by Ines Johnson
Was it possible that she was hiding? Was it possible she didn’t want to be found by anyone, including him? Was it possible she didn’t want him?
His heart rejected that notion. He knew what rejection felt like. Rose hadn’t rejected him. She still needed him. She still wanted him. He knew that in his warm blood. He just needed to find her.
And then he heard it. It was so silent. Barely audible. But he heard her whisper his name.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Ilia?”
His name was the first thing on her lips as Rose began to come back to awareness. She knew something was wrong when instead of the spicy scent of him, she smelled the cloying sweetness of flowers.
She couldn’t move her arms or legs. They were bound tight. But not with soft cloth or biting rope. This substance felt sharp and at the same time sticky like she’d been tied up with blades of grass.
When Rose cracked an eye open, she saw that that was exactly what she was tied up in. Vines wrapped around her skin, twining her limbs like threaded cables. Grass was below her as well. Her entire body slid against the ground as she was dragged into the night.
Above Rose was a green-skinned woman with pointy ears. Vines extended from her fingers as she tugged Rose along. Beside her was a pastel blue woman whose hair looked like the pollen of a flower. The woman nodded her head in agreement at whatever the green one was saying. Tiny puffs of gold drifted down toward Rose, and she sneezed.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Rose groaned after her sneezing fit was over. “I’ve been kidnapped by fairies?”
“Oh, this isn’t a kidnapping, dear,” said the green one with the vines shooting out of her hands. “If someone kidnaps you, they want to keep you. This is a return.”
“A return?” asked Rose, though her voice was muffled as she was dragged through the grass. Luckily, the earth was soft and warm, so she got no bumps or bruises. That didn’t mean she was enjoying the ride.
“We’re taking you back to the Veil and tossing you onto the other side.”
“Tossing me back? Why?”
“We’re tired of you little warmbloods coming to our world and stealing our beasts,” said the blue, golden-haired one.
“Your beasts?” asked Rose.
“They’re all fighting over you,” hissed the golden fairy. Though the hiss came out like tinkling wind chimes. “Do you know how long it’s been since I got laid?”
“She means properly laid,” said the green one as though Rose had asked for clarification. “Male fairies are great lovers, but not one of them can bend your vines like a beast. Am I right?”
The women shared secret smiles under the pale moonlight. Rose could only glance between the two of them. Her heart began to pump as it sensed she was in real danger. If she went back to the other side of the Veil, she would be sick again. She would never see Lily again. And worse, she would never see Ilia again.
“No,” Rose shouted. When the fairies paid her no heed, she shouted, “Vernon!”
Unfortunately, neither of the bloom-headed women knew what that meant. Only one person in the whole world knew what it meant. Come to think of it, Rose didn’t exactly know the reference as she’d never seen The Breakfast Club. So she didn’t know who the villain principal was. As soon as she got out of this and got back to Ilia, they would sit down and watch the film together.
With that thought, Rose felt a surge of energy. She had to get away from these batty blooms before they killed her by tossing her back. She balled her hand into a fist. Twisting and turning at the wrist, she managed to work one hand free. But she had the rest of her body to work free of the vines.
She couldn’t think of that now. She set her mind to thinking of Ilia. But thoughts of him only made her heart ache. Especially the last sight of him when she had rejected him.
She had cast him aside, just like his father had done when he was a baby. Rose imagined that had been the same look Ilia must have worn as a child when the one person in the world who was supposed to love him threw him away like trash. She couldn’t have that as the last thing he thought of her. She needed him to know that she loved him.
With that thought, Rose managed to get a whole arm free. Now that she had an arm loose, she was able to do a little damage. And she knew exactly what she wanted to maim.
Rose struck out with her fist, open-handed. Her nails struck the green fairy’s ankle. The fairy let out an ear-piercing screech that made birds jump out of tree branches and fly high into the night.
The screech also made the fairy loosen her grip on the vines holding Rose. The vines coming out of her fingers snapped back under her nails, like a switchblade being closed. The fairy’s green hand let go of Rose to grasp at her bruised ankle.
Suddenly Rose was free. Unfortunately, her freedom came at a cost. Without the green fairy holding onto Rose, Rose’s still-bound form began to tumble away from the fairies.
Rose picked up momentum as she went tumbling down a hill. With only one arm free, she had no way to stop herself. The end of the hill was coming up quick. It was a dark ravine that—if she fell down into—she had no way of getting herself back out.
Rose opened her mouth and screamed the only thing that mattered, “Ilia, save me!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The sound of birds crying in the night air muted the sound Ilia had thought he’d heard. No, it wasn’t a thought. It was a fact. He had heard Rose call out to him.
She was in danger. Every sense in his body told him so. His ears led him outside the bar. His hands told him she had just slipped through his grasp. His nose picked up her trail—though it was faint. There was a strong floral scent covering Rose’s heady essence.
Ilia’s gaze scanned the immediate area for movement. He saw none except the birds circling up in the sky. They moved as though they’d been disturbed from their perch.
Ilia moved in that direction. He took one step on foot, his bare heel crunching the rocks into pebbles. By the second step, he was in the air. His wings unfolded from his back, and his dragon took over.
The beast’s sense of smell and sight was far superior to the man’s. Those senses would be needed to track Rose. But the beast needed the man’s reasoning and deduction to stay on track.
What was she doing out here? Perhaps she was trying to find her way back to the castle. Back to him.
“Vernon!”
That was definitely Rose’s voice. Her safe word wasn’t whispered in desperation for him to understand this time. No, it was shouted. As though she was desperate for whatever was happening to her now to cease immediately.
Ilia didn’t stop. Not for a single second. He pushed himself toward that sound.
His Rose was in danger. She needed a hero. She needed him.
Up ahead, he spotted Clove and Honeysuckle. That had been the floral scent he’d smelled atop Rose’s. Clove was bent over, her green hands rubbing at sap oozing from her ankle. Honeysuckle was peering down into the darkness of a ravine. Rose was nowhere in sight.
Ilia dipped low to ask the two fairies if they’d seen his beloved when he heard a sharp cry.
“Ilia, save me!”
The sound came from the ravine. It took his mind two precious seconds to piece the scene together. That was Rose calling out to him for help. Her voice came from inside the deep belly because she had somehow toppled over the cliff and fallen into the ravine.
Ilia stopped thinking. He bolted into action. Zipping past Clove and Honeysuckle, he dove into the ravine. He had to pull his wings into his back to avoid the sides of the rocky cliff.
It was still a tight fit. The jagged rocks tore at his body. He ignored every ache and pain as he dove for Rose.
She was tumbling down the rock face. She’d reach the bottom within seconds. And then…
Ilia didn’t waste a moment on that thought. It didn’t matter because it wasn’t going to happen. He was here to save the day, to save the woman he loved.
She was almost within his
grasp. Just another inch or two. To reach, he’d need to retract his wings even more. To do that, he would freefall, and they would both crash to the bottom.
Ilia slapped his wings into his sides. That was enough space to give him purchase. He reached out his claw and… got her.
He brought Rose into his body, pulling her tightly against his chest. Once she was secure, he flung his wings out to wrap them around the both of them. The impact was brutal, but he took the brunt of it. When the pebbles settled and the ground was at his back, Ilia finally unwrapped his wings and shifted back into human form.
“You saved me,” Rose breathed.
“Of course, I saved you.” Ilia brushed pebbles from her hair. “It’s what I was born to do.”
There were tears in Rose’s eyes as her mouth worked. Ilia waited patiently for the shock to wear off, and she could find her words. As he waited, he noticed for the first time that she was bound in vines. He didn’t get a chance to ask her about it because words were spilling from her lips.
Actually, not words. Just one word.
“Yes,” Rose said. “Yes,” she repeated. The affirmation started as a whisper. With each repetition, it grew stronger and stronger until she was shouting it.
“Yes, what, sweet Rose?”
“Yes, everything. Yes, anything. Yes, you.”
A lump formed in Ilia’s throat. There were so many words he wanted to get out, so much he wanted to say to her. Every single word he tried stalled. Words, phrases, full sentences formed a backlog in his chest. Rose didn’t appear to need to hear any of his words. She had more to say.
“They were going to take me back to the Veil and toss me over to the other side.”
Something got past Ilia’s backlog then. It was a growl.
It was Clove’s vines that bound Rose now. Ilia would deliver Clove and Honeysuckle to the fairy king, Gyges, himself. That sadistic fae liked to come up with gruesome punishments that damaged the mind as well as the body. It was exactly the fate the two of them deserved.
“All I could think was that I would never see you again, and you would believe I didn’t want you.”
“I never believed that,” Ilia said. “I knew better.”
“I love you.”
He grinned. “I knew that, too. But it is nice to hear. Say it again.”
Her gaze narrowed on him, and she pursed her lips. Ilia’s cock twitched at the thought he’d need to pleasure an agreement out of her. There would be no safe word that would save her from what he was planning to do to hear those three little words on repeat.
“Can you get me out of these vines, please? I don’t want to be tied up by anyone or anything unless it’s from you.”
With the flick of a claw, Ilia freed Rose. The moment her limbs were free, she flung her arms around his neck. Then, for good measure, she wrapped her legs around his waist.
“I choose you,” Rose said. “I love you. I’m going to fight for you. For you and Lily. You’re both my family, and no one’s taking either of you away from me.”
“Lily’s taken care of.”
Rose pulled back to peer up at him. “She is?”
“You asked me to complete that task, and I did so. My brother agreed to mate her.”
“Did I ever tell you you’re my hero?”
Ilia took a deep breath, breathing those words in as he kissed his damsel in delight. He’d finally done it. He’d saved the day. He didn’t have a princess in his arms. He held a heroine, the strongest player in any game.
Peace settled over him with the knowledge that he’d mastered this level. He had no interest in playing any more games. Not when he’d won in life.
Epilogue
The smell of alcohol burned Elek’s nostrils. He put spirits in many of the foods he prepared for his family. However, he’d never once drunk any of the liquid straight from the bottle before.
This liquid had come straight from an old, dusty bottle at the top of the shelf of the bar. Mari hadn’t bothered to remove any of the dust particles when she’d popped the cork and poured. Elek saw a few unsanitary bits floating around on the surface. Shouldn’t any object sink once it was submerged in alcohol?
“Bottoms up,” said Mari.
With one hand, the fairy shoved the mug into Elek’s clenched fists. With her other hand, she downed a mug of her own, tipping the cup until all Elek could see was the bottom.
Elek wasn’t a competitive dragon by nature. But when he saw the relief cross Mari’s features after she downed the alcohol, he wanted that too. He brought the mug to his lips and tipped it back. Only to splutter, cough, and choke the moment the fiery liquid hit the back of his throat.
“Easy there, big guy. It’s your first time.”
This was Elek’s first drink at God’s Teet. He’d had a chaste fruit drink whenever he’d come in. Fairies would approach him, but he’d always wave them away, not interested in sullying himself with their flowery scents. He couldn’t. The beast within him would easily break their flexible limbs if it got its claws on them.
“Just take it slow your first time,” Mari was saying as she poured another drink for herself.
This certainly was a day of firsts for Elek. Other than Mari, no one had offered him the option to go slow. No one had even offered him to option to say no. Which Elek had said. Numerous times. But his wishes didn’t rank high on this particular matter.
Elek raised the mug to his mouth again. He heeded Mari’s warning of going slow this time when he drank. The liquid was smoother as it went down his throat this time, though it still burned.
Inside his gut, Elek felt the dragon stir. He used meditation techniques and kept himself away from all things excitable to keep his volatile dragon under the staunchest of control. He had to. He couldn’t have a repeat of his shameful past.
“Here’s to shedding past mistakes,” said Mari.
Elek lifted his head, but then had to immediately close his eyes. The vision of Mari standing behind the bar multiplied into two, then back to one, then to three. Just two swallows of alcohol and he was already losing control, just like he’d done in his past. Though both he and his beast knew that alcohol hadn’t been to blame back then.
“You can’t shed your mistakes,” he said. “They stay with you. All you can do is accept what you’ve done and try to make amends.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” said Mari, her words slurring as she poured her third cup of drink. “I’m not the one that’s gone and mated with a human after marking me.”
“Marked you? I never marked you. I haven’t even marked Lily yet. That’s what the liquid courage is for.” Elek raised the mug, and the liquid inside sloshed over the rim.
Mari’s eyes went wide as snowballs. She let out a long sigh that was tinged with a cold front. “You claimed the human? Not…”
“Lily is mine. Not his.”
The relief in Mari’s icy features was instant. As though the sun had come up over the winter fairy’s head. But her secret childhood love with Rhoyl was another story. Elek had his own drama to deal with.
No, Elek hadn’t claimed Lily yet. He hadn’t even marked her. He didn’t trust himself to let out only his fangs. What if it happened again? What if the animal trapped inside of him nearly killed another woman?
Elek knew this had to be done. The other shifters would fight to claim Lily if she was unmated. Lily was far too fragile for that.
Elek had seen enough evidence of her fragility during the handful of days he’d known her. Lily was quiet, timid. She would retreat into herself if too many people were around. Much like Elek was prone to do when it got crowded.
Lily loved to eat. Elek was happy to feed her. He thrilled to watch her eat his food. She closed her eyes in ecstasy with each bite he prepared for her. Something below his belly button tightened at the memory of that.
It was the beast stirring in its cage. Elek took a deep cleansing breath, focusing on calm and peace and nothingness until the dragon’s roars were doused. Bu
t he knew it was only a temporary fix. To save Lily, he’d have to let the beast out.
Both Elek and Lily will have to confront their past demons if they have any hope of claiming the love their wounded souls deserve.
Get ready for this heartfelt, steamy romance with a bite in
The Dragon’s Compliant Sacrifice
the fifth book in the Last Dragons Series.
Want to know how the Veil became closed in the first place?
Read the forbidden romance that started it all when a Valkyrie fell for a dragon and a human sacrifice slipped back through the Veil while they were kissing.
The Valkyrie’s Claim
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Also by Ines Johnson
Lover of fairytales, folklore, and mythology, Ines Johnson spends her days reimagining the stories of old in a modern world. She writes books where damsels cause the distress, princesses wield swords, and moms save the world.
You can sign up for her mailing list and receive alerts and free reads at http://bit.ly/InesReaders.
The Last Dragons
The Dragon’s Reluctant Sacrifice
The Dragon’s Ambivalent Sacrifice
The Dragon’s Willing Sacrifice
The Dragon’s Rebellious Sacrifice
The Dragon’s Compliant Sacrifice
The Dragon’s Forbidden Sacrifice
