by Rebecca York
“Last time we were learning,” he murmured. “This time, we know better what to do.”
He brought his lips to hers, nibbling, then deepening the kiss, his tongue playing with the inside of her mouth, sending hot, needy sensations curling through her body.
He pulled her blouse over her head and untied the waist of her skirt, discarding them as she had the night before.
Rising up, he looked down at her, his hand cupping her breasts, circling her hardened nipples, then gliding downward to slip between her legs, stroking her there.
She gasped at the heat he generated. He hadn’t gotten dressed, and she reached to clasp his shoulders, pulling him close, her naked body pressed to his, sending her blood pounding hotly through her veins.
Boldly she reached down to circle his cock with her hand, feeling the life pulsing through it.
“You’ll make me...”
“Do you know what it’s called? That burst of pleasure.” she asked.
“Sexual climax. Or—I heard men talking. They call it coming.”
“For a woman too?”
“Yes.”
He stopped the conversation as he rolled her to her back and rose over her, playing with her breasts, then gliding his hand lower again.
“Last time you were on top. This time, I think we should try it the other way. Open your legs for me.”
She did as he asked, feeling his shaft probe the opening between her legs. She braced for the pain she had felt the night before. But there was none as he plunged inside her.
She dragged in a quick breath, her gaze locked with his as he held himself still above her.
Then he began to move, and she met his thrusts, her gaze still on his face as they pushed each other toward the glorious burst of pleasure. She felt as though she was spinning out of control, losing herself, and when he shouted his pleasure, she doubled her efforts, moving against him in her need to join him.
It was like reaching the top of a mountain, then flying off into space, only he was there to catch her and anchor her to him.
They were both breathing hard as he shifted off her. He lay beside her for long moments, then stirred.
“I must go out for a while.”
“Where?”
“I must...eat.”
“You brought me food. We can share.”
“I eat something else.”
“What?”
“I must catch game.”
“Oh.”
He got up and dressed, and she watched him move gracefully around the loft.
“I will be back very soon.”
He climbed swiftly down the ladder, and she was alone, wondering again if she had done the right thing. She had given her virginity to him, and she felt very close to him, but she still couldn’t fully trust him.
Alone, she thought about her purpose in leaving Valleyhold. She had started on her journey because her sister had called for help. Alone in the loft, she tried to call her again.
“Rowan, can you hear me, Rowan?”
To her surprise and delight, she got an answer this time. “Willow?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“Closer to you than last time. I’m coming to help you.”
“Thank Ravina.” In her mind, she heard her sister make a moaning sound.
“Rowan? Rowan,” she silently screamed. “What’s wrong? Why do you need help? Is it Grantland? Does he treat you ill?”
“No!” The denial was like a bolt of power so strong that Willow staggered back. “Grantland is my champion.”
“Then what?”
“My powers...”
The words trailed off into silence.
“Rowan?” Willow shouted aloud and in her mind. “Rowan?”
But there was no answer. Were her sister’s powers fading since she had left Valleyhold? That question sent a jolt of fear through Willow. If her sister’s psychic abilities were withering out here in the world, would hers do the same thing?
Chapter Six
Your people had powers before they came to Valleyhold, Willow assured herself. That’s why they had to hide themselves away. But she couldn’t help worrying that out here things would be different.
Still thinking about that, she climbed down the ladder and ate some of the provisions Cullendor had brought. Before she had finished, he was back.
“You ate?”
“Yes. It must be fresh game.” His clipped reply made it clear that he didn’t want to discuss his eating habits.
“Since we’re both ready, we should go,” she said, more anxious than ever to get to Arandal.
“Yes,” Cullendor agreed, a note of urgency in his voice.
“You’re in a hurry to get to Arandal?” she asked.
“I’m anxious to get you to the castle where you will be safe.”
The explanation made sense, considering what had happened to her on the journey, but she wondered if it was the whole truth.
They started out, and she let him lead the way, hoping that he indeed knew the right direction.
He didn’t speak, and she wondered if he was regretting the intimacy between them. Perhaps he was worried about being tied to her. She wanted to ask, but she was finished being forward with him. And she didn’t want to press him about his feelings for fear she would hear the wrong answer.
In the silence, she detected rustling sounds behind them.
When she touched his arm, he turned to her, and she knew he had heard it too.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Something is stalking us. I must find a safe place for you.” He stopped by a large tree. “Let me boost you to a lower branch, and you can climb higher. Give me your foot, quickly.”
“What about you?”
“I can handle them, but not if I have to worry about you on the ground. Get up in the tree and keep quiet. I will draw them away and fight them off.”
She gasped. “That’s too dangerous.”
“I will be fine.”
He leaned over, clasping his hands, and she put her foot in the stirrup he made, hoisting herself up. Her fingers scrabbled at a branch, and she was finally able to grasp it and pull herself up. Panting, she rested for a moment. He might have planned to draw the stalkers away, but no sooner had she scrambled to safety than a pack of animals burst from the forest. In the shelter of Valleyhold, she had never seen the like. She had heard of wolves, but these creatures seemed much larger than any wolf could be, and she counted more than a dozen of them. They made a circle around Cullendor, cutting off his escape, their sharp white teeth snapping, their aqua eyes keen with hunger and growls rising in their throats.
Cullendor had warned her to be quiet, and she choked back her own scream. But her heart beat wildly as she watched the confrontation between man and beasts. Cullendor had no weapons to fight these animals.
The animals seemed to sense that he had no way out and no way to defend himself. Snarling, they closed in for the kill.
As she watched the terrible scene, she silently screamed.
Cullendor snarled back at the predators, and then something happened that she wouldn’t have believed if she hadn’t seen it. His clothing disappeared, so that he stood naked before the savage animals. At the same time, his body began to grow and change. His arms transform into great wings. His head elongated. Scales took the place of his skin.
Too stunned to speak, she saw him rear up, flapping his wings and screeching as he charged the animals, shooting out a stream of fire as he attacked them.
Some of them growled in fear. Others turned and ran. He pursued them, following them with fire, chasing them from the tree where she watched in speechless horror.
Cullendor was the dragon. T
hat was the secret he had been hiding all along.
She saw the scales on his dragon’s body and saw the place where he had told her he was burned. He must have gotten the injury in a battle with another dragon.
While he was fighting off the predators, she jumped to the ground and took off through the woods, not knowing or caring which way she ran.
Behind her, the noise stopped and she doubled her speed—until a hand clamped on her shoulder, holding her fast. She looked behind her and saw that it was Cullendor holding her. He was dressed again, looking the way he had before the attack.
When she tried to wrench away from him, his grip tightened.
“Let me go.”
“No.” He turned her to face him. “You’re in danger until you get to the castle.”
She raised her chin. “You lied to me. You are the dragon who came to me at Valleyhold.”
His face hardened. “Would you have stayed with me if you had known?”
“Certainly not.”
“So I was right to do it. I must make my way in this world—as a man. But as a man, those beasts would have killed me. And you.”
That was true, but she couldn’t focus on anything besides what had transpired between them.
“Was everything you told me a lie?”
“No.”
“Which part was the truth?”
“The part about my people. About how they are ruled by the women and how they cast out the males.”
“You’re telling me there’s a nest of dragons living somewhere near here?”
“No. We live in another...” He flapped an arm in frustration. “I guess you could call it a parallel world.”
“I’m supposed to believe that.”
He shrugged. “I hope so.” He dragged in a breath and let it out. “Will you stay here if I take my hand away?”
She thought about the question. She would stay with him for now, but she would escape as soon as she could. She was no match for him physically. Somehow she’d have to trick him into letting her go. But she told him none of her thoughts. Instead, she whispered, “Yes.”
He let go of her shoulder, but none of the tension went out of her body.
“You took my virginity.”
“I believe you gave it freely.”
“I didn’t know I was making love with a...freak,” she spat out.
She saw a flash of pain in his eyes. “I’m sorry you think of me that way. Should I call you a freak because you have powers ordinary mortals do not possess?”
She caught her breath. “You know about that?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I studied your people. I know you hid yourselves because your powers make ordinary mortals think you are witches.”
Knowing this secret made him all the more dangerous. He had lied to gain her confidence. There was no way to discern what his real purpose was and no way to trust anything he said now.
Should she spend another day beside him and kill him while he slept? The idea made her stomach knot. He might be dangerous, but she couldn’t murder him. Which meant that she had to get away.
“I will protect you on your journey,” he said. “Don’t be too stupid to accept the offer.”
“I am not stupid.”
“Sorry,” he muttered. “My insults are rising to meet yours.”
They glared at each other.
“When you left me to eat—what was it that you didn’t want me to see?” she asked.
“That I drink blood.”
“The blood of people?”
“I have done that, but the blood of animals has a richer tang for me.”
“Do you kill them?”
“No. My people keep herds of animals that you do not have here. We drink from them, and we take care of them in turn. The way you drink the milk of cows.”
“I hardly think it is the same.”
He shrugged. “Because you want to see everything about me in the worst possible light.”
“If you say so.”
“You lied to me too,” he muttered.
“About what?”
“When I first met you, you told me nothing of Valleyhold.”
“To protect my people.”
“There can be many reasons to lie.”
When she started to protest, he said, “Arandal is this way.” He pointed in the direction from which they’d come.
“And you know that because you have flown over it?”
“Yes.”
“But you are willing to get there the slow way, on foot with me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because...I...admire you. And want to help you.”
She snorted, bringing another flash of pain to his eyes.
“I can’t think of you as I did,” she whispered.
“I see that. I’m sorry the beasts attacked—I could only fight them off as a dragon. I tried to move the field of battle from your sight, but they came on me too fast.”
“Inconvenient for you.” She thought for a moment. “And you have fought other dragons? Is that how you got the burn on your shoulder?”
“Yes,” he clipped out. “Male dragons challenge each other for territory.”
“Not a very happy life.”
“A good reason to escape it.”
“And why did you think the two of us could...stay together.”
“I have seen it. A woman and a dragon.”
Her eyes widened. “The dragon who injured you?”
Without answering, he said, “We are wasting time. You must get out of the forest before some other disaster strikes.”
“And a dragon is the best protection I can have,” she muttered.
They started walking again through the moonlight. After several miles, they came out of the forest and into a more settled area.
“We have reached the kingdom of Arandal,” he said. “The way is easier now. This is a safe and settled place.”
Except for my sister, she thought.
They walked through a village that was not unlike Valleyhold, with houses of wattle and daub and thatched roofs. But the streets were dirt, while the ones she knew back home were paved with cobblestones.
When she saw a sign for an inn, an idea came to her. “Can we stop here for a while?”
He gave her a sharp look. “I thought you were anxious to get to your sister.”
“I am. But I look a fright. How can I go to the castle looking like I’ve been crawling through the woods? I should bathe and wash my hair first. Can you get us a room and order me a bath?”
He looked torn, but finally he answered with a tight nod. “This will be a comfortable place for you to spend the day.”
When he rented them a room and ordered her a bath, she saw that he had money in a purse that hung at his waist.
After servants brought the bathing tub and water, she said, “I would like some privacy. I will meet you in the common room.”
He scowled at her before stamping out of the room.
She washed her body and hair quickly, then dried both with a towel, making plans that she hoped would work to her advantage.
When she came back down, he was sitting at a table in a corner of the common room, still scowling.
She spoke to one of the servers, then sat across from Cullendor. “I’m sorry we are at odds with each other.”
He answered with a tight nod.
“I ordered something that will make you feel better.”
“What?”
“Mead.”
He lowered his voice. “You know I do not eat the same food you do.”
“But this is a drink I think you will lik
e. You can try a little of it and see.”
The server brought the mead along with chicken and root vegetables for her. She poured them each a tankard of the honey brew and drank some.
“Try it.”
He took a cautious sip. “It is good.”
“And it will make you feel good.”
She sipped some more, and he followed suit. Knowing he was unused to alcohol, she watched him closely, hoping to see the signs of intoxication.
“You’re right. It is pleasant,” he said. “I have never felt this way before.”
“Yes. Try some more.”
He drank while she finished her meal, and she saw him wavering in his seat. When he fell backward, his head hitting the wall, she sprang up and caught him before he crashed to the floor.
The other patrons in the room were watching them. “He’s drunk too much,” she said to the server. “Help me get him upstairs.”
Two men carried Cullendor up to their room and laid him on the bed, where the bathtub had already been removed.
“Thank you,” she said. “I will be going out. He will most likely sleep through the day. Do not disturb him.” She took his purse and spilled out several silver coins, which she handed to the men.
As soon as they had left, she went to Cullendor and looked down at him. “I am sorry,” she whispered. “But I can’t trust you.”
After closing the door, she went outside to the stable, where she rented a horse and made sure of the road to Arandal Castle. Then she climbed on the steed, arranging her skirt so that she could ride astride. She had told Cullendor that she didn’t want to arrive in Arandal looking like a bedraggled traveler, but there was no help for soiled clothing. It would have to do.
She had ridden in Valleyhold, and she was a good enough rider to urge the horse to a gallop. Before the sun rose, she reached the castle gates.
“Rowan,” she called out. “Rowan, it’s Willow. I am at the castle. Instruct the guards to let me in.”
She heard no answer, but a man dressed like a soldier came out of the guardhouse and approached.
Her people had been hounded and killed long ago by soldiers of Arandal, and she had to force herself to stand her ground.
“Rowan is your queen?” she asked, because she wasn’t absolutely sure what had happened after her sister had left Valleyhold with Grantland.
