Firestorm

by Donna Grant

  “Because it’s usually him.”

  She shrugged. “It matters not. I don’t know Ulrik.”

  “He goes by many aliases. Let me show you a picture.”

  “No,” she hastily said. “I don’t want to see a picture or have anything else to do with any of you. I know what you are. I know what you’re planning.”

  A woman stepped out of the shadows. She was gorgeous with thick black hair and shining silver eyes. “And just what are the Kings planning?”

  “They will exterminate all humans,” Faith said with a lift of her chin. It was a defiant move.

  Dmitri was shaking his head. “You’ve got that wrong. We could’ve done it at the start, but we didna. Remember the story I told you? Remember how we sent our dragons away and hid?”

  She thought back to the cave on Fair where Muscles had shared his story, enthralling her with each word. The image suddenly distorted into something she couldn’t piece together.

  “It’s magic,” Rhi said to Dmitri.

  He blew out a breath. “Aye.”

  “Stop!” Faith yelled.

  “I can no’,” Dmitri said. “We need answers, and I think you might have them.”

  She held up her hand to stop him, only vaguely realizing that she had the wooden dragon clasped in her fingers. “Don’t come any closer.”

  “No’ your choice,” said a male voice from her right. A moment later, another Dragon King stepped into the light.

  No. She wouldn’t go back with them. She wouldn’t be their first kill, starting the war all over again. Her head swung to Dmitri.

  It had to end. All of it had to end. Tonight.

  She rushed him, her arm over her head, a scream of outrage on her lips. He stood his ground, not backing away. When she reached him, his hands gripped her arms.

  When she plunged the knife into his heart, his eyes widened in surprise, shock, and grief.

  Faith started laughing when she saw the blood running down his chest. She’d won. She’d done what no one else had the courage to do.

  Because of it, she would end the reign of the Kings once and for all.

  Her mind suddenly went blank. She couldn’t form a single thought as she was dragged unconscious.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Faith’s words tolled through the Dragonwood like a bell. Dmitri was too shocked to do anything but look at her. Then her face went slack and her eyes closed. He caught her against him. He looked into her face that no longer held malice and contempt, but the peace of sleep.

  She had believed every word she’d uttered.

  “That was … eerie,” Rhi said.

  Roman was silent as he walked to stand beside Dmitri. Then he said, “I have this peculiar feeling that this entire episode wasna coincidental.”

  “It reminds me of what could’ve happened with Ulrik and his woman,” Dmitri said.

  Rhi looked around. “Magic was at work here.”

  “No’ dragon magic,” Roman said.

  “I’d like to know what made her pass out,” Rhi replied, looking at the ground.

  Roman snorted. “I’m just glad she did.”

  Dmitri lifted Faith in his arms and spotted what had caught Rhi’s attention. In the snow was a small wooden carving of a dragon that looked exactly like Con.

  “I thought Lily said it was just a carving,” Roman said.

  Rhi squatted beside the object but didn’t touch it. “She did. It is. Yet only a few minutes ago, it was a knife.”

  The memory pierced his heart like no knife could. Dmitri would never forget that moment. The physical pain had been nothing compared to the feeling of his soul bellowing at the thought of Faith turning against him.

  “We need to take it back to the manor,” Roman said.

  Rhi made a sound and lifted her gaze to him. “I saw what it does to the Fae. I’m not touching it.”

  “And that could be what set Dmitri and the others off,” Roman said. “I’m no’ touching it either.”

  Dmitri winced as his head began to throb again. “Someone has to.”

  “What is it?” Rhi asked as she looked up at him, frowning.

  “My head. The last time this happened, I had some … no’ so good thoughts about mortals.”

  Rhi pointed toward Dreagan. “Take her out of here.”

  “What if it’s Faith?” Roman argued.

  Dmitri turned around. “It’s a chance I’ll take.”

  “We’ll be right behind you,” Rhi called.

  Dmitri didn’t bother to reply. Both of them were more than competent to deal with the wooden dragon in some way. His concern was Faith and what had changed her. Because the woman who’d shoved the knife into his heart wasn’t the same one he’d made love to on Fair—or even the one who had been in the mountain examining the skeleton.

  Whatever had been done to her, he was going to find a way to reverse it. No matter what, no matter how long it took. He wouldn’t give up.

  With every step, his headache began to dissipate. By the time the manor came into view, his worry had turned into a slow burning rage—against Ulrik. Dmitri wanted to find him and tear him to pieces for what he’d done to Faith.

  He had no doubt it was Ulrik because no one hated the Kings like Ulrik did. After the many times Ulrik had gone after a woman a King had been seen with, he was the obvious answer.

  Dmitri saw Hal holding open the door at the side entrance and made his way there. The snow was falling quicker, as if the sky itself were crying over what had happened to Faith.

  “You found her,” Hal said with a nod, his moonlit blue eyes locked on Faith.

  Dmitri shouldered past his friend. “Aye.”

  Without a word to anyone else, Dmitri walked up the stairs to his room. He entered to find Con standing inside. Con’s stance was casual, but the fact that he didn’t have his suit jacket on said he was prepared for anything. They shared a look before Dmitri laid Faith upon the bed.

  “Shara has woken,” Con said.

  That was a relief, at least. “Good.”

  “I take it by the blood on your shirt that things didna go well?”

  Before he could answer, Roman and Rhi walked into the room. Roman said, “You could say that.”

  Dmitri looked at them to find a small sphere hovering before Rhi that confined the wooden dragon. “Is it contained?”

  “Oh, yes,” she said with a nod. “It’s filled with magic, but I’ve made sure it won’t leak out from the field around it.”

  Roman looked askance at it. “I’d feel better if we destroyed it.”

  “No’ until we learn how it was made and why,” Con said.

  Shara and Kiril walked into the room then. Shara’s gaze went to the orb as a shudder went through her. “We need to get that far away from all of us.”

  “What happened when you touched it?” Dmitri asked.

  Her silver gaze moved to him. “I heard screams. Horrible chilling screams. In a blink, I was consumed by anger so terrible that I literally shook from it. Then it felt as if someone passed through me.”

  “Well, I won’t be touching it,” Rhi said, looking at the object with distaste.

  Kiril put an arm around Shara. “We still doona know what it’s for.”

  “Actually, I think we do,” Roman said as she pointed to Dmitri.

  Dmitri looked down at the blood on his shirt. “Have any of you ever thought what might’ve happened had we no’ prevented Ulrik’s woman from attempting to kill him?”

  “Nay,” Kiril said.

  Con put his hands in his pant’s pockets. “Aye.”

  Dmitri looked at Con and released a breath. Most of them had put what had happened with Ulrik out of their minds after he was banished because it was too painful. But it stood to reason that Con would continue to go over everything again and again while also looking at other scenarios for the way things could’ve gone.

  “Faith drew that wooden dragon from her pocket,” Dmitri told everyone. “Then she said that sh
e wouldna go back with us. That she wouldna be our first kill, starting the war all over again.”

  He paused, still reeling from the hatred in her sherry eyes. “She said it had to end. All of it had to end. Tonight. Then she charged me. That dragon suddenly had a blade attached, and she plunged it into my chest.”

  The room was silent as death. Dmitri swung his head to the bed to look at Faith, who hadn’t so much as stirred since she fell unconscious.

  “That sounds like it was another person,” Kiril said. “No’ the Faith I met earlier.”

  Roman crossed his arms over his chest. “Unless this is the real Faith, and the earlier one was the fake.”

  “No,” Dmitri said. “I spent days with her. What happened tonight wasna her.”

  Con removed his dragon head cufflinks and put them in his pocket before he rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt. “This reeks of Ulrik.”

  “He didna use his magic because I didna sense dragon magic,” Dmitri stated.

  Con shrugged indifferently. “He has a legion of people that he can use. We saw what he does with Druids. Darcy unknowingly helped him release his magic, draining hers in the process. It wouldna surprise me to learn that he has other Druids willing to help him.”

  “I felt Fae magic,” Rhi said.

  Everyone looked at her. Dmitri said, “You didna mention that before.”

  “I knew I didn’t feel dragon magic, but the rest … it was difficult to determine,” she replied.

  Con asked, “Why?”

  “Because there are several different kinds of magic being used.”

  Shara began nodding earnestly. “Yes. That makes sense now after what I experienced.”

  “Great,” Dmitri said. “How do we fix what it’s done to us?”

  Rhi turned the orb so she could look at the carving. “That would be easier to determine if we knew exactly what this was for.”

  “You mean who it was truly meant for,” Con said.

  She met his gaze and inclined her head. “Yes.”

  “The skeleton Faith found was one of my dragons,” Dmitri said. “It was on Fair Isle, which was part of my domain. Con sent me there, and I interacted with Faith. It was meant for me.”

  Kiril scratched his cheek. “That’s a possibility. It wouldna be a big stretch to determine that Con would send you to Fair Isle since the dragon was yours.”

  “Or that Dmitri would bring the remains back to Dreagan,” Shara pointed out.

  Dmitri didn’t like anything he was hearing. “We willna know until we ask Ulrik.”

  “As if he’d tell us,” Roman said with a snort.

  That was true, but Dmitri could be persuasive. “We need answers.”

  “That willna come from Ulrik,” Con stated. “We deal with this on our own. Now, we’ve been in this room with both Faith and the carving, and none of us have…”

  “Gone crazy,” Roman offered.

  Con cut him a look. “Aye. For lack of a better word.”

  “Then it could be the skeleton,” Kiril said.

  Dmitri shook his head. “I was around the bones for days and felt nothing out of the ordinary.”

  “But did you no’ tell Rhys you felt something odd when you pulled up the bones?” Kiril asked.

  “I did,” Dmitri admitted.

  Con’s brow puckered. “What did it feel like?”

  “Like something wasna quite right.”

  “That could be anything,” Rhi said.

  Kiril nodded to the orb. “But it wasna. Look what came to Dreagan.”

  “Oh, you found it,” Faith said as she sat up.

  Dmitri watched as she put her hand to her head and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Found what?” he asked.

  She gave him an odd look as if she didn’t understand why he wasn’t getting what she said. She pointed to the wooden dragon. “The carving. I found it in the ground where the skeleton was.”

  “Why did you no’ say anything?” he demanded in a soft tone.

  She raised a brow as she rubbed her temples. “Because we were in a hurry to leave. I put it in my pocket and forgot about it.”

  “What do you remember?” Con asked her.

  Faith looked at him, then at the others around the room. Her hands dropped to her lap, and then her gaze lowered to the hand Dmitri had crushed. “I remember coming here. I remember Dmitri taking me to the Silvers.”

  “And…” Dmitri pressed.

  She met his gaze. “I remember examining the skeleton and finding the chipped vertebrae that showed us that the dragon had its spine severed. Then you crushed my hand.”

  He’d hoped that was something she had forgotten. No such luck. “I wasna myself then. I’m sorry for that.”

  “It’s healed,” she said as if only just now realizing that.

  Dmitri pointed to his right. “Con healed you.”

  “Thank you,” she told Con. Her gaze moved around the room to the others. “Why do I feel like everyone is in here because of me?”

  Dmitri was struggling to find a way to tell her.

  Then she asked, “And why do you have blood on your shirt?”

  It was Rhi who came to his aid. She motioned to the orb and the wooden dragon inside. “We believe this little fellow had something to do with that.”

  “It’s just a carving,” Faith said with a chuckle. But her smile died and she looked to Dmitri. “Tell me. I need to know.”

  He swallowed and took a deep breath. Kiril then handed him a mobile phone with Ulrik’s picture on it. Dmitri showed it to Faith. “Have you ever seen this man?”

  “Never,” she replied immediately.

  He handed the mobile back to Kiril. “I doona remember hurting you. I doona recall what I said. Kiril, Rhys, and Con all had an episode, as well.”

  “You’re telling me I had one,” Faith said.

  He hesitated because he wasn’t sure how she would take the news. He felt like shite for hurting her when he was supposed to be protecting her.

  “Just give it to me,” she said. “Like a bandage being ripped off. It’s better to just say it.”

  Dmitri looked into clear, sherry-colored eyes. This was the woman he’d known at Fair Isle, the woman who had captured his attention and made him ache.

  This was the woman who had smiled and laughed with him, who had cried out in pleasure and gazed at him in wonder. This was the true Faith.

  “You tried to kill me.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  “I’m sorry. What?” Faith asked, flabbergasted.

  Had Dmitri just said that she had tried to kill him? That couldn’t be right. She’d never even thought about committing murder before, much less attempted it.

  And with Dmitri? That would be ludicrous.

  “You’re a Dragon King. I couldn’t kill you even if I wanted to,” she said.

  Dmitri’s lips twisted. “I felt the blade. Wielded by your hand.”

  “Why don’t I remember that?”

  “The same reason none of us recall our episodes,” Con said.

  Faith looked at the two women. Both had silver eyes and black hair, but one had a thick silver stripe near her face. If she had to guess, they were Fae. The one with the sphere looked familiar, as if Faith had seen her before.

  “You think you know me?” the Fae asked.

  Faith nodded and replied, “It’s like I recognize you, but I can’t place why or from where.”

  “A little while ago, I was with Dmitri and Roman as we cornered you in the Dragonwood.”

  “Oh.” She was mortified. Faith didn’t even want to know everything she’d said, but what could be worse than attempted murder?

  “Rhi,” Dmitri admonished.

  Faith waved away his words. “No, she’s right to tell me. I have to know.”

  He blew out a breath. Then he pointed to the Fae near Rhi, “That’s Shara, and on the other side of her and Kiril is Roman.”

  After a nod to each of them, Faith moved her gaze back to th
e wooden dragon encased in the orb hanging midair. “Are you telling me that someone put that carving with the skeleton, knowing that it would take many thousands of years to be uncovered?”

  “Aye,” Dmitri answered. “It looks that way.”

  “That makes no sense.” She gazed at it with worry. “That means whoever planned this was patient enough to wait. If it wasn’t activated until it was unearthed, then they took a chance that someone other than a Dragon King would come in contact with it. Not to mention, there was no guarantee it would end up on Dreagan.”

  A grin lifted the corner of Dmitri’s lips. “Scientific?”

  “Logic,” she replied, unable to hide her own grin.

  Dmitri’s smile faded as he ran a hand over his jaw. “We hadna bound Ulrik’s magic yet, but he was busy attacking the mortals with the four Silvers that remained with him.”

  Rhi rolled her eyes. “Haven’t I already told you that I didn’t feel any dragon magic?”

  “Ulrik would’ve had to move quickly,” Con said. “Having just had his magic bound and being banished from Dreagan, he would’ve had to make his way to Fair Isle and take down a dragon.”

  Kiril said, “The dragons would’ve recognized him.”

  “He could’ve done it,” Dmitri said. “All of it except one crucial part. I searched those isles twice. I would’ve found Ulrik and the dragon had they been hiding there.”

  Roman crossed his arms over his chest. “So someone used magic to prevent that.”

  Rhi wrinkled her nose. “Which means it wasn’t Ulrik.”

  “Then who?” Con asked.

  Dmitri ran a hand down his face. “Someone who did all of that, then put enough magic into a carving—which looks a lot like Con with the body of the dragon—and waited for it to be found.”

  All eyes turned to Faith. She’d been listening with interest as they pieced it together. She was the outsider there, the one who was only just now learning the stories of the Dragon Kings.

  “What?” she asked.

  Con asked, “How did you know to look in that cave?”

  Her normal answer wasn’t going to suffice. She clasped her hands together. “I don’t really have an explanation. As I’ve told Dmitri, I’m a student of science. I didn’t believe in magic or someone’s ‘gut feeling’ until after I met him and saw who he was. What he was.”