by A. K. Koonce
Then I take a breath. And trail down the endless spiral stairs after that demon.
I was caught by surprise, taken off guard by his appearance which—no fucking thanks to Linden—I could have had a little warning about. Now is different. I’ll be able to do more than breathe a choked sound of a scream when I see him.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to pass him a message while being under the very close watch of two demons and a slightly vacant shifter.
The demon’s footfalls become a distant sound, and I pick up the pace. It’s a thundering stride that isn’t nearly as ladylike as the formal dress I’m squeezed into. The noise of my steps fills the corridor when I turn down the hall and chase after him. An army of hurried steps follow after me, and I’m not entirely sure it’s just the three men back there or if a small herd of angry hell spawns have joined in on the chase.
The demon’s wide shoulders and pressed black uniform comes into view, and I extend my palm to him in the middle of the dimly lit dining room. My fingertips skim his velvet coat.
And then the door opens.
Ellise’s serene smile falls on me. Her attention shifts from the way my hand reaches out to the demon with the scar. The watchful look passes over me once more, but I’ve had the quick thinking to study my nails, lifting my hand bit higher in the poor lighting to admire the dungeon dirt under my fingernails.
Yes, that is a fascinating hand. Huh, how in our beloved Attika did that get there? Goddess save the Solstice Queen I have got to get a manicure.
Long may she reign.
And so on.
I finally lift my gaze to her, my pounding heartbeat tattling on me despite the innocent blue eyes I’m giving her.
“Dinner’s ready, my darling.” Her lips twitch, but she manages to press them into a kind, slightly manic smile.
“Great.” I nod and don’t dare glance at Split Face when he files out of the room with the other demons.
“Did you enjoy your time with Linden this afternoon?” She pulls her seat out at the head of the table, and from where she’s standing, I doubt she can hear the low humming growl that’s shaking out of Rime’s chest at the sound of her son’s name.
“Very much. He was sweet and…” I’m going to just brace myself in case Rime goes full dragon mode right now. “He reminded me why I love him.”
The chair in Rime’s hand cracks down the headrest from how hard he’s grasping the back of it. It’s a feat in itself, considering the chairs are made of solid stone. With a jarring move, he drags out the seat and sits with controlled calmness like he didn’t nearly break a seat in half seconds ago.
I carefully sit at his side, and it kills me that he keeps his focus vacantly on a spot on the far wall, never once peering over at me.
He’s in there, repressed and far off, it seems, but he’s very clearly in there.
“Did he mention any political plans?” Her hands are steady as she folds a white napkin across her lap.
A beat passes in mundaneness while the three of us fill our plates in compatible silence. It’s a scene of scripted lines and acted-out charades, and I can’t help but wonder if she realizes this as well.
“No. He just said he’d never allow anything to happen to us now that he has us back.” The lies are easier to say to her. So much easier than they ever were when I tried to lie to my shifters when we first met.
“Us?” Her pale eyebrow arches, her deep-green eyes a bit larger when she turns fully to me.
“Yes. He missed you, Ellise. He’s your son and he needs his mother.” My heart hurts a little when I glance at Rime out of the corner of my eyes. “All men need a good mother.”
Her attention drifts, and I can see her thoughts flit across her face for less than a second. Her chair shoves back, and she stands swiftly.
“Rime will see you to your cell tonight.”
My. Fucking. Cell.
Perfect. Great. Sounds lovely. Can’t wait.
“Ellise.” I look up at her with a tense brow before she makes it to the door.
Her posture stiffens, but she does pause for me.
“You won’t hurt Linden, will you?” It’s an honest curiosity. If I can get her to care, even just a little bit about this one person, there’s hope for our kingdoms.
But judging by how she’s treating her other son, how she’s always treated her other son, it’s a beaten and bruised image of hope.
She never glances my way. Her chin lifts a little higher, and then she strides toward the door as if I never spoke a word.
“Goodnight, Arlow.”
Of course, Rime doesn’t say a word when he leads me down the dungeon stairs. I could escape him. It’d be easy. But my vanishing magic doesn’t take no matter how many times I try. Ellise has stunted some of my powers and enhanced others at her choosing. It’s completely infuriating.
Even if I made it past Rime, I’d never make it past all the demon guards, though.
And honestly, I’d never be able to leave without my mate.
So I’ll stay. I’ll stay and plot and figure all of this out.
The way I feel my relationship breaking down with the man at my side with each passing day, that’s something I’m not strong enough for.
Pain sinks into my heart and spreads with agonizing slowness until it devours my stomach. The cell door sweeps open with a cry of metal on metal, and the shifter doesn’t look at me when I pause in front of him. I’m playing games with Ellise, and unfortunately, that means I’m playing games with a dragon who doesn’t seem to understand all this and doesn’t have the option to grasp a human explanation.
How can I explain this to him?
“I don’t love Linden.”
His jaw tics, but he keeps his head held high, his icy gaze narrowed on a spot in the darkness.
I’m not afraid of him despite his initial reaction to hurt me. The carnal part of him that wanted a carnal thing from his mate. He feels our connection. He has to.
And that just makes this all the more confusing.
“You’re my mate, Rime. I’m yours. I’ve always been yours.” I skim my fingers so lightly over his wrist.
He snatches my hand in his, and in an instant, I’m pinned to the painful metal bars. My spine arches against the cell, but his chest holds me in place, his blazing blue eyes glaring down on me with fierce conviction like I’ve never seen.
He’s going to snap at me.
“Mine,” he says through clenched teeth, enunciating the word like it has more meaning than I ever understood until now.
My heart answers in a pounding reply, sending a thrill of energy soaring all through me.
Mine.
It’s the first thing he’s ever said to me with the device consuming all his rational thoughts.
It shouldn’t be as romantic as my fluttering heart is making it out to be.
On the tips of my toes, I lean into him, pressing my chest fully to his, letting my lips skim over his slowly, holding his gaze and making a promise I hope he hears.
“I’m yours, Rime. I know you’re used to people leaving you or using you or hurting you, but I’ll never do that. You’re gone in a way, but I’ll always be yours. You’ll always have me. I love you.” It hurts my heart to say all of that out loud. It hurts so much that my lashes flutter closed to stop the moisture that’s blurring my sight.
I wish he was here.
His lips press gently to mine; his hold on me loosens to a soft caress. The shifter kisses me with care, a chaste kiss like he’s never given me before.
I arch into him for more, but he pulls back as quickly as he came.
With the heaviness of my breath filling the silence, I barely hear the mage imprisoned a few cells down.
“He’s a keeper,” the woman tells me.
She’s right.
But talk about lack of privacy.
The shifter stares down on me like a confusing memory is passing through his mind. His attention shifts over me, and just when I think he’s broken t
hrough the magic of the Solstice Queen, he opens the door open wider to my cell. He stands there with brows lowered over his eyes.
His hand stays in mine, though.
It’s the only telling sign that he’s different.
A little piece of him belongs to me, and that little piece of him is strong, I know it is. I just don’t know if it’s stronger than magic.
My chest aches, and a long breath slips over my lips before I make my way into my little imprisonment. This is my life now. This confusing mess is my life.
The door clanks shut.
When I turn, he’s there, gazing at me with a sort of confused expression of love, but love all the same. He keeps the space of the cell between us but he’s here, locked inside with me. Rime leans against the cell door, a skeleton key held in his hands, but Ellise’s son is on the wrong side.
He’s on my side.
Seven
Two Tamers
I’ve made a breakthrough. Kind of. I mean, the beast isn’t trying to kill me, so that’s a start. And really, I got a dragon to snuggle me without fucking him. I am the ultimate beast tamer.
Someone get my Most Valuable Tamer award ordered.
Not that I’m bragging.
Much.
Rime’s palm is splayed across my stomach, and he sleeps soundly. Completely soundly for the very first time since I met him. Maybe it’s the safety he feels with his dragon, or maybe it’s our bond.
I don’t know.
I do know that I need to try to expand on my powers while they’re still on tingling overdrive from having Rime willingly so close to me. I try what I think will be the most beneficial. I’m here with Rime.
So I reach out to our mate.
Chaos…
Shivers spread across my arms, and it isn’t from the cold.
Chaos I need you. I need the three of you here with me. I need you in Attika.
Just talking to him even without an answer causes my magic flare and fire and soar through my veins. I’m stronger with support. I’m stronger with them.
The cool air in the dungeon swirls, lifting the ends of my hair. It’s light at first, a gentle pull of power. Then it grows. It clatters the door of my cell, making it shift back and forth against the lock. But breaking free isn’t my intent.
I just want to hear his voice.
I need to hear him.
Low!
His voice roars through my mind with so much frantic urgency I flinch from the pained sound of his tone. My lashes part instantly.
And I meet brilliant-green eyes.
“Did you say hi for me?” Ellise smiles widely, her hands folded neatly in front of her deep-red dress as she stands at my cell looking down on me. “Rime and I were really getting on well until recently.” Her attention drifts to the dozing shifter wrapped around me. “I don’t know what you’re doing to my device, but the control I have is stronger than whatever it is you’re doing.”
I part my lips to explain in the calmest way possible, but she cuts me off.
“I want to prove it to you.”
I dig my fingers into Rime’s arm. What did I just get him into?
“If you wanted your lovers here, all you had to ask, my darling.” Her fingers fist into her palm, and her body shakes with energy that I can physically feel snapping against my skin. Hot magic bites into my flesh; it sizzles all around us.
The door to my cell bangs on its hinges, rattling so hard I think it might fly off entirely. The press of the cold wind is so strong it steals my breath away, forcing me to close my eyes to the stinging feel of it.
The air cuts away. The stabbing energy prickling my skin dissolves. The magic in the air burns out.
His voice lights up the room.
“What did you hear? What did she say to you? Is she safe? Is she fucking safe, Chaos?” Kain’s words are slice into my life, and I open my eyes in a flash.
Three men stand at the center of the dungeon.
Chaos and Kain wear strangely elaborate black fur coats that cover them from head to toe. Sinister wears nothing but a thin black shirt and jeans. He’s the first to notice the obviously abrupt change in their scenery.
“Guys?” Sin turns on the heel of his boot, and his crimson eyes light up when he spots me.
He’s thrown against the far wall before he can say another word. His lean body spasms, but Ellise only drags him higher until he’s pinned like a moth to the center of the brick wall.
She holds him in place. Her gaze drifts, and with a twist of her wrist, I know she’s doing the same to Chaos. It seems she’s doing the same to Kain as well.
But he’s different.
He’s all lethal strength. And now someone’s fucking with his mate. It seems not even magic can stop him right now.
Kain’s body shakes with a growling roar climbing up his throat.
Ellise narrows her green eyes on him and arches her fingers even more but in the most subtle way. The clawing scratch of her power crawls over my skin in waves.
Rime stands, and his head tilts when he sees Chaos pressed hard into the far wall. He takes several steps toward his friend and waits there at the cell, but Chaos never moves a single inch.
Rage shudders through Rime’s shoulders, and any inkling of logic that was in his head vanishes. His fingers grip the bars until his knuckles turn white. The metal groans. The bulging curve of his biceps tenses, and the bars bow beneath his unnatural strength.
How much aggression can these men hold before true beasts lash out in growing form?
I press my back to the wall, measuring the limited space there is in my small cell.
Kain lifts his chin higher, takes a stumbling step against his unseen restraints, and then rushes her. His big body lunges, shoulders tense, legs pumping, ripping across the room with pure, determined speed. He crashes into her petite frame. A surprised scream echoes around the room. It’s all a blur of chaotic aggression, but it does exactly what he intends, it seems.
Sinister falls to the floor, landing on his feet and cracking his neck from side to side before striding forward. Chaos shakes to release the dragon he always turns to during a fight, but he reins it in.
There isn’t room down here. If any of them lose control, we could be buried under thousands of heavy bricks.
Rime physically calms the moment Chaos takes a single step. The rigid lines of his arms relax as a heavy breath slips from his lips. He visibly calms, and I go to him then, sliding my fingers down the length of his arm until he captures my hand in his.
My other hand secretly steals the key in his pocket.
I barely grind it into its lock before magic explodes through the room. I’m sent backward in the cell. Brick scrapes my back as I soar over the rough flooring. My head slams into the wall with slicing pain. Ringing circles in my mind. A trickle of warmth glides down my temple, but through my haze, all I can focus on is the way Ellise is standing over Kain.
“I, too, am a tamer.” Her palm pushes a stray hair back into her now messy blonde locks.
I shove the door open, my heart drilling, demanding I run faster.
Chaos lies alone on the floor in the corner, his body unmoving. Only Sinister is left standing from the blow of her magic.
She slips the glowing restraining device in place against Kain’s temple before I even make it a single step. His lashes are lowered. Just like Chaos’.
Sinister watches her with wild eyes, but she holds him in place to the floor, not allowing him to move a single inch while she does her work.
She saves him for last. She wants him to see the power she holds.
She’s tearing them down one by one. It’s breaking me little by little to see her harm them this way. I lived through it when she did it to Rime. I can’t do it again with all of them.
The device locks in place with a flashing white glow falling across Kain’s fiery hair. She presses a sweet kiss there over his hair. That single little act tears a newfound anger awake inside me.
I c
an’t harm her. I can’t do any ill-wishing magic to her.
But I can…inconvenience her. Somehow.
I’m not strong. Let’s face it, my magic is powerful, but my body itself: really kind of useless.
Women don’t need muscle. They just need strive. The striving vengeance in me is stronger than any man walking this kingdom.
I wrap my arms around her back but don’t have the weight to tackle her to the floor. I have a key. A single, small, insignificant little thing really.
I stab that insignificance right into her eye.
“You stupid bitch.” Her hand snaps back at me, striking me fully across the cheek and sending me to the floor.
Her palm slides over the blood on her face, covering the gushing wound but not stopping the trickling red color leaking between her fingers. Metal sticks disgustingly out from between her fingers, and an odd feeling of contentment settles into me.
Her body trembles, but she keeps control of the situation. So much more than I ever imagined she was capable of.
“If you blind me, I will blind you, Arlow. I hurt you once by mistake. Imagine what I can do on purpose.” Flashing light strikes out of her palm, hitting me hard in the face.
The shadows in the room darken even more than usual around the edges. Energy floods across my features, sinking into my skull until total blackness drowns me. I think it’s fear that causes me to black out.
Complete fear of what she’s just done to me.
And what I’ve possibly just done to all of us.
Eight
The Alpha and His Toy
My lashes flutter to the feel of fingers pushing through my hair over and over again. It’s the sweetest touch. The softest caress.
It almost lulls me back to sleep.
“Wake up, Arrie.” The dip of that sexy accent revives me all on its own.
I open my eyes and see him. I see every single beautiful detail down to the way his eyes crease faintly at the corners when the demon smiles at me.
“There’s those beautiful blue eyes.”
I…can see him…