“Kaderil is truly loyal to the human cause?” she asked quietly.
“All indications are he’s loyal. Do you remember the tall redhead who greeted Tarrys when we dropped her off? The woman’s name is Autumn. Kade’s asked her to marry him.”
Ilaria’s jaw dropped. “How…?”
“Rith sent Kade to infiltrate the Sitheen, steal the draggon stone, which was the only one we had at the time, then kill us. Lucky for us, Autumn was the first one he met. She may be human, but there’s no denying the woman enchanted him.”
“He loves her.”
“Apparently.”
Kaderil the Dark had possessed a reputation for violence that had terrified most within Esria. That he’d joined forces with humans, and fallen in love, was nothing short of extraordinary. Unless…he’d merely infiltrated their ranks. Was he still working for Rith?
All four carried what appeared to be weapons of some kind.
“What do their weapons do?” she asked Harrison.
“They’re flamethrowers. Each shoots a stream of fire.”
Just the thought of such a weapon sent a chill shooting down her spine.
Harrison’s hand tightened around hers. “Easy. They won’t use them unless Rith and his goons show up again.”
As they approached the group, Charlie’s gaze went from Harrison to her and back again, a smile hovering at the corners of his mouth.
“Princess,” Charlie said, meeting her gaze with a nod.
The male she didn’t know inclined his head. “I’m Jack Hallihan, Princess.”
The woman did the same. “Larsen Hallihan.”
Charlie’s gaze dropped to Harrison and Ilaria’s joined hands. “What’d she do, bro, enchant you? Not a handcuff in sight.”
“Armageddon woke me from a sound sleep. Forgive me if I got a little distracted. Besides, as Ilaria has reminded me, she has to touch you to remove your death marks. We either trust her or we don’t. There’s no halfway.”
Charlie lifted a brow. “And you’ve decided you trust her?”
“I have.”
To her surprise, Charlie’s expression grew serious, a look of satisfaction easing the lines of his face. “Good. So let’s do this.”
“I agree.” Kaderil stepped forward, giving her a formal bow. “Princess Ilaria. I’m glad to see you free, at last.”
“Thank you, Kaderil. I’m glad to be free.” She’d seen him a time or two, many centuries ago. With his human coloring and great height, he was not a man one forgot.
“You suffered no ill effects from the forest?” His concern seemed genuine and she wondered if he was proving a point to the others, or trying to get a read on her himself. She had no doubt those who crossed him had reason to fear him, but she was beginning to think there was more depth to this man than most Esri, including herself, had realized.
“There was a clearing in the middle of the forest where the old Marceillian temple stood,” she told him. “We lived there, free from the forest’s attacks.” She tried to hide a shudder. “If not for the clearing, I’d have gone mad long, long ago, I assure you.”
“I understand that completely,” Charlie muttered.
Ilaria eyed the dark Esri. “You betray your king by aiding the Sitheen, Kaderil.”
The big man nodded, calm certainty in his eyes. “King Rith would destroy this world. I fight with the humans to stop him.”
“And when he’s stopped?”
“I’ve found my home, Princess. This is where I belong.”
Ilaria could find no subterfuge in his eyes, nor did she hear any in his voice. She found it highly unlikely he was still loyal to King Rith. If he’d truly infiltrated the Sitheen resistance and sought the stones for his king, Rith wouldn’t have deemed it necessary to come through the gate himself.
She nodded. “I fear Rith will destroy both worlds. Tell me of Luciar and Sanderis. We encountered them on our way here today.” Having been one of King Rith’s guards himself, Kaderil would certainly know them.
All eyes sharpened, shooting to Harrison.
“We came upon them on Water Street,” Harrison told them. “They claimed to want to protect Ilaria, but when she declined their protection, they tried to grab her. I used fire to imprison them, but never sang the death chant.”
Kaderil nodded. “Sanderis is a loyal sort, easily led. Luciar seeks power of his own and curries the king’s favor to get it.” His gaze swung to Ilaria. “He would see delivering you to King Rith as a great achievement.”
“Are there others whose loyalty to Rith would break if they knew what he was?” Ilaria asked.
“If they knew he was a Caller?” Kaderil shook his head. “None that I saw the night they came through, though I didn’t see all of them. Most are either intensely loyal to him, or too weak to turn against him regardless of what he is.”
So she was well and truly alone. For now, the Sitheen and Kaderil were her only allies. But even they worked at cross-purposes to her.
“Thank you, Kaderil. When there’s time, I’d like news of the court and all that’s transpired there since the death of the queen.”
Kaderil inclined his head. “It would be my pleasure, Princess.”
“One thing,” she added. “What were my people told of my disappearance?”
Kaderil hesitated. Finally he said, “We were told that you and your mother were both traitors.”
“Did they believe that?”
“Some, yes, perhaps. Most, no. But none dared admit it.”
That knot of tension eased inside her. “Thank you, Kaderil.”
As Kaderil stepped back, Jack pulled something out of his pocket. Even before he opened his palm to reveal the treasure nestled within, she knew he had the draggon stone. Its magic sang within her.
As he opened his hand, Ilaria’s eyes drank in the sight of the blue, teardrop-shaped rock that now hung on a silver chain. Fifteen hundred years had passed since she last saw it. Fifteen hundred years since she’d last held it in her hand, and then as the princess, not the rightful queen.
“We rescued you, Princess, because we need your help,” Jack said. “We’re trusting you because we have to.” His tone was calm, but within his words she heard the threat. If she turned on them, betrayed them in any way, she’d become their enemy. And they would destroy her with their rivers of fire, ending her life as they had other Esri lives before hers.
Butterflies fluttered in her stomach, but she held tight to her composure, gaining strength from the warm press of Harrison’s hand around hers.
Jack tossed the stone to Harrison, the chain catching the light as it rippled through the air.
Harrison released her and caught the necklace with ease, then opened his palm in front of her. The power of the stone cried out for her, setting the air to quivering around her as it reached for her. Her own need to take it grew to a fever pitch, but she hesitated, all too aware of the armed humans surrounding her. All too afraid of what would happen the first time the stone came into her possession as the rightful vessel for its power.
She sought Kaderil with her gaze, seeking help. “My hair will rise.” The sight of an Esri coming into power had always awed and terrified the humans.
“And your eyes will glow like emeralds lit from within,” Harrison said calmly beside her, drawing her gaze back to him.
“You know?”
“We know. We’re ready for it.”
She watched him uncertainly, the stone’s energy clawing at her impatiently, calling, demanding. Her hands began to shake, her pulse speeding. She’d been born for this. All her life, she’d waited for this moment. And now that it was upon her, she hesitated. In the proper scheme of things, she should be in the grand temple of the Fair Court, surrounded by her people as she came into her royal power, showered with love and affection and celebration.
Instead she stood among humans—strong and cunning humans who sought to use her power for their own purpose, to seal all the gates between their worlds. A purpo
se they didn’t realize was impossible, for neither world could survive completely cut off from the other. As different as they were, they were two halves of a whole, dependent upon one another in ways neither Esri nor humans had ever understood. Only once, a very long time ago, had one of her ancestors attempted to seal both gates, for in that distant time there had only been two. Just the attempt had rained terrible destruction upon both realms—floods and quakes and storms beyond comprehension. Her ancestor had died in the world’s fury. And two gates had become twelve.
No, she could never seal all twelve gates.
But the humans, she feared, would never accept that truth.
With a deep breath, she reached for the stone. The moment the draggon touched her flesh, the mystic energy leaped at her, rushing into her in a thick, wonderful surge.
Strength, well-being, rightness.
As she curled her fingers around the draggon and lifted it from Harrison’s palm, the energies raced through her blood, her chest, her mind, at once intense pleasure and perfect calm, filling her to overflowing, bursting from her pores until she could do nothing but fling her head back and ride the storm.
Though her gaze was fixed on the gray clouds above, her mind exploded with swirling eddies of color and life as the energy took root inside her. Deep within her, the stone sang, calling to her, calling to all of Esria, proclaiming her the true queen. With the draggon in the queen’s possession, the land would flourish once more. Esria would be whole…if the scourge of Rith could be removed.
In that part of her mind connected to all the Esri, emotions sprang forth as her people responded to the draggon stone’s claiming her their rightful monarch.
She felt their shock, surprise, joy. Dismay.
Perhaps a half dozen of those emotions were especially strong. The emotions of the Esri here in the human realm. One sang with joy, a couple felt confusion, several displeasure. A single point of fury burned white hot.
Rith.
But beyond the myriad emotions, she felt something else. Something far closer than the other Esri. A tight core of contained strength and energy pulsing, seeking freedom. She sensed it nearby, practically within reach. Opening her senses and her mind, she reached for it. There. Right where…
Her head snapped down, her eyes flying open to stare at the man. The source of that contained, unleashed power.
Harrison.
From the start, she’d felt something within him, the promise of a power she didn’t understand. And he felt it, too. She could see the startled look in his eyes, the blend of surprise and awe she herself felt.
Knowledge and awareness flowed between them. Her pulse raced, her skin turning flushed and damp. The power spinning within her bounded as if she were not the only one mesmerized by this man. As if the mystic energies sought to claim him, too.
Why? What was Harrison? What gift did this human, this Sitheen, possess that the draggon stone recognized?
The connection that formed between them stole the air from her lungs, grabbing her, binding her in a way that went beyond the physical. Her chest tightened, her heart at once contracting and expanding as if it were under assault. She felt compelled, pulled, as if she were tumbling into that piercing gray-green gaze, falling… .
With a cold slide of understanding, she realized what was happening. Deep in her mind, a door had unlatched. A door none had ever passed through. None had ever even touched. It was a door she’d known existed within her mind as it did in all Esris, but had expected to never feel. Few ever did.
And with a hard, sinking feeling of disbelief, she knew.
In Harrison Rand, in a human, she’d found the man destiny had chosen to be her mate.
Chapter 9
Harrison stared at the strange and amazing sight—Ilaria, her green eyes glowing, her hair twisting above her head—and felt not revulsion, not fear, but a fierce rush of excitement. His blood fizzed as if the fluttering excitement had taken up physical residence in his veins.
Chills raced over his skin, lifting goose bumps on his arms as he watched her skin take on a luminous glow and her eyes fill with rapture.
He’d thought she was beautiful before. Now she took his breath away. Her scent floated to him on a wave of energy—the scent of gardenias…sweeter, richer, more enticing than ever.
Raw power filled the air between them, swirling around them. He couldn’t see it, couldn’t smell it, yet he could feel it seeping into his skin, tingling through his blood and sinking deep down into his body. A power he recognized on a molecular level, yet had never before experienced.
He felt drawn, as if consumed by an unnatural craving that at once enthralled and disturbed him, as if the energy itself seduced, filling him with a sense of joy, of a rightness of such magnitude that he knew he was experiencing one of the most profound moments of his life—Ilaria coming into her power, her ascension to queen.
Everything around him fell away and he was lost in the moment, as if enclosed in a bubble.
A fist of recognition carried down that line of connection between them and the power of the moment trebled. Joy and wonder showed in her face. Answering emotion rushed up inside him as if she poured those feelings into him, and him alone. Inside, he felt his chest begin to ache from the force of her velvet assault.
Passion twisted with the other emotions until his hands shook from the need to touch her, to pull her into his arms and kiss her. In those glowing emerald eyes, he saw an answering need, a hunger to rival his own. Desire flared, heating his blood until he was thick and hard and throbbing from the need to be inside her.
Slowly, the force of the power began to ebb. Little by little, the glow in her eyes faded to a natural brilliance, her hair dropping, as if in slow motion, to settle around her shoulders in a living cloak of pale curls.
But the fire in her eyes burned as her gaze remained tangled with his, her breath as broken as his own, mutual desire pulsating between them.
His hands fisted at his sides as he fought the nearly overwhelming compulsion to take her in his arms and fuse his mouth with hers. If they’d been alone, nothing could have kept him away from her in that moment.
Beneath his feet, the world shifted, righting itself as if in some indefinable way, this was the moment he’d waited for all his life.
No, not this moment.
This woman.
Charlie cleared his throat. “Earth to Harrison.”
Harrison struggled back from the precipice, his body fighting for the freedom to take what was his. His.
Good God. His? What was he thinking? She was immortal. An Esri princess, soon to be queen. He’d lost his freaking mind.
With a hard, mental yank, he jerked himself free, tilting his face to the sky to stare at the gray clouds overhead as he struggled to regain control.
What in the hell just happened? From the moment he met her, he’d wanted her, yet within the thrall of that power, that need had exploded. All he could think about was touching her, kissing her, making love to her.
But not here. Not in front of his brother and friends.
“Princess?” Kade stepped forward into the circle, a sense of urgency about him that helped Harrison regain control. “We need to do this quickly. Every Esri now knows you’re free, and the true queen. Including King Rith.”
“What do you mean?” Jack demanded.
“All Esri are connected. We just felt our queen come into her power.”
Harrison’s gaze shot to Ilaria as she nodded. Her color was high, roses of pure pink brightening her cheeks, making her even more beautiful, if such a thing was possible.
“I felt the emotions of the race,” she told them, her head held high. “Some were joyous, others dismayed. Rith is furious.”
“Great,” Jack muttered. “Did you know this was going to happen?”
“No,” Kade replied.
Ilaria shook her head. “No queen has come into her power in seven thousand years. The last was my mother.”
Harrison’s
gut clenched. Seven thousand.
Jack’s gaze swung to Kade. “Will King Rith be able to track the princess now?”
“I don’t think so, but he can definitely track the stone.”
“Should we be calling you the queen now?” Charlie asked.
Ilaria shook her head. “No. Though he seized his power by foul means, Rith rules Esria. The people and the land know I’m the one who should be queen, but Rith still wears the crown. And as long as he does, I remain only a princess.”
Kade turned and knelt on one knee before her.
For one uncomfortable moment, Harrison remembered the way the big man had gone up in flame the last time he was touched by one of his own. But Ilaria wouldn’t hurt him. He believed that.
“I honor you, my queen,” Kade said. “And recognize you as the true sovereign of Esria. However, my fealty belongs to the humans and their cause.”
“Thank you, Kaderil. I don’t ask for your fealty. It’s enough that you fight to stop Rith.”
“Will you forgive the death mark upon me?”
“Why do you have it?” Her words were perfunctory, a necessary question rather than a true demand.
“Zander, another of Rith’s guards, attempted to kill me and the woman I loved. I killed him first.”
Ilaria paused only a moment, as if testing the truth of his words, then with a small nod, stepped forward and lifted her hand.
Around him, the others tensed, but none interfered. If Kade hadn’t trusted her, he wouldn’t have knelt within Ilaria’s reach. And Kade, more than any of them, knew the risk.
Harrison alone watched her calmly. He knew she wouldn’t hurt his friends. He knew her inside out, he realized, and the last of his wariness dropped away, a thick warmth rushing in to take its place.
Ilaria placed her palm on top of Kade’s dark head and closed her eyes. Like before, Harrison felt the power as she called it, though not as strongly as the first time. It raced along the surface of his skin, a flood of energy and pleasure.
Warrior Rising (Harlequin Nocturne) Page 10