Chapter 4 #2
She pushed up the long sleeves of her navy Henley and thermal undershirt, wiping her damp face with the hem of her shirt, her attention back on the glimmering city in the distance.
A low rumble echoed like thunder, but it felt different. Deeper. More primal. Her gaze snapped back to her abductor. His expression darkened, and he rose slowly.
She followed his gaze to the clouds in the distance.
At first, she saw nothing but drifting dark vapors.
Then something indistinct slipped through the gray billows—enormous, serpentine, with wings so wide they didn’t flap so much as glide through the sky.
Shadows clung to its form, then a sparkle of emerald flashed.
It banked through the low clouds, too fast and too fluid to be anything engineered.
Her breath caught. “What the actual f—”
A hand slapped over her mouth before the rest escaped. “Quiet.”
Feeling as if her knees would cave, Ash gaped, clutching his arm.
No. Bloody. Way!
A dragon?
The creature soared past their sky-high cave, too far away to notice them, but close enough to make her heart feel like a trapped bird. The air itself seemed to bend around its massive form, and the cave’s walls thrummed, as if recognizing something that belonged there.
Then the beast vanished into the clouds.
Ash yanked free, panting as if her lungs would shut down.
“What the hell was that?” she choked out, her gaze fixed on the city.
He didn’t respond.
Typical.
From the towering spires, more dark shapes took flight into the violet sky—not just a few, but dozens. The creatures wheeled through the clouds, wings shimmering with colors her mind couldn’t grasp. They flew overhead, each wingbeat sending waves of heat washing over her.
“Dragons,” she breathed.
They trumpeted as they flew across the darkening purple skies, becoming dots and disappearing into the distance.
“Welcome to Caelvyrn,” he said. “The ancient seat of the dragon court. I’m Skaldr. And you are in Lemuria.”
Ash didn’t respond—couldn’t—his words clocking her like a punch in the head.
Christ! First, Race carted her off to another country, and now his enemies had hauled her into this-this terrifying world!
Her gaze darted back to the building dwarfing all the others—the massive palace of towers and spires, locked behind an unbroken wall of dark stone.
“That,” Skaldr said, nodding toward where she was staring, “is the Palace of Drakemaere. Though you’ll never see it up close.”
Something dark lurked beneath his words, a warning she felt in her bones.
“Well, I don’t want to,” she muttered, false bravado steadying her voice. “If you don’t take me back right now, Race will come for me.” The words tumbled out. Hell, she barely knew the man, but he was all she had. “He’ll be furious, and you’ll be sorry.”
“We’re counting on it.”
Ash finally tore her gaze away from the distant spires. “What do you mean?”
His features remained stony.
More trumpeting boomed, and Ash’s gaze rushed toward the sounds.
“Come on. We don’t want you to become a target.”
“From what?” she snapped. “Besides, you abducting me?”
He didn’t answer. Just grabbed her arm and hauled her back into the cavern, then through twisting passages and down excavated steps into the mountain’s heart. The cave system opened into a vast chamber with two massive pillars at its entrance and yet another platform overlooking Caelvyrn.
“You’ll be safe here,” he said, gesturing to the faded cushions piled on a dusty, tatty carpet. Frayed, bleached silk drapes sagged against the rough stone walls.
If this was meant to reassure her, it failed.
“I’ll be back shortly.” His flat amber eyes met hers. “Don’t go out onto the platform, or the dragons will find you.”
The warning sent chills down her spine despite the oppressive heat. She’d seen how enormous those creatures were. Being torn apart by one wasn’t how she planned to die.
“And yet you brought me here.”
Without a word, he stalked off, vanishing into the tunnel.
Scowling, Ash untied her parka from her waist, tossed it on the cushion, and paced the cavern. They were all bloody madmen!
First, Race had hauled her into some abbey. Now a muscle-bound lunatic had carted her into a terrifying world and discarded her in a sky-high cave like abandoned luggage.
How the hell did I get caught up in this crap?
Race.
That man! She would give him a piece of her mind when she saw him. If he’d just left her alone, she wouldn’t be in this mess…
She’d likely still be fighting off those sodding lunatic villagers.
“All I wanted was to find one hard-to-pin-down woman for answers, and now I’m stuck in some dragon cult’s panic room.” She kicked a pebble. It skittered across the floor, pinging off something.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, she swiped her damp face on her sleeve again. Damn it, she was boiling inside out.
Ash fumbled off her two shirts, tossing the thermal aside.
She dragged the Henley back on over her sweat-dampened body, and as she pushed up her sleeves, her gaze lifted to the soaring ceiling.
Worn carvings coiled in the granite overhead, but despite the fading daylight, she could still make out the flames, wings, and eyes. Not human. Slitted. Reptilian.
She shuddered. “Lovely! Just what I needed, to be scared out of my mind with décor by Hellraiser.”
A shadow passed over the balcony’s opening, and her breath caught as an enormous emerald dragon swept past. Its massive wingspan stretched far beyond the cave’s mouth, each beat of those powerful extremities sending a wave of blasted hot air into the cavern.
Ash stumbled farther inside until her back hit the warm granite.
The creature bellowed and soared off into the clouds and darkening sky.
A hand pressed to her tight chest, she sagged against the rugged wall. When she could feel her legs again and wasn’t about to collapse, she finally registered the faint voices echoing from deeper in the cavern.
Skaldr? With more of his cohorts?
She crept toward the tunnel, pressed against the wall, determined to find out what he was up to with his pals, and if there was more danger she needed to hide from.
Hide? More like jump from the platform to my death! There is nowhere to hide in this infernal place.
Exhaling roughly, she listened…
“Damn it, Skaldr! What were you thinking?” a strange, gruff voice demanded. “Did you even think this through? You brought her here? Brax will have a fit.”
“She was with Eracier,” Skaldr said, his voice so low that Ash had to strain to hear him. “That’s all I know.”
“And that’s enough reason to risk bringing a human into the mix?” the other man growled.
“To get him here, the incentive must carry weight. He’s a damn hardhead most times.”
The stranger snapped, “You know what happened the last time a human woman crossed into this realm unmarked.”
“Like I said, she was with Eracier.”
Eracier? Did he mean Race?
Had to be.
The stranger’s low growl sent ice down Ash’s spine. “That’s what makes this dangerous. The she-dragons will scent her. They will come.”
She-dragons?
“They’ll do what they always do,” Skaldr’s voice grew tight. “But not on my watch.”
“Let’s hope your guess works in our favor,” the stranger growled. “Be careful. If the capital gets word of what’s happening—if Malcarion hears about her, and who she’s with—they’ll burn the cliffs to get her.”
“Indeed,” Skaldr muttered.
A lengthy silence fell, broken only by a faint animalistic growl. Ash’s gaze flicked back to the cave’s entrance, but she couldn’t see much as twilight gave way to night.
“Keep her here,” the other man ordered. “No one cares about this dead place anyway. We’ve waited millennia. We can’t fuck up now. Let’s go. The others must be updated.”
Like hell they’ll keep me imprisoned in this bloody place to be used as bloody bait to lure Race.
Footsteps sounded, drawing closer.
Ash sprinted back to the seating area. With nowhere to go, she darted to the entryway, her back against one of the pillars. Her fingertips prickled with power, resonating with the energy in the humid air.
Skaldr appeared and frowned when he saw her so close to the edge. “That’s dangerous—”
“Come any closer, and-and I’ll jump,” she warned, pressing her tingling fingers against the warm granite behind her and praying he didn’t. She really didn’t want to die.
He stopped, his expression hardening. “You heard.”
“Did you honestly believe I would just sit idly, clutching my hands in despair, while you lot plan to use me for your nefarious scheme?”
He scrubbed his face. “Look, this has nothing to do with you. The moment Eracier arrives, we’ll let you go.”
“My left shoe.”
“What?” Then he shook his head. “We mean you no harm, female. Just stay inside. I have to go out for a while.” He strode back the way he came and threw over his shoulder, “I’ll bring food and water.”
He vanished into the tunnel again.
Bastard! He imprisoned her here in the highest bloody cave, with no way out, and she had to rely on his goodwill.
Mouth tight, Ash glanced back to the terrifying drop below, spying a river that looked like a fiery thread in the grayness of the land.
Christ. She rubbed her burning eyes, the stranger’s ominous words rattling around inside her brain.
Burn the cliffs?
Who the hell is Malcarion?
And she-dragons?
What did they mean by ‘last time’?
Ash didn’t know what those jerks had dragged her into, but whatever they were after, they would realize the truth soon enough.
She was no one and meant nothing to Race.
Then what? She didn’t expect hardened criminals to simply let her go. They’d more likely toss her to those bloodthirsty dragons.
A high-pitched shriek ripped through the air in the distance—
Her heart pounding like a runaway train, Ash darted back into the cave, tripped, and fell.
Pain jarred up her bones as she scrambled backward, her spine finally hitting the warm stone wall.
Her powers prickled beneath her skin, but what good was lightning she couldn’t even control?
What could rain do for her against dragons?
Another thunderous roar pierced the night. Ash wrapped her arms around her waist, fighting the knot of helplessness twisting her stomach. She was trapped in a mountain-high cave, in a world where dragons ruled the skies, used as bait to trap Race.
How the hell would she ever escape this hellish place?