by Cara Bristol
Our mating is a complication, he said. He could lay claim to innocence inasmuch as the stakes hadn’t been revealed to him, but he wasn’t guiltless. While he hadn’t fathomed the extent of her power and responsibility, he’d been aware she was the priestess.
Fyre seeks fyre. That is the way, the dragoness said.
Could the sacred fyre break their bond, sever the feelings they had for one another? What would happen then? What would happen if the binding tie remained but they could never see each other again?
The temple will be completed in three days. We can worry about it then.
We should fly over the temple. See the progress for ourselves, the dragoness said.
No, O’ne vetoed.
No, he agreed. He had no wish to visit the site where their future might end. I’ve enjoyed the flight, but how about if we return to the palace? He needed to hold O’ne.
The palace, she agreed.
Surprisingly, the dragoness complied without demur and turned around, banking not quite as sharply as she had been doing. Her powerful wings beat the air, as she raced through the sky.
They flew past a dragon soaring on the thermals. O’ne’s dragoness bugled in recognition, and the other responded in kind.
That was my acolyte R’nay, O’ne explained. Not all my acolytes have explored their freedom, but most have. This is their only chance to see Elementa.
What do you mean?
They will be cloistered once the temple is completed.
Like you—unless something changes.
Yes.
The dragoness flew over a bejeweled wall and landed in a palace courtyard. After releasing Henry, she whuffed and nudged him with her huge snout in a seemingly affectionate gesture. He petted her scaly, scarred face. Thank you for the flight, he said. Tomorrow, again?
Yellow eyes lit up. She whuffed again and bobbed her head. Then she shifted, and O’ne appeared, stark naked and achingly beautiful.
A heavy aura of doom hung over him, but he refused to succumb, to let it mar the time they had left. He opened his arms. “Let me hold you.”
She melted into his embrace. Their lips met in a kiss edged by desperation. H’ry picked her up and carried her toward his wing of the palace, wishing he could whisk her away from everything.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Why don’t you grab some lunch? I’ll take over from here.” Hicks dismissed the control room tech.
“Are you sure? It’s not quite time for my lunch break.”
“Up to you. But I hear it’s meatloaf day.” Hicks had no idea if meatloaf was on the menu, but he needed the tech to leave. The cook did an amazing job turning canned and other preserved foodstuffs into delicious meals, and meatloaf, a particular worker favorite, went fast.
“I’m outta here. Thanks!” The tech bolted from the chair.
Hicks took his seat and riveted on Lila marching down the passage.
Where the hell was she going? To meet another man? Jealousy curdled as he watched a barefoot Lila stride over the rough, rocky floor. She’d partially covered herself with a sarong-like swath of fabric.
He’d never met a woman as liberated in her nudity as she was. Generally hookers had no problem flashing skin, but the way she paraded around was almost nudist-like. He’d fibbed to Biggs when he reported her clothing had caught fire from a fumarole burst. When he’d asked her why she was naked, she’d replied, Why not? It’s my natural state.”
Worried about what Biggs might do, he’d also lied when he’d said Lila had seen a man on the surface and that had prompted her to investigate. She couldn’t explain why she’d been topside.
Hicks had figured she’d lost a few screws—until he’d gotten to know her. While clueless in some ways, she exhibited a keen intelligence and perceptiveness in many others.
He had fallen for Lila’s mind—in addition to her sweet, gentle nature. For a hooker, she’d retained a surprising air of innocence. He might have assumed she was new to prostitution, except hot damn, the things she could do.
He hated that other men would use and abuse her, and, stuck on Elementa, she had no way out of the business. No one would forget she’d been a hooker, nor would Biggs hire her for any other job. She would never be able to rise above call girl.
Unless she became his wife. He could marry her, protect her. Yeah, he’d been thinking along those lines.
Then she’d dumped him.
They’d just made love. The sex had been so hot, Hicks almost believed he smelled smoke. Her lips swollen from his kisses, her hair mussed, she’d been cuddling in his arms when she’d bolted to a sitting position. Flecks of gold had swirled in her eyes, making them appear more amber than green. “I am called. It is time. I must go.”
“I don’t hear anything.” He’d reached for her. “It’s my day off. I thought we’d spend it together.”
She’d twisted away and jumped out of bed.
Jealousy had knotted his gut. Perhaps she didn’t have the day off. He’d assumed since they’d started sleeping together regularly, she’d dropped the other guys. “You’re…meeting another man?”
“No. You are the only one,” she’d said to his immense relief. “I will remember you fondly.”
“Remember me? You don’t need to remember me. I’ll always be here.” He’d swung his legs over the side of the bed.
“I will not be. I cannot return. Duty calls.”
“Forget the others. You don’t need them anymore. I’ll take care of you.”
She’d pressed a hand to her naked chest. “I enjoyed a month of freedom, but it is over now, and I must return to my duties.”
She’d had a month of freedom? What did that mean? A chill spread through him. Was she being forced to service the other men? If half the things he’d heard about Biggs were true… “Is Jackson Biggs involved in this?”
“I don’t know any Jackson Biggs.”
“You’re kidding. He’s the boss. This is his operation. You work for him.” He squirmed, thinking about how she worked for him.
“I serve one, and I serve many, but I do not serve him.”
He’d continued to protest, to get her to stay, to explain, but she’d wrapped a scarf around herself and left. Hurt, bewildered, he’d called her all sorts of names. How could he have been fooled? Sure the incredible sex had rocked his world, but he wasn’t a newb. He’d been married and divorced. Had serious relationships and one-night stands. Something seemed off. Something smelled wrong.
He’d thrown on his clothes then and raced after her, but she had vanished. He dashed for the control room, booted out the tech, and tracked her on the monitors.
He had to find out where she was going, who she was meeting. Had she adopted another protector? Or maybe she was a spy, a honey trap sent to test his loyalty? He’d suspected Biggs didn’t fully trust him. But Lila had claimed not to know him.
Hicks frowned as she swung her arms and marched down the middle of a wide tunnel, triggering a parade of motion sensor lights. Mining operations hadn’t been expanded to that area yet, but it had been outfitted with lights and cameras for the future eventuality and for security. Biggs insisted on being able to view every nook and cranny within miles of the control room.
The tunnel widened into a broad and tall cavern before bottlenecking. At its terminus a fumarole smoked, venting wisps of volcanic gas to the surface. That was another reason they didn’t use the tunnel—although most of the gas escaped to the surface, enough lingered to render the air hazardous. Despite the unhealthful air, she showed no signs of flagging. Anyone else would have been gasping for breath long before now. He shook his head in disbelief, recalling how she’d wandered around on the surface—
She couldn’t be intending to do that again, could she? He watched as she marched straight for the fumarole. No, Lila, no. Don’t even think it. The conduit led to the surface but also plunged downward for only-god-knew how far. They’d dropped lead lines into other holes to measure the depth but never hit bottom.
A ladder had never been installed on this one.
She halted at the edge of the precipice and peered up at the trickle of daylight. She bent at the knees—
Christ, she wasn’t going to jump, was she?
“No!” he shouted, leaping out of his chair. And then a mining car came racing down the tunnel. It wasn’t visible to her yet, but she must have heard it because she halted and turned around.
“Thank god!” Somebody was coming. Somebody would stop her.
But as the car neared, and the rider and Lila were within line of sight of each other, the rider didn’t reduce his speed. “Slow down. Slow down, buddy.”
What was the guy doing? He had to see her. She stood there spotlighted.
“Get out of the way! Lila, move, move! Goddammit! Stop, dammit, stop!” he yelled at Lila and the rider.
For an interminable second, she canted her head almost quizzically before jogging out of the bottleneck into the cavern. Hicks expelled his breath in a whoosh, only to catch it again when she remained dead center, as if facing down the car. There was plenty of room to get out of the way in the massive cavern. Why wasn’t she moving?
“Goddammit, get out of the way!”
The car continued to barrel toward her. Now he could see the rider. It was Asher.
What the hell was wrong with him? It was almost as if he was aiming for her. Jesus Christ. “Stop! Stop!” Hicks yelled. He couldn’t watch. But he couldn’t peel his eyes away, either. With sick horror, he watched—
—Lila morph into a dragon. Her body doubled then tripled in size as her neck lengthened and horns sprouted from her skull. Leathery wings thrust out of her back, and she leaped into the air seconds before impact. He could tell Asher hit the brakes because the vehicle slowed, but it was too little, too late. The car zoomed into the bottleneck and plunged into the abyss.
Lila shifted into demiforma, jogged for the conduit, glanced into the fumarole, and then leaped onto the rocky wall and climbed to the surface where she turned into a dragon again and flew away.
Jesus H. Christ. I fucked a dragon.
She would return to her people and tell them they were there. Fumbling, he hit the panic button and signaled Biggs with a three-blast emergency.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I love you,” H’ry said.
O’ne cupped his beloved face and gazed into his stricken eyes. “I will always love you, my mate.”
“Why does that sound like goodbye?”
“Because it…is.”
He flinched. “I thought we’d…find a way to be together.”
“I did, too,” she said sadly.
She had prayed for a clear sign of what she was supposed to do, and she’d received it. She’d awakened in H’ry’s arms with a ballooning pressure and an undeniable, unavoidable burning certainty the temple was ready to be consecrated, and the sacred flame needed to be released. It demanded she sever the relationship with H’ry.
She could no more disobey the edict and shirk her duty than she could cease to breathe. An invisible tether tied her to the temple, and she was being reeled in. It took every ounce of strength she possessed to spend this final moment with H’ry, the mate she would never see again.
She was being compelled to enter the temple. Once more, she was forced to abandon the one she loved.
She wanted to weep, to gnash her teeth, to shoot fireballs at the unfairness. She had prayed for a taste of happiness—and the wish had been granted. She’d received a taste. It had not been a gift but a punishment for unworthiness.
So you’re just going to leave him? That the dragoness had developed a deep fondness for him made the parting that much harder.
There is no choice. Duty cannot be denied.
The dragoness howled in protest and then fell silent. Obedience to the will of the Eternal Frye was a foregone conclusion. Acceptance was the sole option.
“This is it, then?” H’ry said.
She nodded.
He grabbed her hands when she would have fled. “Let me come with you for the consecration. I have never seen a temple consecrated—”
“No. It is a closed, sacred ceremony.”
“May I visit you…later?”
Her fyre flared in a burst of longing, only to be doused by the will of the sacred flame. The Eternal Fyre would brook no competition. “No. Please don’t.”
“Helena and Rhianna will be allowed to see you, won’t they?” he argued. She could smell his sadness, his despair, and it was tearing her into pieces.
“They are exceptions. They are part dragon.”
“As am I.”
But they were no threat to the Eternal Fyre’s sovereignty over her. Please do not make this harder than it is. Her fyre dimmed to the merest flicker. To see him, to be reminded of what they had would be too much to bear.
“I am sorry. For everything. Please give me your word you will stay away.”
He shook his head.
“Promise me.”
Resignation swept over his features. He nodded. “I promise.”
Conscious of H’ry following her to watch her leave, she didn’t dare look back. In the courtyard, she didn’t bother removing the shorter gown as she would not be wearing it again. The dress tore into tatters as she shifted.
Her dragoness leaped into the sky.
* * * *
Biggs inserted the audio unit into his ear before pulling on the hood of the flameproof hazmat suit. “Can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, boss,” Hicks’s voice shot into his ear.
He eyed his enforcers, suited up as he was. “You all good? Sound off.”
“I hear you.” One-by-one, they verified the comm system worked.
He peered up at the tiny red eye of the camera feeding live vid into the control room. “Any changes?”
“She—it hasn’t changed its trajectory,” Hicks confirmed. “Are you sure you want to do this? Maybe the dragon won’t tell the others we’re here. Maybe it won’t say anything.”
“It killed Asher.” His most effective enforcer.
“It looked like an accident.”
The lizard invader knew their location. He had to kill it before it could tell the others, or they’d all be toast. Literally.
Hicks had alerted him of the breach, but his reluctance to track down the creature and kill it indicated something amiss; however, the ops manager was a lesser priority right now. He’d deal with him later. As a precaution, he’d assigned a couple of techs to “help” man the monitors to ensure he got an accurate report.
He’d drafted a team comprising a dozen enforcers. If the operation went according to plan, they wouldn’t engage face-to-face but would shoot the dragon out of the sky with a small surface-to-air missile. As a precaution, his men were armed with plasma blasters and flamethrowers.
Perhaps he should have directed the campaign from the control room. A general didn’t risk his own life after all. Except, this was personal. A dragon had invaded his space, threatening an empire it had taken decades to build.
“I’ve got the first set of coordinates when you’re ready,” Hicks said through the mic.
“Ready.” Biggs got into the mining car and inputted the numbers in the car’s guidance system as Hicks reeled them off to the entire team.
“You all get that?” Biggs asked.
“Roger, boss,” came the responses.
“Remember, the control room is going to try to anticipate the dragon’s destination. We want to get ahead of it, wait for it, shoot it down, and haul ass to base. With any luck, we won’t encounter any others. Let’s move out!” With his men following, Biggs zoomed away to kill a dragon.
* * * *
Shell-shocked, Henry watched the dragoness fly away. Despite their bond, and O’ne’s earlier wait-and-see attitude, the Eternal Fyre had won, and he had lost. It had claimed her. He’d said he’d be able to accept the outcome, but he couldn’t.
She was his love, his mate, his other half. How would h
e live without her? And worse, he would live a very, very long time. His heart seized, and he rubbed his chest, bumping the pendant. He pulled the chain from under his shirt and closed his fist around the sparkling yellow stone. Probably priceless on Earth, its value couldn’t come close to the love he’d lost. This is all I have of her.
“Did you need me, H’ry?”
He tucked the stone under his shirt and turned. “J’leen?” Since he and O’ne had begun spending every second together, he hadn’t seen the donatta at all.
“You should use your inhaler,” she suggested gently. “Your color doesn’t look good—for a human, I mean. How long have you been in the courtyard?”
“Five minutes? Ten?” He glanced at the voggy rose sky and apathetically took a drag on the inhaler. His breathing came easier, but the pain in his chest remained.
“Are you all right? You smell like water falling from the sky.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He focused on a statue spitting fire.
J’leen came up beside him. “Would you like to go for a flight?”
“No.” If he couldn’t fly with his mate, then he wouldn’t fly.
“Perhaps…you wish to visit the Temple of the Eternal Fyre.”
Slowly, he turned. “Why do you suggest that?”
She rubbed a horn, as if it ached. “The priestess’s dragoness ordered me to escort you to the temple.”
“The dragoness did?”
“She practically burned the thought into my brain. I am not supposed to let you refuse.” She hesitated. “But the choice is yours.”
“And the priestess? What did she say?” He’d given his word he would stay away.
J’leen shook her head. “Nothing to me.”
“Take me there. Please.” Some promises should never have been made. Should never have been requested. “I’ll grab a few things, and I’ll meet you in the courtyard in a couple of minutes.”
“You cannot bring weapons into the temple.” J’leen guessed his intention. “The guardians would detect them and kill you on the spot. You have your inhaler. You have everything you need.”