Stolen Secret

by Emily Kimelman Gilvey

  Megan stepped up next to me. She leaned in close and whispered in my ear. “They seem way too enthusiastic about this plan.”

  Yup.

  “Any idea how I call Slater?” I dropped my voice to a low whisper. “I don’t have a phone.”

  Megan shrugged. “Do you have some kind of connection because you’re mates, like we do because I’m your familiar?”

  “Probably.” I glanced over at Issa; he was still passed out. Dimitri followed my gaze and closed his eyes. The tendrils of power that connected the two pulsed, and Issa’s eyes opened. He sat up, leaves in his hair, looking pretty adorable.

  Dimitri crouched next to him and whispered in his ear. Issa nodded and rose. The pixies buzzed around us, already celebrating as Issa moved closer.

  “It is thought that dragons can communicate telepathically,” he explained in a low voice.

  Megan rolled her eyes. “It’s also thought that they look like the dragons in storybooks with big tails and sharp teeth,” Megan pointed out. “You didn’t know about his ability to build with his chi. Or that he’d be a super hottie… or anything.”

  Issa shrugged. “I will make note of it, I assure you.”

  I closed my eyes and searched around for an internal telephone. Hello? Anyone in here with me?

  Nothing. Which was kind of a relief to be honest, who needs their boyfriend constantly in their head, right? Calling Slater. Hello, Slater.

  Still nothing. I opened my eyes. The pixie witch watched me, still standing near the ball of nothingness. Her eyes narrowed, as if she was looking through me.

  Closing my eyes again, I sent out a pulse of energy toward the sky. A pulse came back, strong enough to blow my hair back and make the pixies yelp in surprise.

  “The dragon king approaches!” a high-pitched voice yelled.

  A cheer went up from the rest of the pixies. Now that they’d stopped darting around, I could see that there were about twenty of them. They were all looking skyward. I followed their gazes.

  Slater circled, his wings beating slowly, catching the moonlight and sparkling that greenish-blue gold. He folded them back and arrowed toward the ground, stopping just above the trees, beating his wings, hovering in space.

  His bare chest glowed in the darkness, his hair shifting around his head in the wind of his wings. Slater slowly lowered, and the pixies darted into the trees as he stepped onto the ground in front of me.

  He nodded to the pixie king, who’d stayed in place, even though I could see the fear radiating off him. “King,” Slater said, addressing the pixie.

  “King,” he responded with a matching bow.

  “You called me, my queen?” Slater said, turning his attention to me.

  Sure did. “Yes,” I said, trying to sound all formal and royal. “I have promised to protect the pixies’ land for them. To always be their ally if they allow me safe passage. Will you stand with me in this promise?”

  Slater kept his gaze on me while I spoke but then turned his attention to the pixie king when I finished. “You do not, I’m sure, expect us to bend to you.”

  “No,” the pixie king said. “But if we must defend this valley, you will be by our side.”

  The pixie’s aura flashed colors so quickly I could hardly read them. Fear mingled with pride and dashes of hope.

  “I will stand with your people,” Slater said.

  A cheer went up, and the pixie king bent his head forward slightly. Slater matched the gesture. Then crossed to me.

  “Thanks,” I said. He leaned his head close to mine and brushed a kiss across my check.

  “Anything for you, my queen.” His breath warmed the shell of my ear and sent a shiver down my spine.

  “Why didn’t you two already have an alliance?” I asked quietly.

  Slater moved back far enough so that I could see his eyes. “I like to eat pixies.”

  My eyes went wide. He laughed, the sound big and brassy.

  “I got you.” He laughed. “I don’t eat pixies.”

  “Okay.” My gaze darted around. Weird sense of humor. “We should get going.”

  “You must continue on your own,” the witch pixie said. She’d moved close while I’d been distracted by Slater.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  She lifted into the air on silvery wings, so that our eyes were at the same level. “If you take the dead with you, the instrument will not play for you. I will keep these three safe for you.”

  “I do not trust her,” Megan said. Reasonable.

  “Thanks for the advice.” Unsolicited though it may be. “But I’ll take them with me.”

  She shook her head slowly. “No, you must leave them. As an act of faith in us. In our alliance. We will allow you to pass through our lands. But not them.”

  I looked at Slater. “The promise was to give you safe passage. You did not include your friends in the bargain.”

  Seriously. I pressed my lips together, trying to find my calm. “I don’t suppose we can renegotiate.”

  “I am not comfortable with any humanoids in our world,” the witch said.

  “It is up to your king,” Slater said, turning to the blue-haired pixie.

  He shook his head. “I admire your strength and am glad to fight by your side,” he said to Slater. “But you know how we feel about humanoids. It is something we’ve always agreed on.”

  Slater shrugged. “I trust these three.”

  “They are dangerous,” the witch said, jutting her chin at Megan, “especially that one.”

  “Allow me to speak with my queen alone,” Slater said, taking my arm and pulling me toward the tree line.

  “The vampires can hear us perfectly,” I said as we passed into the thicker part of the forest.

  “You will be fine alone, my queen. You can feed from the realm. You have the strongest influence in all the worlds. You do not need them. And it will be a fight that could cost lives to take them.”

  “I’m not allowed to use my powers,” I said. “You want me to hike a mountain and climb into a volcano alone?”

  He gave me a half smile. “All I want is to take you back to bed and worship your body, but given the option of fighting with the pixies and letting you continue on alone—I trust you to survive, even thrive, on your own.”

  I blinked. That might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Hours later, the compliment wasn’t helping. My legs burned with effort, and the air was thick with smoke. The tree branches bowed under gray ash like it was snow. The hillside had grown so steep I had to haul myself up by grabbing tree trunks and using them as leverage.

  I stopped, gripping a thin trunk, and wiped at the sweat sliding into my eyes. My hair stuck to my face, and I shoved it behind my ears for the thousandth time.

  Must keep going.

  Squinting, I could make out an orange glow in the near distance. I’d be there soon enough.

  The smoky air swirled, and a figure materialized. Fan-freakin-tastic.

  Seventh’s forked tongue darted out of her mouth, whipping through the air. “You thought I’d given up?” she asked.

  I panted, gripping the young tree. “I hadn’t given you much thought; been kind of busy.” I waved my free hand around. “I’m on a quest. But I guess you heard about that.”

  She smiled, the mouth too wide for a human face. “Yessss, I heard.”

  “Well”—I gestured to my scale outfit—“you can’t bite me now. I can suck energy from this entire world, and you can’t throw me out.” At least I didn’t think she could. “So, you might as well move on with your life.”

  She swished her tail, propelling her body forward, lifting over a fallen log and moving closer.

  “I don’t have much further to go,” I said. “How about you just move on? Go mess with some other being stuck on the physical plane.” I smiled at her.

  She shook her head. “I promised Mother Earth I’d stop you.”

  I sagg
ed against the tree. “But why, Seventh? You like humans; you’ve bonded with them.”

  “She promised me a world all my own to do with as I pleased.” Seventh’s eyes glittered with excitement. “I’m going to create a mate.”

  Ugh, so sad. Seventh’s loneliness drove her to such desperate measures.

  “That’s a nice offer, but I doubt Mother Earth will stick to it. You know she’s unhinged.”

  Seventh cocked her head and blinked—her eyelids closing from the sides rather than the top. The volcano shook, the trees around us trembling and raining fresh ash down.

  “Do you know why there are no humans here?” Seventh asked. Subject change, much? “Your king ate the original Adam and Eve who were released into this world.”

  “Released?”

  “From the Garden of Eden, of course.”

  “Sure, right.” I started hiking up again. I didn’t have time for mind games with this thing anymore. I had an instrument to claim and a curse to break. Plus, three vampires being held as assurance of my return and loyalty to the pixies.

  The loose gravel slipped under my foot, and I caught myself, using my chi, before hitting the ground. “Cheater,” Seventh said, slithering closer.

  “Back off.” I forced my power back into the diamond center of me.

  Seventh grinned and flickered out of existence. That seemed a tad too easy, no?

  The trees thinned as the grade steepened, and I had to climb on my hands and knees, digging my fingers through the ash and gripping at the stones beneath to keep climbing. Smoke thickened the air, blinding me and making my lungs spasm.

  Didn’t Issa say something about how I didn’t need oxygen. Holding my breath, I continued forward. The orange glow in the distance grew into a curling river of lava as I moved through the thick smoke.

  It oozed from a crack in the earth, flowing down the mountainside, and totally blocking the way to the top. I can’t fly on my power, but I should be able to just walk over this, right? Humans walked over burning coals during motivational seminars, so a dragon-bonded succubus should be able to walk over a lava flow…

  I glanced down at my feet, still coated in the dragon chi I’d put on before leaving the castle. I moved a cloud of chilled power down to them and stepped into the lava.

  It didn’t burn me, but my foot sank into it. The molten magma formed into solid rock when it hit the coldness of my chi. I fell back onto the ground, with my foot and calf stuck in the lava.

  If I hadn’t had my leg moored in a lava flow, I would have laughed. But as it stood, I’d basically given myself a cement boot. No mobster hit necessary, just my own dumb move.

  Taking a breath, I coughed on the filthy air.

  Hissing laughter behind me made me turn my head. Seventh stood down the hill, the smoke between us waving back and forth. She looked like a nightmare in the ash and hot light—impossible to kill, nasty to her core, and annoying as any creature in all the dimensions. The yellow scales on her shoulders reflected the lava color, glowing almost orange.

  I closed my eyes as the hissing laughter grew, echoing all around me.

  “You know I am not a physical form. I am a force,” she said.

  “So you keep saying.” I opened my eyes, staring at the lava running over my stuck leg. I tugged, pulling the “cement” boot free from the lava flow.

  “So, I can help you,” she said.

  “You just said you promised Mother Earth my destruction.” I pulled the Sword of Ultimate Power from its holster. If it could cut through space and time, then why not a lava bootie?

  It sliced the black rock easily, cracking it in half and revealing my leg, still protected by my scaled chi.

  “I’d be willing to work out a deal with you,” Seventh said, close. I turned to find her right behind me.

  I held the sword up between us. It shook in my hand, as if it wanted to attack her. “Give me the sword,” Seventh said.

  “I don’t think it likes you.”

  Her eyes narrowed, the sides closing in on those oblong pupils. “Give it to me. And I will help you travel to the top.”

  “I can’t accept your help.”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “You can. The spell is about using your own power. You can create an alliance, like you just did with the pixies.”

  “Then why not just have the dragon bring me up here?”

  She smiled, that tongue flicking out, tasting the air between us. I forced myself not to shy away. “You didn’t think of that because you are still just a caterpillar in a cocoon, my Darling.”

  “I’m not your Darling.”

  “You’re everyone’s Darling.”

  I shook my head, a smile pulling at my lips. “That’s where you’re wrong. That’s how you’ve always been wrong about me. I am mine, Force. That’s one thing that won’t change.”

  The red diamond center of me throbbed with the truth of it. The sword pulled at me. I let it lead, bringing my arms up high and then striking down at Seventh.

  She lurched back, a brief expression of surprise passing over her features before the sword came up and thrust into her gut. Seventh’s eyes went wide, the pupils broadening to take over the entire iris.

  I blinked, feeling a pull. Releasing the sword, I stepped back. Force’s pupils grew, two black holes becoming one, twisting and dragging the rest of her face into it. What the what?

  Reality spun around the black hole.

  I stepped back into the lava, trying to escape the world whirlpooling away from me. The sword twisted along with the rest of her body, disappearing. The trees bent, swirling toward the nothingness.

  The lava pulled forward, twisting into the void. I scrambled back, my hands sinking into the thick flow and slowing me down.

  Wind beat down on me from above. Oh thank freaking God. Slater descended on his wings, landing behind the black hole. “What the fuck?” he yelled, spinning chi out of his hands. It circled into the void, but didn’t turn into pure black emptiness. The green and gold shimmer of it infected the velvet black and grew, spinning outward and solidifying. The spiraling slowed with each wave of power he threw at it until just a round disk of chi balanced in the forest.

  It wobbled and fell over, revealing Slater standing behind it, a deep frown on his face. “What are you trying to do?”

  I attempted to stand up, but my hands and feet were both locked into solid rock, lava flowing around me. “Right now, I’m just trying to stand up.”

  I sighed, the sting of smoke burning my nostrils as I let out a rush of air. Slater crossed to me and, reaching into the fiery lava, pulled me forward. His eyes ran over the blocks of rock I’d managed to solidify around myself.

  A subtle smile turned his lips.

  “This is funny to you?” I asked.

  His eyes met mine and narrowed. “No, you almost destroying my world does not amuse me. However…” His eyes ran over the stone again. “A dragon mate who doesn’t realize lava cannot hurt her, does.”

  “You didn’t tell me that.”

  He raised one brow. “I thought it was obvious.”

  “Nope.”

  He broke the blocks of stone off my body with a whip of power. I shrugged, loosening my shoulders.

  “What happened here?” he asked, gesturing to the round disk of chi that plugged the black hole I made. It was an accident!

  “I stabbed Seventh with the Sword of Ultimate Power, and she turned into a black hole.” I said it all casual. Like I bought an ice cream cone and it melted in the sun, staining the shirt I borrowed from you. “Sorry.”

  “Sorry?”

  “Yes, I apologize. Next time I’ve got a weapon that can create a black hole, let me know and I’ll be more careful.”

  He shook his head then brushed a kiss across my forehead before releasing me. “You didn’t realize a weapon with ultimate power in its title would be capable of massive destruction?” He said it like I was cute.

  I stepped back and glanced up the mountain, still totally covered
in lava.

  “Can you fly me over all this and just drop me in the opening,” I asked, turning back to him.

  Slater blinked. “You want me to drop you into an erupting volcano?”

  “When you put it like that, it does sound kind of—”

  He cut me off, grabbing me around the waist and kissing me so that the smoke, heat, and chaos of the moment disappeared. It was just me and him and the connection we shared.

  “That is the sexiest thing anyone has ever said to me,” Slater said, looking down at me and grinning.

  I smiled back at him, feeling drunk on that kiss. Wings spread out behind him, he beat them once; the arm around my waist tightened to hold me flush against his body, and we lifted up into the air. Here we go.

  The volcano raged, sputtering molten lava and pluming ash. Slater flew at it, not a hint of fear in his aura—almost like he belonged among the smoke and flames. He was a dragon, so I guess he did belong.

  I closed my eyes against the sting of the smoke. His lips brushed my forehead, and I opened them to meet his gaze. He hung in space, his wings beating lazily, swirling the plumes of ash around us. It stained his skin, turning it gray. In this light, it almost looked scaled.

  “I love you,” I spoke the words beating in my chest.

  He smiled, his eyes softening, turning as molten as the lava splashing around us. A glob hit his wing and slid off. My eyes widened as it fell back into the inferno.

  “Fire cannot hurt you, my love; you are a dragon now.” And with those words, he released me. I fell feet first, my hair flying up around my head, arms cartwheeling. There was nothing to grab onto, and yet my body reached for it anyway.

  I gritted my teeth against the urge to throw out my power and slow myself, carry myself—but I had to do this without the gifts of my heritage. I had to do this as my father’s daughter, not my mother’s reincarnation or Slater’s mate.

  The heat intensified as I passed through the lip of the volcano. Fear beat at me like wings. I’m inside an erupting volcano!

  I can survive anything.

  With that, I closed my eyes, trusting in fate, in all that had brought me here to this moment not to moor me for all of eternity in a sea of lava.