Chapter 18
EVANDER
Ishould stop. Pull away. This isn’t how this is supposed to happen.
Not that we haven’t broken the rules before, but not like this.
I’ve never kissed a candidate before the ceremony.
Never. But right now, I want to do a whole hell of a lot more than just kiss her.
My cock’s sandwiched between my stomach and her clothed pussy.
That’s not stopping her from grinding herself against me.
I’m sure she has no idea she’s doing it, but hell, I’m not telling her to stop.
I ran through half the maze, tracking her scent. It figures she found the exact middle. I had the urge to shift again and spy down from the top to find her but decided against it after the scare Kieren gave her.
Roark approaches first. Kieren next. What in the hell was he doing?
I have no idea. His dragon has never done that with us before.
But picking up a human with your talons?
There’s only one reason you do that, and it doesn’t end well for the human and with a serious case of indigestion for the dragon.
I pushed him over the castle and into the car park. It’s hard to fight a thunder mate. Fire’s useless. I’ve got a long cut down my back. Kieren has a gash across his leg.
As much as I don’t want to break our kiss, I have to. I need to get her back to the castle and lock her in her room, away from Kieren. Until we understand how and why it happened, I’m not letting him shift without Roark or me by his side.
I pull back from the kiss and stare into her eyes. Our candidate is one smart girl, but right now, she’s clueless. I can see it in her blue eyes. They’re the same shade as Kieren’s, the same shade as Roark’s. How very Crest Wing of them.
“I’m okay. I . . . I’m sorry for kissing you. I don’t know what came over me.”
Normal me would laugh and make light to defuse the situation. But not now. “I kissed you first.” It’s good enough for now. I tuck her into my side. I don’t know if she’s heard Roark and Kieren appearing behind us, but they’ve been here for a while—long enough to see us kissing, that’s for sure.
“Was that you?”
“Which one?” I ask.
“It was me,” Kieren says, pushing close. He and Roark have on shifting cloaks that we keep by the doors. “I’m the blue dragon.”
Raine backs up until she bumps into me. I wrap a hand around her waist. Kieren is the prince. He’s my thunder mate. I’m bound to him, though, now that I’ve pledged to Crest Wing. And even more so since he’s my mate. But if he takes another step forward, his week is going to be filled with pain.
“Back up,” I hiss.
His eyes glow. The man wearing skin might be calm, but the dragon inside is furious still. Not at her—at me. The one who pushed him away from his prey. “I’ve never—”
“Careful,” Roark cuts him off. Because it’s not true. For a male so in control of himself, cautious and caring, his dragon can turn caustic with a wind change. Roark’s normally the feral one in human form. Kieren’s dragon is wild.
“I would never want to hurt you. I’m sorry. I will let you know before I shift again.”
“You didn’t do it on purpose?” She is shivering again, enough that I can pick it up standing behind her. I move forward until my knees tap the back of her thighs.
“We need to talk. There’s more to tell you,” Kieren says.
She nods. “I have questions. But not now. You’re right. I’m not . . . Tomorrow.”
“I can’t promise tomorrow. Soon.” Kieren turns and weaves his way out of the maze.
Raine’s shoulders drop when he moves out of sight.
“Let me show you the way out.” I take her hand. Unlike Roark and Kieren, I’m not wearing a shifting cloak.
“You’re naked.” She turns away.
“Have been the whole time. You were in too much shock to notice.”
“I suppose you’re right . . .” She stammers a bit.
“Come here, Duchess.” Roark takes her other hand. “Are you good to walk, or do you want me to carry you?”
“I can walk.” She looks up at him, and I want to punch him in the neck. We don’t share candidates, but then we don’t kiss candidates before the ceremony, and we sure as hell don’t try to eat them. All the rules are going out to sea with our final candidate.
Raine stumbles over a root. I lunge forward for her and miss. But Roark sweeps her off her feet and cradles her in his arms.
“Where are you taking me?” Her voice is muffled by Roark’s cloak.
“To your suite.”
“I’m going to be okay,” she says softly, and I’m not sure if it’s a statement or a question.
“You’re going to be okay,” Roark replies.
We head in the side door and up the turret stairs, the back way to the suites.
I hold open her door for Roark. “Do you want to take a bath, Raine?” I’m close to her, Roark and I closing her in, and it feels like the most natural thing I’ve ever done.
“Yes.”
I flick the water on and find some of the bath salts I know Leopold will have stocked.
“Do you need help, Duchess?” Roark growls.
Fuck, I want her to say yes, but that’s a boundary we can’t cross, not together. Not yet, not until after the ceremony. Not even then, not the two of us together with her.
“No,” she says quietly, like she wants to say yes but doesn’t dare.
Roark lowers her to her feet.
“I lost my phone outside. I should go back out and find it. I don’t want the groundskeepers to run it over.”
“We’ll find it,” I say. I give her a kiss on the top of her head. I’ve never wanted to be anything but a dragon shifter, but at this moment, I wish I was a witch so I could take away the memories of the last few hours.
“Thank you.”
Roark grabs her around her shoulders, and I think he’s going to kiss her, but he just pulls her into a hug.
A fucking big hug. And when he pulls back, he smiles.
“You’re going to be okay.” He says it like a demand more than a reassurance.
But that’s a lot from Roark. I’m not sure he even let me hug him when his parents died.
Then he walks away like he always does when he’s done talking. Which is most of the time.
“My room is on the other side of the hall. Across the hall is Kieren’s, but mine is to the right of that one and Roark’s is—”
“To the left,” Raine says softly.
“Yes.” Does it bother me that she already knows where his room is? Yes. I point at the bath that’s halfway filled already, and she nods.
I pull the door shut behind me, then grab some clothes from my room and head out to the lawn. I take a torch from the mudroom by the back door––I most likely won’t need it.
Roark’s out here already, looking for her phone. “I thought you’d be off talking to Kieren,” he says when I reach his side.
“Don’t feel like being charged with assaulting a monarch tonight.”
“Ya, I don’t either.” He shines his light around the beds.
Twenty minutes turns to thirty.
“If we had the number, we could call it,” I say.
“If it’s still working, we’ll hear it. Damn thing vibrates like a sex toy, it goes off so much.” There’s a slight smirk on his face.
“You feel it too.”
“Damn straight. We need Kieren to perform the ceremony.”
“He’s got a lot going on with Aisling.”
“The queen’s just pushing him. She’s had enough of the prophecy too. She’s wanted it over as much as us. We’re needed back at home. We’re not like the Firested, living on Earth and never going home. Crest Wing gives us our power. Don’t you feel it? The longer we stay here, the more we’re drained.”
“That was eight sentences.” A damn encyclopedia for Roark.
He glares at me.
“Yes, I feel it too.”
“I’d prefer our thunder didn’t rule. I’ve said that for a long time. But now that we’ve found her, what the hell is he thinking, not doing the ceremony tomorrow? Fuck, if he doesn’t have time to talk to her, we sure as hell aren’t doing it. You need to talk to him,” Roark says.
“I talk to him all the time. It will be more powerful coming from you.”