by Juniper Hart
“Hey.” She didn’t offer any more than that as she looked desperately around, wondering what else they could do. Maybe they could lay low in Yusef’s store for a while.
Or Bryn could try making the call there.
“Do you have a live spot for cell service in your store?” she blurted out, her eyes popping at the realization that he might be her only hope of contacting Keppler.
“Of course,” Yusef said, grinning wider. “What do you think I do all day if not play Angry Birds?”
Bryn raced toward the bodega. “Show me,” she pleaded.
Yusef led her inside the place and then toward the cool storeroom. “You okay?” he asked her. “Your friends… are they hurt?”
“No,” Bryn quickly assured him. “Everything is fine. I just need to make a phone call.”
“Ja,” Yusef said, pointing at the secluded backroom behind a curtain. “You can make your call here.”
“Thank you, Yusef,” she sighed gratefully, whipping her cell phone back into her hand as soon as Yusef left her to her privacy. She redialled Keppler’s number, silently praying to the gods that he would answer her call.
“Bryn!” Keppler’s voice greeted her, his tone urgent. “Where are you?”
“Don’t be mad,” Bryn whispered, her eyes trained on the doorway. “I’m in the Hollows.”
There was a stillness that made her question if he was still on the phone, and she glanced at the screen to ensure she hadn’t lost him in another dead zone.
“It’s not what you think,” she continued. “I—”
“Are your brothers with you?” Bryn blinked in surprise. She had never heard that sharpness in Keppler’s voice before.
“Yes.” She heard him inhale before speaking, his words firing out like a round of stray bullets.
“You need to get out of the Hollows,” he told her. “Run, don’t walk, and do not speak to anyone!”
“I—I can’t,” Bryn moaned. “That’s why I need you.”
“Bryn, you don’t understand!” The urgency in Keppler’s tone seemed to increase, and it chilled her down to the core. “If you get caught with your brothers down here—”
“You’re still here!” Bryn exclaimed. She had never been so relieved, and her heart pounded in her chest. “I know what will happen if we’re caught, that’s why I need you to come! We’re in the Trenches—”
A series of shouts diverted her attention, and the scream of sirens filled the air. Bryn heard the echo of an alarm, and it took her a few seconds to understand what was happening, what it meant.
It’s the universal alarm, she thought, horrified. They’re sounding the universal alarm.
“Attention, all residents! Attention, all residents!” a voice boomed out from the speakers. “You must return to your dwellings at once. We are under a terrorist attack. I repeat, return to your dwellings and await further instructions.”
“Keppler! What is going on?” Bryn yelled, but her voice barely carried above the shriek of the alarm.
“Bryn, you have to run!” Keppler cried through the phone. “They’re after you and your brothers! You have to go now!”
Bryn turned around to sprint out of the backroom. She had barely taken one step when the curtain was swiped aside and she suddenly found herself staring at the heavily guarded Hollows Authority, their weapons positioned on her.
“Get down on the ground!” a guard ordered.
“Let me see your hands!” screamed another one.
“Don’t make any sudden moves!”
The cell fell from Bryn’s hands, and she obeyed their instructions without protest. “Please,” she begged them. “I’m not here for any trouble. My brother needs a —”
“Bryn Castillo,” another guard began, “you are hereby charged with the criminal acts of high treason, conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, and conspiracy to commit murder. You have no rights. You must remain silent.”
Horror filled Bryn as she was jerked to her feet and shuffled out the door, the nuzzle of three iron plated guns digging into her spine, weakening her with every step. She stumbled outside, and her eyes immediately found her captured brothers.
“My brother needs a doctor!” she cried, but her words were breathless as the iron sucked the life from her body.
“Shut up!” one guard growled. “You’re just making things worse for yourself.”
Bryn had no choice but to comply, allowing herself to be shackled inside the iron-laden wagon that would ensure her submission all the way back to the Dredges.
Jace still had not regained consciousness when the vehicle squealed away, the universal alarm still blaring as they moved.
Bryn’s eyes grew heavy, and she tried to resist falling into the world of slumber. The fight was a futile one, though. As she succumbed to the inkiness, which did not seem to affect her woke brothers in the least, she realized that she was the last dragon in her family.
She wondered if it meant that she was going to die the same way her parents had.
18
“Cut them loose!” Keppler roared, storming into Wilder’s suite, his face red with fury. Instantly, four lieutenants from the Hollows Authority appeared behind him.
“You’re banished from the Hollows!” Wilder snapped back. “And for a good reason! Were you conspiring with them to bring us down? I thought you said the brothers were no danger! You lied! They were here, under our noses the entire time!”
“You fool!” Keppler spat. A strong hand on his arm stopped him from advancing any further. Instantly, Keppler felt his body strength deplete. He managed to wrench his arm free, his eyes blazing as he turned to glower at the guards, shifting in his rage.
“Keppler, stop!” Wilder howled, but it was too late. Keppler amassed his prehistoric form, unleashing a line of fire toward the guards, who stumbled back and tried to escape. When the guards ran, Keppler whirled his ire onto his brother.
“She was not here to harm you!” he roared, still in his dragon form, stalking toward Wilder. Wilder did not back down, but he did not shift either, showing great restraint on his part.
“She is not your mate,” he said flatly. “I know you think she is, but no mate of yours would try to destroy your family.”
“Imbecile!” Keppler screamed. “You call yourself a ruler and you don’t know the true nature of what happens under your nose!”
Wilder’s eyes flashed with anger. “Keppler, I’ve never seen you like this. Calm down and we can talk. If you’re going to throw a temper tantrum—”
Another stream of fire erupted from Keppler’s mouth, setting Wilder’s canopied bed aflame, the hanging drapes immediately spreading the flames.
“STOP IT!” Wilder screamed, his own face extending to reveal his pointed fangs. Saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth, and the two brothers were suddenly facing off, pacing before one another as if they were in a boxing ring. Though the fire continued to rage around them, both were oblivious to it, their sights only on one another.
“Let her out!” Keppler ordered, falling back onto his wide, scaled tail, eyes glittering with rage.
“She is a terrorist!”
“She was looking for a doctor to save her dying brother!” More fire shot from his mouth, and Wilder jumped back. But as he did, he stared at Keppler with curiosity.
“Who is dying?” he asked, his voice intrigued.
Keppler was too incensed to see that Wilder was genuinely looking for an answer. Instead, he lunged toward his brother, knocking him back into the conflagration. Of course, Wilder did not feel the flames, and the two locked each other into a furious wrestle as Wilder tried to subdue his livid brother.
“Just stop!” Wilder yelled again, swiping a claw across Keppler’s face. “Stop it and speak to me!”
Something in Wilder’s tone—in the way he so desperately tried to get his brother to listen to him—seemed to sober Keppler up, if only for a minute, as the room around them burned dangerously. Keppler fell back, blinking.
“Is that even possible?” Wilder questioned.
“Asuncion made sure this would happen,” Keppler answered. “That was why the exile lasted five thousand years. It was enough to break them forever.”
In the hallway, voices screamed out, noticing the spreading fire and listening to the echoing fire alarms, but he and Wilder paid them no attention.
“The boys are dying,” Keppler continued. “You have encaged dying mortal men in the Dredges, along with an immortal, invincible dragon princess. You must let them go.” Wilder stared at him with uncertainty, perhaps unsure if he should believe his brother’s ramblings. “Wilder” Keppler urged, determined, “if you kill those boys through neglect, you are no better than the ones who killed their parents.”
Wilder’s body tensed, and he raised his majestic head as the fire brigade pushed into the room, their hoses streaming. “Are you sure, Keppler?”
“I would never endanger my family, no matter what you believe,” Keppler stated firmly. “I have learned who was responsible for the deaths of their parents, and we will reach another truce with the Castillos.”
“What truce?” Wilder demanded.
“We will free them all under the condition that Bryn forsakes the vendetta and make peace with the palace.”
“Do you think she will agree?” Wilder asked, slowly moving his head as the firefighters continued to work around them. It was nothing they hadn’t seen before, brotherly squabbles often growing fiery in the past. Wilder shifted back into his mortal frame, and Keppler did the same.
“Her parents did adhere to the treaty,” he reminded his brother. “They were an honorable family, and they remain that way, no matter your opinion. If one of us had died like Raemayr and Magnolia—”
“I would not rest until you were avenged,” Wilder concluded for him, and Keppler saw a rare glimmer of empathy in his blue eyes. Wilder heaved a deep sigh. “Come, brother,” he said. “Let us go free your mate.”
“Open the doors.”
The iron bars fell away before Keppler and Wilder stepped through, and three of the Castillos turned to look at the Parkers with an identical malice in their gazes.
“You bastards!” Bryn spat, jumping up from the bench on which she sat. “I should have killed you when I had the chance!”
Even though Keppler could see the hurt in her eyes and knew she was not capable of actually killing anyone, he withered under her glare.
“She’s charming,” Wilder commented, smirking slightly. His leer faded when he saw the waxen face of Jace, crumpled in the corner. “Call for a medical unit!” Wilder barked at the Authority guard. “How could you let this man sit here like this?”
“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but every time I tried to get near him, she would spit fire at me!” the guard protested, eyeing Bryn with disdain.
“You’re lucky I hate the taste of troll!” she yelled at him as he retreated to follow Wilder’s orders. “Or I would’ve eaten you!”
“He’s a vampire,” Keppler pointed out.
“What are you doing here?” Bryn snarled. “Coming to finish us off as you did our parents?”
“Bryn, shut up!” Gregor pleaded. “They’ll starve us!”
“We have come to strike a deal with you,” Wilder told them. “We will let you leave if you swear never to come after the palace again.”
“Actually, brother,” Keppler interjected, “I have a much better deal.”
Bryn looked at him, the combination of hurt and fury in her eyes striking his heart.
“Well, spit it out!” she snapped. “I’m getting sick of listening to you both.”
“First of all,” Keppler said, “I want to tell you that we never had anything to do with the death of your parents.”
“Yes, you’ve said that, but considering you turned me in to be arrested, I find everything you say suspicious,” Bryn growled.
“I never turned you in!” Keppler cried, amazed that she would believe such a thing. Her words, though, gave him the reason for her attitude and the pain in her gaze.
“Sure you didn’t,” she replied bitterly. “They just happened to know where I was precisely when I was there because—”
“Because we put a tap on Keppler’s phone,” Wilder explained.
Keppler turned to his brother, his eyes widening in shocked anger. “You bugged my phone?” he growled indignantly. “You prick!”
Wilder went on as though he hadn’t heard him. “The CCTV caught you, and we moved in. We knew it was only a matter of time before you made your move into the Hollows, and if you truly are my brother’s mate, sooner or later, you would drag him into your shenanigans. But no more, Bryn. This stops now.”
Bryn looked from brother to brother. Keppler wanted to assure her that Wilder was not lying, that he had not intended for her to be caught right after she had called him, but perhaps that would provide the opposite effect.
“Do we have a deal?” Wilder asked. “No more targeting the palace.”
“Not until I avenge my parents,” Bryn immediately said, sitting back down on the bench. Keppler noticed that her voice was resigned, though. He could hear the tiredness in her words, spoken like a mantra that had lost its meaning.
“If you avenge your parents,” he started softly, “you will have to take down half of the palace. It was a group effort among loyalists who worked there at the time. Only Asuncion and the descendants of the original loyalists remain. You will spend your days seeking revenge without time for other things.”
“What things?” Bryn asked, desolation filling her question. “What else is there?”
“There’s me and this place,” Keppler mumbled, lowering his frame to sit next to her.
“This place!” she tried to scoff, but the tears filling her eyes made her choke on it. “This place is nothing but bad news.”
“You can change that,” Keppler said urgently, taking her hand and gripping it tightly. “You can make it anything you want. It’s your legacy as much as it is ours.”
“Wait, what?” Wilder and Bryn’s brothers demanded at the same time.
“What are you saying, Keppler?” Wilder questioned. Keppler ignored him, his blue eyes boring into his mate’s.
“My deal,” he said, “is that you marry me and rule this kingdom as a princess, like you were meant to do.” He watched Bryn’s eyes widening in amazement.
“What?” she choked. “Marry... marry you?”
Keppler nodded earnestly. “Why not?” he asked, grasping her other hand. “We are mates. We’ve always been destined to be together. If you marry me, you are bound to protect the realm just as we are.”
“I…” Bryn seemed to have trouble breathing as her eyes traveled worriedly toward her brothers.
“You’ll be safe,” Keppler swore, cupping her cheeks and drawing her eyes toward his. “Think of yourself for once, Bryn. You’ve spent your entire life taking care of everyone else. Say yes if you want to do this for you.”
“You should probably say yes,” Gregor mumbled somewhere in front of them.
“I agree.” Artemis nodded. “You’d be crazy not to.”
“I can’t think about marriage right now!” Bryn protested, quickly glancing at her brothers before looking back at Keppler. Her eyes told him that she was, in fact, thinking about it.
“You can,” he assured her. “If you want to.”
She turned to look at Jace, still crumpled in the corner of the room. Almost as if on cue, the medical team Wilder had ordered to be called came into the cell.
“Take him to the infirmary and do all the necessary tests,” Wilder instructed. “I don’t want anyone to go home until I have a diagnosis and prognosis.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” they intoned, carefully picking Jace up to put him on a stretcher.
Relief colored Bryn’
s face, and she sighed heavily, her eyes closing. Tears began to spill down her cheeks, and Keppler felt a stab of dread in his chest.
Was I wrong? he suddenly wondered. Was I imagining what we shared? Was it one-sided? He refused to believe it, but Bryn’s tears continued to trail down her face. Keppler slowly lowered his palms from her cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, turning away in shame. “I—”
Bryn caught his hand. “Wait, where are you going?”
Keppler glanced at her over his shoulder. “I—I’ll leave you. Wilder can arrange for you to get home.”
“What are you talking about?” she demanded, her voice watery. “I… I haven’t given you my answer.”
Keppler frowned slightly to himself. “I thought you…”
Bryn smiled through her tears, gently tugging him back to her side. “I’ll marry you,” she told him. “Of course I’ll marry you.”
Gregor and Artemis joyfully cried out, cheering, and Keppler cast Wilder a quick glance. His brother shrugged his shoulders and then winked reassuringly at him.
“Then why are you crying?” Keppler whispered uncertainly, wiping away the tears from her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to trap you. You’re still free to go; I swear.”
“You really think anyone could trap a woman like me?” Bryn retorted, snickering slightly, and Keppler had to admit she had a point. His body relaxed, and he offered her a smile.
“Probably not,” he agreed. “But I still don’t understand why—”
“I’m crying tears of relief, silly,” she said. “Now that I know my brothers are safe and that I’m not attached to vengeance, I feel like I can breathe again.”
For the first time, Keppler realized that she had been shadowed by the same inane doubts that had been following him, and he let out a soft laugh.
“Can we get out of the prison now?” Artemis called. “It’s starting to remind me of Greenland down here.”