by Lisa Daniels
They searched for about an hour, and just when Faye was close to giving up in despair – because although the treasury flooded itself with jewels and artifacts and gold, she didn’t see her precious bow anywhere – Aizen exclaimed, “Aha!”
“Did you find it?” Faye said, walking towards him as fast as she could, trying not to slip on anything. Aizen waved her over, and they crouched by a small black case. Faye’s hands trembled as she reached out for the box, clicked it open, and saw the glowing Ice Bow tucked inside white bedding.
“Now, let’s see if you can use it,” Aizen said, sitting back and preparing himself for the spectacle. Faye seized the bow and felt the familiar flood of warmth and power trickle down her bones. She grinned as the bow began glowing brighter, rejoicing in the fact that they had reunited after so many years. Even though it still felt like not so long ago.
Aizen watched the reaction between princess and bow and gave a low whistle.
Showing off, Faye whirled and brushed along the bow. A blue arrow suddenly appeared wedged in it, and Faye mimed letting go. The arrow whooshed off to plant itself in the wall. Aizen gaped in amazement as Faye explained, “It will hit anything I want it to. I just have to imagine it. But you already have to be pretty decent with a bow for it to even accept being used. Or any idiot with a bit of royal bloodline could pick it up. It’s quite temperamental like that. Aren’t you, boy?” Faye gave the bow a pat, and it briefly changed color from blue to pink. “Ah, I missed you…” She continued petting the bow, and it let out a little squeak.
“So, a legendary, powerful artifact weapon squeaks. Nice,” Aizen said, grinning. “Wasn’t expecting that.”
The power continued to hum through Faye’s veins, emboldening her. She gave a wry, seductive smile Aizen’s way, taking in his solid features, admiring more openly the curvature of his body. He raised an eyebrow at her scrutiny.
“Is everything okay, milady?”
She stroked the Ice Bow, watching as Aizen followed the movement, and saw his pupils dilate. Oh, my. He’s getting excited. Part of her intended to just tease him a little before departing to try and fight the ice witch. The other part wanted to keep going and see how far they went before they stopped. What intentions Aizen harbored in his mind, if he found her attractive enough to fall into her web of allure.
“It’s almost like holding a legendary artifact is turning you on,” Aizen observed with an evil smirk. “You should be careful, though. I don’t know how long they’ll allow us to be in here before someone comes in to check.”
“A while, I think,” Faye purred, and the bow under her blushed crimson. Her heartrate stuttered faster. Dare she? “I mean, your father pretty much thought we were going to do it in here, didn’t he?”
“Yes, but… I know you’re not so interested. You have no reason to be.”
“Don’t I?” Faye arched her eyebrow and pursed her lips, before touching Aizen’s stubbly cheek. Did this make her someone of loose morals? Did she care? “I don’t know. Once you get past the initial ‘but he’s a dragon!’ façade, it seems a shame to not be able to appreciate such physical craftsmanship.” She brushed over the two moles just above his collarbone.
The shifter gritted his teeth in response, before grabbing her roughly, causing her to let go of the bow. “I’ll take that as an invite, princess.” He placed his lips on hers, going along with her act, maybe seeing if she was just bluffing or not. That would be like him – except she intended to see this through until the end. Her hands clutched at his messy hair and she devoured his lips, pushing her body close. He growled into her lips, his yellow eyes black with lust, and their hands ran over one another in heavy strokes and caresses, before he turned her around and bit into her neck. He used one hand to grab her waist and hold her close, and the other to tug down the panties under her smock, baring her ass to him. He then tugged down his pants, and she felt a large erection brushing against her rear.
Oh, well. This was escalating fast. She considered opening her mouth to protest, to slow down the action and spend more time teasing, except her voice became stifled in a gasp when he moved his hand up her dress to squeeze her breast. Her nipples hardened painfully, and wetness pooled between her thighs.
“You have one moment to say no,” Aizen whispered then into her ear, “or I’m afraid I’m going to fuck you senseless.”
Faye blinked. The words sent a melting thrill, a nervous tremor through her muscles. “Fuck me,” she hissed, which converted into a gasp as he bit again into her neck and sucked hard. She was still mostly clothed, but exposed below, and his hand clutched at the breast above her heart as he adjusted himself and slid into her entrance.
All sorts of interesting feelings went through Faye at that point. Surprise. Shock. Longing and a primal, insatiable urge to see the act through. Maybe it was the power of the bow sending such volatile energy through her. Or maybe it was because she found Aizen a lot more attractive than previously anticipated.
She let out a shriek of pleasure as he moved inside her, jabbing up at a sweet spot within, enjoying the delicious motion of his erection, and the image of her leaning against the wall, spreading her legs wider as Aizen moved back to now grasp her rear and strengthen the thrusts. Oh, that image was so scandalous. It fired up every cell in her body and fried them in electrical pleasure. Elated, she moaned, squeezing her eyes shut, cheeks burning, urging him to go faster. The emotions in her whipped up like a typhoon, and every hiss and grunt by him spurred her heart to thunder faster. Her legs trembled, struggling to keep upright, and the feeling built up inside her like a soft vibration, increasing in intensity until the orgasm melted through her. She was reminded of how treacle dripped over a cake, and imagined that if she was the cake, it would feel something like that. She gasped, let out a strangled squeak of climax, and shivered as Aizen kept diving into her, hard and fast until he, too, came.
He panted by her ear, and she felt the damp coat of his brow and flinched, before retreating into his touch when he kissed her on the ear, softer this time.
“If you give me a few minutes,” Aizen said, a little breathless, “there can be a round two.”
She laughed at this, before turning to kiss him on the lips, slow and sensuous this time, taking more opportunity to explore his body, and easing herself into the act. Round two came, more sensual, more a soft worship of one another’s bodies. They were just getting heavier and breathier into it, before Faye froze in suspicion. Dazed, she broke apart from his mouth. “How long have we been in here, now?”
Aizen shrugged, trying to touch her lips again, his hand running over her skin under the clothes, slowly teasing at the top again. He hadn’t made any sudden movements to yank it off, preferring to keep the fantasy so far in his head, until he worked up to the conclusion of peeling it off. “I don’t know. Maybe two hours.”
“Right. Shouldn’t we have been checked on by now?”
With a frustrated groan, Aizen pulled away from her as well. “Yes. That’s true. But you know, I don’t want to waste a chance when we get one, princess.”
“Let’s just check in case. We can continue this… later,” she said, with heavy promise in her voice. Aizen took a few deep breaths, controlling himself, then nodded.
“Alright.” They dressed themselves up again and made their appearances presentable, though the blush of recent sex couldn’t fade, and Faye still felt hyperaware of her damp panties as they pressed against her core.
Hiding the bow in her sleeve as had been arranged, leaving the case, they edged to the treasury door and opened it up into the throne room, appearing behind the chairs.
What greeted them was a rather unwelcome sight of pristine blue and a chill that radiated through the air. They moved into the room, stepping on the clear blue floor in disbelief, seeing the king and queen frozen in their chairs, and some of the royal subjects iced over in glimmering sculptures.
“Well, fuck,” Aizen said. Now they knew why no one had come for them in the treasur
y all that time.
Chapter Five
“She’s found us,” Faye said. “Must have been unhappy to find you’d escaped.”
“You’re telling me,” Aizen said, his yellow eyes wide in alarm. Faye extracted the unstrung Ice Bow from her sleeve and prepared herself for action. She didn’t want to be turned to ice again, to lose another few centuries or more in the grasp of this horrid, tiny ice witch. They heard her cackling through the halls, her voice magnified by some sort of spell.
“Now, now, me dearies, where’s me dragon, where’s me little princess that escaped…? I’ll find ye… oh yes, I will!”
“She’s fucking crazy,” Aizen said, actually shivering in fear. “And insanely strong!”
Faye privately agreed. Any witch who could cast this kind of spell on a whim was not someone you wanted to mess with. Only the enchantments protecting the treasury had prevented them from following the same fate, but as they walked along, Aizen’s movements became sluggish. He glanced down at his feet in horror, realizing that the ice had started creeping up his veins.
“I’m being frozen!” He checked Faye, who still strode with relative ease over the floor. “But you’re not.”
Faye shrugged. The warmth from the bow emanated inside her. “It’s my weapon. It’s shielding me. I –” She turned to face Aizen, and stiffened when she saw the ice shooting up his body, wrapping around his throat, mouth, nose and eyes, before expanding outwards into a solid block. Whatever words he intended to say were frozen on the tip of his tongue, and Faye realized she was horribly, irrevocably, alone.
She examined him for a moment before squeezing her Ice Bow. It gave a reassuring melody and an extra wave of heat in her skin.
“Not these statues up here,” the witch’s voice came out in a sing-song way, followed by that girlish snigger. “Or these ones here! Oh, where are you, little dragon, little princess?” A short pause. “Perhaps I’ll make the whole castle my own, as revenge for your escape. Always thought I’d need a change of scenery. It does get rather boring when no one wants to visit you anymore…”
Faye prowled carefully through the castle, which she still knew like the back of her hand, careful, calculating, barely making a sound, except for her breaths and the chime of her feet when she stepped down too hard.
The ice witch’s voice kept drifting back, taunting her, mocking her ability to do anything.
“So many dragons here! Why, I could make a whole army of dragon souls. Mm… yes…”
Stepping into the banquet room, with the empty tables covered with blue tablecloths, Faye spotted the ice witch. Alicifer saw Faye walk in and her eyebrows popped up in surprise. “Oh! There’s the little princess!” She gave a gurning smile. “Not frozen? You know, I’ve been wondering for a few days now how you could have broken the curse. You showed no magical spark all that time… and now suddenly, you break it?” Before she finished speaking, she shot out a bolt of blue energy towards Faye. The princess blocked it with her bow, which chimed in anger. Now Alicifer stared at the bow. “What’s this?”
Faye didn’t bother answering. She retracted with her arm, and a shining blue arrow materialized in the bow’s notch. Alicifer gaped, before letting out a squeal as the bolt shivered towards her. She flung up a shield, but the arrow ignored the shield as if it was made of nothing, and she needed to dodge frantically. The arrow continued following her, and she was only able to stop it by vanishing at the very last second and reappearing elsewhere. “Skies, child, how did you get your hands on one of those?”
Alicifer appeared furious rather than frightened. She jerked out her fingers, and Faye felt a strong, invisible tug on her bow. She resisted, and shot off more arrows, making the witch curse. While Alicifer was busy dodging, Faye had the time to charge up multiple arrows at once, before fanning them through the room.
A shard of ice slammed into her hand, making Faye gasp. She dropped the bow and it instantly slithered to the woman’s palms. However, the witch couldn’t stay still, unable to stop the arrows directly. She teleported a few meters at a time to dodge.
“Wish I’d mastered long distance teleportation,” Alicifer panted. “Why are these arrows still following me?” She attempted to draw the bow back to fire at Faye, who was pinned to the floor, but nothing happened. “Why aren’t you freezing?”
Faye didn’t know, but the warmth in her grew stronger. With a supreme effort, she yanked her hand away from the ground, whimpering in pain, before rolling to her feet and charging after the witch. She rolled and dodged more bolts, calling for the bow to return to her.
The bow cried out in a mournful note, clearly trying to move out of the ice witch’s hands.
“Oh, you’re one of them,” Alicifer said in utter disgust. “The royal family that once married one of my ancestors, getting the touch of ice. Took you long enough to defrost, didn’t it?”
Faye didn’t have time for banter. She launched herself at the woman, who dematerialized, and several of Faye’s arrows hovered in confusion before she willed them to keep chasing the witch. It seemed that the massive ice spell the witch had cast, along with her quick teleports, drained her of energy. But if she decided to teleport through the walls, well, that was it. Faye focused on the Ice Bow, her neck tendons straining until, with a cry of triumph, the bow ripped itself from the ice witch’s hands and happily spun back into Faye’s.
“Shit,” Alicifer said. Her attempts to resummon the bow no longer worked. Her ice shards were now effectively blocked by the bow.
“I do hope killing you releases the curse,” Faye said, redrawing the bow and firing. “And if not, well, I kind of want to kill you anyway.”
“Oh, bother,” the witch said, before snapping her fingers. The ice started melting from everything, and she turned herself into an ice block as the arrows smashed into it.
“What do you want, girl?” the witch said from within the block. “Riches? A nice prince from my collection? Speak up. I know when I’m beaten.” Alicifer appeared rather exhausted as she said this, wiping her brow inside the ice.
Faye walked closer to the exhausted witch, her eyes crackling in fury. “Remove the curse from every single person you’ve ever cursed. Return Aizen’s dragon soul. And take up residence elsewhere. That includes the people in this castle and the people in your little cave.”
“Bother,” the witch repeated, appearing cross. “That’s me entire livelihood gone. I’ve been collecting them for a few hundred years, me. Breaks me heart to lose it.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t be putting out a fake Quest, then,” Faye snapped. “Earn your collection by reputable means. Offer an actual reward for people to risk themselves. And maybe you’ll get more visits.”
“Hmph.” Alicifer thought this over for a moment.
“Or you can die,” Faye offered.
The witch rolled her eyes. “Fine. Take yer stupid frozen friends. Be mean to a poor old witch.”
Faye snorted, but kept her bow trained on the witch. She ignored her throbbing, pierced hand, which had been so frozen, the blood inside didn’t bleed out.
With a lot of muttering and grumbling, the witch kept to her forced deal, unfreezing everyone in the castle, returning Aizen’s soul, and promising to unfreeze everyone in the cave.
“I’ll be checking tomorrow,” Faye warned, allowing a blue bolt to shimmer. “If you double cross me, I will hunt you down and kill you. I will tell everyone in the world how to kill you, and you won’t be safe anywhere you go.”
Alicifer glared with malice at Faye, but nodded, before limping out of the castle, summoning an ice broomstick which took a few moments to assemble, mounting it, and flying off into the distance.
Instantly, Faye walked through the thawing corridors back to Aizen in the throne room. He, his parents, and the few servants in the room lay gasping, still feeling the shock of cold over their bodies.
She ran to Aizen’s side and touched him on the shoulder. “I dealt with it. You’ll have your soul back.”
She needed to check in on the cave tomorrow and help out Anthony and the rest. She was going to be pretty busy, she suspected, over the next few weeks. But she certainly wouldn’t mind sticking along with Aizen for longer.
“Why do you have the Ice Bow, princess?” Aizen’s father barked. He sounded rather weak from the freezing. Faye’s hand began to throb harder – she needed a healer soon.
“Uh, let me explain, father,” Aizen wheezed, getting to his feet. Faye stood by his side, smiling.
Ready to take steps into her future. Ready to help the others in the cave adapt. And maybe, sticking next to Aizen, pursuing the fledgling relationship they’d started to develop, she could finally come to terms with what had happened, and the future she now existed in.
The Ice Bow hummed contentment in her hand.
I’m ready.
The End
Anya’s Freedom
Found by the Dragon – Book 1
by Lisa Daniels
Chapter One
Anya wiped sweat from her brow, struggling to stay upright. Her arms ached. Her hands were raw from holding the scythe, which she craved to turn upon her masters.
She hated working on the plantations. She hated every single cotton plant she saw, and the wheat fields the scythe needed to swipe through. Every human hated this place, if they had any sense in their bodies. But it wasn’t like humans had much of a choice, being slaves and all.
The only thing everyone hated more than the bone-breaking work, the relentless sun beating on them from above, and the muddy ditches for when the rains fell – were their overlords.
In this world, stuck in the prison of a plantation, being a human meant a life sentence. You worked and sweated until you dropped dead, or when one of the masters got bored and decided they required some sport. An overseer passed the group of humans working now, an apathetic look on his face, steely yellow eyes scouring for signs of slacking. Anya saw his hand twitch slightly to the whip belted at his side. He didn’t own any other weapons. He didn’t need to. Inside his human exterior lay a monster. A great, fanged and wingless serpent which looked down on all humans it enslaved. A wyrm. All wyrms had the same ominous yellow eyes, and the cruel slant to their faces, as if merely looking at a human triggered the well of hate sealed within.