by Donna Grant
“What about you, Lily?” Laith asked, turning his gunmetal gaze on her.
“Oh,” she said, belatedly realizing Denae had already ordered. “I’ll have the shepherd’s pie and tea.”
Once Laith walked off, Lily sat back and looked at Denae. “Thanks for asking me to join you. I forgot to pack a sandwich this morning.”
“Did you not sleep well?”
Sleep? It had been weeks since she’d slept properly, and it was beginning to take its toll. “Not really.”
“I remember when my sister drowned. I didn’t sleep for days, and even after that I could only sleep for a few hours at a time.”
Lily’s heart clutched for Denae. “I didn’t know about your sister. I’m sorry.”
“It was ages ago, though I still miss her,” she replied with a sad smile. Denae posed an expectant look on her face toward Lily.
“I’ve not lost anyone,” Lily said.
Denae gave a nod of thanks as a Coke was set in front of her. She took a drink and nodded. “Ah. Your past then.”
Lily was so shocked at her words that she sat there with her tea halfway to her lips.
“I’m sorry,” Denae said with a grimace. “I didn’t mean for that to come out like it did. It’s my past coming out there. It’s none of my business.”
Lily set her tea down and folded her hands in her lap. “You’re right. It is my past.”
After the words were out, Lily looked around waiting for Dennis to show up. When he didn’t, she let out a small laugh that she quickly covered with her hand. For three years she had pretended that she lived a happy life, and for the last year, she was pretending those years hadn’t happened.
Denae leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I’m gathering that you’ve never told anyone that?”
Lily shook her head, unable to find more words.
“It’s all right,” Denae assured her. “Your secret is safe with me. Is there anything I can help with?”
Lily lowered her hand from her mouth. “I must deal with this on my own.”
There was that heat on her neck again. This time Lily didn’t hurriedly look for Rhys. He was gone from Dreagan, and though she wished she could see him, she knew it wasn’t him. She rubbed her neck as the heat spread down her chest.
She looked past Denae to the kitchen doorway and saw Rhys as excitement rushed through her. Their gazes locked, held for a moment. He gave her a nod, and then disappeared. Lily hadn’t even had time to call his name he was gone so quickly.
A smile pulled at her lips. She hadn’t just seen Rhys. He had been looking at her. The day certainly was looking up.
“So, I have a confession,” Denae said with a bright tone.
Lily wasn’t fooled. Denae might have changed the subject, but Denae would never forget her words. It was a look in Denae’s eyes, eyes that saw minute details of everyone’s lives. “What?”
“I have an unnatural thing for shoes. I love shoes. I have so many, but with the distributor party next week that Kellan and I are attending, I don’t have a single pair that will go with the dress I bought. Kellan is no help, and the other girls all have something going on over the next few days. How are you with shoes?”
Lily loved shoes. She loved shopping. A memory of her past surfaced of walking into Harrods in London with her mother. Perhaps it was time to revisit the past. “A woman can never have too many shoes.”
“Oh, thank God,” Denae said with a clap of her hands. “Are you free tomorrow to go into Edinburgh?”
“As a matter of fact, I am.”
Chapter Five
Inverness
Henry North stood with the other MI5 agents in a small field. None of the other agents knew of his connection to Dreagan, or that he was helping the Dragon Kings. If he were lucky, none of them would ever know anything.
It was risky, his being at the meeting place. With the help of Denae, he discovered the agents at MI5 who had joined forces with the Dark Fae. Most of those dumbasses had been retired from MI5—in one form or another.
Henry himself was responsible for three of the retirements, and he didn’t lose sleep over his part in it. The Dark were like a virus. Once they infected someone, there was no going back.
Henry had been working tirelessly to locate the Dark. The Dragon Kings thought they kept to Ireland, but he discovered the Dark Fae were slowly and surely making their way across every confinement. The only place they weren’t so wide spread was the UK.
In other words, they were surrounding the Kings.
That’s when Henry used his skills as a spy to infiltrate the small band of MI5 betrayers. It had taken little effort, which was a red flag. Remaining in their confidences had proven more difficult, and yet here he was at the meeting.
He stood in his black suit with his arms clasped behind his back. The wind gusted, sending the hem of his jacket ruffling.
Suddenly, a group of Dark Fae stood opposite them led by a hulking Dark with red eyes that filled with disgust when he spotted them. His long black and silver hair was pulled away from his face by several small rows of braids and gathered behind his head to fall with the rest of his hair down his back.
“That’s Balladyn,” the man next to him muttered, a thread of fear in his voice.
Henry knew all about the infamous Dark Fae. At one time, Balladyn had been the fiercest warrior of the Light, but the Dark captured him and then turned him. Since then, Balladyn crushed anyone and anything in his path. Most recently, his attention had been on Rhi.
A smile threatened. It happened every time Henry thought of the Light Fae with her silver eyes and black hair. Her beauty was beyond compare. She was forever out of his reach, but that was all right. Henry was content to just look at her on the rare occasions she appeared.
His gaze turned hard as he looked at Balladyn in his black pants and silk shirt. Balladyn had dared to kidnap Rhi, then attempted to turn her Dark. Fortunately, Rhi managed to escape. If only Henry could see her and know she was as fine as Banan promised she was.
“Get ready,” the guy on the other side of Henry whispered.
Henry pulled his gaze away from Balladyn and saw a lone figure walking down the slopes toward them. The man wore a charcoal gray trench coat that hung open to reveal a dove gray suit beneath.
Conversation from the agents around him drew Henry’s attention.
“Don’t look at him.”
“He’s trouble.”
“Nearly as much as the Dark.”
“We’ll be lucky to get out of this meeting alive.”
The man in charge of the contingency of MI5 agents, Daniel Petrie, turned and gave them all a withering glare. Daniel stood at the front with only ten feet separating him and Balladyn.
It didn’t take long for the lone man to reach them. He had thick black hair that skimmed his shoulders. Even though he wore a confident smile, his gold eyes appeared to see everything.
He finally reached them and stopped a few paces from Daniel and Balladyn. “Well, gentlemen,” he stated in as fine of a cultured British accent as Henry had ever heard. “It seems we’re all here.”
“Why?” Balladyn demanded.
The man paused and slowly turned to look at Balladyn for a long period. “We all want the same thing—to bring Dreagan down and expose the Dragon Kings.”
Henry imagined that’s about all they had in common. Each group had its own agenda once the Kings were toppled, and allies would quickly become enemies. The world would become a shell of what it once was if any of the three groups standing before him got control. Not that MI5—or any human for that matter—stood a chance against magic. Henry didn’t understand why no one at MI5 realized that yet.
He felt the weight of every human’s existence resting upon his shoulders, and he staggered beneath the burden. This was his first foray into protecting not just the UK, but the world, and it left him feeling a bit … stressed.
The Dragon Kings had been doing it since the beginning of time, and yet t
hey didn’t discount any threat to humans or Earth. They faced the evil each time.
If only the humans knew what the Dragon Kings had done for them. Perhaps then they wouldn’t be so eager to see them exposed.
Somehow, in his dealings with the Kings, he came to realize he was naïve and green. The Kings opened his eyes to an entire new world, a world that involved them, regardless if they were hiding in it or not.
Nothing good could come out of letting the world see a Dragon King. MI5 were fools if they expected the Kings to roll over and do whatever mortals wanted. Henry had seen the Kings in battle. He’d witnessed their power, their raw fury. Anyone who went up against the Kings was an idiot, because the Dragon Kings couldn’t be killed.
His gaze rested on the new arrival. The man looked human, but the way both MI5 and the Dark were a bit wary of him told Henry the man was much more.
How could the Dragon Kings defeat three enemies at once? The Kings would have to decide to protect mankind as they always had, or themselves. No matter their decision, they would lose in the end.
The truth of it all hit Henry right in the chest. He was sick with it, and though he wanted to kill everyone around him, he remained standing, his eyes on the man in the trench coat.
The man raised a brow at Balladyn. “Am I right? Dreagan is our common ground. We’ve worked together before, and it’ll be to our benefit to continue.”
“We don’t have the weapon,” Balladyn said, his words thick with his Irish accent.
The man shrugged. “I gave you the location of the doorway.”
Henry seethed. So this was the son of a bitch who had deceived Iona for years and killed her father. No wonder Laith wanted to kill the man.
“A doorway,” the man continued, “that would’ve been impossible to find without me.”
Daniel glanced up at the clouds gathering above them. “Why weren’t my men involved in this?”
“As if,” Balladyn said with a sneer. “All you and your men are good for is dealing with humans. Leave the Kings to someone who knows how to take them on.”
“Which would be me,” the man said before Daniel could reply. He looked from Daniel to Balladyn. “The fact is, gentlemen, we have two issues to deal with.”
Daniel smirked as he rocked back on his heels. “So now you need me.”
“Definitely,” the man said.
Balladyn crossed his arms over his chest. “Unless you found another way to get us the weapon, the Dark won’t help you.”
The man walked a slow circle around Balladyn. “I know Taraeth would disagree with you. There’s no need to bring this to his attention, however. He sent you in good faith. I also hear you aren’t in good favor with him right now.”
Balladyn’s red eyes glowed with hatred, but he didn’t respond.
The man rubbed his jaw as he looked Balladyn over. “The Dark want the weapon, and I told Taraeth I would find him a way in. I did, but the Kings—and a human—outsmarted you.”
“Are you trying to get me to kill you?” Balladyn asked between clenched teeth.
With a shrug, the man said, “You can try. Now, I’ve found us something else to use to hurt the Kings and get the weapon.”
Henry perked up, as did the Dark. He wished he were closer to the three so he could hear every detail.
“There’s a woman working for Dreagan, a human,” the man said. “She’s weak and broken. The man who broke her works for me. He’ll use her to get inside Dreagan.”
“A human hiding from the Kings?” Balladyn threw his head back and laughed. “It’ll never happen.”
The man’s gold eyes sharpened, hardened. “There isn’t a play I’ve made that hasn’t moved our goals forward. Only a fraction of my plans haven’t worked out perfectly, but I’m steps ahead of the Kings. They’ll never see what I have coming.”
Daniel glanced back at his agents. “And what do you want with MI5?”
“You’re going to take her family as incentive to get her to do what we want.”
“Hold them?” Daniel asked. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“You’re MI5,” the man said menacingly. “You and your comrades told me MI5 would be of benefit. Most of your colleagues are dead. Are you now telling me as high ranking as you are within MI5 that you can’t find a place to hold one family?”
“Give them to me,” Balladyn said.
The man considered Balladyn as he shifted his focus to the Dark Fae. “They would certainly be contained, as well as soulless in a matter of hours.”
“Isn’t that what needs to happen?” Balladyn asked.
One side of the man’s lips lifted in a half-smile. “Right. Because then I would have leverage to use.”
“What about the woman?” Balladyn asked. “She’ll need to be disposed of after.”
The man blew out a long breath. “Yes, she will. However, I’m going to use MI5 for that.”
Balladyn dropped his arms and took a step toward the man. “If the Dark couldn’t keep a Dragon King from coming after their women, what makes you think MI5 can hold against them?”
“Bloody hell,” Daniel muttered. “We’ve nothing to stand against a Dragon King.”
The man sighed heavily. “Gentlemen, gentlemen. You’re not seeing the big picture. This woman I speak of isn’t attached to any Dragon King. They might notice she’s gone, but they’ll just replace her with another worker. No one will be the wiser to where she’s gone.”
“Then give her to us,” Balladyn said tightly. “We deserve some compensation for our losses.”
“Your losses?” Daniel asked in disgust.
The man held up his hands. “It’s true MI5 has lost men, but the heaviest toll has been on the Dark. There is a reason, Balladyn, that I want the girl with MI5.”
Daniel raised a dark brow littered with gray. “And that is?”
“I want the Kings’ focus away from the Dark and centered squarely on the humans if they look for the girl.”
Henry briefly closed his eyes. Ah, but the man was smart. Little by little he was making the Dragon Kings turn against the humans.
Balladyn gave a nod. “Fine. While the humans have the female, what will we be doing? You don’t expect us to wait around while your man gets the weapon?”
“Not at all,” the man said. “He’s going to find where the weapon is being hidden and bring it to me. Once I have it, I’ll turn it over to you.”
“You’ll turn over the very thing that can kill you as well?” Balladyn asked with a loud snort.
That made Henry frown. He didn’t know of a weapon the Kings had, but then they didn’t tell him everything. Obviously, whatever it was could kill the Dragon Kings. Since only another Dragon King can kill a Dragon King, this weapon could turn the tide of the war.
“Our goal is to rid this realm of those pesky Dragon Kings,” the man said.
Balladyn took a step back. “You did find us the secret doorway. Let’s see if you really can locate the weapon.”
The man gave a slight nod to Balladyn. “There are still a few matters to work out on the first issue, but let’s move on to the second. Traitors.”
Henry saw some men beside him stiffen. He wasn’t worried. He was good at his job, and he covered his tracks well. No one there would ever know that he was spying for the Dragon Kings.
“Traitors?” Daniel repeated.
The man nodded and walked among the Dark Fae. “There is one among us, one who would take everything he’s learned here and report to our enemy.”
Balladyn faced the man. “My men wouldn’t betray me.”
“No, they wouldn’t.” The man stopped and looked right at Henry. “But he would.”
Chaos erupted as agents were shoved aside as Dark Fae grabbed Henry and he was forced onto his knees. That’s when he recalled a conversation when Banan had told him they suspected the man responsible for everything was a Dragon King who had been exiled eons ago—Ulrik.
Chapter Six
Rhys pressed a
gainst the wall, his hands clenched at his sides. Lily was only feet from him—again—and he somehow managed not to go to her. He pressed his lips together and recalled how soft her mouth had been beneath his¸ how seductive her kiss.
The way she smiled when she saw him made his heart pound and his blood run like fire through his veins. Desire, hot and thick, consumed him. Lily. He wanted to hold her, to simply savor her scent of roses.
He also burned to rip away her baggy clothes and feast his eyes upon her body. He would lay her down and caress and kiss every inch of her, worshipping her. To sink his hands into the long, silky length of her inky hair and hear her sighs of pleasure.
Rhys would go through the pain of trying to shift again if he could hold her for one night. It was a lot to ask since he didn’t deserve one minute with her, but Rhys was desperate. His life had been ripped away from him without his being able to fight against it. That was difficult enough, but to know that the one woman that consumed his thoughts day and night, the one woman who captured his attention with a mere smile would never be his …
It was beyond cruel.
And yet Rhys had done it to himself.
Lily deserved so much better than a man like him who had a different woman on his arm every night. She should have candlelit dinners, roses, surprise picnics, and long walks among the heather.
He saw the strength in her, the steel in her spine he guessed she hadn’t realized yet. How he wanted to be there to see her find it. He also saw the sweetness within her. She was all that was good and right in this world.
She made him forget the travesties the humans had committed against the dragons and the Kings. Lily simply made him forget all the awful things.
He opened his eyes, his jaw clenched. She was the one who had gotten him through the pain after the wound Ulrik inflicted. It was Lily who was his beacon, the light that found him in the darkness.
“Rhys?” Laith said as he came to stand in front of him.