What price would you pay to save the life of someone you loved?
High in the mountains, Isabelle Falcone is able to watch her brother’s health slowly improve each day. But she can never forget the price she will have to pay for his life. Now she’s found love with a man that is much more than he appears and a simple bargain is turning into something far more complicated. She’s strong enough to pay the devil his price, she’s proven that already. But will the broken pieces of her soul be enough to walk away with when he’s done with her?
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Betrayed by Dragons
Copyright © 2013 Caitlin Ricci
ISBN: 978-1-77111-709-8
Cover art by Carmen Waters
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Betrayed by Dragons
For Love of Dragons 2
By
Caitlin Ricci
Chapter One
Isabelle awoke slowly, her eyes struggling to adjust to the darkness of their bedchamber. Fully awake, she sat up and frowned at the empty half of the bed. She didn’t care where Faolan spent the nights when he wasn’t lying next to her. At least that’s what she tried to tell herself. She angrily wiped away a salty tear and punched the pillow behind her. She would just sit up and wait for him. And when he got back she decided that she would question him and finally get some answers. He couldn’t avoid her then. She crossed her arms over her chest and set her jaw. An hour later she was bored and her eyelids were starting to feel heavy.
A few minutes later she was barely aware of the room around her and falling asleep as her head hit the pillow. Isabelle sat up suddenly, disoriented and confused, as she struggled to wake up. She turned quickly as she felt the bed dip next to her.
“Faolan?” she asked hopefully.
“Yes?” he sounded tired and worn out. There was a raspy harshness in his voice that made her wince.
“Where have you been? It’s been hours,” she hissed.
“Out,” he grumbled into his pillow.
“I know that. Where?” He turned to look at her. She could hear his breath coming in short, painful gasps. “Faolan, what’s wrong?” she asked quietly, worry chasing away all other emotions.
“Go to sleep,” he growled.
“No, I won’t. Not until you tell me what’s wrong and what happened to you tonight,” she all but pleaded with him.
Isabelle reached out blindly into the darkness, meaning only to shake him, but as her fingers grazed his bare skin, she felt a cool wetness that instantly made her recoil from him. “Faolan…” she whispered.
“I told you to go to sleep,” he snapped. Normally his tone would have made her close her mouth and leave him alone, but tonight she couldn’t.
“Please tell me what happened,” she pleaded.
He growled and waved his hand angrily at a nearby clump of tall candles. Instantly they sprang to life, washing the bed in a pale yellow glow that barely illuminated enough of the room for Isabelle to make anything out. But she could see him and what she saw made her gasp and her stomach to clench tightly.
“Happy now?” he grumbled as he turned over on his back, giving her a full view of the sticky wet blood streaked across his naked torso and onto the bed. Her fingers trembled as she gingerly touched his torn shoulder. She kept her eyes locked on his closed lids just in case he decided to snap at her again.
At the first touch of her fingertips against his cool skin, Faolan hissed loudly, causing her to pull back sharply with a startled squeak. “Just…be careful,” he gasped as his dark eyes opened slowly and then locked onto hers.
“What happened to you?” she asked, gulping nervously. She had already started running the possibilities through her head and none of them seemed possible, which scared her.
He shrugged dismissively. “I got into a fight.”
“With what?” she asked. “A bear?” It was a weak guess, she knew. But it was also the best she had been able to come up with.
Faolan chuckled dryly, quickly wincing as a fresh wave of pain surged through him. “No, not a bear. Something much, much worse.”
“Like what?” she asked, her eyes going wide.
“Another Draconian,” he grumbled in disgust.
“But…But why?”
“Not important,” he was quick to snap. The hard look in his eyes instantly quieted any other questions she may have.
She bit her lip and nodded. Her fingertips trailed over his unblemished forearm, tracing small patterns over his wrist. Isabelle met his eyes uncertainly and leaned over him. She hesitated for a moment, her heartbeat pounding in her ears, before placing a gentle kiss on the inside of his wrist. In a motion too fast for her to see, his other hand came up to the side of her face, startling her. She froze under his touch, but his thumb pressing gently against her jaw brought her eyes up to meet his. He pulled her toward him slowly, adjusting himself under her. His hand never left her face as he leaned toward her and brought his lips to hers.
Isabelle felt panic racing through her for a moment before she closed her eyes and gave into the kiss. Careful not to touch his wounds, she brought her hand to his hip, her fingers gently caressing his smooth muscles. She was gasping for air before his lips moved from her mouth to trail kisses across her cheek to the side of her neck. She closed her eyes and gave into him, a soft moan escaping her lips. In one fluid motion, he was on top of her, his arms wrapped tightly around her.
“Faolan,” she gasped between fevered kisses.
“Yes?” he panted in her ear.
“You’re hurt.” She hated the idea of him stopping, but she also didn’t want him to be more in pain because of this.
“Don’t worry about it,” he replied quickly.
“But…”
“Forget about it or I will give you something else to focus on,” he teased.
She paused for a moment and then opened her mouth again but instead of the scolding words she had wanted to tell him, all that came out was a soft moan as he made good on his promise.
Chapter Two
It had been nearly a week since Faolan had come back to their rooms wounded, and now, as Isabelle watched him secretly from across the large wood dining table, she wouldn’t believe he had been so hurt if she hadn’t seen it for herself. Almost all of his lithe movements were back, though he lacked his natural grace. His open wounds had long since turned to dry scabs and soon would be only scars. She marveled at his ability to heal.
Caden, too, had found it a little more than odd that one day while visiting her for breakfast Faolan had been washing those wounds and the next morning they had already begun healing. Now, sitting next to her and quietly eating his soup, she could tell t
hat he was barely containing his questions as well. Once in a while Faolan would glance across the large table at them, his eyebrow quirked as he tried in vain to understand what they were looking at so intently. When that happened, Isabelle would smile widely at him and Faolan would go back to eating his meal, a small blush forming across his cheeks.
Only Thadius, sitting between them at the head of the table, seemed completely at ease in the silence. Though Isabelle had to admit he did look impressed at Caden’s ability to hold his tongue, especially around adults. She had seen the man eye her little brother warily before they had taken their seats, but as soon as the food had been served, Caden had been as quiet as she had ever seen him. She was quite proud of his manners.
The flapping of wings brought them all to attention as a small brown hawk flew in through the open window. Four pairs of eyes watched the bird as it circled around the table, slowly coming to a soft landing before a surprised Isabelle.
“I don’t remember saying that you could have a pet, Isabelle,” Thadius commented dryly before turning back to his wine.
Isabelle winced slightly before looking over their unusual a meal guest.
“It’s got a letter!” Caden said excitedly, pointing at the bird’s leg.
“So it does,” whispered Isabelle, her voice trailing off in thought as she studied the bird. With nimble fingers and more than a few short nips from the bird’s beak, she had been able to pry the roll of parchment off the bird’s leg. As soon as her hands were away from the bird, it snapped it’s sharp beak at her once and then took off in a flurry of feathers, almost disrupting her water glass.
“It’s a message from our brother Andrew,” Isabelle said in awe, quickly reading over the short missive.
“Half-brother,” Caden was quick to point out, earning a sharp look from his sister.
“What does it say?” Faolan asked, curiosity finally winning over his desire to eat in quiet.
Her eyes met his instantly from across the table. He knew without having to ask that she was nervous and more than a little wary. “He wants to see me back at the palace immediately. He says that it’s urgent. May I go?” Isabelle asked him uncertainly.
“Are you sure that’s safe?” Caden asked quickly, as he struggled to get the words out around a large piece of meat in his mouth.
“He may have a foul temper and a mean streak, but he’s harmless, Caden,” she assured him.
Caden swallowed loudly, took a swig of water, and then pouted. “I still don’t like it,” he said glumly.
“Have you spoken to him since your arrival?” Faolan asked, interrupting them.
“No,” Isabelle replied, frowning slightly.
“Did you at least say goodbye to him?” Faolan continued.
She shook her head no, her frown deepening as she remembered that day. “We had been fighting a few hours before I left with Caden and didn’t know at the time how long I would be here so I saw no reason to say anything to him at the time.”
“I think he’s probably just worried then and seeing you would calm him fears. It may help you to have some time away from these mountains as well,” Faolan replied with an easy smile.
“Really, Faolan? You wouldn’t mind?” Isabelle asked as she leaned forward excitedly in her seat.
Faolan gave her a short nod, and then, as if remembering the other occupant at the table, turned to his father. “What do you think, Father?” he asked hesitantly.
Thadius eyed his son for a moment, considering the man, before nodding. “The decision is yours alone, my son, she is your wife to do with as you wish.”
Faolan’s dark eyes narrowed at his father’s less than friendly tone when mentioning Isabelle, but he quickly brushed it off. Turning to the young woman across from him, he smiled broadly and said, “Very well then. If you are done with your meal, Isabelle, why don’t you go get ready? I will have a dragon meet you outside the ledge in our bedroom in a little bit.”
“Thank you, Faolan, Sire,” Isabelle said quickly as she stood to leave.
“May I help her get ready?” Caden asked before she made it to the large doorway.
Isabelle turned back slightly, her eyes meeting Thadius’ across the room.
“I don’t see why not. But you are not to leave here, young man,” the man replied without taking his eyes off Isabelle.
She understood the threat in his words and nodded, silently, promising that her brother would remain here and that she would return for him. She realized how much trust he was putting in her with this outing and she would not disappoint him.
“Yes, sir,” Caden said before rushing to his sister’s side as she left the room.
* * * *
They walked in silence through the halls, his small fingers laced loosely in hers. A quick glance at his sister’s face told Caden all he needed to know. She was nervous, he was positive, maybe even a little scared. But this was Andrew. Caden made a face at the man’s image in his mind. But regardless of what he thought of their half-brother, Isabelle would still go to his side no matter what. He squeezed her fingers tighter, hoping that she would be fine.
Isabelle smiled down at him and rubbed her thumb across his hand. “You’ll be fine, Caden, I’ll only be a little while,” she told him as they entered her rooms.
“It’s not me I’m worried about, Izzy,” he replied softly as he entered the room and hopped onto the large bed to watch her brush her hair. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Are you afraid the dragon will eat me?” she asked with a slight chuckle.
“It’s not the dragon I’m worried about,” Caden said glumly.
Isabelle put the brush down and came over to sit next to her brother on the bed, quickly pulling him into a tight hug. “I told you, Andrew is harmless. Besides, aren’t you curious what he wants now? We’ve been gone almost three months and he’s just now sending a hawk out for me?”
Caden shrugged. “Maybe the bird got lost. It’s a long way from Nuer to these mountains.”
“You’re right. But his hawks are the best in the land. The man prides himself on his ability to find anything with those birds,” she said as she brushed a tuft of hair off his forehead.
He quickly batted her hand away. “So then what’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but I intend to find out.”
* * * *
There was a soft thud outside on the ledge. Isabelle smiled to her brother and pulled him off the bed by his hand, leading him outside to where the dragon waited.
At the sight of the small onyx creature, Isabelle’s breath caught. “I know him,” she whispered softly to her brother.
“What? How?” he asked quickly as Isabelle released his hand and walked up to the dragon.
“At least I think I do.” She came to stand next to the beast’s shoulder, his fine black scales as smooth as a snake’s and gleaming in the light of the evening sun. “Are you the one that helped me earlier?” she asked hopefully. To her amazement, the dragon’s fine head bobbed quickly in a yes. “So you can understand me!” Again he, at least she assumed it was a he, nodded.
“I still don’t know about this,” Caden said, eyeing the dragon warily.
Isabelle quickly pulled him into a tight hug and kissed both his cheeks. “I will be fine. Faolan would not have asked for an unsafe dragon to take me and Andrew won’t hurt me, no matter how angry he may be.”
“When will you be back?” he said, his lips forming into a pout.
“I’m not sure really. I wouldn’t think before morning. Why don’t you wait here in my rooms for me? There are a lot of books to look at and some fresh tea if you get thirsty,” she suggested.
“Faolan won’t mind?”
She smiled brightly at him. “No, I think he’ll understand.”
The boy nodded and shrugged out of his sister’s embrace. “Have a safe trip, Izzy.”
“Get some rest, Caden, I will see you soon.”
Isabelle led her brother back inside the room and kissed his cheeks once more before coming back to stand near the dragon.
“I guess I should warn you,” she said softly to him. “I’m not good at riding horses so I don’t suppose I’ll be very good at riding you.”
The dragon once again surprised her by kneeling down on the warm stone, bringing his head almost as low as her hip as he watched her. Isabelle nodded nervously and bit her lip. It was now or never really. And, she reminded herself, this dragon hadn’t hurt her before. Without giving it another thought, she slid onto his smooth shoulders with a swish of her skirts. He was surprisingly warm and the smoothness of his scales felt almost like a thick silk below her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face against him.
“Alright, I’m ready. Please be careful,” she whispered to him. After one last smile at Caden, she closed her eyes tightly as she felt the dragon’s muscles tense just before he launched into the cool evening air.
Isabelle only opened her eyes again once she felt the dragon’s smooth muscles relax and heard a soft thud as he landed gently on the ground. She slowly looked around, blinking quickly in the darkness as she wondered how long it had taken them. It had been a three-day journey for her and Caden, but the dragon had flown that distance in what she had to guess was only a few hours, if not less. All she had felt while they flew was the wind against her back. Now she was regretting not having her eyes open. The wonders that she probably had missed made her heart ache.
She numbly slipped off his shoulders, her legs feeling weak below her as she stepped onto the ground. She only just realized how cold her fingers were and began blowing on them quickly. The dragon’s dark eyes watched her, staying beside her until she stepped away from him into the empty courtyard of the palace she had called home only a few months before.
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