Elizabeth laughed, then looked up as the skyrunner’s platform chains rattled and began a slow descent. A woman stood on it—not the captain but the quartermaster, as tall as an Amazon and rigid in her aviator’s uniform, a pistol tucked into her belt.
She looked them over, her accent heavily French. “You have interest in hiring Lady Nergüi’s services?”
“A rescue,” Caius said. “Our airship went down on the plain southeast of Old Chartres. We’ve people waiting for our return.”
“Then we need passage to Krakentown, by way of the Ivory Market,” Elizabeth added, and Caius’s arms tightened around her.
“Krakentown?” The quartermaster’s brows rose. “That’s a dangerous route.”
Not for this airship. And it was the reason why Elizabeth had chosen it. These mercenaries weren’t just the best choice for the rescue. They were also as dangerous as any pirate or smuggler that flew round the bottom. “Only because women like your captain are flying it.”
The woman’s expression didn’t change. “An expensive route.”
Which was what she’d really meant. “I have the money,” Elizabeth said. “And we need to leave as soon as possible.”
“Then I’ll ask the captain if she’s interested. Do you have a name?”
“I hired her before as Katherine Wallace,” she said. “But we are Elizabeth Jannsen and Caius Trachter—and Artemis.”
The quartermaster nodded and clanged her weapon against the platform chains. As it began to rise, Elizabeth glanced up at Caius, who no longer appeared doubtful at her choice of airships, but slightly stunned.
Carefully, he set her down. “Krakentown? You’ll come with me?”
“Yes.” Elizabeth grinned and rose onto her toes, linking her arms around his neck. “We’ll have that airship tryst, after all.”
Pain suddenly swept across his features and made a bleak wasteland of his face. “For as long as you’ll have me.”
Her heart clenched. He’d thought that was all she wanted? Urgently, she pulled herself closer to him.
“No, Caius. I want to go to Krakentown with you. Then I want you to come with me—back to the sanctuary. With Rainbow, too. And your mother and sister. Anyone you want, as long as you’re with me.” She caught his face in her hands. “And I’ll have you forever, if you’ll let me. I’ll even ask the captain to marry us—though she’ll probably ask a fortune to perform the service.”
Caius stared at her. The pain and bleakness gone, thank God. But disbelief remained.
Nervous, she said, “Is that all right?”
“I’m wondering if I’m awake,” he said hoarsely. “You want forever?”
“I do.” But now she worried. “We don’t have to marry, though. Or return to the sanctuary. If you feel that marriage is another shackle…and at the same place—”
“No.” Caius shook his head, voice suddenly rough. “It’s not the same, Elizabeth. Freedom is having a choice to make, to be who we want to be. And I want to be yours.”
And she wanted to be his. “Then I’m going arrive in Krakentown a married woman,” she said. “But first, I’d like to have an exceedingly illicit tryst.”
He laughed, and she felt his smile against her lips. “I swore that I’d always help you, Elizabeth. As your friend, you can be certain that I’ll help you with this.”
“I knew you would,” she said, and lifted herself into his kiss.
Epilogue
BY THE TIME THE AIRSHIP REACHED Krakentown, Elizabeth had indulged in a tryst that would have set a society matron’s hair afire and married the man she loved. She couldn’t have said which was better.
With a man such as Caius, both the tryst and the marriage were the sweetest pleasure.
She stood near Lady Nergüi’s bow as they flew over the darkened town, Caius at her side. Nervousness bubbled in her stomach and perspiration dotted her brow. The cold of winter in the north had given way to summer in the south, and even though night had fallen, the heat of the day lingered on.
Below, the airship’s lanterns glinted off the carapace that had once been the armored shell of a giant kraken. There were other carapaces throughout the town, large and small. Many of them were used as residences, surrounded by more buildings made of red clay brick. It was a smugglers’ town unlike any other, orderly and quiet instead of a glorified rum dive—and all of it humble compared to the city-towers on the opposite side of the continent.
At the southern end of town, the airship slowed to a hover over a modest brick house. A woman with dark hair stepped out of the front door and looked up before darting back inside.
“My sister,” Caius said, and Elizabeth’s nervous stomach tripped over into roiling anxiety.
As they rode the cargo platform to the ground, Caius’s sister returned outside accompanied by an older woman. Caius’s mother, Elizabeth knew, but she only had eyes for the little girl in nightclothes holding her hand.
It was like looking at a tintype photograph of herself at the same age. The same hair, the same eyes. And when Caius jumped from the platform while they were still a full three meters above the ground and the little girl flung herself into his arms, there was no doubt: Rainbow was very much like Elizabeth.
And her heart filled tight as a balloon when she saw Caius’s face, eyes closed as he hugged the girl close, spinning her around. A father, with so much love for his daughter. She wondered how he had any left over.
But he did. So very much. There was no doubt of that, either.
The platform jolted to a stop. Elizabeth stepped off and felt the curious looks from his sister and mother—then from the little girl, who spotted her over Caius’s shoulder.
Rainbow asked the question that the other women probably wanted to. “Who are you?”
Who would she be to this girl? A mother, a sister? She didn’t yet know.
“I’m Elizabeth,” she said.
“That’s one of my names, too,” she said, but the girl’s interest in Elizabeth vanished when her gaze dropped to the hound at her side. Her eyes widened. “I like your puppy.”
So did Elizabeth. “I think she would like to have you as a friend. She loves to be petted.”
Obviously taking that as an invitation, the girl squirmed in Caius’s grip. He let her down, and introduced Elizabeth to his mother and sister.
Within moments of the word “wife” being spoken, she was surrounded with welcomes and tearful embraces. Elizabeth was barely aware of the airship overhead leaving—heading toward the docks for the night. She’d already paid the fare for passage back to the Americas. By the same time tomorrow, she would be returning to take over the sanctuary. With Caius, her hunter. She couldn’t have asked for more. Yet already, she had more—two women, eager to be family and friends.
So much—and so overwhelming. His mother must have sensed it, because not much time passed before she was scooping Rainbow up. “All right, love. It’s back to bed for you.” She started back toward the house, stopping to kiss Caius’s cheek. “We’ll hear everything of where you’ve been and what you’ve done in the morning.”
After a hug from his sister, they were left alone. Elizabeth looked up at Caius—who was watching her, his gaze intensely blue and shadows deepening the sharp angles of his face.
“And who are you?” she asked.
His answer came immediately. “The man who loves you.”
No. He was so much more than that. Caius Trachter, her husband, her hunter, her friend.
“The man who tied me to a bed,” she said, starting toward the house.
His voice lowered. “And will again, the next time I catch you.”
That wouldn’t do at all. She stopped, dismayed. “But I swore to myself that I would never run from you again. How will you catch me without a chase?”
His slow, predatory grin held a heated promise. “If you run, we could find out.”
Her heart tripped over with anticipation. Who was he? The man she loved. Who was she? The woman who love
d him—and who desperately wanted to know what Caius would do after he caught her.
Laughing, Elizabeth whirled and ran.
But not very fast.
The Iron Seas by Meljean Brook is a steampunk romance series which combines nanotech and pirates with a gritty, gaslit Victorian atmosphere to create swashbuckling steampunk romance…with an emphasis on the steam. You can find a guide to the Iron Seas world on her website. Meljean is also the author of the Guardians paranormal romance series. To receive notices about her new releases you can sign up to her newsletter, or visit her website for more information, book descriptions, and excerpts.
www.meljeanbrook.com
Other Works by Meljean Brook
STEAMPUNK ROMANCE
The Iron Seas
The Blushing Bounder in Wild & Steamy
Here There Be Monsters in Burning Up
The Iron Duke
Epilogue Novella: Mina Wentworth and the Invisible City
Heart of Steel
Epilogue Novella: Tethered
Riveted
Wrecked in Fire & Frost
Salvage in Enthralled (July 2013)
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
The Guardian Series
Falling for Anthony in Hot Spell
Demon Angel
Paradise in Wild Thing
Demon Moon
Demon Night
Thicker than Blood in First Blood
Demon Bound
Demon Forged
Blind Spot in Must Love Hellhounds
Demon Blood
Demon Marked
Ascension in Angels of Darkness
Guardian Demon (August 2013)
Into the Light (September 2013)
Unconnected Works
In Sheep’s Clothing in Under Her Skin
Frozen (June 2013)
FIRE & FROST
Copyright © 2013 by MELJEAN BROOK, JESSICA SIMS, and CAROLYN CRANE
“Wrecked” © 2013 by Meljean Brook
“Speed Mating” © 2013 by Jessica Sims
“Conjuring Max” © 2013 by Carolyn Crane
“Frozen” excerpt © 2013 by Meljean Brook
“Vixen” excerpt © 2011 by Jill Myles
“Mr. Real” excerpt © 2012 by Carolyn Crane
Title font “Northwoods High” by Allen Chiu at dafont.com. Used with permission.
Cover design by Meljean Brook.
Cover photo © olly - Fotolia.com.
Proofreading by Brenda at The Eclectic Editor.
Additional proofreading by Fedora Chen.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.
ISBN: 978-09894-611-08 (EPUB)
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