by Ava Benton
I couldn’t stop thinking about the girl in the cell, her big, luminous green eyes staring straight into my soul. That morning, I hadn’t known she existed.
Standing in the kitchen with my family, I knew in a deep and unfamiliar part of my heart that the world wouldn’t be the same without her in it.
“I could talk to her, see if there’s any way we can meet in the middle—though I can’t imagine a middle ground right now,” Smoke mused. “It’s one or the other. Live or die.”
“No. I don’t want you involved in this—not that I don’t trust you or believe in you,” I added when a frown touched his face. “If she dies before we can get help to her, I wouldn’t want you to feel like it was your fault. I brought her here, and I’ll handle the consequences.”
One corner of Gate’s mouth quirked up in disbelief. “Easy for you to say right now.”
8
Jasmine
I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t anymore. Was I still in the cell? Had the dragon let me go? Sometimes I would open my eyes, and I’d be outside, in the sunshine, soaking the rays into my skin and letting the energy flow through me.
The sun always rejuvenated us—my sister called us “solar powered, ” and we would laugh about it. I used to feel sorry for humans, knowing the sun didn’t do for them what it did for me. But they didn’t know any better, and creatures who didn’t know what they were missing weren’t suffering.
All was well. The pain was just a dim memory. It was a beautiful day, and Papa just held a meeting of all his advisors, so Alina and I had slipped out of the house—it was so boring in there—and gone off together to explore some of the crumbling old outbuildings along the edges of the property.
We weren’t supposed to go there, not alone, but what Papa and all his advisors didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. Alina was running just ahead of me, giggling and whispering to me to run faster. I could never quite keep up. Her hair, so blonde it was nearly white, streamed behind her like a flag.
I must have tried to move in my sleep—or was it a hallucination? The movement sent a fresh bolt of agony up my arm and down my right side. It was spreading. What was spreading? I wasn’t sure. Some part of me knew, but I didn’t want to think about that.
We were having too much fun. Where was Alina? How did I end up in a cave? Were there caves on the property? I had never seen any or heard of them, but they had to be there if I was in one.
“Alina?” I shouted, but it came out as a hoarse whisper. She would never be able to hear me.
I closed my eyes, and I was with her again. She popped out from behind what remained of an old stone cottage.
“I’m right here, silly,” she laughed before disappearing again.
I tried to follow her, but the ground was all covered in weeds and tangled vines. They kept catching my feet, wrapping around my ankles, tripping me and threatening to pull me down.
“Alina, help me!” I scream-whispered, falling.
She was far away by now. She didn’t know I needed her. No matter how hard I fought or how loud I tried to scream, it didn’t matter. She was too far.
My head rolled from side to side, and the images got all mixed up. I was outside, I was inside. It was dark, it was light. I didn’t know where I was for sure. I didn’t know how to get home. Sweat rolled down my neck, between my breasts. I groaned when I tried to move my arm, and it felt like trying to lift lead. Burning, boiling lead.
I opened my eyes, and there was that ceiling again, high above my head. I could barely make it out in the fading candlelight. It was burning low.
I had been in and out for a long time. I raised my good hand—attached to an arm which was heavier than it should’ve been, which told me the poison blood was spreading—and touched my forehead.
My hand came back slicked with sweat. A fever. That would explain the dream.
I jumped at the sound of a throat being cleared.
“Who’s there?” I gasped.
My throat was so dry. My mouth, too. My tongue was like sandpaper. A very tall, very hulking figure emerged from the shadows on the other side of the cell and came closer.
“I’m called Smoke.” He knelt beside me and frowned when he saw the condition of my shoulder. “That doesn’t look good at all.”
Be careful. Remember what the other one said: it doesn’t matter to them whether you live or die.
I licked my dry, cracked lips. “It… doesn’t feel good, either.” Just that little bit of speaking left me winded. This couldn’t go on much longer, and I knew it.
So did he. I could see it written on his face. “What’s your name?”
“Jasmine.”
“That’s a pretty name.”
“And I’m about to die in this cave. Who could’ve predicted it?”
He frowned. “You don’t have to die, you know.”
“I thought you didn’t care.”
He sighed like a man forced to admit something he wasn’t proud of. “Frankly? I don’t.”
“Charming,” I grimaced.
“But Pierce does. My brother. He cares. Which means it matters.”
Pierce. He looked like a Pierce, too. “Your words don’t matter. If he won’t let me leave, he can’t care very much.”
“If you’re not willing to let us fetch your healer, you must not care very much, either.”
I shot him a withering look—to my surprise, he smiled. “See how that works? It goes both ways.”
I wanted to tell him how wrong he was, but it wasn’t possible. He made a good point. I couldn’t believe I had to die because my clan would never forgive me for announcing our location.
It was also unfair, and I wasn’t thinking clearly which only made my sense of anger and injustice worse. “I wish it would just happen, then. I wish I would just die. I can’t take the pain anymore.”
“My brother would never forgive me or the others if he knew we didn’t do everything in our power to help you.” His forehead creased in a frown. “Are you sure there’s nothing that can be done? Did he float the idea of a blindfold past you?”
“Yes.”
“And? Your healer would never need to know.”
“But you would know where my clan lives.”
“Damn it.” He punched his palm. “I can see why he was so angry with you.”
“Was he?”
“You have no idea. You have a way of getting to him. I didn’t understand it until now.” He reached for a bottle of water and uncapped it, then lifted it to my mouth. “Here. You look thirsty—your lips are cracking.” It was a brief respite in the middle of my agony. “Jasmine. You’re right. You’re going to die. It doesn’t look as though you have much time left. Do you really want to die? Don’t think about the pain right now. Think about… your life.” When I finished drinking what little I could get down my throat, he lowered the bottle. “Is your life so bad that you don’t care what happens to it?”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “I don’t want to die. I want the pain to end, but I don’t want to die.”
“I thought so.” He looked out through the bars, down the tunnel.
I could just make out the sound of footsteps as someone approached.
Smoke jumped up and moved to the other side of the cell. Like he didn’t want whoever was coming—likely Pierce—to see us so close together.
Why was that?
Sure enough, it was Pierce who entered the cell.
I saw the resemblance between him and his brother, though Smoke seemed kinder. Or saner, maybe.
Instead of glaring at me, he glared at his brother. “You came in here to convince her to talk to me?” he growled.
“What if I did?”
“I told you not to.”
“I chose to go ahead on my own,” Smoke smoothly replied.
Muscles jumped in Pierce’s jaw. “So, what? You don’t trust me to get her to come around on my own?”
“You weren’t doing a very good job up to this point,” Smoke remind
ed him.
I almost smiled--if I’d had the strength, I would have. I would’ve said the same thing if they weren’t both ignoring me. I wanted to remind them who they were talking about, but that would’ve meant expending energy I didn’t have.
My life was slipping away.
When Pierce turned to look down at me, I could’ve sworn his eyes were about to burn holes in my head. “I thought you didn’t care,” he said, still speaking to Smoke.
“I told you I don’t. I meant it. I thought I might do something decent on your behalf.”
“You don’t have to do me any favors.”
I held his gaze, as much as I wanted to give it up and die then and there. To close my eyes and let things happen as they would.
For some reason, he made me want to hold on. Not to give him what he wanted, though. Almost to spite him. He was so nasty, and there was so much venom in his stare.
I gathered all my strength. “Promise me something.”
“What is it?”
“That none of you will harm my clan if I tell you where to find them.”
His jaw clenched and his nostrils flared. “You’re going to tell me?”
“Swear, first. Swear no harm will come to them. You’ll leave them alone and only take the healer. You’ll bring her here with your blindfold, but nothing else—I mean, nothing to subdue her, nothing to make her sleep. Nothing to hurt her. Understand? You have to swear it.”
He nodded. “I swear. You have my vow.”
I shifted my eyes to look at Smoke. “You, too. Swear it.”
“I swear.”
“And you’ll never go back there, unless it’s to return the healer. And when you do, again, you’ll cause them no harm, and you’ll never, ever tell where you found them. Swear it.”
“We swear.”
I couldn’t believe what was about to come out of my mouth. But it was the only way I would live through the day. “My sister. Alina. She’s the healer. She lives with my clan outside Roanoke, as I told you before. I can give you the location. It’s a big house, an old one, deep in the woods. There are no other homes for miles around it, and humans tend to pass it by thanks to the charms we placed on it when we settled there. But you’ll be able to see it. I think.”
“You think?” Pierce asked.
“I wouldn’t exactly know for sure, would I? You’re the first dragons I’ve ever known.” He had a way of bringing out the worst in me without trying. At least, it didn’t seem like he tried.
“We’ll do our best.” Smoke pulled Pierce’s arm, leading him out of the cell. “How will we know her when we find her?”
“She looks like me, but her hair is blonde. There’s a tower at all four corners of the house, and her room is in the west wing, facing the lake. It’s where she keeps her potions and herbs, too, and she spends most of her time there.”
The discussion exhausted me. I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, so I let them close. The pain was still there, still as strong as ever. Sleeping would make it better…
“We’ll be as fast as we can, Jasmine.”
I decided I liked Smoke a little more than I liked Pierce right then, if only because he seemed concerned.
Pierce, on the other hand, seemed irritated. Put out. Like it was my fault we ended up in this mess.
But didn’t Smoke say he only cared because Pierce cared so much, I asked myself as I slid into unconsciousness.
9
Pierce
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked as we pulled up to the area where we’d find Jasmine’s home, And her kind.
I couldn’t see a house anywhere nearby, but the trees were thick enough to hide just about anything.
“You’re the one who almost killed that girl, and she seems to matter a lot to you.” Smoke slammed the door once he stepped out of the Jeep.
It was the only vehicle we owned which would allow us to make it up and down the mountain without use of the main road.
“She does. I just wanted to be sure you were up for what we’re about to do.” I fell in step beside him as we left the winding road which cut through the middle of the woods and made our way through the even darker darkness under the crisscrossing branches above our heads. “You can wait in the car if it would make you feel better.”
“Since when have I ever stood down in the face of a fight?” he asked. “If anything, it’s been too long since the last one.”
“You’re right—though I doubt this will be a fight,” I added. “I mean, there’s nothing either of us can’t handle.”
“Even so, there’s no way of trusting the fae.” He eyed me up. “You’re sure you can trust her?”
“I’m sure.”
“How do you know?”
“How do I know Sunday follows Saturday?” I asked, exasperated. “You’re driving me crazy with all these questions, and I have enough on my mind.”
“How can you be so sure?” he asked anyway, like I hadn’t spoken at all.
“I can’t explain it. You know how strong our instincts are. It’s the same with this. My instincts tell me she’s the one I’ve been waiting for. She’s my mate.”
“I’m glad for you, if that’s the case. I just wish she were somebody a little less complicated.”
“You and me both.” And she was dying as we discussed the matter. “We need to hurry.”
“We’re already practically running.” He looked around, back and forth, scowling. “We’re supposed to have arrived. I mean, this is supposed to be it.”
We were standing on the edge of a clearing, trees towering above us, and all around the circle of empty land lit by the nearly full moon. “Well, somebody cleared this at some point,” I said, squinting hard. “I don’t understand. Shouldn’t we be able to see it?”
“You would think, right? I was sure we would be able to.”
Desperation left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Jasmine was dying. She needed us. Me.
“I have an idea,” I whispered when inspiration struck.
“Please. Feel free to share. I’m at a loss.”
The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on me. He was normally the one with all the answers.
“I’m about to feel like a real ass,” I muttered before walking straight forward.
I hoped the darkness was enough to conceal my movements as I crossed the clearing with my hands stretched out in front of me at waist level. I hoped they would catch the wall before my face did.
I hadn’t walked a hundred paces before something stopped me.
Something hard, unyielding, though there was nothing in front of my face but open space.
I blinked.
What had just been open space had become a wall. A stone wall. A tall, stone-and-mortar wall.
I shook my head to clear it a little, just in case I was imagining things.
I wasn’t.
I turned to find Smoke running up to me.
“Holy shit!” he breathed. “It appeared out of nowhere, as soon as I saw you hit it!”
“Glad I wasn’t walking any faster than I was.”
We crouched down and made our way to the back of the building to get a better idea of what we were dealing with.
The size of the place was staggering. It was easily the length of two football fields and six stories high. There was a tower at each of the four corners, just as Jasmine had said.
I wondered how old the place was—time had worn the stones smooth long before tonight.
Only a few of the windows were lit, and we crawled beneath them.
I didn’t hear any voices coming from in there and couldn’t help but imagine them lying in wait for us. Was that it? Were they waiting to attack? Like spiders in a web.
“Which tower was it supposed to be,” Smoke whispered.
“The west wing, facing the lake.” I looked to my right. “The lake’s that way, and west is…”
“This way.” Smoke led the way to the tower in question.
The roof was easily a hundred feet off the ground and maybe even two hundred.
My depth perception was all out of whack, and I would’ve bet it had something to do with the numerous charms cast on the mansion.
I touched one of the large, smooth stones to solidify it for myself.
A light glowed in the top of the tower.
“That must be her,” I whispered. “You ready?”
I looked over to find him already climbing, using the stones as handholds. I scrambled to catch up. Soon, we were each at a separate window without so much as breaking a sweat.
She was in there.
A beautiful girl who looked a lot like her sister, except for the hair. While Jasmine’s was a flaming red, hers was wheat-blonde. She tossed it over one shoulder before bending over a table, hands working at something I couldn’t make out. She was barefoot, wearing a simple, linen dress. A creature of nature, fae, as her title implied.
I leaned back to look at my brother, who stared in the window like a Peeping Tom. He practically drooled.
I blew a short, sharp whistle through my teeth to get his attention, and he nearly fell from the wall, but it got him looking at me.
I jerked my head in her direction, eyebrows raised, and he nodded.
The windows were both hinged on either side, two panes meeting in the middle.
I swung the glass open and hauled myself inside the round, stone-floored room.
She whirled around with a gasp, eyes round with terror.
The girl must have been deeply involved in her work to escape noticing two grown men hanging outside her window.
“Who are you?” she breathed, looking back and forth, back and forth. Every inch of her body was coiled like a spring, tense with fear.
I held my hands up. “We’re not here to hurt you, Alina.”
“How do you know my name?” Her voice was deep, warm, but breathy. Musical.
“Your sister sent us. She’s very sick and needs your help.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Really? What’s her name, then?”
“Jasmine. She looks just like you, but she has red hair. And until this morning, she drove a rusty, two-door car which was swept off the side of a mountain by a mudslide.”