Gideon wouldn’t go to war with the man he demanded I mate. He couldn’t.
But when he spoke, it wasn’t to me.
“Stand down,” Gideon said to Rhys in that commanding way of his. “Stand down and no one has to get hurt.”
The humans scowled and yelled, but Gideon quieted them with a murderous look.
“Careful, Darkmoore,” Rhys said, his voice as threatening as a thunderclap. “We’re not in the capital anymore. You have no power here.”
“Really?” Gideon said, though he didn’t seem worried by Rhys’s thinly veiled warning.
At a jerk of his head, more humans exploded from the castle. Where in Slaine had they come from? For the first time panic threatened to overwhelm me, and the small amount of bravado I’d conjured shrank inside me. The humans surround us with spear-tipped lances held at the throat of every Dragon-Clan guard.
The threat against the people who would willingly lay their lives down for me allowed me to find my voice. “Gideon, what are you doing here? Tell them to back off.”
But he didn’t answer me. Instead, he jerked his head again, and two humans with sickeningly gleeful smiles that made my stomach turn moved toward me, one of them jangling a chain with each step. Rhys made to stop them, but the human with the spear pointed at his neck pressed dangerously close.
“No!” I screamed and threw myself in between my husband and certain death. “No,” I repeated through gritted teeth. “I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t hurt him.”
Gideon finally looked at me. “You’ll do whatever I want, regardless, Sister.”
At his nod, the two humans forced me to my knees in front of Rhys, who stood with barely restrained fury. His scales flashed, his eyes shifted from my beloved blue to blinding with startling swiftness, and all the while smoke unfurled from his nose. Each time he swallowed, his throat bobbed against the tip of the spear and I died a little inside.
All I could think was that I never got the chance to tell him I loved him back.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, as the two humans bound my arms to my ankles with the chains. Snow soaked the thin material of my dress, but I ignored the cold. Shock numbed everything but the fear. “This is the legacy you honor Father with?”
If he was even still alive.
“Fuck his legacy,” Gideon spat, as he dismounted his horse and stalked to me. “He made our clan weak, pining after mother. Now he’ll suffer just as much as you will for underestimating me all these years.” His eyes glinted in the moonlight like the steel blade he brought against my throat.
“But you sent me to the temple. You wanted me to mate Rhys—”
“He was never supposed to save you. You were supposed to die the day your wine was poisoned before you ever left the Goddess-forsaken castle! Then the humans would have attacked the castle when it was most vulnerable and I would have been rid of you both and Seleste in one go! Instead, I had to kill her with my own hands, and now I’ve come to take care of you myself. When I’m done, I’ll be King and no one will ever forget my name again.”
There was a viciousness in his eyes that I’d never seen. A ruthlessness. I couldn’t reconcile the monster in front of me with the man who’d been there for me my whole life.
The tears that had been such a constant companion over the last few years were noticeably absent. As I stared up into my brother’s face, my face was dry. He wouldn’t get the satisfaction of seeing me squirm.
“Now you know what it’s like to lose everything,” Gideon said to Rhys, whose eyes had gone completely black. Not even the whites were visible. “I was going to get the throne until you came along and made the deal with father. If it hadn’t been for you, I would have been King twenty years ago.”
Any hope I had that Gideon was pretending for the humans’ sake was extinguished when he allowed the human closest to him to take the knife at my throat. The human eyed Rhys with barely contained glee.
“I’ve spent decades waiting for this moment,” Gideon taunted Rhys. “You and the other shifters have terrorized the mortals for too long.”
“Like you care what happens to them,” Rhys growled. “They’re a means to an end for you.”
The human with the knife at my throat laughed. “You know, after you killed most of my clan, I thought all I wanted was to see your head on a pike, but I think I’m feeling generous.” He circled me with the knife still at my throat. “Or maybe I’m enjoying the thought of you in pain and at my mercy, wondering, worrying, for the rest of your life what horrors I’m subjecting your sweet little mate to.”
“We don’t have all day,” Gideon said. “I want to get back to the castle and out of the cold. Take care of this now, or I’ll do it myself.”
“Gideon, how could you?” I whispered.
“How could I?” he said, striding to where I knelt. “Very easily. You spent your childhood traipsing around the castle like you didn’t have a care in the world,” he sneered. “You were to be Queen, even though you couldn’t even shift. You’re even more pathetic than I thought.”
He moved away, then, his face growing slack from boredom. I heard his footsteps, but I couldn’t track him. I wanted to shout, to rail at him, but one of the humans slammed the hilt of knife against my temple. Rhys howled in protest, and jerked away from the guards who’d had his arms. Three others piled on him, each battering him with their fists and heavy boots. He fought back valiantly, but took a hit to the head that had him going ever so still.
I tried to shout, but my mouth had filled with blood from the wound on my head where they’d hit me, which made breathing, let alone talking unbearable. Around me, the humans had battered the guards and Alaric was fighting four at once—and losing.
Rhys still hadn’t woken.
A part of me wasn’t sure if he ever would, which made the fact that my lungs were screaming from a shot to the ribs a little easier to bear. Somehow I knew the pain couldn’t last forever. It couldn’t last forever and once it was over, I’d be with Rhys again. There was some comfort to be found in that.
Spots dotted my vision, but I could still see where Rhys lay beside me. It took effort, strength that I didn’t even know I had, but I jerked my body sideways so I could reach him. It took all the rest of my energy, but I managed to get close enough to rest my head on his brow. Blood still poured freely from the wound on his cheek, but it didn’t matter.
I could sense him through the connection of our bond, but it was tenuous. I wasn’t sure if that was because I could feel myself fading fast or because he was unconscious. As the black spots began to cloud my vision and blot out the sight of his face, I decided I didn’t have the energy to figure it out. With the last of my strength, I screamed out for him with all that I had left, and I could only hope it reached him.
I wanted him to know I loved him, too.
25
Rhysander
When I woke, everything hurt. But not as much as the sight of my mate, bloodied and broken, in front of me. Her beautiful dark curls were sticky and matted with blood and mud and snow. Her face was covered with it and the growing shadows of bruises. The sight of her wounds filled me with immeasurable anger and sadness. The beast in me wanted to rip apart the men who’d done this to her with my bare hands. For so long, I’d kept him under control, but without her…
Without her, there’d be no point.
I reached out a hand to her lifeless body, needing to touch her, to feel her, at least once, but the chains now encircling my wrists stopped me just short of her too-still body.
“Not so fast,” Gideon said and I spit fire at the sight of his face, singeing the top of his hair.
I took pleasure in the sight of his hastily covered surprise and fear. I would enjoy ripping him apart limb from limb.
But then he dipped down and jerked Elena’s body against his. His maniacal eyes tinged with pleasure at my outrage.
“Let her go,” I hissed.
“I don’t think so.”
&nbs
p; “Whatever you want,” I told Gideon. “Don’t hurt her.”
“I already have what I want,” he said. Then with one move, so quick I barely saw it, he drew the knife along her throat and a river of red began to spill down her front.
I fell to my knees, my howl of despair so loud it shook the trees. But it did nothing to stop the river of blood that poured from her wound. They’d bound my hands so I couldn’t even use them to stop the bleeding—even though I knew it was useless. For a horrifying moment, I considered cauterizing the wound with my fire, but I wasn’t sure if that would hurt her even more.
The moment of indecision cost me, and she bled out before I could do anything at all.
I was soaked in her blood. I moved as close as I could to her lifeless body. Alaric made a sound behind me, but I had attention for no one but her.
Even Gideon ceased to exist in my mind.
For long minutes, I was swallowed by an abyss of grief.
She didn’t wake up. My body understood before my mind could catch up. Before I recognized what I was doing, I stood and pivoted, bringing up one bloody claw to slash through the soot-stained air at the man who no longer held a claim to my mate. My Elena.
He wasn’t her brother. He was barely even a man in my eyes. He was certainly less than human and didn’t deserve an ounce of my compassion, despite what Elena may have thought.
Injured though I was, I reacted with an instinct borne of thousands of years of battle. Instinct that urged me to protect my mate at any cost, to avenge those who harmed her by any means necessary. It was otherworldly, the rage that fueled my revenge.
White-hot the fury rose inside me, obliterating all of the remaining humanity I’d clung to for so long. Without Elena, there was no reason to hold out hope any longer. Without her, there was no need to hold my murderous impulses in check. When it came down to it, there was no point in living without her. My thunderous snarl echoed off the walls of the castle, rattling the icicles pointing dangerously below, and causing the snowdrifts to explode in every direction.
As the fury overtook me, I remembered, barely, to keep the fight away from the castle. The hatchlings. They were the only thing I refused to destroy. I’d take every human and every capital soldier with me, but I’d not harm them. Even if they’d never take wing, I still believed they had a chance. It may be too late for me, but I still held out hope for them.
With that thought, I managed to shift, surprising the men who still held my chains. They cut into the spines of my wings and dug into my snout. Either they would break or I would—I was past caring.
But I knew, the same way I knew Elena was mine the moment I saw her, I wouldn’t be the one breaking. In the end, they may take my life, but they would lose theirs if they dared.
I took sick pleasure from the look on Gideon’s face when I took wing, my strong wingspan carrying me out of the human’s reach. With one powerful breath, I dove for the nearest human, the one who’d held a knife to her throat, managing to snare his retreating body in my claws. He struggled, but I liked that he did. He stunk with fear and piss and shit and if I could have laughed in my dragon form, I would have. Because I couldn’t, I did something much better. As he screamed, I took him into my mouth, my teeth crushing his delicate bones until his throat snapped and he stopped screaming. I spit him out like a spoiled bite of food.
I wasn’t done.
The humans had started to scramble while I killed their friend, but they were no match for my anger. Alaric, I noted as I flew past, had rallied the castle guard and was slaughtering the remaining mortals with complicated spellwork, the runes on his hands glowing like stars.
“For Elena!” he shouted.
“For Elena!” they chorused.
Hearing her name brought a fresh wave of pain and I sped up until I was level with Gideon, who’d shifted to flee. I flapped one wing and knocked him to the ground with a satisfying thud. I half-shifted, retaining my scale-armor and claws. I didn’t want to kill him like I had the first. I was going to use my bare hands and bathe in his blood.
They wanted a beast? They would get one.
Gideon rolled onto his back, his eyes white and wide with fear. I could scent it on the air, and it made the dragon inside me roar with satisfaction.
“Don’t kill me,” he pleaded. “I’ll give you—I’ll give you whatever you want.”
“Good,” I said, my voice more dragon than human. “Very good.”
“M-money?” he stuttered. “Jewels, land. Whatever you want.”
“I’ll bet that’s what you promised the humans to get them to attack us, to poison your sister. They’re always greedy for whatever they can get their hands on. But,” I said, leaning forward, “I’m not a human and the only thing I want is your life.”
I lunged, grabbing his cloak and twisting as I rose to my feet. I released my wings and flew us back to the spot where Elena’s body rested. He would see what he had done and it would haunt him as his life drained away...along with his blood.
Except…her body was gone.
I whirled, Gideon still held aloft in my grip, still struggling to free himself, but Elena was nowhere in sight.
“Alaric,” I called, “find Elena.”
Fear and fury collided. If one of those dirty, grubby handed bastards put one more hand on her, the entire country would pay for it. I wouldn’t stop until their children and their children’s children paid for what they’d done to her.
As Gideon pleaded with me, Alaric and the guards searched, having tied up the humans and thrown them in piles by the steps. But they couldn’t find her either. My hold on Gideon relaxed enough that he could draw breaths through a purpling face.
I reached out, closing my eyes, ignoring all the chaos around me, and concentrated on the thread between my solar plexus and hers. Her being and mine. If there was enough life, even a little, remaining in her body, I hoped it would lead me to her so I could put her to rest. The thought was abhorrent, but I forced myself to push even harder. There was nothing.
“Rhys!” Alaric shouted, but I ignored him, trying to concentrate.
Then, I felt something. Something different. My heart thudded in my chest. Certain I was making it up, I turned back to Gideon to deal with him.
Then I’d seek vengeance.
“Rhys!”
But there was a tugging, nagging feeling I couldn’t get rid of. I snarled and tossed Gideon’s limp body on top of the other humans.
“Tie him up,” I told Alaric. “I’ll figure out what to do with him after I find Elena.”
Alaric punched me, snapping my head to the right. Then he pointed to the sky. “LOOK!” he shouted in my ear.
Against the blackened sky and surrounded by stars, a brilliant light shot across the horizon. My heart stirred, my dragon hissed, and I scowled. I didn’t have time for this.
I started to say as much, but then the light grew closer and I realized it wasn’t a light at all. It was a small dragon, but its scales were glowing and gold-slicked. It was like no dragon I’d ever seen before.
“What in the bloody hell is that?” Alaric said.
“A phoenix,” Gideon whispered in awe, and I motioned for the guard tying him up to bind his mouth as well.
Phoenix.
I’d heard of phoenix shifters, though they were rare. There was only one in Acasia at any given time, but no one had seen one in decades. He couldn’t be right.
“Rhys,” Alaric said beside me.
I ignored him, my eyes locked on the soaring figure as it grew closer. No one had seen a phoenix in decades. Since Elena’s mother had died bringing her into the world, I realized.
My feet automatically carried my body backward, and I wanted to flee, but Alaric, who was stronger than he looked, gripped a hold of my arm and held me in place.
The phoenix was slim, but powerful, and had a tail of multicolored feathers that trailed after it. It was the most beautiful shifter I had ever seen. My dragon rumbled its approval in my head and I
reared back against Alaric’s hold, not comprehending.
It landed in front of us, engulffed blinding yellow light. When I managed to refocus I found a naked woman in its place. I fell to my knees at her feet, my head bowed.
Certain I was seeing things, but absolutely overjoyed by the delusion, I pressed my head into her stomach. My dirty hands rounded her hips, and I released the breath I’d been holding since I saw her die right in front of me.
“Elena,” I breathed.
She tipped my chin up, and I drank in her blessedly unblemished features. “Rhys,” she said with a sigh. Someone brought her a cloak to cover her body.
“I don’t understand,” I said, reaching out a hand to touch her face. “How is this possible?”
Her smile was radiant. “A phoenix can only be reborn after they die. I’m as surprised as you are.”
“This isn’t possible!” Gideon shouted. “You aren’t supposed to be able to do this.”
Elena turned to face her brother. The strange gold glow emanated from her skin. I was in awe of her, wrecked by losing her and getting her back. I wouldn’t feel she was safe until I held her in my arms for a month at least. Maybe two. Maybe an eternity.
“You’ve been planning this since you sent me to the temple, haven’t you? Maybe longer. Tell me, Brother. For once in your life, tell me the truth.”
Gideon was beaten. If I were him, I’d run myself through with a sword and get it over with, but there was a greediness in his eyes. He’d never give up willingly. “It was never fair. I was the oldest. I trained with father my whole life until you were born. When you came, you even took mother away, but everyone still loved you because you were to be Queen. I knew I’d never get anything for myself unless I took it. So I started with Father.”
Elena faltered at that, but I held her upright. “Father?” she repeated faintly.
Deal with the Dragon (Immortals Ever After Book 1) Page 19