Chapter 21
W hy did you save me?” Fort asked.
Bink had no real answer for that he could give the imbecile. Except one. “You’re my partner, aren’t you?”
Fort nodded as he did his best to follow Bink out from the dungeon where Bink had drugged the guards and released the idiot human after he’d been captured by Meara.
He handed a cloth to Fort. “There you go.”
The last thing Bink wanted to confess was the real reason he was here. He didn’t want the stupid weasel to rat him out. To be honest, he was amazed Fort hadn’t already broken under the torture that evil bitch had put him through.
He wouldn’t have suffered it for Fort. He’d have broken the first day and led them straight to Fort’s whereabouts. “Why didn’t you betray me?”
Fort stopped wiping the blood from his face to give him a hard stare. “You stupid? If I’d told her where you were, she’d have killed us both. Only hope I’ve had of surviving her was keeping my mouth shut and praying you’d rescue me.”
So, he wasn’t as stupid as he looked. Bink was impressed. Maybe he’d judged Fort a little prematurely.
He motioned for the human to duck as one of the queen’s sentries went by. Getting into the dungeon had been relatively easy as he’d been alone.
Beautiful part about being an imp, they could shrink in size and scurry around in places centaurs didn’t look. Bad thing about humans, they were locked in their annoyingly large bodies that tended to draw attention.
Bump into things.
“What are you doing?” a soft voice asked beside him.
Bink had to bite back a shriek at the unexpected voice that sounded right in his ear.
Dreama.
“Not scaring the shite out of people. Dammit, Brownie! What are you trying to do? And why aren’t you where I told you to be?”
Dreama scowled at him. The size of an average human man’s hand, she was pretty for a brownie. Long dark hair and eyes that glistened like dew. “Because there’s a bunch of... things there already.”
Bink scowled. “What do you mean?”
“I went to the hunting lodge to wait on you, like you said. But there’s already a group hiding there.”
Was she serious? “What kind of group?”
She shrugged. “The kind that’s just waiting around. How should I know?”
He wanted to throttle her.
Why do I bother with accomplices? They were so annoying. But then again, they had their uses. Without her, he’d had no one to leave behind and send the king off in the wrong direction after they’d killed Princess Renata.
Still...
Fort had cost him the dragon skull.
Now, he had to get to the lodge and see for himself what she was talking about. See who the creatures were she was talking about.
Why they were there.
As carefully as he could, he led them through the palace grounds and out to the back garden. He was lucky that Keryna had trusted him enough to show him all the secret ways in and out of the palace.
Her reasoning then was to get him to help her assassinate the king. Until they’d learned that you couldn’t just cut the throat of a black horn.
They were a special breed and required special means for execution.
Even cutting off their horn required a special blade.
And thinking of Keryna, he almost felt bad for her fate.
He still didn’t know if she was alive or dead. If she had managed to survive the queen’s torture, she had to be wishing herself dead. Especially if she looked anything like Fort. His face was swollen to where he barely looked human. He’d lost a few teeth, too.
Poor bugger.
Whatever Bink did, he had to make sure to stay out of Meara’s hands. She was lethal in a way he’d never seen before. And here, he’d thought he’d seen them all and done most of them.
Ick! No wonder her citizens hated her the way they did.
Trying not to think about it, Bink made it to the postern gate and then allowed them to leave first. He took one last look about to make sure no one saw them, then he ducked through.
Once they were in the meadow, he led them toward the king’s hunting lodge.
It’d been one of Keryna’s favorite places to meet with Bink when they’d first teamed up.
One day, imp, this will all be mine!
He’d never understood her mind set over that. It was a nice lodge and all, but nowhere near as nice as the palace. And while the lodge had servants whenever the king was in residence, it’d been isolated and lonely when he wasn’t there.
Not Bink’s cup of tea, at all. Having been a servant to the fey folk in Sagaria as a boy, he’d hated every minute of it.
But he found having others wait on him far more befitting the imp he wanted to be.
He curled his lip as old memories haunted him. Uppity fey bitches. They thought themselves so superior. They were just as backbiting and petty as anyone he’d ever known. He had no use for them. Other than to rob them and hone his skills at turning friends into enemies.
A little lie here, a twist on the truth there...
Mortal enemies for life.
He liked it.
“I wish we had a horse,” Fort complained.
Bink scoffed. “There’s a palace full of centaurs. I’m sure one of them would love to give you ride right back to your cell.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to return. Just saying I wish we had a horse. I have been tortured for the last few days, you know? It hurts to walk.”
“And what do you think I’ve been doing? Washing my spindles?” It’d been an absolute horror waiting to see if the imbecile would break and tell them who he was and where he was hiding.
Or worse, tell them that he had the horn they were all looking for. The stress alone had damn near killed him.
“Can’t you use the wand and make us a horse?” Dreama asked.
“Why are you whining? You’ve got wings.”
“Small wings,” she groused. “It’s tiring. Why do you think we like to catch rides on the backs of birds?”
Personally? He’d assumed they were lazy.
“Well, the wand can’t make a horse.” At least, he didn’t think so.
To be honest, he wasn’t exactly sure what all a golden horn could do. He only had a rudimentary understanding of that level of magick. What little he knew was what he’d picked up from the sidhe court where they both revered and reviled unicorn powers. It was there he’d hatched his greatest scheme.
Collect horns and sell those wands in Sagaria to the fey and wizards who lived there. They were far enough away from Licordia, that word had never reached the unicorns that he was poaching their precious body parts.
Thankfully, the fey knew that if they were caught with a wand, they’d be punished just as severely for purchasing it as he was for the illegal collecting. Because it wasn’t like they didn’t know the wand came from a unicorn that had been killed to collect it. Therefore, he’d never been afraid of betrayal on that front.
Granted it was a dangerous business, but one that had made him quite wealthy.
In the past, he’d kept mostly to green or purple horns. A few red ones, but those were hard to take as the bearers were fierce fighters and normally looking for someone to brawl with. White ones could fetch a good price, but not nearly as much as yellow or orange.
Then he’d seen the princess. The moment he’d laid eyes on her golden horn, he’d known it would be worth the price of a kingdom.
And that was before he realized it could be used to kill her half-brother, the king. If he possessed both a black and gold horn...
He’d be invincible. No one would ever be able to defeat him. He’d own the world and be the High King.
That was what he wanted now. He just needed to get his bearings and evade Meara and her troops.
Those were his thoughts until they reached the lodge where he’d originally planned to hide out.
At first, like Dreama, he had no idea who they were. Just an odd collection of beings lounging about for unknown reasons.
Until Aderyn walked into the room. He knew her by sight. She was one of the commanders for the High King’s cavalry. A beautiful dapple-gray unicorn with stocking and a large star in the middle of her forehead that highlighted her orange horn, she was a beautiful brunette in human form.
The other he’d never seen before. A dark-skinned woman with gold eyes. A red-headed man and another man who could have passed himself off as part mountain. The last of their group was a frail woman who reminded him of the fey. But he’d lived among them long enough to know that she wasn’t one of them.
She was something else.
“Elpis?”
She turned toward the mountain, and the moment she did, he saw the tiny horns on her head and realized that she was an oni. His breath caught. The oni rarely involved themselves in the affairs of any other species. They preferred their own kingdom and only left it for war.
Why would one of their breed be here?
It didn’t make sense.
Holding his hand out to silence his companions, Bink crept closer, wanting to hear what was going on.
Aderyn folded her arms over her chest. “Should we send Chrys to Dash to let him know what’s going on?”
The mountain scratched at his beard. “Forewarned is forearmed. He needs to know what he’s walking into.”
The red-headed man let out a tired sigh. “I just wish Ryper or Xaydin were here. They’d know what to do.”
The mountain laughed. “They’d have already wiped out at least half of them.”
“Very true.” Aderyn inclined her head to them. “I’ll go send Chrys off. I’m the one least likely to be noticed here.”
“Leave Chrys to her nest. I’ll go in her stead.”
They all stared at the mountain over his offer.
“What?” he asked defensively. “I can get there quicker than she can, and evade others if need be. Y’all stay here and wait. I’ll get back with news as soon as I can. Hopefully, Dash won’t be far behind.”
“Be careful, Ronan,” Aderyn said. “We don’t know what’s between us and the elves.”
“We’re about to find out. Y’all be safe here. Keep your eyes open.” Ronan turned himself into a peregrine falcon. “Someone want to open a door or window for me?”
The redhead tsked. “Should have thought of that before you changed forms, old man.”
“Don’t start with me, Cadoc. I’ll peck out your eyes.”
Laughing, Cadoc moved to a window not far from Bink and opened it.
Bink motioned his companions to crouch down lower. His heart pounding, he held his breath until Ronan vanished into the sky.
That was close. Grateful they hadn’t been seen, he motioned his companions off to the woods.
“What’s going on?” Dreama whispered.
“They’re friends of the king.”
Her eyes widened.
Fort pulled the cloth away from his still bleeding lips. “What are we going to do?”
He wasn’t sure. Part of him was tempted to let Meara know about them so that she could rid them of nuisance. But she was too unpredictable. And from what he’d seen, she was more likely to torture him and his group along with the ones in the lodge as she was to be grateful they’d reported them.
No...
There had to be some way to spin this so that he didn’t get skinned.
He just didn’t know how... yet.
“The king is worried about you.”
Tanis sniffed back her tears as Keegan entered her room. While she was still a dragon, she was now the size of a large unicorn. That actually made her smile. “What happened to you?”
“His Majesty wanted me to check on you while he goes over plans with the elves. When I told him I didn’t think I’d fit, he asked if I’d mind being pint-sized until he was free to come check on you himself.”
“He is thoughtful, isn’t he?”
Keegan moved to sit beside her bed. “He cares for you.”
“I like to think so.”
She lifted a claw and carefully turned Tanis’s head until she met her gaze. “No, Tanny. He really cares for you. You have to know that. It’s more than obvious to everyone else.”
Tanis wanted to believe it. “What difference does it make? I’m a dragon.”
“Do you have to become a dragon again? You seem awfully happy in your human body.”
She screwed her face up. “Not really. I mean... some of it’s not so bad.” Kissing Dash. And other things she did with him that were exceptionally wonderful, but living as a human for the rest of her life?
Grisly.
Tanis shook her head. “Even in this body, I’m a dragon and I miss being me.”
Keegan nodded in agreement. “I understand that a lot more than I did.” She held her paw and spread her claws wide. “It is weird to be something you’re not used to.”
“It really is.”
Keegan sat back on her haunches. “I am so sorry about everything. Especially for not being there for you these last years. You shouldn’t have been left alone.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
A knock sounded on her door. Scowling, Tanis answered it to find Ryper on the other side.
“Is everything all right?” she asked.
“I was just checking on you. Wanted to make sure you didn’t need anything.”
Tanis frowned as she noticed something for the first time. There were eerie similarities between Ryper and Dash. Not just in the cadence of their voice, but the way they held themselves. Even the way they stood.
He’d looked and sounded so much like Dash when he’d said that, they could have been twins.
Ryper frowned at her. “Are you all right?”
“Has anyone ever told you how much you favor the High King?”
He laughed nervously. “You’re messing with me, aren’t you? We’re nothing alike.”
She remembered during the fighting another similar detail. “You’re even a black unicorn... like him, aren’t you?”
“We don’t talk about that.”
His sudden discomfort confused her. “Talk about what?”
“The unicorn part. It’s not something I normally do. I only did what I did today to protect Dash. I like being a unicorn probably as much as you like being human.”
That seemed odd to her. She didn’t like being human because she was a dragon. If he was a unicorn, why would that bother him? “Why?”
Ryper didn’t answer her question. “You’re obviously fine. I’m heading to bed and will see you in the morning when we leave.” He vanished so fast that he practically teleported.
Keegan moved forward. “That was strange, right?”
“Very.”
“Yay! I’m getting the hang of being around people. They’re not quite as bad as we thought, are they?”
Tanis smiled. She’d forgotten all about Keegan’s bad habit of ending most of her sentences in a question. When they’d been young, it’d made her insane.
“No. They’re not nearly as bad as we thought. At least not the ones here.” Most of them were very pleasant and thoughtful.
Like Ryper and especially Dash.
Dash looked up as a shadow fell over him while he was reviewing the map on the table. On instinct, he drew his dagger and would have sliced open the intruder’s throat had he not realized it was Ryper in the shadows.
“How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me?”
“Enough that I should remember, and yet I still forget.” Ryper rubbed at the hairline cut Dash had accidentally given him. “Thanks for the shave.”
Sighing, he sheathed his dagger. “Glad it wasn’t closer.”
“Me, too. Would have seriously ruined my night to be decapitated.”
“How unlike you. Thought you wanted to die.”
Ryper didn’t respond as he moved so that he could see the map over Dash’s shoulder. “Have you told Tanis about us?”
“How do you mean?”
Ryper glanced around the room. “We are alone, right?”
He nodded. “Even Dove went to bed.”
Still, Ryper lowered his voice an octave and when he spoke, Dash understood why. “She commented on how much I favor you.”
“At least you got the syntax correct this time.”
Ryper growled at him. “Five fucking minutes. Seriously? You’re only five minutes older.”
“But I count every one of them.”
He tossed one of the map markers at Dash who caught it and laughed. “Why do you always bring that up? Five minutes like it means anything?”
Dash shrugged. “What are brothers for if not to irritate the shite out of their siblings?”
Ryper rolled his eyes. Then he returned to his usual somber composure. “I do wish I’d told Renata. I kept thinking I’d have time. Now...”
“She loved you like family, anyway. You know that.”
“Not the same as knowing we were family.”
No, it wasn’t and Dash wouldn’t argue the point. Maybe they should have told her. But as Ryper had said, it’d never seemed the right time.
Neither of them had known how Renata would react, and they’d decided it wasn’t worth the risk of anyone else finding out. And it was now painfully obvious that Renata had been incapable of keeping secrets. He still couldn’t believe that she’d told Keryna about their horns.
And the spell to kill him.
Why, Renata? Why?
Didn’t matter at this point. Other than he would have rather had his sister than a horn.
Which was why he kept Ryper’s relationship to him a secret. And why he’d never told Renata the truth.
Ryper didn’t want to be acknowledged as a prince.
He’d rather be castrated than have anyone bow to him or treat him like royalty. It just wasn’t Ryper, and Dash had promised his brother that he’d never force it on him. He loved his brother too much to make him do anything he didn’t want to do.
Dash pulled Ryper in for a rare hug and kissed the top of his head.
“What are you two doing?”
Dash pulled back to see Marthen putting a shield over the room to keep anyone from seeing into it. “You both know better! What if someone saw you?”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “No doubt it would spark a whole lot of new rumors as to why I’m not married, and why, unlike my father, I don’t have bastard children running about.”
And that had been the biggest problem for them. It would have been bad enough for Cratus to have had one bastard son for his throne.
Twins were a catastrophe.
And a death sentence.
So, the eldest son had been sent off to their father while their mother had kept Ryper in her own kingdom where she could protect him.
Until the king had needed hostages.
To this day, Dash had no idea how Ryper had been sent off with others to Meara’s court. But since it hadn’t been a shock to Ryper when they met, he suspected his idiot brother had wanted to go there so that they could meet.
A typical Ryper thing to do.
And an uncommon one for their mother to send her child into danger. There was something to that story that Ryper didn’t want to share, and though Dash wished he knew it, he was aware that no amount of threats or intimidation would loosen Ryper’s tongue on the matter.
Unlike Renata, his brother kept his secrets.
And Ryper had been the only thing that had kept Dash from ripping Meara into pieces.
In spite of the hell she’d given them, he’d found his brother in her court. There, the two of them had forged a kinship far greater than blood. It was why he trusted Ryper, fully.
The only saving grace was that they weren’t identical twins. Dash took after their father and Ryper their mother, right down to her ethereal blue eyes and impatience.
Until Tanis, no one had ever noticed their similarities.
Well... other than Marthen and their mother. But as their uncle who’d been present when they were born, Marthen had known they were related from the get-go.
“Why are you here, Marty?” Dash asked.
“I was coming to take one last look at the map when I happened upon you two cuddling like puppies. Your mother would be proud. Everyone else would be shocked and gossiping.”
Dash ignored him. While Ryper was still close to their mother, Dash preferred to pretend she didn’t exist. Mostly because he blamed her for not keeping both of them after they’d been born. His father had a wife. There was no reason to think that Cratus wouldn’t eventually have had other children to inherit.
But their mother had wanted her blood on the Licordian throne, and it infuriated her that Dash refused to allow her to claim him now.
If she tried to let anyone know he was her son, he’d denounce her as a liar.
For all anyone knew, his mother had died at his birth.
And so long as Ryper didn’t tell anyone they were brothers, no one could argue her case.
His only comfort was that so long as Ryper kept his silence, both her sons were as big a disappointment to her as she was to them.
But that was anger best left in the past.
Ryper nudged him. “Go to bed, Dash. You have a beautiful woman waiting for you.”
That he did. For that reason only, he didn’t argue. “You two should rest as well. We have a long journey ahead.”
But he knew Ryper wouldn’t sleep until he numbed himself.
Trying not to think about that either, he left them to find Tanis in their room upstairs.
She was already in bed, and the smile she greeted him with sent a wave of desire all the way to his rotten soul. Damn. Ryper was right. She was beautiful.
As he sat on the bed, she moved to help him pull his tunic off, then rested her hands gently on his shoulders. The softness of her touch singed him, and Dash took a moment to savor the sight of her warm and waiting for him.
Her dark brown eyes stared up at him as if he were all the things he’d ever wanted to be. In her eyes alone, he was noble. Decent. Heroic.
Not a despised king or a monster.
She made him feel like he was something more than the brutal demon who’d crawled out of Meara’s cruelty.
You need to leave. He knew it. He had no business doing this with her. It made him no better than his hated father.
Ironically, that was what he’d said to himself every single time and still he couldn’t resist her. He doubted if anything on this earth or beyond could get him out of this room tonight.
Because her touch healed him, and he was that selfish. She comforted his soul in a way nothing ever had.
I need her.
It was that simple and that impossible.
Tanis saw the look in his tormented eyes, and for a moment, she thought he would pull away from her and return to his planning.
Instead, he untied his laces, removed his pants, then slowly stretched out beside her. She shivered at the sight of his naked body lying beside hers.
His power and lithe grace was overwhelming. Her body ached and burned for his. And all she knew was that she wanted him. Even though this was impossible, and they had no future together.
She wanted to feel him inside her and share herself with him, to let him take whatever comfort or solace he could.
He lifted his hand to the laces of her gown and slowly opened the neck of it until she was bared to his hungry gaze. Tanis shivered at the dark, intense look on his face as he stared at her naked breasts.
She growled low in her throat as he trailed his hand over her tight, swollen nipples as if savoring the sight and feel of them before he took one into his palm and gently squeezed. She ground her teeth at the pleasurable sensation and her body melted.
Tanis wanted to claim his body too, to touch him in ways she hoped no other woman had ever touched him. She just wished she could make him see what a hero he was to her.
How much his kindness meant. How much she cherished every moment they had together.
He buried his lips against her throat, his breath branding her with heat. This was so vivid and hot. She’d learned to crave his touch in a way that scared her.
It was almost enough to make her want to be human forever.
But that was ridiculous.
Even so, she explored his body with her hands and delighted in the lean, masculine planes and dips. He was so hard and firm compared to her. His cheeks scratchy from his whiskers. And the manly scent of him sent her reeling.
Dash shook from the force of his raw emotions. She touched him on levels he’d never known existed. As he looked into those dark dragon eyes, he saw heaven itself. No woman had ever touched him like this. He’d never allowed himself such a comfort.
Never dared hope to possess it.
She was so giving to him. He drank the tenderness from her lips and tasted the goodness that was innate to her and so missing from him. She was an angel, and when he looked at her, he could almost believe in such things.
Rolling over, he pulled her on top of him so that he could cup her face in his hands and just stare into those precious dark eyes and the promises they held.
But he knew better than to believe in them. How could they ever have a future?
They weren’t the same species. Look at what had happened with his own parents. Did he want to sire children who would be just as terrified and haunted as he was?
As Ryper?
It was one of the reasons he’d made sure that he never fathered children. There was no telling what they’d inherit from his mother. Naomi of the Tenmaru held powers that made Marthen appear weak and frail.
His own father had been scared of her at times. And Dash couldn’t blame him. His mother was the only one alive who could give Meara a run for her money when it came to cruelty.
Those inherited powers were no doubt what had turned his horn black.
What had allowed him to survive captivity.
But he didn’t want to think about that. Not while he was with Tanis.
She moved her head and kissed his open palm. The gesture shook him. His heart pounding, he watched as she kissed her way up his arm to his lips.
Closing his eyes, he pulled her gown over her head, and relished the feel of her naked body against his.
Tanis moaned at the heat of his body under hers. Desire swept through her.
He gently rolled her over and placed himself between her legs. She felt the hairs of his legs rubbing against her inner thighs as he kissed her. Of his hard shaft resting against her thigh.
It was such a strange feeling to be so exposed to him. And yet it was so natural that they would share themselves. She reached up and ran her hands along his whiskered cheeks to bury them in his dark hair as she saw the needful hunger in his eyes.
“I am so glad you’re with me, beast,” she breathed.
Pain and pleasure mixed in his dark green eyes as he stared at her as if unable to believe he’d heard her. He looked as if he were dreaming and terrified of waking.
His muscles rippling beneath her hands, he pressed the tip of his shaft against her core.
Tanis held her breath in expectation.
He brushed his hand against her cheek. His gaze held hers as mutual understanding and care passed between them. It was a priceless moment of sharing.
Then he dipped his head and claimed her lips in a passionate, fiery kiss before he drove himself deep inside her body.
With every breath he took, she could feel him throbbing inside her. Feel him rigid and hard all over and in her.
Instinctively, she moved her hips, drawing him in deeper as her muscles tightened around his shaft. He growled in response and a look of such pleasure crossed his face that it spurred her to bolder actions as she writhed beneath him.
Dash held his breath at the sight of her lying beneath him while she milked his body with hers. He held himself rigidly still even though it was killing him. He wanted her to want him, to not fear the desires of her own body.
She should take as much pleasure from this night as he did. More so, in fact. And he loved watching her discover her sexual power and bliss. If she had nothing else from him, he was glad that he’d taught her something more than fear of this.
Tanis was no longer timid with him. She was become almost feral with her desires, and nothing could please him more.
Growling at how good she felt, he thrusted himself deeper into her. They hissed in unison.
Never once in his life had he dared to hope of a night where he could be with a woman so unreservedly and know that she was with him by her own free will.
This had nothing to do with his rank or titles. She wasn’t after him for his wealth.
She was here because she wanted to be.
Her red curls fanned out on either side of her face, reminding him of some beautiful fey creature who had stumbled upon him and claimed him with her magick. And she felt so good surrounding him. Surely there was no better pleasure than her being held in her arms.
She ran her hands over his chest and shoulders then brushed them through his hair.
He lowered himself to her and gathered her into his arms. Then slowly, very slowly, he began to gently rock himself between her thighs.
Tanis sighed in pleasure at the feel of him so deep, hard and strong inside her. She wrapped her arms around him and listened to his rapid breathing as he moved.
Arching her back to draw him in even deeper, she kissed his shoulder and inhaled the scent of him. He quickened his thrusts, sliding himself in and out of her, deeper and deeper. Her head spun from the sensations of his skin on hers, of his breath against her neck.
She breathed his name in his ear as she clung to him and met him stroke for stroke. Her body felt out of control. She was hot and tingly. And just as she was sure she would die from the pleasure of him, her body erupted into an ecstasy so intense that she screamed from it.
Dash ground his teeth at the sensation of her body gripping his while he kissed her deeply. Holding her tighter, he felt his own body release. With one last forceful thrust, he buried himself deep inside her and felt the waves of pleasure rippling through him as gave her a part of him he’d never given another single soul.
He lay completely still holding her for what seemed an eternity and yet it seemed to be no time at all.
“Is it always like this incredible?” she asked, her voice awed.
“Only with you.”
She gave him a hard stare.
“I swear, Tanis. You can accuse me of many things, insincerity and flattery aren’t two of them.”
But as his senses returned, he knew he should have done anything other than make love to her.
Again.
And yet even as the thoughts whirled through his mind, he looked into her beautiful face and saw what he had waited a lifetime for.
All he had to do was find the courage to take it.
If only it was that easy. Honestly, he was terrified of the feelings inside him. Whenever he looked at her all those long-buried dreams resurfaced and made him wish for things he had no right to wish for.
Home. Family...
Love.
Love? You? You’re a mongrel demonic bastard! Who’d ever want love from you? His father’s cold words continued to haunt him even though he’d buried him long ago.
Sometimes dead wasn’t dead enough.
Unable to breathe, he reluctantly withdrew from her, got up and dressed.
“Dash?”
The sound of her voice sliced through him. He paused at the door, torn between the need inside him to return to bed and take her into his arms and hold her forever, and the fear of her eventual rejection that made him want to bolt like a frightened colt.
For the first time in his life, he chose retreat. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
With no real direction on where to go, Dash returned to the great hall where he found Ryper alone, sitting at a table with bread and cake, drinking elfin ale.
“You do know that,” Dash indicated the cup of ale in Ryper’s hand, “can be deadly to other species?”
Ryper actually smiled. “Hasn’t killed me yet. Let’s see how much I can drink before it does.”
Shaking his head, Dash took the vacant seat next to his brother.
Ryper drained his cup and poured more. “Why did you come back?”
“Stupidity.” Dash took an empty cup and poured it full.
Ryper grunted at him. “Well... as long as you hog it all. But don’t be spreading it around. I have more than enough of it on my own. You keep the extra.”
Ignoring the quip, Dash downed the ale in a single gulp, then poured another cup full.
“What a pair we make, eh?” Ryper sighed.
Dash drank this one a little more slowly. “How so?”
“Both of us tormented by our wonderful pasts.”
Flinching at the thought, Dash fell silent as more memories surged. He knew the guilt and pain of his brother. Knew how much the past wore on Ryper’s battered conscience. Just as it did his. “Thinking of Yutaka tonight?”
“Every night. His face haunts me whenever I try to sleep.”
“I understand.” Dash poured more drink. “I see the faces of all the ones we lost. They haunt me, too.” He took another swig of ale as he tried not to think of all the children Meara had gleefully killed.
Ryper toyed with his cup. “At least most of those were strangers. I killed my own brother.”
Dash winced at that. Yutaka had been their half-brother courtesy of their mother’s wandering lust, but he wasn’t about to correct him as he knew Ryper didn’t think of Yutaka as a half sibling any more than Dash thought of Renata that way.
Family was family. And they’d both lost too many of them.
Dash pushed his chair back so that he could level a glare at Ryper. “You had no choice or say in the matter. You did nothing wrong.”
“I still killed him.”
“It’s not your fault,” Dash repeated. He felt for him and would give anything to take away that guilt and pain.
Nothing ever would.
As they’d escaped from Meara’s custody, Yutaka had seen the arrow aimed for Ryper. Before any of them realized they were about to be attacked, Yutaka had thrown Ryper to the ground and taken the arrow that had been meant for his older brother.
It was a sight neither of them had ever forgotten. Yutaka lying on top of Ryper as arrows landed all around them.
His battered face...
Worse? They’d been forced to leave him in a filthy puddle as rain fell over them.
Even now, he could see Yutaka in his mind, as if the event had been yesterday. The look of pain on his handsome features as he’d fallen away from Ryper.
I’ll hold them back for you. Run to freedom.
Yutaka had fought to the bitter end. Had he not stayed behind to slow down their pursuers, they might not have escaped. They owed everything to his sacrifice.
Something Yutaka had definitely not learned from their heartless mother.
I’m sorry, little brother. And he was. Like Ryper, the guilt haunted him eternally.
That was why he’d been so determined and still was determined to make sure Tanis reclaimed her brother’s skull. There was no worse feeling than to watch your brother die and not know what happened to the body.
For that alone, he’d wanted his father’s throat.
Even though they’d just been children, they’d been thrown away like garbage. No one had expected them to survive, let alone return home.
Damn them all for their cruelty.
Ryper started to pour more ale, then tossed the goblet away and drank from the pitcher instead. “Why are you here when you have Tanis upstairs waiting for you?”
That was an easy question to answer. “Because I’m an idiot.”
“Well, at least you know it.”
Dash tossed a small loaf of bread at his brother. “Why don’t you go to bed and sleep it off?”
“Eventually. Not drunk enough yet.”
Dash would be concerned, except he knew that Ryper wouldn’t get too drunk.
Neither of them dared. Their past didn’t let them. They couldn’t trust enough in others to be that out of control of their mental facilities.
Or their sword arms.
Especially not Dash. Even without a bounty on his head, he’d always had to guard against assassins and betrayers. Those who would love to see him dead for no other reason than he wore a crown.
And he couldn’t stay here all night. They had a long march ahead of them and probably a battle. While they could use an elfin portal to take them from here to the ruins where he’d found Renata’s body, it was still going to be a long way to get to his palace.
Where he had an enemy waiting for him.
Along with a spy they had yet to find.
There was more than a good chance they’d be fighting again tomorrow.
Rising, he clapped Ryper on the back. “Get to bed soon.”
“I will. Night, brother.”
Dash ruffled his hair. It was rare for either of them to use that word for each other. They would use it for others, but rarely between themselves for fear of someone realizing what Tanis had.
Such knowledge could only endanger both their lives. It was the same reason why neither of them ever spoke a single word about their mother out loud.
Not even to each other.
That knowledge was lethal to both of them.
She wasn’t just royalty...
Makkuro Naomi was a man-eating she-demon who lived to prey on others. Only one person had ever survived going up against her.
Their father.
Cratus’s saving grace? Somehow, he’d managed to make her fall in love with him. That bizarre relationship baffled Dash to this day.
Well... perhaps not as much as it used to. Tanis was beginning to open his eyes to how his parents must have felt. To love someone even though you knew it was impossible to have them.
Maybe that was their real family curse. They could only love the ones they were destined to lose.
With a sigh, he headed back to bed where a beautiful dragon waited for him.
Along with all the fears that went with her. She was a part of him now. A vital part he didn’t want to lose the way his father had lost his mother.
But it wasn’t his place to ask her to stay.
What if she really is banished?
He would gladly welcome her to his home, but it would break her heart.
She was a dragon and he saw the sadness in her eyes whenever she spoke of it. Saw how much she’d enjoyed being in her real body, if only for a few minutes earlier today.
No, he had to set her free. It was the only decent thing for an indecent unicorn to do.