She wanted to scream, to shout, Bosco is coming. He’ll be here. He’ll rescue me! but her throat was still frozen shut. He was much bigger than she’d thought he’d be. His head was the size of a small pony and his wings spread out on either side of his huge body, taking up nearly the entire width of the room.
He scooped up her and the bag of gold in one clawed fist and made his way outside, the crowd racing out of the way in its effort to not get crushed by his passage. Blinding sunlight bounced off the white walls of the Winter Court, stabbing into her eyes. She forced cold limbs to move, pounding as hard as she could. But her muscles had atrophied and she knew, he couldn’t possibly feel her puny hits. She curled up into a ball inside the cage of claws, and he leapt into the sky.
The world tilted and swayed. If she’d had any food inside her belly it would have been gone, but she hadn’t eaten a thing for a hundred years, and there was nothing to heave. She opened her eyes but the flat empty expanse of tundra skimming by at a speed she never wanted to imagine made her head spin and she slammed them shut. Finally, the dragon slowed, his wings making long heavy beats as he landed. He opened his claws and she fell out, hitting the frozen ground hard.
She lay stunned, listening to the dragon muttering to himself. “Who does that frozen bitch think she is, denying me my due? We have a deal. I forebear from attacking her and she pays me off. It’s a time honored way of keeping the peace. What does she want? Me attacking her?”
Siobhan squinted her eyes open. The dragon was pacing back and forth, wings tightly furled, his tail lashing angrily behind him, his pale blue scales gleaming in the sun.
“And you...” He leaned in, eyes the size of dinner plates focusing their power suddenly on her. “She thinks I’m going to steal your power? What do I need with your piddly power? Does she not have any idea what a dragon really is?” He stopped, staring at her. His anger switching to a dawning amusement. “Hah!” he snorted, his breath blowing back pieces of her wet, frozen hair. “She thinks I’m like her, locked into my power by my shape.” His eyes gleamed.
“Are you asking me?” she ventured. She thought he’d been looking at her before but suddenly all the power of his cat-shaped pupils focused on her, and she could barely breathe.
“You?” His brow ridges raised in surprise. “Ah yes, what do I do with you? Despite what Her Majesty thinks, I’m not going to drain you to a husk, leaving your ghost to walk these frosty peaks. So...” He sat back on his haunches and tapped a claw thoughtfully on his chin. “What to do with you.”
“Are you going to eat me?” There were tales that he’d done just that, taken young maidens and leaving little but their gnawed bones to be frozen in winter and found in spring.
He chuckled. “Eat you?” Then his chuckle turned into a full-blown laugh. He rolled back away from her, his roars of laughter rising to the open sky. “Why in the world would I eat you? Have you seen yourself?”
She shook her head.
“You’re nothing but skin and bones. You make that icicle of a queen look substantial.” His laugh quieted down. “No, I won’t eat you. But...she expects you dead, so I guess I’d better kill you. Can’t have her thinking I’m not a loyal ally, now, can we?”
Loyal ally. Her brain felt like it was still frozen solid, but it was beginning to thaw. He was bound to the queen by his word. If he betrayed whatever vow he’d sworn, he’d break all of magic’s laws of vassalage. The laws of Underhill were tricky. If you violated them you could unleash karmic repercussions. But that could work both ways.
Siobhan sat up. She was weak, so weak, from the hibernieth. Her head ached from the blinding winter’s sun and her stomach was so empty it didn’t even remember the need to eat. But she forced herself to stand. “My Lord Atavantador.” She swept into a low bow and back up, before her dizziness forced her back to the ground. Her vision went black, then the dragon swam back into bright color. She dropped to one knee.
She summoned all of the magic she could. A warm light rose from her skin, encasing her in its glow. It flowed into her mouth and out into her vow. “I swear, in thanks for your rescuing me from the Winter Queen, that I will serve you loyally from this day forward.”
She pushed everything she had into the vow, all her magic, all her will. Every drop of energy she had left she pushed into this last ditch effort of survival. The glow swelled around her, flowing out to the dragon. He scrambled back, trying to evade the vow, but it was too late. The bond latched onto him and was sealed.
“Now, dragon, I’ve sworn my loyalty to you. I am your vassal.”
“Damn you! What have you done? You stupid, stupid girl.”
She couldn’t stay up on her knee any longer. She dropped back to sit on the ground and the glow broke, but she could feel it tethering her to him. Then he blinked and the tether was chopped off as if by an ax.
“You think you can tie me to you?”
The pale blue color of his chest heated to an intense shade of blue. Siobhan braced herself for the incoming blast.
“You can’t kill me—you saved me. You’re responsible for my life.”
The confusion that passed over his face was almost comical. Then he laughed. “You are far more clever than I would have thought.” The bright blue on his chest faded away. “I don’t owe you a thing, and despite your little attempt at tying me to you, it won’t work. I’m far too powerful to be pulled in to a vow of protection by your little game. But you do amuse me. I’ll tell you what. I’ll keep you around for a while. I never swore to her bitchiness that I would kill you, so I have leeway. And she did give you to me to do with as I wish. In fact, one might say you owe me for not killing you. I think I’ll let you live.”
Relief rushed through her and she sagged into the dirt. “You’re not killing me?”
“Not today.” He leaned in, his head coming dangerously close. “But, girl, while I am not tied to you, your vow to me still stands. You have just tied yourself—life, labor and all—to the last ice dragon in Underhill. Best of luck to you.” He rose, reached out with his front claw and opened his massive fist, and scooped her and the bag of gold back up. “And, girl, take care to stay on my good side or I’ll eat you, laws of magic be damned.”
His wings unfurled and Siobhan could do nothing but hang on as the ground below her disappeared into the distance.
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THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION and any resemblance to any person living or dead, or any events and occurrences is purely coincidental. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.
Copyright June 2015 by Jessica Aspen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. Please purchase only authorized editions.
Cover Designer: Ivyt
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Dedication
This book is for all the fans who waited for Cassie’s story. Thank you for all your patience.
It is, of course, also dedicated to my husband, Jeff. Thanks, honey, for all the support and for standing by me while I write. I’m looking forward to all our new adventures.
And to my girls. You both rock!
A big THANK YOU! to Jessa Slade and Carol Carlisle Agnew for the fabulous editing and copy-edit work. And to Ivycat Designs for a fabulous series of covers.
-Jessica
Enchanted: A Fae Fantasy Romance (Fae Magic Book 3) Page 26
