Chapter 19 #2
Vander! My heart screams for him, my mind going fuzzy with terror. Vander, please! He can’t hear me, doesn’t even know where I am. I bite back a sob.
Sela clucks her tongue. “No tears. Not yet.”
“Let me go. I’m not your mate. I’m not—”
“You needn’t worry. I won’t take your tongue without reason, without you forcing my hand.
I’m no despot. In fact, I’m a hero to all DragonKin.
Whatever Vander’s told you about me are nothing more than the falsehoods of a guilty conscience.
I saved the DragonKin from a weak king and a useless royal family.
Unlike them, I take what I want, what I deserve.
” She grips my hair, yanking my head back.
When she bites my throat, I scream. A searing pain blooms along my skin and pulses to a discordant rhythm.
Has she opened my throat fully? Am I already bleeding out?
When she meets my gaze again, my blood stains her lips. “Just a mark of my affection. There’ll be plenty more all over you when I’m through.”
“Vander will come for me.” I say it with all the courage I have left in me. “He’ll come for me, and you’ll regret everything. Everything.”
“I don’t do regrets. But mortals?” She grins, her hand dipping below the water’s surface. “I do them quite well.”
“Don’t.” I grip her wrist, my entire body shaking. Terror, the same shade of it as I felt on the wall at Raingreen, tries to engulf me. “Please don’t.” I press my thighs together, my entire body going cold despite the warm water.
“I’ll be gentle.” She flattens her other hand on my chest, pinning me to the wall with crushing force. “This time, anyway.”
“He’ll kill you for this.”
“He couldn’t kill me when I took his father’s head,” she taunts, her fingers tracing along the side of my breast and lower. “He’s a coward. A fool. He hasn’t even broken you in, certainly hasn’t made his claim to end the curse.”
“He’s not a monster like you.” I meet her gaze, and I hope she sees the loathing in mine.
Her hand flashes in my peripheral vision for only a hair of a second before my cheek lights with fire, the sound of the strike reverberating around the cavern.
I bite back my cry and force myself to look her in the eye, to give her defiance when all I truly feel is horror.
“You’re a mouthy bitch.” She presses harder on my chest, my ribs aching. “I’ll fix that soon enough.”
“My queen!” A male voice, alarm in his tone.
She bares her teeth and looks toward the hall where we entered. “What?” she snaps.
“A dragon approaches.”
Her other hand stops its descent and rests on my hip. “Is it him?”
“Alentes saw gold.”
She smiles, her eyes flickering to serpentine slits.
“He’s already here for you, little one.” She leans forward and runs her forked tongue along the bite she left on my neck, sending a fresh flare of pain ricocheting through me.
“The perfect bait. I’m going to enjoy this, all of this, far too much.
” She releases me and strides from the water.
I collapse, my knees going weak as tears burn behind my eyes, the bridge of my nose tingling.
“Get her out and to my chambers.” Sela stops and pulls on a robe.
“And no one is to spoil her. Do you understand?” Her voice is sharp, cutting to the bone. “She is mine.”
“Of course, my queen. I swear it.”
She storms out as yells sound down the hallways.
“Come.” The male at the door grabs another robe off the wall.
I don’t move. I won’t get out of this pool with him watching. I can’t. “I’d rather chew glass.” I hate the tremble in my voice, in my entire body. A sob tries to escape, but I swallow it back down.
“Come, mortal. You heard the queen. No one will harm you.”
“Sh-she will.” My teeth chatter.
He shrugs, completely uncaring.
I glare up at him. Tall and broad, his dark skin seems to absorb the torchlight.
“Come now or I will come in to get you.” He stares at me, his pale irises faintly glowing.
I can’t stay here, but I can’t seem to be able to bring myself to leave the water. Everything has been taken from me. Can I not hold onto a single scrap of myself? “Will you just … will you not look?”
He stares at me, his pale green eyes narrowing. “You think I want to look at you, mortal?”
“I don’t … I don’t know.” I look up, not that I can see the sky, and wonder if Vander is overhead.
I say a silent prayer to the gods that he’s coming for me, that he’ll get me out of here.
Things are complicated with him, but he would never hurt me.
Somehow, I know that. I know he wouldn’t take what wasn’t given.
“Idiot mortal.” He sighs deeply and turns his head while holding out the dark robe. “Don’t make me wait.”
I swipe my hand across my face, the warm water now cloying and sinister. Slowly, I ease through the water, wincing when my bare skin becomes visible. Once I’m fully exposed, I climb the steps quickly and snatch the robe from his grip.
He keeps his head turned until I’m fully wrapped up. The robe is thin, the material somewhat like what my dresses were made of. But the moment I’m out of the water, a chill invades me that the robe can’t combat. Nothing can.
“Follow.” He strides into the hallway.
I glance around. There’s no way out of here, at least not that I can see.
Following the hulking DragonKin is my only option.
With halting steps I move along, keeping him in view as he leads me through the dusky tunnel.
We’re climbing, my breathing becoming easier as we rise through whatever levels are contained in this underground hive.
He turns here and there, his broad back disappearing until I catch up.
The warriors who were in the hallways earlier are all gone.
The air is still and dank. Gods, have they all gone to fight Vander?
A pit forms in my stomach. If he’s up there, he’s in danger.
These are his enemies. Our enemies. I gingerly touch my cheek, the pain duller now but throbbing.
My neck is on fire where she bit me, as if she scraped away the skin and left it raw.
Sela has already shown me who she truly is.
Cruel and calculating. I won’t survive here, not for long.
A light sparks ahead, and my breath catches as it grows brighter.
A Firefolk appears around a corner, his arms laden with empty wooden tankards. “Help!” I yell.
He stops and looks at me, his flames lowering into orange embers. Why are there Firefolk here?
“I know you. I mean, others like you.” I step toward him.
He steps back and looks over at the DragonKin in question.
“Ignore her,” he says and waves the Firefolk away. “Just go.”
The Firefolk hesitates.
“Go!” The DragonKin barks.
The Firefolk jumps and scurries back the way he came.
“Wait!” I move to follow him, but the DragonKin steps into my path.
“This way.” He gestures down a separate hall.
“You didn’t have to do that. I was just going to talk to him.”
“You mean you were going to ask him to help you escape. Let me save you the trouble.” His deep voice sounds utterly bored. “First, walk.” He points.
I grudgingly move down the hall, the way becoming lighter. Up ahead, I see flashes. Soon after, thunder rolls through the charged air.
“Firefolk serve all DragonKin. I assume you met some while you were Vander’s captive.”
The walls turn from roughhewn to more stately, dragon inlay here and there.
“I wasn’t his captive.” I’m grateful for the smooth floor on my bare feet, now sore from the rocky cave.
He snorts a rude laugh. “Of course you were. A mortal Bargain, you’re nothing more than a prisoner to whoever has you in Oblivion.”
“And you’re an asshole, but I don’t go around pointing out inconvenient facts like you do,” I shoot back. Gods, I think I’m losing my mind. The stress, the fear—all of it has finally gotten to me, and now I’m snapping at an enormous enemy DragonKin.
He answers with a grunt and pushes through two metal doors. “In here.”
I follow, giving him a wide berth in case he tries to strike me. Not that I can escape it. I’ve long since accepted that the DragonKin could kill me as easily as look at me, not that it’s any comfort.
“The queen will return once she’s done with our unwanted guest.” He swings the doors closed, and then I hear a lock click over.
I don’t bother trying the doors, not when I get the sense he’s waiting right outside.
Instead, I turn and survey the room. A small sitting area with threadbare furniture, and beyond it a bedchamber.
I creep inside, my eyes and ears attuned to any sounds within as well as without.
The thunder and rain cover whatever is happening in the sky.
When I catch sight of the bed, my stomach turns.
There are metal shackles on the headboard, and along the wall behind it are various whips and other implements I don’t recognize but can surmise their purpose.
Vander, please hurry. I repeat this little litany in my head as I wander into the bathing chamber.
When I spot a window, I rush to it and look out.
Gods, this fortress is high on the side of a mountain, just like the DragonKeep.
The window is barely a dent in the wall, far too small for me to climb through, but at least I can see the sky.
Lightning streaks in the distance, almost blinding me with its bright flash.
The thunder is instant, shaking the stone all around me.
When I blink, the reverse image from the flash on my eyelids has two dragons in it, one with its jaws wrapped around the other’s neck.
A gut punch, one that makes my gorge rise. Was it him?
“Vander?” I whisper and slide to the cold floor. No, it couldn’t have been him. He’s too big, too strong. He can’t be … There’s no way he’s fallen. He’ll fight.
An agonizing screech mixes with the next peal of thunder. It can’t be mistaken for anything else—that sound means death for the creature pained enough to utter it. I curl into a ball, tears streaming from my eyes as I try to breathe. Just breathe.