Chapter 38 #3
I straightened my spine, my eyes moving to the view beyond the window as fire flared to life in the distance again, though it disappeared as quickly as it had begun, making me frown in confusion. A house fire wouldn’t just burn out like that.
I shook my head to clear it of the magical girl before me, stepping back as she watched me go without so much as a flicker of emotion on her face to tell me if she would rather I stayed.
“Of course I don’t want him to kiss me,” she hissed to herself. Her nose wrinkled at the thought and her gaze snapped up to meet mine as if she’d only just realised she’d been speaking aloud.
My jaw clenched as I drew back from her, raising my chin as her words dug into me and made me remember who she was, what she was.
And that wasn’t a girl who felt desire or lust or anything a hot-blooded mortal felt.
And even if she was capable of such things, she’d made it clear on more than one occasion that she didn’t feel that for me.
An echoing boom sounded somewhere in the distance, and I took another step back from Kyra, noting the way she relaxed as I drew away like she was relieved. I didn’t know what the fuck that had all been about for her, but it clearly wasn’t anything to do with wanting me.
“What the fuck is going on out there?” I muttered, peering out into the night once more while subtly rearranging my cock and forcefully thinking of things that would make it a whole lot less excited, though it was already sinking fast in the face of her clear rejection.
I focused on the memory of Balthazar fucking that ugly countess to finish the job of banishing the need from my flesh. Yeah, that would do it.
“Maybe it’s a party?” she suggested as the sound of distant screams reached us on the breeze.
“Sounds more like the rebels causing shit again,” I grunted, my memories flicking over the protests which had taken place in the city on and off over the last few years, more than one of them turning into rallies with brawls and looting breaking out, innocent civilians falling victim to the so-called champions of the people.
The rebels may have claimed to be after a better life for the people of this city, but so far as I could tell, their actions only ever served to hurt those they claimed to fight for and had never once earned them anything from the upper Fae to help their cause.
I glanced at Kyra and found her eyes on me too, unspoken words hanging between us though I had no idea how to voice them or if I even should. She lifted a hand to the cheek I’d just been touching, and her expression filled with some deep emotion which I couldn’t unfurl.
I wondered if she’d gotten what she wanted from me or if it had taken her by surprise the way it had me. Though it clearly hadn’t ignited the same feelings in her as it had risen in me. Because I knew for a fact that I hadn’t been expecting that.
The memory of her touch on my flesh seemed stained there as surely as the ink on my skin.
And now I wanted more. Like a fucking idiot craving the moon when I was stuck on the ground, never able to grasp it for myself.
I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get her out of my head. Even for the sake of a princess.
An enormous boom sounded far closer to the palace and we both flinched as we snapped around to stare through the window again, a wave of crimson fire tearing across the sky and making my heart beat out of rhythm as a gigantic shadow swept over it.
“I seek the oath breakers. And I will tear apart this kingdom if that is what it takes to find them.” The powerful voice seemed to echo right through my body and down to my bones, sounding solely inside my own skull and yet somehow, I knew that every man, woman and child within the kingdom had heard her too.
“Azurea,” I breathed, recognising the deep and endless magic of the dragon’s voice. My gut twisted with the realisation that she had come here for us, seeking the treasure we had promised and not delivered. “Fuck.”
“Oh, she’s pretty,” Kyra breathed as Azurea blasted fire across the sky again.
I caught sight of more shadows moving before it, the smaller, thinner frames of fire drakes dancing across the sky as the city bells began to ring out an alarm and the royal guards ran to defend the people.
“Pretty terrifying,” I growled, my eyes whipping back and forth across the view of the city as I took in the destruction the dragon had brought with her, summoning all kinds of monsters from the desert to help her in her hunt for the men who had betrayed her.
“And she’s after me. Or more accurately, she’s after the treasure from that cavern where I found you – you know, the cursed gems which I couldn’t lay a hand on without the risk of having my body peeled like a fucking banana and my insides plastered to my outsides. ”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.” I carved a hand through my dark hair as my mind wheeled with ideas on how I was going to fix this shit just as something collided with the palace walls with enough force to make the whole thing shudder around us.
The clamour of bells, screams of people and the roars of the monsters descending on the city filled the air and the scent of smoke poured in through the open window.
“Can you get rid of her?” I asked, looking to the magical girl at my side but she shook her head.
“Not unless she agreed, and even then, I’m not sure I could use my power on a creature as ancient and magical as a dragon.”
“Right. Okay. Fuck.” I started pacing, refusing to admit that I really should have just figured out a way to give the damn lizard her treasure back when we were in the desert instead of assuming she’d just forget about it in time.
Cassius may have had a point with all of his ‘never cross a dragon’ bullshit, but I had no time for that now. I needed a plan.
“The scale,” I said, snapping my fingers and turning to look back at the room.
“Cassius has a dragon scale which can summon her. We just get the scale, use your magic to transport ourselves out into the desert and make her a mountain of gold to say sorry for the wait, and summon her away from the city to claim it, then this will all be fine.”
“This will all be fine,” Kyra echoed just as an agonised scream tore through the air far too close to us for my liking.
I looked outside just in time to see a pair of fire drakes fighting over a royal guard as they flew up past the window, their jaws locking around different parts of him before they ripped him in two and blood rained down from his corpse as the two pieces were devoured.
“Just fine,” I muttered again, turning my back on the window, and heading for the door. “We need to find Cassius. Can you transport us to him?”
“Of course,” Kyra agreed brightly as she moved closer to me, her clothes shifting around her until she was wearing a pair of black harem pants with a cropped top to match them. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know – that’s the point,” I replied, and she frowned.
“Then how do I know where to take us?” she asked.
“You can’t take us to him if you don’t know where he is?” I confirmed and she shook her head as more screams sounded from the guards who were fighting outside. “Okay, we’ll just find him the old-fashioned way then. I guess I’m gonna need a sword.”
An enormous roar echoed through the sky just as the walls rattled again and my fist closed on the hilt of the sword Kyra had created for me as I threw the door to our chambers wide.
We headed out into the corridor where servants were screaming and running for their lives. I just had to hope I could find Cassius before that fucking dragon destroyed the entire city. Problem was, the feast should have ended ages ago and I had no fucking idea where he might be.