Smoke and Fire

by Donna Grant

  “Do you still have someone following you?” Balladyn asked.

  Rhi stopped herself from glancing to the side to her watcher just in time. She regretted telling Balladyn about him now. Maybe Rhi was wrong, but she didn’t think her watcher meant her any harm.

  “No. I think I was being paranoid.”

  Balladyn’s red eyes narrowed as he closed the tome in his hand and gently set it down as he stared at her. “You’ve never been paranoid.”

  “True,” she said with a shrug. “Then again, I’ve never left the Queen’s Guard and told Usaeil off either.”

  For a long moment Balladyn watched her before he gave a nod. “Perhaps you’re right. As long as you don’t have that same feeling anymore.”

  “I don’t.”

  “There’s that, at least.” He closed more books and gathered a few in his arms before he walked to the cases and began to shelve them away. “Do you feel better about seeing the passage?”

  Rhi sank into the high-backed chair that looked as if it had come right out of the Renaissance period and sighed. “I wish I could say yes.”

  “I tried to warn you.”

  “How do we find the rest?”

  Balladyn glanced at her over his shoulder as he put away the last book in his hand. He turned and walked back to the table and gathered more books. “Did you not hear me when I said my library was more extensive than any Fae’s?”

  “I did actually.”

  “Then you’ll understand when I say I’ve been through each of my books. Twice. There’s nothing else. Perhaps whoever was leaving the messages was stopped by the Reapers.”

  Rhi looked to where her watcher stood. “That’s definitely a possibility.”

  “But you don’t think so.” Balladyn gave a little shake of his head and grinned as he returned to putting away the books.

  Rhi observed him for a moment. “You do have a nice collection. But is it every book?”

  “No one even knows how many books there are. Most of what I acquired was pillaged from the Fae realm after the Light left. Many I couldn’t get to because some Dark destroyed them.”

  “I need to find the rest of the message.”

  Balladyn paused while shelving a book. He slid it into place and laid the remaining books in his hands on a shelf as he turned to her. “Why? Why is this so important to you?”

  “I wish I could explain, but I don’t understand it myself. It’s something I have to do.”

  He strode to her, pulling her to her feet. “Don’t. It doesn’t matter what the rest of the message says. It’s enough of the warning at the beginning. Don’t meddle with these Reapers, Rhi.”

  “So you admit they’re here.”

  He sighed and dropped his arms. “I never said they weren’t.”

  “Have you seen one?”

  Balladyn looked away, refusing to meet her gaze. That was a cue that he knew something.

  Rhi moved into his line of sight and forced him to meet her gaze. “You know something. Spill.”

  “Rhi,” he began.

  She held up a hand and said, “Eh. Don’t even try. Just tell me what you know.”

  “Dammit,” Balladyn muttered and ran a hand over his jaw. He stared at Rhi for a long stretch of silence. Then he said, “There’s been mention of a Fae seen in Edinburgh with white hair.”

  “Fae?” she asked. “Are you sure?”

  “He has red-rimmed eyes.”

  “Ah. That’s definitely a Fae. I’ve never heard of a Dark having such coloring.”

  Balladyn crossed his arms over his chest. “Neither have we. It’s bothering Taraeth as well, though he’s trying to hide it. I believe the white-haired Fae could be a Reaper.”

  “Maybe we should try and find him.”

  “No!” Balladyn shouted.

  Rhi jumped, because at the same time she felt her watcher come up behind her. “Okay,” she said, drawing out the word, waiting for both men to calm down.

  It took Balladyn longer than her watcher.

  “Rhi, I gave you this information because I thought it would stop whatever you were thinking of doing. Don’t use it to do something reckless.”

  She smiled at that. “Come with me, then.”

  Balladyn’s arms dropped to his sides as he blew out a breath. “I wish I could.”

  “You can. Leave all this behind.”

  “I can’t. I’m going to rule the Dark.”

  Rhi smiled tightly. It hurt that he chose the Dark over her.

  “I can do much for the Dark,” Balladyn explained.

  Rhi touched his face. “They’re Dark. They’re evil. What is there to do?”

  “I’m Dark.”

  “You don’t have to be.”

  He gave her a confused look. “This is who I am, Rhi. I thought you understood that.”

  She certainly did now. “Yeah.”

  “Stay,” he urged her when she turned around.

  Rhi turned and blew him a kiss. “I’ll see you soon, lover.”

  She veiled herself and exited his room, hurrying to the Fae doorway that would take her out of the compound. Rhi didn’t breathe easily until she’d stepped through. As soon as she saw she was in Cork, she teleported out—to Edinburgh.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Ryder wanted to stay just where he was. It didn’t matter that the floor was hard, because Kinsey was in his arms. Something had happened when they made love. He felt certain that she would open her heart to him again.

  But there was so much hanging over their heads. Until he could show absolute proof of her innocence, everyone at Dreagan would be wondering about her. Ryder didn’t want Kinsey subjected to that in any form.

  He kissed Kinsey’s forehead as she slept. Then he gathered her in his arms and got to his feet. Ryder used his foot to pull back the covers before he lay her down.

  Once she was covered, he gave her a light kiss on the lips. “I’ll be back soon,” he whispered.

  Ryder gathered his clothes. He yanked on his jeans and slid his arms into his shirt, but didn’t fasten either. He grabbed his boots and slipped from the room.

  In the corridor he put on his boots and buckled his pants. It wasn’t until he went to button his shirt that he found himself laughing as he recalled Kinsey yanking it open, popping off the buttons.

  Ryder ran a hand through his hair and left the shirt open as he walked to the computer room. He was at the door when Dmitri walked out and stared at him in surprise.

  “I expected you to take another night off,” Dmitri said.

  Ryder shook his head. “There’s too much going on.”

  “You can say that again. I’m glad you’re here. Most of the e-mails have been decoded.”

  It was the concern in Dmitri’s gaze that alerted Ryder. “How bad is it?”

  “No’ good, my friend.”

  Ryder pushed past him and entered the room. He hurried around the monitors to see Thorn rubbing his eyes before looking back at the screen.

  As soon as Thorn spotted him he said, “Am I ever happy to see you.”

  Ryder sat in his chair and took a few seconds to look at each monitor. MI5 hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary the entire day, which was expected with the weather.

  The facial recognition software had finished scanning Ireland with no sign of Ulrik.

  In more bad news, there were so many shell corporations within shell corporations from Kyvor that Ryder would never be able to find them all—or those involved.

  A smile began to form when he saw an alert on one of the monitors showing a capture from a CCTV of Ulrik outside The Silver Dragon in Perth. At least they knew where Ulrik was now.

  Ryder’s gaze landed on the screen before Thorn with the pictures of every Sam MacDonald who owned a business. He then turned his eyes to Thorn.

  “None of them were Ulrik,” Thorn said, regret and anger filling his voice.

  Damn. That’s not what Ryder wanted to hear. “Esther seems too smart to be fooled by a name
. She’s MI5. She’d check the name and the business.”

  “We’re going to show her a picture of Ulrik and see if he’s Sam MacDonald,” Ryder said. “I doona know how Ulrik is keeping himself so well hidden, but he’s doing a great job of it.”

  Thorn cleared his throat. “You need to read the e-mails your software decrypted from Kyvor.”

  With a touch of a few keys, the folder was open on Ryder’s monitor. He read them from the oldest to the newest. The first, dated five years prior, merely referred to Dreagan without actually naming it. But with each e-mail sent at the middle of each month, it became clear that those at Kyvor were looking into Dreagan and the Dragon Kings.

  What froze Ryder’s blood was when he spotted an e-mail dated the exact month and year he first met Kinsey. He clicked open the e-mail and read in shock.

  “DK #12 has shown interest in a human female. You’ll be delighted to know she works for us—Kinsey Burns. For now I suggest we don’t interfere and see how far the connection goes.”

  Ryder wanted to hit something. No. He wanted to kill whoever this was. It proved that these people had been watching the Kings for far longer than anyone knew.

  All his cameras, all his software and gadgets couldn’t alert him that they were being watched. Not even their dragon magic could do that.

  “Ryder?”

  He blinked and found Thorn looking at him with concern. A glass of whisky was set in front of him. Ryder swung his head around to see Dmitri take Kinsey’s chair.

  “I brought a couple of bottles,” Dmitri said. “I think we’re all going to need it.”

  Thorn took his glass and drained it. “Con already left for Paris. We’ve got until tomorrow evening to sort this out.”

  Ryder’s gut clenched. Thorn was right. If Con were here, Ryder knew he’d want Kinsey interrogated immediately.

  He ignored the glass of whisky and read the next few e-mails. They didn’t say anything of importance, just listed how often he’d been seen with Kinsey.

  It wasn’t until six e-mails later that he felt as if he’d been blasted with Dark magic. He reached for the whisky and tossed it back. No sooner had he set the glass down than Dmitri refilled it.

  Ryder drank that one as well before he could face the screen again and take in what he’d read.

  “We’ve made contact with KB. She’s receptive to our offer. Will proceed with the plan.”

  “You doona know what the offer was,” Thorn said.

  Dmitri grunted. “It’s obvious they’re using her to get to Ryder.”

  Ryder didn’t know what to believe. He knew what his heart told him, but his mind was telling him something else entirely. Was he so in love that he hadn’t seen he was being betrayed?

  Just like Ulrik.

  Thorn refilled all three glasses. “Keep reading,” he urged.

  Ryder wanted to destroy the entire room with a round of dragon fire, but he found himself clicking on the next e-mail instead.

  For the next several, the focus was on him and his movements. His watcher seemed irritated that he’d not seen Ryder doing anything magical nor had he witnessed Ryder shifting.

  Ryder noted the date of the next e-mail he was to open. It was a month after he’d left Glasgow. In all his life he’d never felt nervous about anything, but the emotion was filling his gut now to the point he felt ill.

  Dmitri shoved the glass of whisky into his hand. It must be that bad for them to prepare him ahead of time. Ryder took a deep breath and opened the e-mail.

  “We’ve a perfect opportunity with KB. She’s distraught and easily convinced right now. I’m pushing things ahead of schedule.”

  From then, his watcher focused entirely on Kinsey. He was the one taking pictures of her and filing daily reports of her comings and goings. But these second reports were going to the group Ryder had yet to discern.

  Thorn pointed to the screen. “You can skip the next ten. The e-mails don’t say much other than he miscalculated the depth of her hurt. Whatever his plan was got pushed back.”

  Ryder still went through each e-mail. He didn’t want to miss anything. It could be a single word usage that gave him a clue to something later.

  When he came to the e-mail Thorn had told him to skip to, Ryder didn’t hesitate. He opened it immediately.

  “KB has taken the bait.”

  That’s all the e-mail said, but it left Ryder cold. It was dated nearly fourteen months after he’d left. He’d been watching over her all that time, but only checking in to make sure she was all right. He hadn’t watched her every move.

  Ryder stared at that single sentence for several minutes. He’d truly believed Kinsey was innocent. Even Dmitri had said her reactions were those of someone not hiding anything.

  Could they’ve been so wrong?

  “Ryder, you may no’ want to hear this, but I think we should have someone watching Kinsey,” Dmitri said.

  He nodded, knowing Dmitri was right. “She’s in my room,” Ryder said.

  A moment later Dmitri said, “Anson is standing outside the door. If she wakes, he’ll bring her straight here.”

  Ryder looked at his two friends, neither of who would hold his gaze for long. Ryder had staked his life on Kinsey’s innocence.

  The only thing that kept him seated was knowing that none of the Kings or their mates could be killed. But there was much he’d shown Kinsey. All of which she could easily take back to Kyvor and hand over.

  Ryder clicked on the next e-mail. One by one he read until he came to the latest one, sent just a few weeks earlier. All of them discussing KB’s progress and how she’d taken to their program with ease.

  He was numb. Utterly and totally numb.

  The woman he loved had come to betray him.

  Was this hollow feeling what Ulrik once experienced? Had Ulrik felt as if he didn’t know which way was up? Did Ulrik have the desire to hurt, to maim—to kill?

  It was no wonder Ulrik had begun slaughtering the humans. It’s the same thing Ryder wanted to do. Because it was mortals who couldn’t leave the Kings alone, who kept meddling in their affairs as if it were their right.

  Ryder slowly pushed away from the computers. The mixture of sorrow, distress, pain, and rage were about to erupt.

  “I doona need to remind you MI5 is still here,” Dmitri said.

  But his voice came as if from a great distance. Ryder stood, the need to shift so great he had to fight the urge to remain in human form.

  “Ryder!”

  Someone was shouting his name. He heard them, but there was no need to answer. Ryder knew what he had to do. Because he wasn’t going to let Con or any of the others take what was his right—bringing Kinsey to justice.

  He’d offered her safety, shelter. His love.

  And this was how she repaid him?

  She’d ripped his heart out with nary a thought. He’d wondered if she wanted revenge for his leaving, and now he knew. But it was going to end that night.

  Ulrik, the Dark, and MI5 had all tried to get to Dreagan and the Kings in some way. And Kinsey had slipped in under the radar. Ryder felt like the biggest fool.

  But he was going to protect his home and his family in the only way he knew how.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Kinsey woke feeling sick to her stomach. She rolled to her side to stop the nausea, but nothing helped. When she broke out in a sweat, she threw off the covers and made a dash for the bathroom to kneel before the toilet. As her stomach rolled viciously, her head began to pound.

  She grabbed her head and fell to the floor. The pain was unimaginable, as if someone were inside her head. She cried out, squeezing her eyes closed, praying it stopped.

  Ryder! Where was he? Kinsey needed him.

  * * *

  Ryder heard the screams when he was halfway to his bedroom. He started running with Thorn and Dmitri on his heels. As he approached the bedroom he saw the door open and panic set in.

  He rushed into his room to find Anson kneeling over Kins
ey in the bathroom. The light was on but Kinsey had her eyes closed with her hands on either side of her head as she curled up on her side. Her cries tore at Ryder as he saw the pain she was in.

  Ryder grabbed a blanket off the bed as he strode into the bathroom. He covered Kinsey’s naked body then touched her arm.

  Anson looked up at him, his black eyes troubled. “I heard the screams and found her like this.”

  “Careful,” Dmitri cautioned Ryder when he tried to roll Kinsey onto her back.

  Ryder needed to get her to Con. Con could heal anything. That’s when Ryder remembered Con was in Paris. He didn’t know what to do. As angry as he was with Kinsey, she was in pain. If he was going to get a confession from her, she needed to be lucid enough to answer his questions.

  “Kinsey,” Ryder called. “Can you hear me?”

  Tears streamed freely down her face, telling him the agony she was in. Ryder began to gather her into his arms to take her back to the bed. He was about to stand when she grew quiet.

  He watched as her arms fell to her sides and the lines of hurt eased from her face as her body relaxed.

  “What the bloody hell,” Dmitri murmured.

  Thorn gave a shake of his head. “I doona like this, Ryder.”

  He didn’t either, but he wasn’t sure what to do. At least Kinsey was no longer in pain. That was a plus. But there was no denying something was going on. He just needed to determine what.

  If she were an electronic of some kind, Ryder would know exactly what to do. As it was, the human body was as foreign to him as designing an engine was to others.

  “What are you going to do?” Anson asked.

  Ryder looked at each of the Kings and shrugged. “I can no’ leave her on the floor.”

  Just as he began to stand, Kinsey sat up, her eyes opening. The blanket fell away, but she either didn’t realize it or care. And the Kinsey Ryder knew would’ve cared.

  All four of them froze as they waited to see what she would do or say. Seconds ticked by without a sound from her.

  “Kinsey,” Anson said.

  Ryder frowned as she ignored him. Then she rose to her feet and started for the door. Ryder pointed to Thorn who quickly shut the door before Kinsey could reach it.