by Sophie Stern
From my vantage point, I realize this is really a great spot to see into the room. I can see Zeke as he enters the room from the main entrance, where I can in. My heart skips a beat as I watch him. He looks so handsome, but nothing compares to what I know lies beneath the surface.
I got to see him as a dragon.
A real-life, honest-to-goodness dragon.
I get the feeling that Zeke doesn’t let people in too often. The fact that he’s shown his true self to me means a lot. It means he trusts me, at least a little. It means he’s trying.
Suddenly, I hear voices from behind me, and I slink back, closer to the pillar I’m next to.
“It has to be tonight,” one of the voices says in Drakonai.
“If she would ever leave his side, the grab would be easier.”
The voices are hushed, and I realize they don’t want to be overheard. One is female and one is male.
Fuck.
Are they talking about Star?
Could it really be?
I peek out and see she’s still talking to the man, but Lee is nearby. Of course he is. He’s always close to her. The fact that he’s in love with her is no secret, but why aren’t they together? Did she have to wait until today to be “available”? I don’t know, but I don’t want to push my luck by asking too many questions. I don’t want to be the nosy girl who pushes her luck.
“We need a distraction,” the female voice continues. “He needs something to pry him away from her.”
“Nothing will do that,” the male voice scoffs. “Nothing short of hurting the King, anyway.”
“Then we hurt the King,” the female hisses. “Get it done.” I hear her footsteps receding and I know I have to warn Zeke and Lee. Hell, I need to warn Star. When I turn back around, the man is walking away from her and I realize this is my chance to warn her. I start to move, begin to head over to her, but I only take two steps before I feel arms wrapped around me.
I open my mouth to cry out, but a hand presses to my lips.
“Not a word, bitch,” the man says.
Fuck. I don’t know how he saw me in the darkness. I sure as fuck couldn’t see him. Then I realize that I’m an idiot and he’s probably a dragon who can see in the dark lighting in this area. Dammit.
I have to fight.
I can’t let him just take me like this, so I kick and grab his hands and try to claw at him, but after a moment of struggling, he seems to realize I’m not going to be easy to take. I try to use some of the moves Jenika and Hal taught me, but although he grunts when I stomp on his foot, it doesn’t make a difference in the end.
All that happens is that the heel of my shoe breaks and falls off and I twist my ankle. He growls at me and hits me.
“Stop,” he hisses. “Don’t make this harder on yourself.”
I try to say “fuck you,” but he’s gripping me so hard that I just manage to slobber on his hand. He carts me back into the corner and through one of the doors back there. This one leads to a hallway that is bustling with servants, but no one bats an eye as he hauls me down the hallway.
What the fuck?
Either the other slaves hate me or they’ve been paid very well to ignore anyone hauling a very well-dressed human down the hall. My guess would be on the latter. I pride myself on being pretty friendly to just about everyone I meet. I can’t imagine anyone would willingly hurt me here.
Then again, I never thought I’d be riding a dragon into the night, either.
The man enters a side room where a few other people are standing. He closes the door behind him with a foot, but doesn’t remove his hand. I’m still trying to wiggle and fight, but he holds me flat against his body.
“A little help, please,” he says, and immediately all the men in the room rush over to me. I barely have time to register what happens before I feel a prick at my neck and everything goes dark.
Chapter 20
The thing about being kidnapped is that it’s not very fun.
It’s actually quite fucking horrible.
When I wake up, I immediately try to cry out. I’m on the floor and my ankles are tied together and my wrists are bound behind my back. When I open my mouth, my throat is dry and sore.
“Help,” I try to yell, but it’s only a whisper.
“Don’t bother,” a familiar voice says quietly, and my heart drops.
Star.
They got her.
They fucking got her.
I should have saved her, protected her, taken care of her, but I didn’t.
And now they’ve got her.
“Star,” I whisper. “What happened?”
She laughs, but it’s a dry, soulless laugh.
“We’re still in the castle. Everyone is probably looking for us by now, but it doesn’t matter. They got me and now I’m going to be mated to someone: probably someone who’s a huge asshole.” She frowns and adds, “And he’ll probably be bad in bed.”
“I tried to stop it. I heard them talking, but when I went to tell you…”
“They got you. It’s okay. I had the best security team on the planet and they still managed to get me. We knew someone was going to try, but I didn’t count on May being in on it.”
May?
As in, servant-to-Zeke-and-my-friend, May?
“How did they get you, Star?” I have to know. I have to know if my friend actually betrayed the castle, if she actually betrayed Zeke, Star, and me.
No matter what anyone says, I would feel like this was a personal betrayal.
I can’t see Star because the room is pitch black. She’s a dragon woman, though. Surely she can see me. I hold very still and try not to think about what could be crawling around on the cold cement floor. I don’t even know where in the castle we might be. I’ve certainly never been in any rooms like this before. The floor is hard, the air is cold, and everything smells musty and moldy.
I’m guessing a basement or dungeon, but I don’t want to think about it.
“May came to me and whispered there was a problem with my dress. Can you believe it? My fucking dress. She said she could fix it in the hall by the kitchen. She didn’t want to embarrass me in front of the guys.”
Smooth.
By playing to Star’s insecurities about her looks, May was able to get her away from Lee. I can’t even judge Star for falling for it because if someone came up to me and whispered something about my appearance, I’d probably go with them, too.
“I’m guessing there was nothing wrong with your dress,” I say dryly.
“There is now! Fuck. It’s completely fucked up. Can you see it?”
“No, it’s too dark. Can you see me?”
“Yep.”
“Do I look like hell?”
“Yep.”
“Great.” I’m on my side and uncomfortable as hell. The floor is cold against my cheek, but if I roll to my back, it’s going to be torture on my hands. I yank at my binds, but nothing happens.
“Don’t bother. I’ve already tried.”
“They’re way too tight. Damn.” I try to shake my arms and legs a few more times, but all I accomplish is making myself sore.
“Stop,” Star says, her voice quiet, but stern. “You need to save your energy. You need to stop struggling because if they think you’re going to fight them, they won’t keep you. Do you understand what I’m saying, Riley?”
She’s saying that if I put up a fight, they’ll kill me when they come back.
She’s saying that a useless female has a greater chance of living because at least they can fuck me if they keep me.
This is not how I planned for the night to end. This is not what I wanted. Tonight was supposed to be a lovely celebration of Star growing up and entering her adulthood, but it turned nasty. Part of me regrets that I didn’t run to her sooner, that I didn’t tell Lee about the conversation I overheard, but in the end, it didn’t matter.
With their dragon eyes, the people I heard talking probably knew I was there the whole time.
They might not have known I understood Drakonai, but they saw me.
They would have taken me anyway.
“What’s going to happen to us, Star?” I whisper. I don’t really want to know. Somehow, she’s staying completely calm, but I imagine she’s in the same shape I am: dirty and tired.
“It’s really me they want,” she says. “Don’t give them trouble, Riley. Save yourself. I mean it. They’ve already got me, so there’s no point in fighting. They’ll come back and probably take me away. They might separate us. I don’t know. I’ve never been kidnapped.”
“You knew it was a possibility?”
“It always is when you’re royalty.” Her voice is sad and I wonder what experience Star has with kidnapping. Maybe her family prepared her for the possibility. Maybe they talked about what she should do.
“They won’t keep you locked away forever, though.”
“As soon as they get me cleaned up, they’ll mate me to whoever they want. Whoever it is they have picked out to take my father’s kingdom. He’ll bite me and I’ll be forced to bite him in return. Then we’ll be in charge of ruling my country. There won’t be anything anyone can do to stop it.”
“What if someone kills your mate?”
“Then I won’t be mated anymore, but the chances of that happening are basically non-existent. No one is going to kill the princess’ mate. Whoever it is, he’s going to be a fierce warrior, Riley. He may have already killed my father. If he hasn’t yet, he might try.”
“But wait,” I say, thinking of something. “Wouldn’t the crown go to Dane? Isn’t he the firstborn male?”
“I’m a little older than him. On Taneyemm, the throne goes to the firstborn, regardless of gender.”
“How progressive.”
“Trust me: tonight I wish we were outdated and traditional. I don’t want to be queen, Riley. I don’t want to be married to a monster.”
For the first time, Star sounds scared, but there’s nothing I can do to comfort her.
There’s nothing I can do to save her.
Chapter 21
Time passes slowly in the dungeon, or maybe it doesn’t pass at all. I can’t really tell. I try screaming for help for awhile, but Star finally grows tired of my yelling and tells me to stop. It’s just going to hurt my voice, she says, but I think she’s more worried about her hearing than my throat.
I thought that someone would bring us food or water or let us use the bathroom, but no one comes for us. After hours, I start to cry because I have to pee so bad. I think Star knows what I’m feeling because she finally sighs and whispers to me.
“Just do it. It’ll be okay.”
Humiliated and exhausted, I finally allow my body to release, and the trickling sound of it seeping down my leg horrifies me. Soon the smell of urine fills the air and there’s no doubt that Star, with her dragon nose, can smell it.
“I had to do it, too, Riley. It’ll be okay.”
She’s so much more calm than me, but I don’t know how. After awhile, I finally laugh because things can’t get any more fucked up.
“Here I am, a stupid human on a planet full of dragons, and I’m peeing in front of the dragon princess.”
Even Star laughs at that.
“Who would have thought, right?”
“Star?”
“Yeah, Riley?”
“Do you want to mate Lee?”
“Yes,” she says quickly, quietly. “I hope no one knows. They’ll try to kill him. Or worse.” Her words remind me of what Zeke whispered to me. Apparently being royal is a lot tougher than it looks. There are so many different things to consider. You can’t just find someone, fall in love, and live happily ever after.
You have to make sure you find someone to love, but don’t like them too much.
“What could be worse than killing him?”
“Don’t be naïve, Riley.”
Torture. The people who took us might torture Lee if they can catch him, but Lee is a dragon. Who can catch a dragon? That’s when it hits me: how did these guys capture Star? Why didn’t she just shift?
“Why didn’t you shift when they took you? Why don’t you shift now?” I say, my voice rising louder than it should.
“Shhh,” she hisses. “Don’t let them know we’re awake if they don’t already know. We don’t want them coming in any sooner than they have to.”
“Sorry.” It’s so uncomfortable on the floor. I’m cold, wet, and smelly. I’m disgusting. I’m hungry.
The longer we’re in the basement, or the dungeon, or wherever the hell they’re keeping us, the more I think we’ll never be saved.
“They gave me something,” Star says. “I don’t know what. Some sort of injection, but I can’t shift. I’m sure it’s only temporary. I hope it is. There’s a chance they’ll need to come give me another dose, though. We aren’t going to be left down here forever, Riley. I can smell your fear. That means they can too, so you need to try to calm down.”
“I know.”
“I know you were trained on the ship, right?”
“Yeah, but I was trained for sex, Star.” It sounds slutty when I put it like that. It makes me sound like a floozy. Somehow, I’m still embarrassed. Nothing should embarrass me anymore, sitting in this dark holding cell with Star, but it does. “I wasn’t trained to deal with being kidnapped.”
“When they come back, try to go to your happy place. Mentally, you know? If you can focus on something besides whatever they say, it’s going to be better for you. If they don’t scent your fear, it’ll confuse them, and they’ll wonder what’s going on. It’ll make them nervous and uncomfortable.”
“I’ll do my best,” I whisper. It’s basically all I can promise. I’m nervous about what I’ll do when these assholes come back. Star seems convinced it’s only a matter of time, but I’m not so sure. What if they leave us to starve to death?
What if they want us to suffer for awhile before they come for Star?
I’m sure they only took me because I was too close to the situation. They took me because I was going to warn her. I’m no one special. I’m not valuable. Part of me hopes that means they’ll let me go, but I know that realistically, it just means they’ll kill me first.
I don’t know if they’ll plan to kill Star or not, but we’re locked in a dungeon. There’s nothing else to think about.
“Star, tell me about your childhood.”
Distract me.
Give me something to think about other than my impending doom.
“On Taneyemm? There’s not much to tell.” Her voice is quiet and I wonder if she’s feeling as worn out as I am. Is she hopeless? Does she imagine we’ll be rescued? Is she thinking about what her future is going to look like when she’s mated to someone she hates?
“Did you know Zeke growing up?” I shouldn’t ask about him, but I can’t help it. I know he’ll be looking for me, for us. If Star and I can hold on long enough, he’ll come for us. There’s no way we could be inside the castle and not have him find us.
There’s just no way.
“He’s best friends with Dane. We spent a lot of time together. We even went to the same school.”
“The Taneyemm School for the Gifted Royal Dragon People?”
“Ha! Something like that.” She chuckles, but her laugh still sounds sad. I know she’s worried. Maybe I can get her mind off of everything. The more she talks about her past, the less she’ll be thinking about her future.
“Tell me about it,” I say. For a moment, I don’t think she’s going to answer. For a moment, everything is quiet. Then Star begins to talk.
“We were inseparable until high school. Then we were forced to separate. Our little group split off because I had to learn how to run a country, Zeke had to learn how to run a kingdom, and Dane…well, Dane just needed to learn to be in control of himself.”
“He seems pretty self-controlled to me.” I think of the way he controlled my body at my first ball, but I don’t tell her that
. Star laughs quietly, though, and I wonder if she knows what I’m thinking. There’s no way she could know about what happened between us, but maybe that’s her brother’s favorite thing.
Maybe he likes to be naughty.
“Dane has certain proclivities. He’s kind of like Zeke that way. He likes control in the bedroom. He likes to coerce his women, make them play with him. He likes to toy with them. He did a lot of that in high school and continued after graduation. Our parents found out and weren’t pleased.”
Part of me is surprised Star knows about this side of her brother. I’m a little shocked she’s talking about it so casually. Maybe sex isn’t a big deal to her or maybe she’s just too tired to care. I’m not sure. She doesn’t sound like she’s judging him for what he likes. She just sounds sad that her parents couldn’t accept him.
“But they didn’t disown him,” I point out, as if it matters now.
“They never would. It’s not a dragon’s way.” Suddenly, her voice stills and she whispers, “They’re coming. Quiet. No fighting them. Remember, Riley: be nonthreatening.”
I take a deep breath, but don’t move. I’m still in the same awkward position on the floor. I rolled a bit earlier, but after I relieved myself, I just held still. It wasn’t worth trying to move anymore. My arms are stiff and my legs are asleep, but at least when they come in, I can pretend to be asleep.
Voices sound as the footsteps approach. They’re quiet, but echo in the long hallways.
“…need to move quickly…before they find…”
“…move the princess…mating ceremony before…”
It’s nothing useful. It’s things I already knew, but now have confirmed. They stole Star to mate her and try to take her throne.
Only, as the voices continue, I realize that I’m not just a servant who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.