As she drifted off to sleep, she had thought about her life and all the men she had been with. She’d had sex with a number of them, and couldn’t ever remember being lonely. But then she realized that wasn’t really true. She had never really made time for any of them to be anything more than casual. She had actually been deeply lonely, just so focused on her work that she never had time to admit it to herself.
But ever since she had bumped into Vander that night outside her office, her life had changed forever. The idea of returning to her world and even to her work seemed ridiculous now. She had fused with some ancient technology, giving her powers she didn’t fully understand yet. And as Vander had said, she was now the bearer of the trident. She hadn’t quite wrapped her head around that, either.
Most of all, she had finally fallen in love. She had traveled incredibly far to rescue him. But actually, he had been the one to rescue her. She just hadn't realized how empty her life had been.
She vowed to make up for that, and there was no time like the present.
Brynn rolled onto her side, feeling the brush of the silk against her bare nipples, making them tighten. She looked at him, lying there asleep, his long blond hair splayed out around his head on the pillow. The orange glow of the sun made his flesh look bronze, like the sleeping statue of some long-ago hero. But he wasn’t from long ago. He was here beside her, and Brynn still couldn’t believe it.
She reached out and slid her hand across his muscular chest, feeling it rise and fall as he breathed deeply. She moved under the sheets, climbing on top of him as carefully as she could.
Whatever the fish women had put him through, he was even more exhausted than her. He had fallen asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. But the time for sleeping was over. They’d both gotten enough rest, at least for now. She wanted him, and it was time to finally show each other exactly how they felt.
She straddled his muscular body, hovering over him and watching him sleep. Brynn smiled and used one hand to reach down under the sheets between his legs. Her hand brushed against the soft curls there and found the length of him, her fingers sliding around him.
She squeezed gently, and his breath quickened, his eyes fluttering before squinting up at her. When he saw her naked and on top of him, feeling her hand, he blinked, his mouth widening into a grin.
“Am I still asleep?” he asked. “Is this a dream?”
“I don’t know,” she said, squeezing him a little harder, then gently sliding her fingers up and down. “Does it feel like one?”
He reached up and around with both hands to cup her bottom. “If so, it is the best dream I have ever had.”
She leaned down and kissed him. As she did, she began to stroke him more, delighted to feel him harden fully in her hand. She sat back up and smiled as he admired her breasts.
“Let’s see if we can make it even better,” she said, sidling her hips down to position herself. She was slick and hungry between her legs, aching to feel him inside her.
Their eyes locked. She lifted him straight up and into her as she slid down onto him. Brynn closed her eyes and tilted her head back, letting out a sound somewhere between a sigh and a moan.
Vander groaned as well, pushing himself up into her as she withdrew her hand. He felt incredible. Less than a week had passed since she’d met him, but it felt like eons, and the entire time she had ached for this moment.
Brynn put her palms on his chest, spreading her fingers. Then she pushed against him to lift herself, feeling him slide almost all the way out of her before she let herself fall back down on him.
She opened her eyes and looked down at him while she did it again, falling into a beautiful rhythm. She gazed into his green eyes, dazed with pleasure, his mouth open as he began to breathe harder. She became lost in his eyes as they moved together, his hands cupping her, guiding her up and down, squeezing her flesh.
Brynn felt her breasts bobbing with the rhythm, her nipples taut and sensitive. Vander sat up and took one of them in his mouth, his teeth gently grazing the tip.
God, it felt good. She’d never felt anything like this, not with any of the men she’d ever been with. And it wasn’t just because there was a dragon hidden away inside him, though that definitely didn’t hurt. No, it was because she felt something for him she’d never felt for anyone else. Something she’d never let herself feel for anyone else. She loved him, deeply and truly, with every cell in her body.
She was gliding up and down on him now, slowly and strongly, feeling the sweet ache of him pulling nearly all the way out before filling her up all over again.
She lifted her hands from his chest and raked them through his thick, blond hair. It was dry now, but she could feel the specks of salt and sand from their time undersea. She ran her fingers through his hair and across his scalp as he kissed the tip of her breast.
Then she felt it, like a giant wave looming on the horizon. She tried to brace herself, but the pleasure smashed into her, making her lose any semblance of self-control or rational thought.
Brynn arched her back, squeezed her eyes shut, and cried out. It felt so good it almost hurt, pure ecstasy blooming up through her belly, through her chest, and lighting her mind on fire. She clenched her fingers, digging into his scalp, and some faraway part of her hoped she wasn’t hurting him. But in that moment she couldn't control herself.
It was like traveling through the portal that had brought her here, only instead of feeling disoriented, all she felt was distilled joy. And instead of the destination being a place, the end of the journey was him.
She shuddered, squeezing tears out of the sides of her eyes. Then she opened them and blinked the wetness away. She slid her hands down to his jaw and lifted his face, then leaned in to kiss him.
His mouth was warm and wet, and he kissed her back greedily. She was already on the other side, but he was still building up.
Brynn let out a little squeal of surprise as Vander moved his hands to her hips and lifted her up in the air, tossing her beside him on the bed. Then he moved on top of her, and she saw only lust and longing in his eyes. No man had ever looked at her with such hunger.
She felt his hand like warm steel on her inner thigh, pushing her legs open. Then she felt the blunt tip of him pushing inside. He began to thrust, and though she had already reached the height of her pleasure, she relished the feel of him working towards his own.
He picked up the pace, putting his face next to hers. She felt his cheek upon hers, his hot panting breath in her ear. The full weight of him was on top of her, pressing down upon her. But it felt good, comforting and strong. He was taking what he wanted, and all he wanted was her.
She could have slipped inside his mind at that moment, but now that they were together, that felt wrong. They had grown so close now that she didn’t need to use that ability to know what he was thinking.
He groaned, his body tensing, and then he cried out as well, a loud yell that echoed off the walls. She felt him let go inside her, his warmth filling her. Together they had been loud enough to let the entire palace hear, as well as all the wildlife in the jungle outside. But she didn’t care.
Vander slid from her, lifting his head to look into her eyes before kissing her long and deep. She instantly missed the feel of him inside her, but even that ache was sweet.
He rolled off to lay beside her, putting his hand on her belly. “Never have I met a woman such as you,” he said. “You will be my queen, will you not?”
She took a deep breath. She didn’t know what that would mean, what her life would be like here. But in that moment she knew she couldn’t go back to her old home or her old life. Whatever the dangers and responsibilities, she was ready for them. Or so she thought. There was just one thing, though.
“I’ll be whatever you want me to,” she said. “But isn’t there already a queen?”
“I believe the marriage was annulled once she tried to have me killed,” he said, smiling ruefully. “I shall make it official once I
find her. Then Hywin can bind us together, and—”
He looked away, a worried expression in his eyes.
“What is it?” Brynn asked.
“Hywin,” he said. “I have not seen her since we returned.” He slid from the bed, pulling one of the sheets with him and wrapping it around his waist. Then he walked to the door and opened it. She heard him talking to a guard outside, and blushed a little at the memory of their noisy lovemaking.
She didn’t catch everything he said, but he was shaking his head with a little smile on his lips as he walked back to the bed.
“She will not be pleased,” he said.
“Where was she?”
“Nevra had her thrown in a cage for helping you escape,” he said. “She’s been there the whole time.”
“Oh no,” Brynn said. The woman had helped her escape, and now she felt a little guilty for napping and waking up to the best sex of her life while Hywin had been in a cage all this time. She hoped she was all right, and that the sounds hadn’t carried high up to the bamboo prison.
“She will be fine,” he said. “The guards are going to set her free right now.”
“Good,” Brynn said. “I owe her one. So do you.”
Vander smiled, standing at the foot of the bed and stretching. “Are you hungry?”
She was. Actually, now that she thought about it, she was downright ravenous. She nodded.
“Good,” he said. “Food is being brought up.”
She looked out the open window at the orange sky, still not sure whether it was morning or dusk. She opened her mouth to ask, but then decided that for the moment she really didn’t care. That uncertainty fit her mood perfectly.
She saw the trident leaning against the wall with its weird inner iridescence, and she thought of the entity that had melded with her. She had no idea what was going to happen in the days ahead, though she intended to tell Vander everything. The one thing she knew for certain was how she felt about him, and she didn’t want any secrets between them, even though she suspected he might already know something.
“Is everything all right?” he asked. She turned to look at him standing there at the foot of the bed in his gleaming green armor. His murderous wife was still at large. There was supposedly some even more dangerous threat looming in the world. And she barely knew her way around this strange world. But—
“Yeah,” she said. “Everything is great.” And that was true. She was happier than she’d ever been in her life. “Now why don’t you peel that suit off and get back into bed with me?”
EPILOGUE
The blood of three must forge the key.
That’s what the swamp witch had said, not long before Nevra had melted the old crone’s head away with her black dragon breath. But not before she had gotten all the information she had needed.
The three in question were owlfolk. Not just any owls, but descendants of those who had imprisoned Vish’Kazir so very long ago. They had bound him with their magic, and now only their blood could set him free.
Nevra lay on the crimson silk cushion in the mountain chamber, looking across the room at where the owls now hung. It had taken her weeks to hunt them all down and bring them here, and now they hung by their feet, their heads just above the red stone floor. Their hands were bound behind them with razor silk, rawhide gags filling their mouths.
After all, she couldn’t have them working any last-minute sorcery to thwart her plans. There had been enough thwarting of her plans.
She drew the knife from the scabbard at her belt, admiring the blade. She had taken it from her father’s study without telling him just before they had set out for the Emerald Isle. Nevra had considered it her father’s wedding gift to her, in lieu of the one she knew he would not give. It was an ancient dagger, and when she was younger, when he had actually shown affection towards her, he had told her a few things about it. The blade was white, but as she turned it in the torchlight, she could see shimmering undertones of red, as if living blood were running through it. Her father had said it was made of dragonbone, from a line of dragons that no longer existed. He had also said it was the sharpest blade in the world.
She had confirmed that herself, even before she had hunted down the owls. There was one rune on the face of Vish’Kazir’s prison, larger than the rest. Nevra had found a place on the stone floor of the chamber lower than the rest, a smooth indentation like a bowl inset into the floor. In the center of it she had carved the shape of the rune. She was no crafter and had never done such a thing in her life. Yet it was as if some unseen force had guided her hand. For when she was finished with the carving, the grooves in the stone perfectly matched the shape on the demon’s metal box.
Nevra reached to a pile of demon dust she had poured onto the floor beside the cushion, taking a pinch and snorting it up with her right nostril. A bloom of fire lit up her mind. She smiled and eyed the owls, wondering which she would do first. They were all in human form, bound with rune-marked sashes that kept them from transforming into birds. The youngest, the only male, squirmed against his bonds.
Nevra took another pinch of dust for courage and stood. Yes, he would be first. She still wasn’t sure this was the right course of action, but it was the only one left to her. And her raw ambition had taken hold of her like a dark fever. There was no going back now.
She walked to where the owls hung upside down and knelt before the male. She grabbed him by the hair, pulling down to hold his head still. His eyes were wide with fear, and he tried to shake his head, but she held it fast.
Nevra extended the tip of the dragonbone knife, putting the tip in the center of his forehead. Then she turned the handle, hearing the scrape of bone as she bored a tiny hole through his skull. The rawhide gag muffled his screams as she stood to admire her handiwork.
Blood trickled out of the small hole in his forehead, dripping down into the stone basin beneath, pooling in the carved outline of the rune.
“Stop,” she heard a raspy voice say, and turned to see that the old woman’s gag had come loose. “This is madness. He’ll destroy our world. He’ll destroy you. He’ll—”
Nevra knelt down and stuffed the gag back into the old woman’s mouth. “That was foolish,” she said. “You should have used your breath to try to cast a spell, perhaps free yourself. A pity.”
She reached out and grabbed the old woman’s head, holding her while she drilled a tiny hole in the center of her forehead. The old woman didn’t scream, a small disappointment. But Nevra did enjoy seeing her face go pale as the life drained from her onto the floor, joining the other in pooling at the bottom where the rune was now nearly filled.
The last owl, a young woman with white hair, merely closed her eyes as if in meditation. She did not struggle or scream as Nevra did to her what she had done to the others. Her blood joined the stream, trickling down into the basin, and Nevra stood and stepped back.
She wondered if this had all been some fool’s errand, whether with her dying words the swamp witch had tricked her. Or perhaps the instructions had been true, but she had missed some crucial step. Just as she was no crafter, she was no sorceress, either.
But just as these thoughts were running through her mind, she watched in amazement as the blood-filled rune began to glow. The emanation was not light, but somehow the opposite, soaking up what little light there was in the chamber and making everything darker.
Nevra knelt down for a closer look and saw the blood in the rune solidify into what looked like a black key, pushing up out of the floor with the sound of scraping stone.
She reached out and touched it, feeling a sick wave of nausea ripple through her. And for the last time, she felt that nagging doubt. Then she thought of all the power that would be hers, how she would rule at the side of the demon as his queen. And she thought of the look on her father’s face as she put him out of his misery.
Nevra turned from the hanging bodies, none of which were moving any longer. Holding the key firmly in her fist, she headed f
or the inner chamber, the prison room that had held Vish’Kazir for eons.
It will hold him no longer, she thought, slipping inside the tiny room, her eyes looking up to the shiny metal box.
He said nothing, but she could feel him waiting, so hungry for release. She lifted the key, stretching over the pit.
I could just let it go, she thought, let the key fall into that endless abyss. Then I could leave. I could return home. Father would take me back, even after all I’ve done.
I am you father now, the demon’s deep whisper said in her mind. And your master and your king. Release me.
She could not resist the power of that voice. She felt her hand reach out, the tip of the key shakily moving to the rune in the center of the box, now glowing a deep, dark purple.
The rune sucked the key out of her hand so that it disappeared inside, and she let out a cry of surprise, snatching her hand back. Then she watched as the box unfolded, the space around it warping. Her mind hurt just looking at it. The way it moved defied all laws of motion and common sense.
But within a few seconds the box was gone, leaving only a shiny black ball in its place. It looked like a sphere of shiny oil, and she watched as it grew, then uncurled into a human-like form.
Arms, legs, and a head extended from the body, and then he was there, floating above the pit, fully formed. He was naked, his skin like hot shimmering tar. His solid black eyes shone with an ancient cunning from under the jutting brow of his shiny bald head.
Vish’Kazir grinned, showing rows of sharp black teeth. His body was powerful and perfect. She admired it as he hung there, arms outstretched, relishing his long-awaited freedom. Her eyes wandered between his legs and what hung there, frightened and exhilarated at the thought of him using it on her.
“You have done well, my child,” he said, his deep voice now resonating throughout the chamber.
Dragon Green Page 17
