by Donna Grant
Shara tried to shrug, biting the inside of her mouth to hide her wince when pain shot through her arm from hanging from invisible bonds. “My mission was to seduce him in order for my family to trap him.”
“Is that what you do? Seduce?”
“I was released from my prison in order to carry out this mission. Do you really think I go about seducing males?” she asked sardonically.
He squeezed her butt painfully. “I think it comes easily for you. You set out to seduce me.”
“Because I thought you might be worthy of me.”
He lifted a black and silver brow. “And you no longer believe that?”
“No.”
He smiled coolly. “It doesn’t really matter what you think. By the time I’m finished with you, you’ll be begging me to be mine.”
Shara wondered if he would use magic to hurt her, or if he would force himself on her. So when the first lash fell across her bottom, she couldn’t hold back the scream, she was so unprepared for the pain. Shara bit the inside of her cheek as she sat through five more lashes before Balladyn finished. Her ass was on fire, the skin crackling from the whip.
“I didn’t break the skin this time,” he warned. “The whip was made special for me. The wounds remain for days. No Fae magic or the naturally quick healing of our bodies will ease you.”
As if that made it all better. Shara glared daggers at him. She was suddenly released. Her knees barely held her when she was back on her feet, and her arms felt as if millions of blades were piercing her when she was able to lower them and let the blood rush back to her fingers.
“Get dressed, Shara. You’re coming with me to hunt the Dragon King. Since you were sent to seduce him and he knows you, you’ll go in first so we can take him by surprise. You’ll complete your mission. Only for me instead of your family.”
She clenched her teeth when he tossed a dress on the bed and stood by the door waiting. Of course Balladyn would have a specially made whip, the bastard. Her skin was on fire, the stinging growing exponentially by the second.
Shara walked to the bed as carefully as she could while Balladyn watched her. The pain was excruciating, but she would survive it. She was glad to have something to cover her body from Balladyn’s gaze, even if it was the horrid black dress that barely concealed her breasts or her ass.
When she turned to him, Balladyn held out a pair of black heels that dangled from his fingers. Shara put them on, never taking her eyes from him. She hadn’t understood hatred and loathing until then. Now she realized she had only ever touched on the emotions.
Until Balladyn.
He gave a nod. “Perfect. Let’s get us a Dragon King.”
She walked out of the chamber beside him, animosity growing by leaps with each step they took.
* * *
Kiril came awake instantly when he caught Shara’s scent. But she wasn’t alone. Dark Fae were with her, though they hung back while she entered the house. He was hesitant to assume that she had betrayed him. Then again, she was a Dark.
Kiril wanted to unfurl his wings and spread them wide, to roar and take to the skies. Instead, he remained quietly laying in the cellar listening.
Shara’s steps took her all over the house searching from one room to the next. She spent extra time in his bedroom, and he wished he could see what she was doing.
Eventually she came down the stairs and walked to the front door that she threw wide. “He’s not here,” she shouted and turned to sit on the stairs.
It wasn’t long before the footsteps of thirty Dark entered his house. It was everything Kiril could do not to burst through the floor and tear them to pieces.
“Are you sure this is where he lives?”
“Yes, Balladyn,” Shara answered crossly.
Balladyn. Kiril should’ve known.
He scowled when Shara’s tone penetrated his fury. She was angry, her tone clipped. So she wasn’t here of her own volition.
“Ask Farrell’s men if you don’t believe me.” Shara’s voice was icy.
Kiril grinned. That was the spirit he knew, the passion he’d felt firsthand in his arms.
There were three seconds of silence before Balladyn told his men, “Search the house and the entire grounds. Leave nothing untouched. If the dragon is here, we’ll find him.”
When the footsteps of Balladyn’s men faded, Kiril wasn’t surprised when Balladyn remained behind. He wanted Shara. Kiril didn’t need to see the Dark to know that. He could hear it in Balladyn’s voice.
“Where is he, Shara?” Balladyn asked.
Kiril already hated Balladyn for taking Rhi, but now he wanted to personally do him harm for thinking Shara was his.
“Why would I know that?”
“You were sent to seduce him,” Balladyn stated. “I assume you did your job well.”
Shara made a sound at the back of her throat. “Do you think a Dragon King would reveal anything to anyone?”
“You’re lying.” The certainty in his voice spelled danger for Shara. “Perhaps you’ve already forgotten the feel of the whip.”
Kiril saw red. Balladyn had hurt her. The Dark’s fate was sealed. Kiril would be the one to personally kill him, and he would enjoy every minute of it.
“Cut me to pieces, and it still won’t change what I don’t know,” Shara said, breaking into his thoughts.
“Nor will the fact change that I’m going to capture the Dragon King.”
Shara thought she was going to gag on the words. Part of her had hoped Kiril was there so she could seek his help, but in the end she was ecstatic that he wasn’t. Where he was, however, was the question. His Mercedes sat in the drive and the keys were on the entryway table where he had tossed them when he’d arrived the previous night.
Had it really been twenty-four hours since she had left Balladyn and waited for Kiril at the manor? What she wouldn’t do to rewind time and have those hours with Kiril again. She would beg him to take her away and leave Ireland, the Dark, and her family far behind.
But she knew Kiril would never do that. He was an honorable man, a man who had come to rescue a friend. Only when he had Rhi would he return to Scotland.
“Did you hear me?”
Shara stopped short of rolling her eyes as she looked at Balladyn. He was out of place in Kiril’s home, a foreign object in a residence of peace and pleasure. “Did you say something?”
His face mottled with rage. “Our Claiming will be talked about for centuries.”
“I’m not going to be your wife. I’ve already told you that.” She stood when her bottom began to hurt. The more she walked, the more she worked out the ache. Sitting or being still for a long period of time made the pain worse.
Shara leaned against a wall and sank her nails into her palm when she heard the crashes upstairs begin. The Dark were literally tearing things apart. As if Kiril would be hiding under a bed or chest.
“You were practically begging yesterday,” Balladyn said.
“I don’t fear you. My family wanted me dead for centuries, and now I’m your captive. You can threaten and torture me all you want, but I won’t be a part of the Claiming nor will I tell you anything about the Dragon King since I know nothing.”
Balladyn folded his arms as he leaned against the front door. “Do you remember what Rhi looked like, Shara? I’m toying with her. Do you have any idea what I could do to anyone that I wanted to destroy?”
She lifted her chin despite the chill of foreboding that settled in her gut. Shara knew what Balladyn could do, and it terrified her. “I won’t live in fear, nor will I live in chains, visible or not.”
“You’ll do whatever I tell you. You spurned your family, remember. Not to mention they would never dare to go against me. You have no one, Shara. No one but me. Remember that the next time you want to tell me what you will and won’t do.”
Across the entryway on the other wall was a mirror. Shara caught her image in the reflection and hated the red eyes. They had turned red the first time she kidnapped a h
uman male. With the red eyes was a faint silver strip in her hair. It wasn’t until she’d kidnapped the girls that the silver became more visible as it was now. She touched the strip of silver, despising it.
“You’ll have more soon enough,” Balladyn said, misinterpreting her actions.
Shara’s eyes skated away. She stilled when she caught sight of a door that hadn’t been there earlier, a door that stood less than twenty feet from the stairs.
A door she knew she had never seen in the times she had been in the house.
Her eyes jerked to Balladyn who walked to the stairs and placed a booted foot on the first step as he gazed upward. Two Dark appeared at the top of the stairs shaking their heads. Balladyn gave a sound of fury and turned to the other Dark searching the bottom.
“Anything?” he demanded.
“Nothing,” one responded.
Balladyn pointed outside and told them, “Go help the others search.”
Shara glanced at the new door. Suddenly she knew without a sliver of doubt that Kiril was through that doorway. She wanted in there with him, but she didn’t dare draw attention to it. Even if she was the only one to see it, she refused to let Balladyn know.
“The moon is hidden again tonight,” Shara said.
Balladyn looked at her and shrugged. “Your point?”
“His car is here, but he isn’t. Where else would a Dragon King be but up in the sky?”
Shara didn’t have to say more as Balladyn grabbed her. They appeared in his chamber where he deposited her before he vanished. She glanced around to see she was alone. That she was inside the chamber. He probably had others guarding her, and since she couldn’t teleport out, she was going to have to think of something.
She pulled open the door, prepared to ask one of the guards a question, when she discovered the hallway empty. Finally, something was going her way.
Shara slipped out of the chamber and closed the door behind her. She walked with purposeful steps to the doorway that would lead to the Blackwood estate. Just before she stepped through, Shara veiled herself. The moment she was back on earth, she teleported to Kiril’s estate.
She let the veil fall when she found herself alone. Immediately, she walked to the door and paused. She still didn’t know how she saw it, but it didn’t matter if it led her to Kiril. Shara twisted the knob and pushed. The door opened easily. She was surprised it wasn’t locked, but since she assumed it was supposed to remain hidden from view, there wasn’t a need for it to be locked.
Once she walked through the doorway, she softly closed the door behind her. When she turned to look into the dimly lit room, she froze as she stared down at the most magnificent and frightening sight she had ever witnessed—a dragon.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Shara’s knees buckled at the sight, and she fell back against the wall. The dragon lifted its massive head from its paws and regarded her silently with slanted, faceted royal blue eyes.
The burnt orange scales glistened with a metallic sheen in the light of the lamps hanging from the walls. His head was wide, his eyes unblinking. The dragon’s nostrils flared as if scenting her. Then he drew in a huge breath, his body lighting up from within with a blue glow for several seconds. Her mouth dropped open in wonder and surprise.
“Kiril,” Shara whispered.
In all her dreams, she had never imagined anything so spectacularly frightening. She wanted to go to him, to touch his scales, but trepidation kept her rooted to the spot. It was no wonder the Dark were panicky any time the Dragon Kings were mentioned.
Kiril shifted his shoulders, causing his wings to brush against the top of the cellar, triggering mortar dust to drift around him. It was wrong that he was hiding in such a small space when he should be soaring among the clouds.
“No one knows I’m here,” she said and scooted to the first step. “I swear.”
He blinked his huge blue dragon eyes.
Shara drew in a shaky breath. “Your original plan isn’t going to work. We need a new one.” When Kiril didn’t respond, Shara urged, “Please. I want to help you. I need to help you. It won’t right the wrongs I’ve done, but it’s the only way I know to do something.”
The shape of the dragon suddenly vanished, replaced by a very nude Kiril in human form. Still, Shara remained where she was.
“He dared to harm you.” Kiril’s words, harsh and rough, filled the cellar.
Shara gave an absent shake of her head. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“He. Hurt. You.”
His words were clipped and filled with rage. That’s when Shara noticed that his hands were fisted by his sides. She rose to her feet, unmindful of her sore backside, and walked down the steps.
She didn’t stop until she stood before him and placed her hands on his face. “I’m all right.”
“How did you find me?”
“I saw the door. A door, mind you, that I’ve never seen before.”
“You shouldna have seen it at all. I used dragon magic to hide it. Fae can no’ see dragon magic.”
Her arms fell to her sides as she shrugged. “I can’t explain it. One minute it looked like a wall, and the next I saw a door. I let Balladyn believe you were somewhere else, and after he brought me to his fortress I came here.”
“You were able to use your magic to leave the fortress?”
Shara twisted her lips in a rueful smile. “Not exactly. I tried, but apparently Balladyn has spelled it so no one can just appear in his home. I was able to use the doorway to my parents’ home. I snuck through when a guard wasn’t looking. Once I was back on this realm, I teleported here.”
“You’re risking a lot.”
“I had to know if you were down here.”
One side of his lips lifted in a grin. “Did you now? If you wanted to see me in dragon form, all you had to do was ask.”
Shara rolled her eyes, even as she smiled in pleasure. “I can’t believe you’re teasing at a time like this.”
“There’s always going to be something going on.” Kiril glanced at the door. “Good idea to tell him I was in dragon form, but it willna keep him away for long. Or keep him from returning to his fortress for you.”
“I’ll return there. With you.” She melted against him when he drew her into his arms.
“I doona want you anywhere near him again.”
She closed her eyes and savored being with him again. “I must return. If I don’t, he’ll come looking for me.”
“No’ if he’s coming after me.”
Shara leaned back and looked into his shamrock green eyes. She knew what he was about to ask. “I won’t fit in at Dreagan.”
“And you do here?” he asked, frustration clouding his face. “Shara, you may have been born into a Dark family, but you are no’ a Dark Fae.”
“Look at my eyes. Look at the silver in my hair. I’m a Dark Fae. Nothing is going to change that. We’re the most hated beings on this realm.”
“You’ll be safe at Dreagan. They willna harm you.”
“I wasn’t harmed in my parents’ home when I was locked away for hundreds of years either. Being ignored and scorned can be worse than any kind of torture.”
Kiril released her and began to pace. Shara knew the situation was dire, but she couldn’t stop looking at his splendid body. Her gaze stopped on his chest with his dragon tattoo, and she jerked because she would swear on her life that she had just seen the dragon move.
“You plan to remain here?” Kiril asked.
She pulled her eyes up from his chest and belatedly realized he had asked a question. “I’ve not thought about it.”
“Unless we kill Taraeth and Balladyn and you rule the Dark, they’ll relentlessly search for you.”
Shara suddenly had a plan, one that she wouldn’t share with Kiril. It wasn’t to punish him, but to set him free—from her. He was honorable enough that he would continue to try to help her, which would only put him right back in the predicament he was in.
�
�Let’s think of that once we have Rhi.”
Kiril walked around her to the stairs where a set of clothes was neatly folded. He grabbed the pair of dark denim and slid first one leg and then the other on before he fastened them.
“You should go somewhere safe while I go into the fortress alone,” he said as he pulled a solid black shirt over his head.
Shara was shaking her head before he even finished. “As I told you before, you’ll never get past the guards at my house.”
“Watch me,” he said with a smile.
After all she had seen him do, Shara believed him. If only she could transport him from one location to another in a blink as she did herself, but she wasn’t a powerful enough Fae to pull that off. “I believe you, but I also know that Balladyn will need distracting. Let me do that.”
“Nay,” he said, looking at her as if she had lost her mind.
And maybe she had. “It’ll work. Besides, I got away from him just now. I can do it again. How else will you get around his compound?”
Kiril shook his head. “I doona like the idea of you going back to him.”
“I can handle Balladyn. He doesn’t scare me.” At Kiril’s knowing look, she rolled her eyes. “Okay, so he does scare me a bit, but I can get away from him, Kiril. Trust me. I had over a thousand years to myself going to many different realms and managing to stay out of any real trouble.”
He finally sighed and gave a nod. “Doona make me regret agreeing to this.”
“I won’t,” she said with a smile.
“We keep to the plan,” Kiril said. “The difference is how I’ll get into your house and to the doorway.”
“You don’t know which doorway it is.”
“I will once you tell me,” he said with a wink.
Kiril prayed she accepted all he was telling her, because if they didn’t get moving soon, he was going to shift back into a dragon and fly her to Dreagan, regardless of whether she wanted to go or not.
Never mind the fact that she could return to Ireland with barely a thought.
“There are over a dozen doorways. You need to go to the…” She paused, her head cocked to the side. “Wait a minute. You can’t see Fae doors.”