by S. D. Grimm
Logan looked away and closed his eyes.
“Your mother is my sister. I’m your aunt Melanie.” Her eyes shimmered with tears.
Serena pressed her hand to her chest. “My aunt?”
Melanie nodded, spreading her arms. “You’re beautiful. Look at you.”
Serena hugged her. The embrace was so warm, so . . . was this what it was like to have a family? Tears burned in her eyes and she blinked them away.
“What news, Gavin?” Logan asked.
“We’ve moved camp away from here in case Franco had called for more men. There are a few prisoners. I want to start taking them back to Moon Over Water. Most of us can travel, thanks to Serena. I actually came to thank her myself.”
“Good. Start moving some groups out. I have to go for Jayden.”
Another young woman appeared in the clearing. She had such a familiar face, but Serena was certain she’d never met her.
Logan’s strong arm pushed Serena behind him and he drew his sword. “Kara.” He basically growled her name.
She crossed her arms. “Hello, Logan.”
“You know each other?” Melanie’s eyes grew wide.
“She’s the one who led us straight into Idla’s waiting arms.”
“And I led you straight out again. I’m the reason Soldier is still alive.”
Truth. Whoever this Soldier person was. Serena touched Logan’s arm. “Look.” Something shot through the air. “It’s that gryphon and Stormcloud. They’re alive. The gryphon is carrying—”
Logan clutched Serena’s shoulder. “Have you saved your strength?”
“Yes.”
The prickle of pain from her friends grew stronger—she could almost tell exactly what kinds of injuries they’d sustained. How much strength she needed to conserve to heal them. Was it wrong to want to heal her friends completely when so many other wounded had only received what they needed to be mobile and out of mortal danger?
She’d never felt this way before. She’d only ever wanted to heal people. But these people, this family she’d created—she wanted to make sure they were free of all suffering.
Finally they were close enough for her assess their wounds. Relief flooded her. They were all hurt, but not too bad. She had the strength to heal them.
The gryphon landed and Serena rushed to her friends.
“Hey, it’s good to see you.” Ethan set down the girl. She was so thin. And curled into a little ball. “Quinn, this is Serena. She can heal you.” He looked at Serena with pleading eyes and she took the girl’s hand.
Then he turned and helped Jayden off the gryphon. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Franco’s dead.”
Serena placed her palms on Quinn. “Let me heal you, sweetie.” There was nothing she could do for her old injuries. The sight of them lit a torch in Serena’s gut. Quinn had not had the fortune of being able to self-heal, like she had, when others hurt her.
Quinn shivered as Serena reached for her.
Serena looked into the poor girl’s eyes. “Please, it’ll only be warm for a moment. Nothing like fire.”
Finally Quinn nodded.
When she was done, Quinn hugged her, tight. She hugged the girl back and whispered, “It’s okay. No one will hurt you anymore, if we can help it.”
Drained, she turned her attention to Jayden. “You certainly took a beating.” Jayden breathed in through her teeth as Serena touched her wounds and mostly healed her. “It’s good to see you.”
Jayden clasped Serena’s hands. “You, too, sister.”
Sister. She looked into Jayden’s eyes and smiled. A sister. Jayden had no idea how much this meant to her.
She sniffed and turned her attention to Ethan, taking away most of his pain. “How you walk around this injured, still saving people, I’ll never know.”
His smile was rueful. “It’s my talent.”
She swayed and he helped keep her steady. “You okay?”
“I will be.” She hugged him tight and whispered, “Next time, you two don’t go without me.”
He chuckled, and the sound was glorious. “I hope there’s no next time for this.”
“Serena, do you have strength for one more?” Melanie’s eyes looked concerned, but Serena nodded. She always had strength for one more. Right?
“Be careful.” Dash touched her with his nose and tried to filter a bit more strength into her. But he had little to give.
Chapter 75
Crazy Eyes
The insides of Ryan’s cheeks dug into his teeth as Belladonna forced him to open his mouth for another drink of water.
“You have to drink, pet.” Her voice used the same purr as the white lion’s.
He spit the water back in her face.
She slapped his cheek, and his head knocked into the tree she’d tied him to. Eye-to-eye, she glared at him. Growled. If he didn’t know any better, he’d have pictured a thrashing tail. “It’s unwise to upset me, pet.”
“I’m not your pet.” His voice scratched against his dry throat.
“You are.” She stood up, her hand caressing the whip on her belt.
Ice stabbed Ryan’s heart. Bits of bone and sharp-looking rock stuck out in jagged edges from the tails. He’d never been whipped, but he’d seen a whipping. No one knew the man whose back had been ripped open by it. The man who’d been left in the middle of the town square, tied to a wooden pole, drying in the sun, begging for water, then begging for death.
A shudder chilled Ryan’s skin. The Royal Army had tied that man up to show what happened if the queen didn’t receive money and allegiance.
Incentive enough.
Surely this crazy woman didn’t mean to use her whip on him? Incentive or not, Ryan Granden was no one’s pet.
“Don’t be so sure.”
Ryan groaned. The voice was getting too comfortable in his head. His hands, tied behind him, made the twig Thea had given him unreachable in his pocket. “Where are you taking me?”
The back of Belladonna’s hand stung his face again. His head throbbed. Nettles of fire stung his cheek.
“Quiet, pet.”
“What’s your name again?”
One of the two men who traveled with them leaned over the cook fire and chuckled as Ryan toyed with Belladonna’s patience again.
The woman huffed. “Belladonna. I told you to remember.”
“Sorry.” He shrugged, sending a pulse of pain through his aching shoulders. “I think all this slapping keeps jostling my memory, Bell . . . Bell. Oh, Bell something. It’s got a pretty ring to it.”
Both men snickered.
Ryan smiled.
Belladonna scowled. “You little—” Her hand rose to slap him again and he played a card—he shrank away, wincing, and closed his eyes.
Nothing.
He cracked one eye open, chest heaving. Truly, it wasn’t a hard act to pull off. The woman made him tremble already. Crazy shone in her eyes like a comet lit up the night.
“Be careful who you call crazy,” the voice in his head purred.
Belladonna leaned closer, eyes slits. “You killed Cain.”
“Sorry?”
She nodded. At least something seemed to appease her. “He loved me.”
As Ryan remembered, her henchmen had been trying to kill him and Chloe. Oh, Chloe. He hoped she made it to Logan or someone who could help.
Belladonna thrust out a hip and tapped her fingers against it. “You’ll make a fine replacement.”
Ryan stared. That did not sound good.
Her hand flashed near his face, and he flinched without meaning to, but she rested her palm on his throbbing head. The pain started to recede and he sighed audibly.
That made a wicked-looking smile stretch her red lips as she moved her hands over his body. She didn’t touch him, but pressed the air around him so that it rubbed against him. Abrasive. Dangerous. Her brown eyes latched onto him. “Yes, you will make a wonderful replacement for Cain.”
Ryan almost told
her he’d never fall for her the way Cain—whoever he was—had, but he’d just gotten rid of the headache. It was really tempting to keep the pain at bay for a little longer.
The voice in his head purred.
Maybe he should say something then. “I don’t know how you got Cain to fall for you, but I’m pretty sure—”
“You are pretty.” She licked her lips, and Ryan’s stomach squeezed. “Cain loved me because I healed him.”
Ryan swallowed. The voice in his head laughed.
Belladonna lifted the water to his lips again. “Drink, pet. We’ll be at the palace soon. Then I’ll show you how you’re going to fall for me.”
This time Ryan drank. His father had always told him no one could break a Granden. They were too strong, too stoic. Chloe seemed to think they were also too stubborn, which was likely more accurate, but Father wasn’t wrong. Grandens were strong. And they were stoic. Belladonna could try all she wanted, but she wouldn’t break him.
Not Ryan Granden.
Belladonna crouched in front of him, holding a piece of cooked venison. “Eat, pet.”
He stared at her. If he was going to survive this, he’d have to play her game and get into the palace. From there he could figure out how to save Madison, find the bloody key Morgan had mentioned, and kiss the pretty blonde she’d talked about. To do that, he’d still have to be himself, or Belladonna would notice a change and think he was up to something. But now he had an agenda, which being called “pet” was not a part of.
She backed up a little. “What’s with that look?”
“He’s more dangerous than you think,” one of the men said. The broad-shouldered one. Not to be confused with the other one, who had legs like tree trunks.
“Oh.” Belladonna’s smile made Ryan’s skin crawl. “I know he’s dangerous. That’s why I like him. He’s like a dragon in its lair, protecting his mountain of secrets. That’s why the Mistress likes him. But I’ll get his devotion. She will not.”
The voice in Ryan’s head hissed, but he recalled something his mother had said: A dragon in its lair lures you close so it can eat you. How true that was.
“Eat, pet.” Her words were harsher this time. He opened his mouth, but didn’t change his glare. She smiled. He smirked. She glared. He stared.
She raised her hand to smack him.
He held her gaze. No flinching.
Her hand connected with his cheek.
He spat blood on the ground by her feet. Ryan would be a dragon.
The voice in his head seemed appeased.
And he would be her dragon, too.
Chapter 76
Love and Protect
Jayden sighed and her breath shook. It was done. Franco was dead.
“We’re moving everyone out, right? I don’t like the looks of that.” Logan looked over his shoulder at the red lighting up the sky. “That volcano isn’t stable.”
Gavin nodded. “Most of the group has moved. We’re the last ones.”
“Good. Get moving.” Logan paused and faced Ethan. “Kid . . .” He rubbed the back of his neck. He remained quiet for so long, Jayden opened her talent. Regret pumped with his every heartbeat. His arms fell to his sides. “Earlier, when I told you—”
Ethan clasped Logan’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, I won’t stop protecting them, oath or not.”
Logan nodded, then he held out his hand for Quinn. “All right. Let’s get out of here.”
Quinn ducked behind Ethan.
He knelt near her and smiled. “You can trust Logan. But if you want to walk with me, you can.”
“I do.”
Logan chuckled. “I don’t blame you, Quinn. That kid has saved all of us at some point.”
Quinn’s eyebrows pulled together, and Jayden sensed the confusion pouring off of her, but it changed. Warmed. Grew into understanding. “You’re all so different from everyone else I’ve met. You all . . . love each other.”
“Hey.” Ethan touched Quinn’s shoulder. “That’s what family does. Loves and protects.”
He was right.
Quinn hugged Ethan tight. “Thank you.”
Logan smiled at the two of them, then followed Melanie and Serena. That was everyone. They were finally heading away from this awful place.
Jayden turned to go with them. A soft touch brushed the hair away from her neck and she faced Ethan.
He wrapped his arms around her waist, nudged her closer to him. “You had me worried.”
A lump formed in her throat. “So did you. They leashed you.”
“It was a price I was willing to pay to get to you.”
“Willing?” Her arms circled his neck and she stared into his eyes. Dark. Deep. Every emotion in him exploded. “You had that whole thing planned with Zephyr, didn’t you?”
The small smile she was starting to love appeared. “It didn’t all go as planned, but I had to get on that island.”
She smiled back. “You had to protect me, huh?”
“Anything for you.” His fingers brushed against her jaw. “I think I learned to trust my talent. It was the hardest thing to let you go after Franco, but you were right. It’s what you were born for. And you did it.” He smiled softly. “You’re amazing. You protected all of us today. Thank you.”
“Anything for you.” As soon as she said it, a knife slayed her heart, then warmth like a summer rain melted it. Those words. Every time he’d said them, it had been an admission of love.
His lips touched hers softly, slowly at first, matching how vulnerable she felt. Then stronger, showing her his desire. His love, fierce and protective and unbreakable. His emotions swirled into her. Her knees melted. Her being tingled. She pulled him closer, held him tighter, as if nothing could tear him from her arms. As though he was the only thing keeping her standing. Wind whirled around them, tugging her hair, pressing their bodies together. His passion joined hers. She didn’t need to open her talent. He was giving her everything. No walls. No barriers. And her heart overflowed.
His forehead touched hers, as if he was unwilling to let go yet. She smiled as his fingers brushed her face again. This man would have died for her, would have let her follow her heart if it didn’t include him, would give her anything she asked for. All she wanted to do was tell him that she felt the same way. “Ethan, I—”
The ground rumbled and a shattering screech split the quiet. Ethan gripped her arms and pushed her behind him. Quinn grabbed her hand. Fire spread across the land as if a hard wind blew it toward them. Flames slammed into the volcano.
She trembled. “What is that?”
“She’s coming.” Quinn whimpered.
Jayden knelt close. “Who?”
“The Mistress.”
Chapter 77
Black Chasms
Connor jolted from sleep. A muffled scream resounded through the corridors. Black bathed the night sky. True black. Not a single star shone. Something blocked their light.
Black night—he was supposed to know what that meant. He’d read about it often enough. He climbed out of bed and pulled on his trousers. When the night turns black . . . when the night turns black . . . What was the rest?
A scream punctured his thoughts. His ears perked. That came from somewhere in the palace. He headed toward his door.
When the night turns black, the dragon has returned.
He paused, hand almost on the door handle. No. It couldn’t happen. Not now. He hadn’t found a way to stop it.
The sky seemed to laugh like the dark chuckle of someone choking on smoke.
Goosebumps spread across his skin, and his body wanted to morph into wolf form. Someone called for him. He stilled himself from changing.
The scream resounded again. This time, his wolf hearing picked up his name. Someone here in the palace was calling his name, and she sounded like she was in pain.
“Connor!”
Someone banged on his door, frantic and wild. He didn’t have time to pull on a shirt as the door burst open. Molly, the gi
rl from the infirmary, stood there holding a torch. Its light reflected in her wide eyes. “She—she keeps calling for you. She’s writhing and screaming. There’s nothing wrong with her. I—I don’t—”
His heart stalled. She couldn’t already be here. “Who?”
“Madison.”
Oh. The Healer? Connor grabbed his shirt. “Take me to her.”
“Follow me.”
He didn’t need to. The screams led him down the spiraled stairs. Madison was in the stairwell, curled into a ball, screaming.
“Madison?” He moved her hair so he could see her face. She was slick with sweat, and in the dark she looked so pale. “Madison,” he whispered.
She clutched his shirtsleeves. “H-he—” her words broke off into a shriek, and she pressed her hands into her middle.
“What’s wrong? Where are you hurt?”
“Not me.” Her wet eyes met his. Her breaths turned shallow. “Franco. He’s clawing his way back from the grave.”
Franco. His bond to her made her heal him no matter where he was in relation to her. And she was feeling every part of it. “Hold on.” He scooped her into his arms and carried her back toward his room.
“What do you need?” Molly asked.
“I need some rosemary, chamomile, ginger, and willow bark. Please.”
She patted his arm and hurried off. Connor carried the screaming Madison up the stairs. She shook in his arms and rested her head on his shoulder. Heavens, she had no strength left. “He’s drained you.”
“I’ll be fine.” Her voice was so weak.
“Can you still heal if you’re knocked out with tangle flower?”
“It doesn’t work on me.”
Of course not. “Bandy root?”
“No! No. I’ll just have to heal him later then. Just—will you stay with me?”
He clutched her close and opened his bedroom door. “Of course.” He laid her on the bed and smoothed her sweat-soaked hair away from her face. “You’ll be safe there.”
And then he held her all night while she screamed.
The herbs Molly had brought seemed to help a little, and hours later, when morning came—dark and red, trying to break through the black—Madison finally stopped screaming.
She thanked him several times, even though he’d done nothing to deserve it. Then she fell into a deep sleep.