Deal with the Dragon (Immortals Ever After Book 1)

by Nicole Blanchard

  “Is that so?” came a silky voice.

  A blade appeared, quick as a lightning strike, and nicked at the underside of my throat. My eyes snapped to the side, and I resisted the urge to swallow. A bead of blood crested on my collarbone and stained the neckline of my dress.

  Leisha whimpered in front of me, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the brilliant green ones of the fae holding me, didn’t dare. My fingers dug into the skirts at my sides, but otherwise, I didn’t move for fear of dislodging the blade. Or enraging the smirking Immortal holding it.

  The fae leaned forward and scented the air. “We were ever so surprised to find you here, looking like a pair of lost little girls.” He laid his cheek against mine and nuzzled as though I were a long-lost friend. “We’d be happy to help you find your way home.”

  His companions snickered and hissed in agreement. What were they doing in the Northlands so far from their territory?

  “Thank you,” I managed to say carefully. “But we aren’t lost.” I let out a relieved breath as the pressure from the blade released, and I could swallow freely.

  “That’s too bad,” he said moving around to face me and pressing the flat of the blade against his lips in contemplation, tapping lazily. “We could really use the company. It’s been a long day of traveling and we still have a long way to go.”

  “Well, we appreciate the offer—”

  “Do you?” he said idly, sheathing the blade. “You don’t seem very appreciative. Perhaps we should teach you a little lesson in gratitude. You shifters are an ungrateful lot, after all. Taking our land. A thankless bunch. Yes, I think a lesson is what we need here. The question is, which of you two to choose, hmm?”

  My stomach clenched and at the same time, my bowels turned watery. The fae were known for their tricks. For twisting words and using mortals and Immortals alike for their amusement. I had never encountered a fae myself before Alaric, and having done so now, I already wished I never had. These fae were nothing like Alaric

  “We are most appreciative…”

  “Corden.” He steepled his fingers, his head cocked to the side as he studied me.

  I endeavored to keep my gaze locked on his, my voice calm, but it was a struggle. Fae enchantments, if they’re strong enough, can keep a shifter from changing. If they’d already caught Leisha before her shift, then the only way we were going to get out of this alive was by bargaining. And the last thing you ever wanted to do was bargain with a faerie. I had never heard of anyone doing so and getting out alive, but I had to try.

  “We are most appreciative, Corden.” I bowed my head low.

  He stood, and his long-legged form towered over me. So much so, that the thin slice in my neck screamed in protest when I slowly glanced up. Three other fae gathered around him, their too-wide smiles baring wickedly pointed teeth.

  “Maybe you need some convincing,” Corden said, prowling through the clearing. I followed his lithe form to where Leisha now sat wide-eyed, her arms twisted behind her back by another fae. Fear had bleached her face of its color, and pale streaks of tears painted her cheeks with luminescence.

  My heart sank into the roiling pit of my stomach and I swallowed thickly. Corden snatched Leisha from his companion and urged her in front of him. He thrust her forward, and she tumbled into a heap at my feet with a high-pitched squeak. My heart thudded slowly in my chest and blood rushed in my ears. I inhaled through my nose to try and maintain a sense of calm. I needed my head clear, but panic made it extremely difficult to think.

  Our lives would depend on it.

  “We’ll go with you,” I said.

  Leisha looked up at me. “No!” she screamed. I gave her a stern look, but she continued to shout it over and over again. One of the other fae grew impatient and kicked Leisha in the stomach with the pointy toe of his boot.

  I wrenched to my feet, but Corden was there in a flash, holding my arms behind my back. I managed to swallow my screech of pain and choked out, “Don’t hurt her.”

  “Ah, so you want to bargain,” he said, a gleam of anticipation in his eyes. “We could do with some entertainment and this one here looks like a lovely little morsel. She may do quite nicely.”

  “No,” I growled, “You may have me. I’ll do whatever you want.”

  Corden slithered next to me, hissing in my ear, pulling me close to his body so his front was pressed against my back. His lips caressed the curve of my shoulder. “Now that sounds delightful.” He shoved me away and I tripped over my feet, sending me spiraling into the frozen earth next to Leisha’s sobbing form. “Dance for me, girl,” Corden said idly, but there was no mistaking the purr of anticipation in his voice, despite how relaxed he seemed.

  I got to my feet and the other fae joined Corden in a circle around me. Their magick hung thickly in the air, causing my nose to twitch and the air to warm. My fingers tingled as it made its way through my body.

  Faerie circles. I’d heard about them, too. How they made mortals and shifters alike dance, quite literally, to their deaths. They could go on for days, until I was wrought with starvation or dehydration. Until my feet were too bloody to move, and they grew bored, leaving me helpless to die on the ground in the middle of the forest, an exhausted heap of bone and sinew.

  I began to dance, swaying my hips, my hands above my head. The moves came to me naturally, more from magick than any kind of talent of my own. My feet counted out the steps, mixing the dirt and snow and making my already frozen feet grow numb inside my inadequate shoes.

  One of the fae pulled Leisha from the ground and held her by the jaw, her face turned toward me so she could watch my punishment. Their smiles were even bigger now, stretched across their luminescent faces like horrible masks. As I spun faster and faster they all blurred together until it began to feel more like a dream than reality.

  Before long, I lost all feeling in my feet, and for that I was grateful. By last glance they had grown bloody, blisters forming in the places where my shoes rubbed against my heels. I didn’t know what would be worse: the pain from the dance, or the frostbite that would surely set in if they made me dance long enough. The orchard was magicked so trees could grow in the snow, so there was still plenty of it on the ground.

  At some point, I heard Leisha’s sobs and their jeers fade away, too, until all that was left was a pleasant sort of darkness. Sweat coated my skin, even in the cool night air, and I shrunk away from the reminder of where I was and what I was doing and sank into the welcoming darkness.

  I realized the exhaustion, the helplessness, was really the undoing of all the unfortunate souls captured by the fae. Once all feeling had been magicked away, once your body grew too weary from the dance, the beckoning call of nothingness felt like the best way out. My ears roared with the rise of unconsciousness, and it caused a smile to spread.

  At last.

  A delicious heat spread over my entire body, causing me to groan with the warring feeling of pain and pleasure. Tingles and shocks raced throughout my arms and legs, and most of all, my feet. Oh, stars, my feet. Soon, a fog consumed me.

  I sat up with a moan, bedraggled and confused. I winced, putting a hand to my forehead, but that did little to dispel the spinning or the muddle. Blinking, the clearing in the forest came back into view and I had to shake my head, which I immediately regretted, to register what I was seeing.

  A magnificent dragon, my dragon, crouched in front of me, his teeth bared and licks of flame spewing front his flared nostrils. His spiked tail whipped behind him, keeping two of the four fae at bay as he stared down Corden and his accomplice, the one guarding Leisha.

  Despite the gnawing ache in my wounded feet, I scrambled to them, gripping a tree to keep upright. The dragon eyed me for a moment before baring his teeth at Corden.

  “You dare come to my land and steal my mate,” the dragon seethed. I hadn’t even been aware he could speak, though his voice seemed to emanate from the space around us rather than from his mouth.

  Warmth that had no
thing to do with the flames shooting from his mouth spread throughout my body. He came for me.

  “Your mate?” Corden said, flicking an accusing glare at me. “If she’s your mate, perhaps you ought to keep a better leash on her. We found them…traveling away from your castle. Seems like you can’t quite keep one, can you?”

  Rhys growled, spitting flames at a smirking Corden. “Leave. Now, before I reduce you to ash where you stand.”

  The fae blinked, and then they were gone.

  Relief weakened my knees, and I slumped onto a pile of melted snow, the dampness seeping through the material of my dress and cloak, but I didn’t care. I hurt everywhere, my escape, such as it was, had been short-lived, but I was alive. For a while there, I hadn’t been certain I wanted to.

  Rhys landed, shifting back into his human form. He stayed crouched on the ground in front of me, his tan skin luminous even in the pale light from the splintered moon. His chest heaved as he got to his feet and I didn’t need to see his face to know that his eyes were glowing bright red. When he reached for me, I couldn’t move, I was so numb with pain and a bone-deep tiredness.

  “Can you move?” he asked quietly.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Is Leisha okay?”

  “Yes. I’ll take you both back to the castle. We wouldn’t want to be here if they decided to come back.”

  He paused helping Leisha climb onto his back. He was going to carry me in his arms once he shifted back to his dragon form since I couldn’t walk.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  His eyes shuttered, and he whispered too soft to hear. I pulled my hands from around his waist and it’s then I noticed the blood.

  The sound of galloping horses and war cries pierced my exhaustion and shock. They were close, not so much that I could see them through the trees, just enough to know if he didn’t get us out of here, we’d both be dead.

  “We can’t be that far from the castle,” I told Rhys. “Can you fly?”

  “You should go,” he said. He spat blood onto the snow. My fingers stilled on his arm and he started to slide down. I hefted his weight back up and he smiled morosely, blood smeared across his lips. “Dragon’s bane,” he whispered.

  Our pursuers weren’t the fae, coming to finish us off.

  They were humans. The same men who’d attacked us in Braeden. The same humans who had already tried to kill Rhys.

  The ones who’d just shot him with a poison-tipped arrow.

  20

  Rhysander

  Another arrow cut through the air, grazing the fleshy part of Elena’s cheek, then lodged in the tree’s trunk in front of us. My dragon roared at the sight of her blood staining her skin. But his roar was already growing weaker.

  The dragon’s bane was working.

  A second and third arrow joined the first in the space of a few seconds. Elena spun to take stock, and found a fourth aimed straight for me. Without hesitation, Elena pushed me to the ground and put herself between the arrow and its intended target. I wanted to stop her, but my reflexes were nonexistent. All I could do was crumple to the ground and watch helplessly as the arrow flew straight toward her.

  The impact threw her forward, and she caught herself on her hands and knees. She screamed in pain, the sound tearing straight through me, and clutched at where the arrow was protruding from the side of her leg. If I could move, I would have ripped every one of them apart with my bare hands. I would have roasted them and left them for carrion.

  “Elena!” I shouted. Or I thought I did.

  She shook her head as though to clear it. Once her vision refocused, her eyes widened, and she scooted to my side, throwing her torso over mine to protect me from any stray arrows. My little mate. Protecting me. I would skin her hide for putting herself in danger if I ever survived this. The other girl, Leisha, had escaped, I think. I hoped she made it back to the castle without running into any humans.

  “What are you still doing here?” I asked, though it cost me. My breathing was shallow, and my vision kept fading in and out.

  “I’m not leaving you here.” She studied the arrow and gritted her teeth. “Now do be quiet so I can save your hide before they strip it from your bones.”

  The arrow went clean through, so all she needed to do was break off the back and pull it the rest of the way. She ripped off a section of her cloak to use for bandages, wincing at its dirtied state, and threw it over her shoulder. With unsteady hands, she gripped the base of the arrow with her left hand to stabilize it and wrapped the other around the end.

  “This may hurt,” she told me.

  Shouts and arrows came from behind—both at rapid speed—so she didn’t have more time to waste. Instead, she took a few short breaths, then snapped the back of the arrow. I was so weak, I could only grunt in pain, even though it seared through my body like I imagined fire seared through my own victims. Without another moment’s pause, she used her right hand and pulled from the front. I let out a high-pitched keen as the arrow tore through muscle and tissue.

  Once the arrow was free, Elena took the strip from her cloak as quick as her numb fingers would allow and wrapped it twice around her leg to staunch the flow of blood, then used another strip to bind my shoulder. I watched her through a dense fog, only half aware of what she was doing. I wanted to tell her my wounds didn’t hurt anymore, but didn’t have the energy to speak.

  She levered her body under my shoulder and used her good leg to get me on my feet, though it took some doing. Even as a human, I was still nearly twice her size.

  “C’mon, they’re getting closer,” she urged.

  “You smell so good,” I said, nuzzling her hair as I leaned heavily against her side. “You always smell so damn good.”

  “Now is not the time, Rhys.”

  “I love it when you call me that.” My voice was dreamy, dazed. This felt like a dream, like I was flying. I liked flying with her. “Do it again.”

  “I’ll do it as many times as you like if you keep moving. If we can get over the hill up there, the main gates shouldn’t be much farther. We can signal some of your men for cover until we get inside the castle walls.”

  “Scared—” I broke off to retch ineffectively into some bushes. “Scared the life out of me when Alaric came back and told me what was happening.”

  “It’s all right, I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

  I didn’t really give a damn if she was mad I had her followed. She could be mad all she liked. At least she’d be mad and safe.

  “Promise me you’ll keep yourself safe.”

  “No, I won’t.”

  My voice grew stronger, and I used the remaining strength I had left to pull her behind a thick tree trunk. “Promise me, Elena.”

  “If you will stop carrying on so we can get to the castle in one piece, I’ll promise you anything you bloody well want!”

  “Tha’s better,” I slurred, slumping against her once more.

  She turned us back toward the general castle, ignoring her own wounds. Keeping her eyes trained in front of us and her ears tuned to the humans behind us, she plowed her way through the drifts and trees until we reached the main road.

  Orange orbs from the sconces on the castle walls led the way to the front entrance. The sound of the humans and their horses faded the closer we drew to the gate. A cry of alarm rent through the air when we were sighted and her knees threatened to buckle as Alaric rounded the corner, guards following behind.

  He took my other side, his lips pressed into a thin line. Dazedly, I turned to him, clutching at his shoulder and nearly knocking Elena off her feet.

  “You’ll watch over her for me, won’t you?” I stumbled over the uneven road. “The fae were after her.”

  “With my own life,” Alaric assured me. “Bloody fae. I can’t escape them.”

  “There will be none of that,” Elena interjected. “Stop humoring him and help me get him inside.”

  “I’ll thank you to cease giving me orders, my lady,
considering that you’re the reason he was shot in the first place.”

  We reached the front steps to the castle. Servants brought candles, bottles of tonic, and clean cloth. Alaric instructed them to be brought to my rooms. We stumbled through the labyrinthine corridors as I hovered between lucidity and delirium. By the time they laid me on my sprawling bed, I felt more like a corpse than a man.

  Bruised and bloodied, Elena crawled onto the bed by my side, tucking her arm under my head and urging a maid to bring a mug of cool water. She held it to my lips and forced a few sips down my throat. I choked on it, already back into semi-unconsciousness.

  “Why are you all standing here?” I heard Elena order. “Someone fetch the healer.” When no one moved to do as she instructed, she said to Alaric. “Why aren’t you doing anything to help him?”

  I wanted to tell her she didn’t need to worry. My life was for the short time I had her in it, but I didn’t have the energy to form words.

  Alaric’s voice was mournful. “There’s no helping him. They lace their arrows with dragon’s bane for a reason.”

  “There has to be something you can do.” Elena ran her fingers over my forehead. I loved having her hands on me. It made the gnawing inside my gut go away temporarily. “Anything,” she begged

  “Don’t you think…” I said slowly, pausing to lick my chapped lips. “Don’t you think if there was something we could do, we would have done it?”

  “So you’re just going to give up?”

  Alaric hissed, and his boots ate the ground between them. “I’ll not have you tossing about condemnations. The only thing we can do is wait. Sometimes the arrows aren’t laced well enough, or sometimes they’re removed before the blood can be properly infected. If we’re lucky, he’ll make it through the night.”

  “And if we’re not lucky?” she asked.

  “You best pray for a miracle.”

  Whispers filled the bedroom. Servants milled about bringing finger foods and goblets of ale and lukewarm water. Stewards ushered in bowls of healing waters with fresh cloths. Alaric sat on a stool by the bed, his mouth a firm, disapproving line. I tossed back and forth on the bed, wondering if this was a fever dream or reality.