“I didn’t even know that was possible.”
“Neither did I until I’d been pushed too far, for too long.”
“What did she say to that?”
“She told me if I went through with it, she’d kill herself and that I’d be sorry.”
Elena wrapped her arms around me. She was shaking. So was I.
“I told her I was going to go through with the annulment. I didn’t think she’d also go through with it. What I didn’t know was she’d gone to a caster for a curse.” At this Elena stiffened. “She’d had a powerful caster put a curse on our clan. No dragon would ever fly the skies or have another hatchling until I could convince another Immortal to learn to love a beast like me. I think the curse was more powerful than either she or the caster intended. As time went on, it grew stronger until I was the only dragon left.”
She put her hands on either side of my face. “None of this was your fault. No one deserves to be treated like that. No one. And I will never hurt you like she did, Rhysander Blaque. I promise you as long as I live, you’ll never have to fear me.”
I kissed her, pulled her close, and put everything I was feeling into it. “I know that, little mate. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
“For what?” she asked.
“For treating you like a means to an end. If I could go back, I’d do it differently. If I never break the curse, but get to have you in my life, then being your mate would be more than worth it.”
After my confession, Elena held me for a while, then pulled back and studied my expression, letting her mind inch along our connection to test the waters of my mood. She hadn’t been able to tell I was hiding things from her before, but maybe she hadn’t been paying close enough attention. The surge of our bond was so intense, she jerked backward the second she came in contact with my mind.
I watched as tears streamed from her eyes. Her thoughts, her feelings, became my own. For the first time since we’d met, since we realized we were mates, we could…feel each other. All of each other. Without restraint or restrictions, lies or boundaries. One of us, I wasn’t sure who, reached out, gripped each other’s hands and pulled closer. I held her too tight, but I only paid half-attention, too intrigued by the siren call of her soul across our connection.
What would it be like to know every little thing about him? she thought.
The prospect—and its implications for her—were staggering.
She struggled to focus on my face as I shared memories about her from my point of view. The day we met in her father’s room. Embracing me for the first time by the creek. Our binding ceremony and the night after. The dinner. Seeing her face when I realized I was infected with dragon’s bane. Her saving me. Claiming her.
“It’s all right,” I said, and then reached out through our connection to her. When her knees buckled, I gripped her arms and held her steady. All the while I murmured softly in her ear, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. Yes, sweet, hold onto me. I won’t let you go.”
An indeterminate amount of time passed before she was able to control the door she’d opened between us. When she regained the ability to stand, she did so on trembling legs. The mating bond between us before had been staggering. She’d never felt so happy or content. I didn’t think being bound to her could get any better.
Until now.
“I didn’t want to see what we could be at first,” I said, my voice a rumble in the darkened caves. The steady drip, drip of water in the distance made it seem like we were alone for miles. “I was afraid to lose you. To fail you like I’d failed Valeria. I was so afraid to lose you that I pushed you away. It took nearly losing you to realize we are worth that risk.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but I kissed away her protests.
“No matter what happens to the clan, or with the humans, I’m glad I have you and I’m never going to let you go again.”
“I believe you,” she said. When we were both steady again, I helped her to her feet. “How far do these go?” she asked, gesturing to the eggs.
“I like to use these caves to think. I guess I’ve walked miles of them and have never seen an end. When my father was alive, he used to say they went on forever.”
“Forever?”
“Mmhmm. The mountain was blessed by magic. These crypts could come out on the other side of the world, for all we know. We used to explore them a lot—when there were more of us.”
“I’ve never seen our own unborn in the palace. They were kept under strict guard. For exactly this reason, I suppose.”
I led her through dozens of rows until we came to several on a ledge near a far wall. We stopped, and I pivoted to her.
She stared at them. “These are yours.” It wasn’t a question.
“Ours,” I said, and my voice was as hoarse as hers. “These would be ours.”
She reached out to them automatically, a yearning passed through the connection, and it took me a few seconds to put a name to it. She wanted these babies. Our babies. She wanted them with a fierceness that obliterated every doubt and worry I could imagine. The strength of her longing made her reach out for me. I met her hand without a word.
“Can I?” she asked, but I was already reaching to lift one glowing orb from its stand.
As I brought it closer, the shadowy, ethereal movements became more visible. Or at least the barest shifting of light. We were holding a little soul—our future child—in our hands. I shifted closer and my chest pressed against Elena’s back. In that moment with her in my arms holding our future, I felt her understanding. She knew why I was willing to risk everything to save these lives. She flung out her thoughts, searching for me, and I caught her without hesitation.
When the time was right, if we ever broke the curse, ne of these souls would choose us to bring them into this world. It was an honor above all others. One I hoped we’d get to experience together.
“I want this with you,” she said.
I released a long, slow breath and wrapped my hands around her waist and held her so close there wasn’t a breath between us.
“You won’t regret it.”
We stood there for a long time. I wasn’t sure how long because there was no light save for the eggs. Tears slicked down her cheeks, and I held her as long as she liked.
I tucked my face into her neck as she cradled the egg in her hands. “I love you, Elena,” I said aloud, and for a second the words echoed around us without response.
She turned to me, slowly. “What did you say?” she asked.
A little smile tugged at my lips and I moved closer, the heat around us snapping and crackling with dangerous intent. Emotions swirled between us, held aloft by a turbulent storm, whipped into a frenzy by hope and elation.
As though she were the most delicate thing I’d ever beheld, I caressed her face with the back of my fingers, then kissed her eyelids, then her nose, and finally her mouth.
“I love you,” I said.
She pulled me close, needing the three-fold connection, craving her touch. The moment my lips touched hers, the air around us became charged with electric heat. I swear I could hear it sizzle as her tongue met my own and my hands touched everywhere I could reach.
Finally, our bond said.
The connection between us, without barriers, was indescribable. Joyous, terrifying, heart-wrenching. A maelstrom. It was as though we were forged by the same blacksmith, from the same ore. A lock and its matching key. Wrought from unbreakable metals and tested by the brightest flame.
“Take me to bed,” she moaned against my lips. “I need you.”
“We may not make it to the bed,” I warned as I cursed.
Elena replaced the egg with care, and then we began to stumble through the pedestals.
We were halfway across the never-ending room, when I surfaced enough to realize the eggs didn’t look the same. Elena must have noticed it too because she tugged at my hand to slow me down.
“Look,” she whispered, afraid t
o speak too loudly and stop the sight before me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, then I followed her gaze.
What I saw made my hand tighten painfully around hers, but she didn’t seem to notice.
All I could focus on were the eggs. Which were shining even more brightly. Their incandescence was almost hard to behold, and we had to squirt in order to see.
“What…what does this mean?”
I was at a loss for words. “We must find Alaric.”
We were nearing the room’s exit, the eggs still glowing madly, when we heard a great crash and the caves shuddered under the impact, dust showering down and rocks shaking loose and shattering in the halls.
I met her gaze and I didn’t need to say a word. She already knew what I was thinking.
We were under attack.
24
Elena
There was a moment’s pause before Rhys shifted, his claws and teeth elongating and the scales on his skin hardening and losing their translucence.
“Stay behind me,” he ordered.
I gave one last look to the cave where our future lay and reassured myself that the magic protecting the eggs would hold. It would have to. We would have to.
We didn’t make it far before Rhys paused, holding a hand to my stomach to stop me in the middle of the hall.
“Someone’s coming,” he said.
“Humans?” I asked and hoped my fear wouldn’t translate through our bond.
If it were humans armed with dragon’s bane again, Rhys was as good as dead. Soren was long gone, and it wasn’t like we could round up another vampire on a whim.
“I’m not sure,” Rhys said. “Whatever we do, we can’t let them get to the eggs or the clan.”
“I’m ready,” I said. “We won’t.”
We crept through the caves as quietly as we could, but it didn’t matter. The noise coming from the exit was deafening and covered any sounds we made. Screams and shouts echoed off the stone walls. The sound of pinging arrows and cannon fire made it seem as though shots were coming in all directions. Each time I heard the loud rapport from a cannon followed by the thunk and boom I ducked instinctually. Rhys took me by the shoulder, hauled me to my feet and kept moving.
It was the thought of all those little lives behind me that kept me moving forward toward danger instead of running in the opposite direction like I wanted to do. Finally, we made it to the exit, but I dreaded seeing what was on the other side. With a signal to me to keep back, Rhys crept forward and peered around the door’s edge.
I waited impatiently, my hands clapped over my mouth, body wracked with shivers as cannons blasted relentlessly. I wanted to cover my ears as well, but I didn’t want to miss it if Rhys gave me any instructions. As I waited, my muscles so tense they ached, I remembered Rhys telling me about the entire town they had massacred. In their weakened state the Dragon-Clan was an easy target for those armed with dragon’s bane. To what end and for what reasons, I couldn’t say. But we would find them. And we would stop them, whatever the cost.
Rhys came to my side, and all I wanted to do was take him in my arms, but I forced myself to recall the steadiness I’d learned as a healer. I could help them. I had to.
“Stay behind me at all times,” he said in a low voice. “We’ll lead them away from the caves and to the outside, if we can. Away from the castle and the village to decrease fatalities. I need for you to find Alaric and tell him to have the guards circle around. We’ll get them in a bunch and I’ll turn the lot of them to ash once and for all.”
“I can do that,” I said with a certainty that surprised me. Since when had I become the sort of person to rush into danger instead of run from it?
Rhys gathered me close, his expression fierce, as he pressed a hard, urgent kiss on my lips. “I love you,” he said.
Before I had a chance to respond, he was rushing into the melee with a battle cry that drew all attention to him. He shifted in an explosion and burst into the sky.
This was my chance. I didn’t have a moment to think about how scared I was, how I was the wrong person for the job, a coward who’d run from her own family, her own kingdom. Instead, I threw myself into the fight. All eyes were on Rhys as he battled a path through the army of humans.
I hadn’t gotten a good look at them the day they nearly killed Rhys, but they were unmistakable. Shrouded in dark-colored swaths of fabric, they were dirty, unkempt, and reeked of sour skin. I hoped they would be easy to track based on smell alone.
The thick of the fighting was centered at the front of the castle. Those I recognized from the Dragon-Clan emblem they wore on their chests were knotted with the foul-smelling humans. But it was the bloodied maids uniform that gave me pause. Near the rose garden, a telltale skirt with a white apron peeked out from around the corner. At first I thought it was just a rose, until I drew closer and recognized the skirt.
It was just like the one Leisha and Merry wore.
My heart froze in my chest and I inched around the grand columns that decorated the main hall until I got close enough to the garden for a clear view. I shouldn’t have. The sight of the mangled body brought bile rushing to my lips, but I managed to keep it down. Leisha’s face was imprinted on the back of my eyelids as I tore my eyes away from the sight of her battered face.
Find Alaric, came Rhys’ voice from my memory. I latched onto it and used it like a lodestone to distract me from the horror I’d just seen. Find Alaric.
I spotted his golden hair battling two humans on the grand staircase and slinked my way around two columns to get a closer look. He moved with an inhuman grace that the two clumsy humans could barely match. Within seconds, he’d skewered one, then used his boot to remove the sword from his chest. It released with a distinct sucking sound. Then, he pivoted to the other, who’d watched the entire scene with his mouth bared in a grimace revealing blackened teeth. Alaric took advantage of the human’s surprise and slashed a gaping smile into his throat. By the time I regained my wits, he was bounding down the stairs.
Before he could escape, I yelled as loud as I dared, “Alaric!” and thanked the stars for his enhanced hearing because fear had choked my scream to a croak. He turned at his name and searched the shadows until he landed on me. His eyes widened in surprise and he changed directions.
“Where is he?” he asked without preamble.
Somewhat out of breath, I said, “He’s fighting them off, he wanted me to find you.”
Before I could finish explaining the plan, he’d already made off toward the cluster of humans and guards. I had to race to catch up to him and even then he tried to shake me off and swat me away like an annoying fly.
“Alaric, stop! Rhys said we need to gather the guards and herd the humans outside. He’ll attack them from the skies and pick them off.” But Alaric wasn’t listening. He was too busy studying the fight.
He shook me off and spun around. “Let’s go.”
Relief speared through me. All it would take was one more arrow dipped in dragon’s bane for me to lose my whole world. The fear I already had propelled me forward. I took out the dagger I’d stored at Rhys’ insistence and used it to take down two humans who crossed my path, as we traversed the entry hall and fought our way back to Rhys’s side.
By the time we made it, Rhys and his guards had cornered most of the humans by the front doors. What they didn’t have in power, they made up for in numbers, swarming the front steps like ants. Alaric and some others herded the few stragglers back to the group. We were winning, I realized. We would win.
Rhys was in a half-shift, using his armored scales to block the slashing knives and knock away arrows with inhuman reflexes. He used the wicked points of his claws to slash and maim any human stupid enough to get too close. We fought by his side, defending his back as the humans tried to rush his vulnerable spots. As he’d been instructed, Alaric directed the castle guards to block the humans in and start pressing them toward the exit.
Then, just as we nearly had
them right where we wanted them, a shout came from the back of the knot of humans. They’d spotted something in the distance. Something that made them crow and cheer. One by one, they ran—away from us and toward the newcomers.
The castle guards looked at each other, then at Rhys, in confusion. Even Alaric’s face was ravaged with concern. The fact that the humans were cheering outside of the castle made ice ball up in my stomach. I’d never hated the mortals before that moment. I’d never wanted to kill when all I’d ever done was heal, but I felt rage licking at my insides.
Rhys came to my side and the guards followed closely behind. Alaric kept his place by Rhys’s other side and we all began to move toward the sound of cheers. Whatever it was—it couldn’t be good.
At first the brilliant white from the moon was blinding and I winced, holding a hand up. Then, as my eyes adjusted to the light, I realized what—or rather who—was waiting just outside the castle.
I would recognize the colors they flew anywhere. But it wasn’t the flags they flew that made the bottom drop out of my stomach. It was the man posed on the first horse of the line.
A man who shared my features.
Who raised me.
The man I’d always trusted.
My brother.
I took a few stuttering steps forward before Rhys saw what I was doing and jerked me back, his claws digging into my stomach in his haste.
I fought him, not completely understanding what was going on.
“Calm,” he said. “Don’t do anything rash.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked Gideon. My brain couldn’t comprehend it. Had he come to save me from Rhys? Had he come because father had died? Something about that niggled at my brain, but I couldn’t place it.
All I knew without a doubt was that he shouldn’t be here. He should be in Aurelia, with our people. A part of me knew that he wouldn’t leave the capital unless there was a good reason. The only reason he’d come here, with a contingent of soldiers, was for war, but that didn’t make sense in my brain.
Deal with the Dragon (Immortals Ever After Book 1) Page 18
