by Rinelle Grey
She was wasting her time with Latrima. She’d be better served by getting her out of the way, and finding a way out of here.
She most certainly didn’t want to still be here when Ultrima returned.
“So I’m just a prisoner here until then?” Lisa asked bitterly.
“We’re all prisoners right now,” Latrima said gently. “But your people are the jailers, not us. You are free to walk out there and go with them if you’d prefer.” She raised an eyebrow in amusement.
She knew Lisa didn’t want to go with the police any more than she did.
“I bet there’s a back way out of here,” Lisa said flatly. “Those people out there wouldn’t stop you if you really wanted to leave.”
Latrima knew that, Lisa could see it in the amusement in her eyes, but she just inclined her head a little. “For now, we are all stuck in here together. We might as well get along,” she said.
Lisa sighed. She didn’t want to ‘get along’ with the Trima dragons. She wanted out. As if Latrima was going to help her with that. “I think I just want to be alone right now,” she said tiredly.
Latrima inclined her head. “As you wish. I’ll show you to your room.”
The ‘room’ was just a cave with a blanket hanging over the door, but it did have a mattress on the floor. More comfortable than Rian clan caves, Lisa had to admit.
“If you need anything, just come and find me. I’ll be in the room at the end of the hall.” Latrima pointed in the direction.
Lisa nodded. “Thank you,” she managed.
She might rather be out of here, but she had to admit Latrima was doing her best to make her comfortable. Something she hadn’t expected from the Trima dragons.
Once Latrima left the room, Lisa stared around at the rock walls, not really seeing them.
How was she going to get out of here?
“Verrian?” she reached out, desperate not to feel so alone.
“I’m here, Lisa,” he responded instantly. “And I may have a plan.”
Lisa’s mood picked up instantly at his words. “What sort of plan?”
“There are some TV reporters out here who claim they know a back way into the mountain,” Verrian told her. “If you could find that back way from the inside, you could use it to get out.”
Lisa’s heart sank. “This mountain is teeming with Trima dragons. If I start poking around, they’ll find me.” She hesitated for a moment, then added, “They did say I’m free to go, but the minute I walked out the front door, the police would be on me. I’m not sure that’s any better than it is in here.”
“Maybe they’re counting on that,” Verrian suggested. “But if you could find this back door, then you could escape.”
“Will you be waiting for me when I get out?” Lisa asked. “Just in case they are waiting for me?”
There was a long silence. Verrian was obviously thinking about his deal with Ultrima again.
Why did he feel this need to stick to the deal he’d made with the Trima dragon? Lisa wouldn’t in the slightest. Especially not after all the things the Trima dragon had done. He hadn’t exactly been honourable himself, especially not to Verrian’s sister.
He needed to just get over this and move on.
Yet Lisa hesitated to say that to him.
She wouldn’t have had a problem with breaking the deal herself, even if she had been awake to agree to it, but somehow, it was different when she thought about Verrian.
He wasn’t like her. He only said something if he meant it.
Lisa’s heart sank.
He’d had a point.
He’d said, when she’d pushed him earlier, that Ultrima had kept the deal with his clan, and he had a point. Lisa had been there. Ultrima had made one of these deals with Taurian and Karla—he wouldn’t attack the clan if they mated. And he’d kept it.
But in this case, it wasn’t like Ultrima could break his side of the deal with Verrian now. She was already healed. He couldn’t undo that.
Well, unless he attacked her.
That thought gave Lisa goosebumps. She wasn’t brave at all. If it had occurred to her that she would get injured last time, then she wouldn’t have distracted that dragon. The only reason she’d done it was that she hadn’t stopped to think about the danger.
Would she risk Ultrima attacking her again just to be with Verrian?
Stupid question. It wasn’t like Ultrima had promised not to attack her again. All he’d agreed to was to heal her. Even if they kept his deal, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t come straight back here and kill her.
She opened her mouth to tell Verrian that, then closed it again, and not just because she didn’t need it to be open to use dragon speech.
There was another deal at stake here.
This wasn’t just about her and Verrian.
If Verrian broke his deal with Ultrima, then the Trima dragon could well see it as proof that he could break any of his deals with the Rian clan. Including the one that kept Verrian’s clan safe from the Trima clan’s random attacks.
So far, Ultrima had kept to that deal.
Giving him any reason to break it was endangering a whole clan.
Lisa’s heart sank.
Even she couldn’t advocate risking that. No matter how much it hindered her.
What was she going to do? How were they going to get out of this? No matter how much she could understand why Verrian felt he needed to stick to his end of the deal, she just couldn’t accept him walking away from her forever.
Maybe it wasn’t a big deal for him?
Maybe it was even the excuse he was looking for?
Her heart skipped a beat, and her mind wanted to shy away from that idea, and not go there.
But she forced herself to consider the truth.
Verrian had never said he loved her. Sure, he made love to her as willingly and eagerly as she responded to him, but what did that prove? Sex wasn’t love.
She knew that with certainty.
She’d slept with many men in her time, but she’d loved none of them. Not one had engendered anything close to the way she felt about Verrian.
But that didn’t mean he felt the same way. She had to face that possibility.
And yet, he hadn’t left.
He was still there, outside, waiting, even though he felt he couldn’t actually be with her.
That had to mean something, right?
Lisa hesitated. There was one way to actually find out.
“Verrian?”
There was a long pause, and Lisa’s heart skipped a beat. Was he still there?”
“Yes?” he said finally, hesitantly.
She wanted to ask if he loved her as much as she loved him, but the words stuck in her mind. She couldn’t bring herself to ask outright, too afraid he’d say no.
Instead she said, “Do you… do you want us to be together?”
Verrian was silent.
Lisa’s mind didn’t want to accept the possibility that he didn’t, so she kept talking. Maybe if she filled in that silence, it would stop him saying he didn’t want them to be together.
“I mean, I know we didn’t choose to be mated, not really. But… well, it’s been kind of fun, hasn’t it? And the sex is good. Really good. That’s not just me, is it?” She knew she should stop, and maybe let him answer some of the questions she was asking, but she couldn’t make her mind pause.
“I mean, I know I’m not a dragon, and… well, I’m a bit of a coward when it comes to fighting. Not really princess material. But… well, I thought we were okay together. That maybe we could make this work somehow. I really want to, you know. And not just because you’re a dragon prince, but… well…” She broke off, her heart beating a thousand words a minute, her mind shying away from the truth, just in case Verrian could hear it without her verbalising it.
She’d almost said it.
What if he didn’t feel the same way?
Did it even matter now? She felt like he was slipping away from her
. This could be her only chance of stopping that. Her last chance.
She hesitated, then blurted out, “I love you, Verrian.”
That was it. The moment her mind chose to stop, completely blank with no more words to give her.
Lisa waited, the silence so loud she could clearly hear her heart thumping uncomfortably.
Chapter 63
Verrian sat in stunned silence.
Lisa loved him.
The warmth of that knowledge flooded through him, mingling with the cold, hard reality. He wanted to run and sing his joy to the stars, and wave his fist at them in frustration. The internal conflict threatened to tear his heart apart.
Now she told him. Now, when he couldn’t do anything about it.
It would have been easier to pretend they didn’t care for each other. Then, maybe, he could have accepted this enforced separation.
But now…
“Look, it doesn’t matter if you don’t love me back.” The disappointment in Lisa’s voice ate away at the indecision that had paralysed him. “I just don’t want to never see each other again. I don’t think I could bear that.”
“No, Lisa, it’s not like that…” Verrian rushed to explain. “I do love you.” He struggled to find the words to explain just how much her words meant to him. “You are my lifemate. More than my mate. I don’t know how I can live without you.” He wanted to give a big, long speech, like she had. He certainly had plenty to say. He just didn’t know where to start.
And he wasn’t sure it wasn’t going to bring more pain anyway. They couldn’t be together. He couldn’t see any way around that. So what was the point in admitting how he felt about her?
Hopelessness threatened to overwhelm him, but somehow, in the midst of it all, there was a beacon of light. Lisa. She made it all worthwhile. He’d never give up what they had shared together, even if it was causing him soul searing agony right now.
Even if they could never act on this, even if they had to live the rest of their lives apart, he wanted her to know how he felt.
He needed her to know how he felt.
“Really?” Lisa asked, her voice uncertain. “You’re not just saying that?”
“Really,” Verrian said firmly. “I… I tried to convince myself I didn’t, for a long time there. That what I felt for you was a product of the Mesmer bond somehow, even though we’d completed it and it should have been gone. I didn’t know what to think. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, and I never thought I would.”
“I know,” Lisa said softly. “I did too.”
“It’s my fault,” Verrian said wretchedly. “After I was injured, when you wanted to heal me, I should have said no. Then we wouldn’t be bonded now, and this wouldn’t be so hard.”
“No,” Lisa said firmly. “I wanted it as much as you did. It was my fault too.” She was silent for a long moment, then she said, “I get it.”
“Get what?” Verrian asked, confused. Was Lisa talking about how he felt, or the situation they were in?
“I get why you can’t break your word to Ultrima. I don’t like it, and I don’t want it to be true, but I understand.”
Verrian could hear the pain in her voice. He knew exactly how it felt, because he was feeling it too. Like every beat of his heart hurt. Every breath he took was a struggle.
He didn’t want to live his life without Lisa in it. He couldn’t even begin to imagine it. Every time he thought about returning to his clan, Lisa was there with him, holding his hand, and grinning at defeating Ultrima.
He couldn’t imagine her not being there. He couldn’t picture her going home to her apartment and living there without him.
It was all wrong.
Trouble was, he didn’t know how to make it right.
And he couldn’t focus on it right now. They had bigger problems at stake. His deal with Ultrima wasn’t going to matter if Lisa was trapped inside the Trima dragon’s lair. Getting her out needed to be his first priority.
He focused his mind on that, the focus making him feel a little stronger, his mind a little clearer. “We can figure that out later,” he told Lisa. “Right now, we need to get you out of there.”
He could sense a similar change of focus in Lisa. “Right. Where do I even begin to look for this secret entrance?”
“Apparently it’s on the west side of the mountain, opposite the obvious entrance,” Verrian told her. “We’re heading around that way now, to see if the area outside is clear. If you can find it, I can help you once you’re outside.”
“How are you going to manage that without seeing me?” Lisa asked.
That, Verrian wasn’t sure of. “I’ll figure something out. We need to find it first. You look from inside, we’ll look from outside.”
At least now they had a plan. Verrian followed the TV reporters around the mountain, keeping an eye out for any of the police. Most of them still seemed to be at the front, near the main entrance to the lair, but did they really expect that there was only one way in and out?
His sharpened hearing detected movement up ahead, the shifting of feet, moments before he saw the glow from a torch. He put up a hand to warn the others.
Todd squinted ahead, then nodded as he saw the torch light. He motioned for his crew to make their way further into the bush to go around the police officer.
Verrian winced at the loud sounds their movement made. They had no idea how to move quietly. They were never going to get past undetected.
He hesitated for a moment. He already knew as much as they did about where the secret entrance to the lair was. He could fade into the background, let them get caught, then find it himself.
Trouble was, if Lisa needed help, he couldn’t help her.
Verrian bit back a sigh. He needed them.
He used a little dragon magic to mask the sound of their movement, but a little too late. Already he could hear the police officer talking into his radio, and swinging his torch in their direction.
The TV crew froze.
At least that kept them quiet.
The bobbing torch moved in their direction, and Verrian’s mind searched feverishly for a way out of this.
The torch was far too close to their position for comfort when it came to him. He raised his chin, and let out a long howl, mimicking the sound of a dingo.
It startled even the TV crew, all eyes staring in his direction, blinking in surprise. Only Rita grinned knowingly.
The police officer paused, waving his torch through the trees. Everyone froze as the light bounced through the leaves dangerously close.
Verrian mimicked the sound of feet padding through the leaf litter going away from their position, and the light followed it.
“False alarm. Must have been a dingo,” the police officer said into his radio. “All quiet here.” And he walked back to his previous position.
Verrian breathed a sigh of relief. That had been a close one.
This time, he made sure to muffle the sound of everyone in the area before they moved, although they were all trying to be quieter now.
Now that he knew what he was looking for, Verrian was able to point out the police officers, every fifty metres or so, surrounding the base of the mountain, early enough for them to give them a wide berth.
They arrived at the area of the cliff face where the secret entrance was supposed to be without further incident.
Now the real work began. They had to find it.
Chapter 64
Lisa crept down one of the narrow tunnels hewn out of the rock, wishing she had Verrian here to muffle any sound she made. Where were all the dragons? There had to be at least fifty of them in here, and yet she’d seen none of them since she left her room.
Not that it mattered. The tunnels were a maze, and she wasn’t sure she was going to find anything. Even if Verrian could tell her exactly where the entrance was, she despaired of finding it from her end.
It was hard not to just sit down and give up. They’d been through so much in the l
ast few days that she was exhausted. She hadn’t even slept since she and Verrian had run from her apartment. The idea of giving up, even if just for a little while, was tempting.
But Verrian was out there somewhere, waiting for her, and that gave her the energy to pick one of the paths running off the main one she was on, and peer down it. It appeared empty, so she slipped into it, just as she heard footsteps up ahead.
Two sets of footsteps, coming in her direction. Lisa pressed herself against the wall.
Latrima had said she wasn’t a prisoner, but she wasn’t convinced that the Trima dragons wouldn’t have issues with her wandering around their base. Better if she wasn’t seen.
“Obviously, given the current situation, we will have to postpone your visit to Sarian’s Mesmer chamber.”
Lisa’s heart skipped a beat.
Sarian, wasn’t that Verrian’s sister? His eldest sister.
The one Ultrima was obsessed with.
If it was, and she was pretty sure it was, what were they talking about?
Wasn’t there some sort of magic that prevented the Trima dragons from entering the Mesmer chambers? If there wasn’t, wouldn’t Ultrima have already woken the princess, like he seemed to want to do?
Had they found some way around the magic? If so, the Rian clan needed to know.
She froze, straining her ears to hear what was said next.
“Of course, Latrima. I’m ready whenever I can serve Ultrima,” a man’s voice replied. “I am honoured to be chosen to wake the princess. I never dreamed I would have a chance like this in my life, and I’m grateful for Ultrima for taking me in when I had nowhere else to go. I’d do anything for him. Waiting is not a problem.”
“Good,” Latrima said approvingly.
Lisa’s head was spinning. What was going on? Who was this, and why was he saying Ultrima had taken him in? Was he a dragon from the Rian clan who had left for some reason?
Somehow, Lisa didn’t think so. And the other possibility made her blood run cold, but made a lot more sense.
Ultrima was recruiting a human to wake the princess.
In reality, it was a wonder he hadn’t done it earlier. Probably it hadn’t occurred to him until the Rian clan had sent Karla to wake Taurian. They’d literally shown him how to do it.