is all.” Hope was alive on his brother’s face.
Leonidas wasn’t sure he shared it or believed this would break the curse. But if he could do this for Rosalyn, help her in a way that no one else could… he might win her love. That had been his plan all along. Find the darkness inside and heal it so he could win her heart. Only now that he loved her, only the first part—healing her—truly mattered to him. Maybe he would win her love. Maybe it would break the curse. But it would definitely give the woman who had captured his heart what she needed most of all. And that was a thing worth doing in this small reprieve of time he had been granted. Retaining his mind while wyvern—maybe it was a sign. Maybe it was the curse’s way of giving him a chance to atone for what he had done to Meridi. Before it was too late.
Leksander was waiting for his response.
I’ll need a guard at all times. Leonidas was sure of this. He would take no risks with Rosalyn’s safety. I can’t be alone with her, Leksander. Just in case my wyvern decides his time has come.
“Understood.” His eyes were suddenly alive with the possibility.
Leonidas waved his taloned claw and wiped away the wards meant to hold his wyvern prisoner. Then we have no time to waste.
He took a running leap and flew out of his tomb.
Rosalyn was still twitchy with nerves.
The lavish guest apartment in the keep was huge, more than big enough for her, her mom, and Cinaed, her dragon bodyguard, to keep their distance from one another. Rosalyn kept returning to the two-story windows in the great room, gazing at the mountains and resplendent forest below, waiting to see an ominous bronze dragon winging its way back.
Looking for her. Coming to kill her.
Her mom had disappeared into the back, reading one of those romances she liked to take her mind off things, and Cinaed was busy on his phone on the couch. Rosalyn was the only one keeping vigil by the windows. It had been hours since Leonidas had turned into a freakish dragon-beast—a wyvern, as his brother Lucian called it—but the whole affair still had her rattled. She understood all about curses and the power they had to wreck lives, so the fact that she had triggered Leonidas’s curse, even unintentionally, was an open sore of regret. She hadn’t meant for him to fall in love—she hadn’t meant for any of this to hurt him—but she still felt the weight of responsibility bearing down on her, like a favorite toy broken in the heat of an argument. Even with his wild beast bent on killing her, she couldn’t shrug off that smothering sense of it being her fault. That he’d fallen in love with her made it worse—how awful to be cursed into trying to kill someone just because you loved them?
Whoever cursed him was one fucked up witch.
Rosalyn had experience with those as well.
Simply the idea that Leonidas had fallen in love with her left her feeling… uneasy. She’d never had someone love her before, other than her mom of course. It felt odd. Uncomfortable. Like a beautiful fur coat she hadn’t asked for but couldn’t deny it was a lovely gift.
Most of all, it perplexed her.
There was a sizzling heat between them, and she liked him well enough—a lot, even. He was sweet and caring, and that whole thing with giving her his blood and saving her from the coven and then the vampire… Leonidas Smoke was a great guy. But love? They had just met! And slept together one night—although granted, it was a long night, and they’d had sex just about every way she could imagine and several that surprised her. But falling in love already? It seemed a little crazy. Yet, Leonidas’s love had to be real—apparently, the curse would only trigger if he truly loved her.
She heard a soft rustle of carpet behind her.
“It’s getting late,” Cinaed said as he eased up to her side. “Lucian’s deploying more members of the House to search for him before it gets dark. Don’t worry—we won’t let him get to you.”
She turned away from the forest, tinted rose by the setting sun, and faced the hot dragon serving as her bodyguard. His green eyes were dazzling, and he had a little Irish accent that made his growly voice even sexier. But she didn’t have the automatic attraction to him like she did with Leonidas. No sizzling flush across her skin and heating her lady parts even when they weren’t touching.
Was that the extra thing which made him fall in love so fast?
“Why me, Cinaed?” she asked him.
“Pardon?” He frowned at her, glancing out the window.
“Why not one of the other girls?” she elaborated. “Why pick me among the dozens? And then keep me around long enough to fall in love?” That she didn’t understand at all. She knew why she had tried so hard to get close to him—it was a con the whole way. Until it wasn’t anymore. But what was his real story in this?
Cinaed gave her a quizzical look. “Didn’t he tell you? About the treaty?”
She bit her lip, trying to remember his exact words. “He said I had to love him for the baby to work and to fulfill the treaty. Something about True Love being magic, and we couldn’t just, you know, make a baby without it.”
Cinaed’s eyes went wide, and he leaned back a little. “You were going to go through with the sealing even though you didn’t love him?” The confusion on his face was almost comical.
Cinaed just shook his head and kept giving her looks of astonishment. Finally, he said, “Okay, well, you should know, I suppose. I mean, at this point…” He vaguely gestured to the windows as if to say everything was screwed now with Leonidas gone wyvern. Which seemed bad, she had to admit, but she got the sense there were many levels of epic-bad things going on here, and she had just scratched the surface.
“I need to know everything,” she said to Cinaed.
“Right.” He gave a short nod. “So you know about the treaty, right?”
“Leonidas has to mate with a woman who truly, magically, all-the-way-in loves him. And then make a dragonling. Then the treaty renews… or something something something… that’s where I’m a little fuzzy.”
He scowled. “That something is the safety of the mortal world. The human world. The treaty was forged long ago with deep and ancient magic. I can tell you all the history of the Houses of dragon and the Summer and Winter Courts of the fae—”
“Fae?” she interrupted him. “As in faeries?”
“As in dark, malevolent, powerful fae assholes who like to conjure demons and mess with humans just for fun.” He flicked another nervous look out the window and moved her away from it. “There’s a whole history to it, but the upshot is this: the reason why you’ve never heard of the fae before now is because the treaty prevents them from interfering in the human world. For ten thousand years, the House of Smoke has kept the treaty intact by always spawning a new dragonling to carry on the line according to the terms—tapping once again the deep and ancient magic of True Love—but now I’m afraid we’re in uncharted waters. If Leonidas is truly lost…” He gazed back at the window with a look of sadness that wrenched Rosalyn’s heart.
And churned her stomach. “I really screwed this up, didn’t I?” She chewed her lip.
Cinaed’s expression softened. “How could you have known?”
“I knew I wasn’t honest with him.” She lied and now what? Was the world going to be invaded by evil fae? Fuck. She didn’t even know what that really meant. “But I don’t understand, Cinaed—why didn’t he just go for one of the other girls? I mean, he knew I was lying all the way along. He said so. If this was so critically important, why didn’t he kick me to the curb and go after someone serious about this mating thing?”
Cinaed shook his head, dropped his gaze, and seemed to measure his words before speaking them. Then he held up a hand and ticked off fingers. “First, mating isn’t easy for dragons—any dragon, but especially for princes of the House of Smoke. It’s dangerous for the woman—initially, a painful dragonfire sealing to prepare her body to carry the dragonling, and then a pregnancy during which they’re creating an immortal being from fiery magic. Many women and dragonlings do not survive. For the princes, due to the treaty, it’s even worse—their mates have to possess a True Love, during the sealing and all through the pregnancy. Never faltering. Never a doubt. The slightest waver of that True Love and the magic of the pregnancy will be disrupted. Both mother and baby will perish. The prince must have thought you were the most likely to survive.”
“Holy shit, Cinaed.” She was aghast. She’d almost signed up for that without knowing. Would Leonidas have told her of the risks? But she guessed he did—at least, he told her it wouldn’t even work because he knew she didn’t love him. Which still made her cringe. It kind of freaked her out that he could know something like that. Love and magic together were blowing her mind.
Cinaed was running both hands through his hair. “I know. I can hardly stand the thought of it myself, believe me. I love my Rachel, but can I even ask something like this of her?”
“So, Rachel’s not your mate?” Rosalyn had met the petite woman just briefly, when she and Cinaed were hustling Rosalyn and her mom into the apartment and getting them settled.
“I wish for it, believe me. More than anything.” Cinaed grimaced. “But she’s seen what the queen went through to bring young prince Larik into the world. She hasn’t said as much, but I see it in her eyes. The fear of it. At least with Rachel, the danger is not so great. I believe she loves me, but that love isn’t technically required. She won’t die if it wavers. Not like with the mate of a prince of the House of Smoke.”
“That’s awful.” Her heart twinged again for Leonidas. How many ways could this guy be screwed when it came to love? Not that her life was any picnic in that regard, but holy fuck. At least, people weren’t dying over it. Well, not anymore, now that Leonidas had saved her mother with his blood. She turned her grimace to the brazen reds and oranges of the sunset outside the window. “Will they kill him when they find him?” She swallowed. This whole thing just sucked so badly, there really weren’t words for it.
“He’s gone mad, my lady.” Cinaed’s voice was soft and near. “It’ll be a mercy.”
She turned to him again, throat closing up. “I didn’t mean… I never wanted… Oh, Cinaed.” Tears threatened her eyes, so she ducked her head.
His arms were around her in a heartbeat. It was a brotherly hug, the kind that said he would hold her as long as she needed. It reminded her of that first time Leonidas held her that way—so tender and kind-hearted. Sweet magic, were all dragons this way? How had she never met men like this before?
She moved away, and he released her. She wiped the tears out of her eyes.
He was watching her intently. “It’s not your fault, Rosalyn,” he said softly. “You have to understand—my prince has never been in love. You are his first. It’s the curse that makes it also his last. But you…” He dipped his head to peer in her eyes and gave her a small smile. “He told me you annoyed the crap out of him.”
She huffed a laugh. It helped chase away the tears. “I can be that way.”
He arched an eyebrow. “That was when I first started to truly worry for him. My prince’s whole life has been a tragedy, but if, at the very end, he could feel a little of what I feel for my Rachel…” A gentle expression overtook his face. “It’s a gift you gave him, my lady. Don’t regret it.”
That just brought the tears rushing back. She stared hard out the windows to keep them from gushing out. “It’s not fair, Cinaed. Horribly, awfully, so-fucked-up not fair.”
“I know, my lady.”
“I wish there were some way to…” She turned back to him. “I may not be in love with him, but he’s a good man. He deserves better than this.”
“Aye, my lady.” His eyes sparkled a little. “What did you have in mind?”
She just blinked. Because she didn’t have anything in mind… but why not? Why wait for them to just hunt down Leonidas like an animal? If magic had turned him wyvern, maybe magic could undo it. She should work on trying to save him… just as he saved her.
She narrowed her eyes at her dragon bodyguard. “You’re a tricky one, Cinaed.”
He looked like he was holding back a smile. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She playfully punched his shoulder, and it jarred his smile loose. Then she scowled at him and ran a hand over her face. What could she do? “He was cursed by a witch, right?”
Cinaed nodded. “It was forged at the moment of her death. And she loved him. Death and Love are both powerful and ancient magic.”
“And I’ve got junk for magic,” Rosalyn said. “But some of the most powerful witches in the country are right here in Seattle. And I know them. Well, technically, I’m related to them.”
Cinaed nodded in a knowing way. “That’s not always the same thing.” There seemed to be a story behind that—but she knew what he meant. Family could betray you just as easily as anyone.
Rosalyn pursed her lips. “You got that right.” But could she really do this? “I’ve still got a purse filled with dragon blood, and if you came with me…” She looked to him for a sign that he was game.
He tipped his head. “I’ll not be leaving your side, my lady.”
“Then let’s see if we can break this fucking curse before it’s too late.” She turned to scurry out of the great room and down the hallway to let her mom know she’d be stepping out. Just going for a walk or something—she’d absolutely have to lie through her teeth about this.
Because she was going to see her father, one of the most powerful witches in Seattle.
Leonidas’s talons screeched on the granite flooring of the keep.
His wyvern form was big and bulky and lumbering as he clomped down the hallway. Leksander walked just ahead of him, because even with Leonidas’s wings folded, they brushed against the walls. He had to duck his head, bobbing at the end of his serpentine neck, to keep it from banging on the ceiling.
This is probably a terrible idea, Leonidas sent the thought to his brother marching in front of him.
“Probably.” Leksander looked back over his shoulder. “You have a better one?”
Leonidas didn’t bother to respond.
Two dragons from his House—Rynor and Kerik—ran around a corner up ahead, their boots marring the floor as they slammed to a stop, mouths gaping at Leonidas’s wyvern form stalking down the hall.
Their talons came out, but they didn’t shift the rest of the way. “My liege?” Rynor asked Leksander, a slight panic in his voice.
His brother waved them back. “The prince still has his wits. Leave us—this business doesn’t concern you.”
They just stood and stared as Leonidas lurched past them, his long tail dragging and scraping the floor. They jumped back to avoid the random flicking of it, not to mention the bronze spikes at the tip. Leonidas did have his right mind about him, but that tail… it seemed to have a mind of its own. Like his wyvern, just waiting at the periphery for its time to come out.
He was taking a terrible chance with this—going to Rosalyn, when he already knew his dragon had bonded with her, which meant his wyvern would lust after her like no other woman on earth. Would just being near her put an end to him?
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