Chapter 15
TWENTY YEARS OLD
Clover climbed to her feet, dusting the snow off her frozen hands with a groan. They’ll never thaw out, she thought grumpily. Her breath came out in plumes of fog, dissolving into the cold night air. She’d gotten used to training in the cold by now, but that didn’t mean she liked it.
A branch snapped, and she spun around, relaxing when she saw Eddy scurrying toward her. “Hey, little guy,” she cooed and scooped him into her arms. “Did you have fun?”
From time to time, Eddy disappeared for a few days to visit Amos. Clover took in his bare body and clucked her tongue. “Amelia is going to be upset you’re not wearing your sweater.”
The fox licked her face and wiggled until she set him down. Eddy sat in the snow and looked behind him with a yip. Clover followed his gaze but saw nothing, and a prickle of awareness made every muscle in her body tighten.
Moving quietly, she retrieved her dagger from one of the targets and took a defensive stance.
“Hello, little mouse,” a familiar voice teased, moments before Rainer appeared out of thin air. “Have you missed me?”
Clover’s breath hitched. “Rainer?” She hadn’t seen him since she was sixteen. It had hurt her feelings that he hadn’t come to visit when he turned twenty-five and the magic released him from the Desert Kingdom, but then again, she didn’t go home either.
She threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his middle and squeezing tight. Strong arms engulfed her, pulling her close with a rumbling laugh. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Stepping back, she took him in. He’d filled out over the last four years, and she wondered how much bigger Amos was now. “Why are you here?”
He sighed dramatically and stuck his hands in the pockets of his coat. “To try to convince you to come home for a visit.”
The words were laced with too much amusement, and Clover narrowed her eyes. “Did Amos send you here?”
“Yes,” Rainer replied honestly. “I have a carriage, and you don’t need to pack anything.”
Clover’s skin prickled with a mixture of excitement and annoyance. She couldn’t disappear in the middle of the night without a word. “I can’t just leave with no explanation. I have a life here.”
Rainer pulled two envelopes from his pocket and tapped one. “This is a letter for Amelia, telling her you’re running an errand out of town for the bakery.” He tapped the other envelope. “This is from Amos to your brother, letting him know you’ll be in Dragon Village for a while.”
Her fists clenched at her sides. Did they think she could up and leave with no more notice than a letter, as if her life here was pathetic? Jerks. “He doesn’t get to decide I’m leaving because he wants me to.” She crossed her arms. “Besides, Amelia knows my handwriting.”
Rainer winced. “This might be the last person you want me to bring up, but Jennifer is a master at forgery. All she needs is a sample of your writing to do so.”
That meant Amos had shown Jennifer one of Clover’s private letters. She wanted to kill them both.
Rainer watched her face transform from disbelief to fuming anger. “You won’t be coming with me,” he guessed.
“No, I will not be coming with you,” she snapped. “You can tell Amos—” Her words died when Rainer pressed a white cloth over her mouth. His lips were moving, but Clover couldn’t hear him as the world faded away.
The first thing Clover noticed was the warmth around her. That can’t be right. Never had she stood outside in the mountain region and been warm.
The second thing she noticed was that she wasn’t standing at all, nor could she move her arms or legs.
Her eyes blinked open, and the room came into focus bit by bit. Not a room—a cave. What in the fuck? She tried to move her arms again, but she was tied to a fucking chair.
The last thing she remembered… Rainer.
“Hello, stranger,” a deep voice drawled. It was familiar somehow, but she couldn’t place it.
Twisting her head to survey the room, she spotted the most beautiful man she’d ever seen sauntering toward her with a wolfish grin on his perfect face.
“You had me kidnapped?” she asked, incredulous. “Are you insane?”
Amos grabbed a wooden chair from a nearby table, dragged it in front of her, and lowered his long body into the seat. “I am.”
Clover’s arms were tied to the armrests of her chair, and her ankles were tied to the front legs.
She yanked against her restraints, vowing to kill him when she freed herself.
“Why in the hell would you kidnap me?” The rope bit into the wool sleeves of her dress, and she clenched her teeth.
“Untie me, Amos, or I swear to the gods I will kill you.”
Amos leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. He sat close enough that his toes bumped against hers, and she tried to kick him, forgetting that her ankles were tied.
“Rainer kidnapped you, not me,” Amos objected. He reached out and pushed a piece of Clover’s hair out of her face.
She snapped at his hand with her teeth. “Don’t touch me.”
Amos threw his head back and laughed, looking back at her with such tenderness, Clover wondered if he’d hit his head. A burst of his affection shot down the bond, and she gasped.
“You’re beautiful.” His eyes traced down her body, lingering on her breasts straining against the bodice of her dress.
Lust joined his affection, and she scoffed. “You have got to be kidding me. What is wrong with you? You can’t go around kidnapping people!”
Amos tilted his head to the side with the ghost of a smile on his face. “Yes, I can.” He motioned to her. “So can Rainer.”
“This isn’t funny.” She tried a different tactic. Could she cry on command? No time like the present to try. Clover thought of the last book that made her cry, replaying the ending where her favorite side character died, and felt her eyes burn. “Please,” she croaked. “Let me go.”
Amos’ eyes filled with awe and he leaned forward. “Your eyes are pretty when you cry.” He swiped at a tear with his thumb and brought it to his mouth. “Even if your tears are bullshit.” Pointing at his chest, he reminded her, “I can feel your emotions, wife.”
Clover huffed. “I’m not your wife, and no sane woman would marry a man who had her kidnapped and tied to a chair.” She glared at the ropes holding her down.
Standing, Amos removed a dagger from his belt and knelt at her feet to slice through the restraints. He straightened and sliced through them.
Before he could step out of the way, she shoved him hard. “You fucking asshole.”
He stumbled a few steps back dramatically and laughed like she’d told the funniest joke he’d ever heard. Clover’s anger built to unfathomable levels, and he placed a hand over his chest, closed his eyes, and moaned. “Gods, you feel good when you’re angry.”
“You think it’s funny to kidnap someone in the middle of the night?” She whipped out her own dagger from the sheath sewn into the pocket of her dress and threw it at him.
His eyes widened and he jerked out of the way. Looking behind him where the dagger bounced off the stone wall, his jaw fell open. “Did you just try to kill me?”
No, I was aiming for your shoulder. “You deserve to be thrown to the dragons for what you’ve done.”
“I don’t think having you kidnapped warrants death,” he argued, hanging his hands on his hips. “I’d love it if you kidnapped me.”
Gods, if she’d known ignoring him would literally make him crazy, she would have at least wrote him back a fuck you letter. “You need to see a healer.” Clover waved at her head. “Something’s wrong up here.”
Amos’ face darkened and he stalked toward her.
Refusing to back down, she stood her ground.
“You’re right, I’m not right in the head because four years without you would do that to any man.
” He grabbed her chin in a tight grip. “You took yourself from me, and it felt like I’d been left in the desert with no water.
First, I wanted you, then I needed you, then I shut down.
” His lips hovered above hers. “And when I thought I’d die, the delusions started, driving me mad, but instead of dying, I fought.
I survived like you told me to, and I found a way to get you back. ”
Clover tried to jerk out of his hold, but his other hand grabbed the back of her head, holding her in place. He tutted. “You’re not going anywhere, baby.” His tongue darted out and licked into her parted lips.
She tried to bite him, but he crushed their mouths together, forcing her to taste him. Right as her resolve started to crumble, he pulled back, and his face brightened. “I brought you a gift.”
It took her a minute to come to from the kiss and process what he’d said. Wait. “I don’t want a fucking gift,” she snapped.
Amos pecked her lips, strode to the table across the room to retrieve a wooden box, and held it out expectantly. “Open it.”
Clover knew he wouldn’t relent, so she reluctantly took the box and lifted the lid, blinking to make sense of what she saw. A heart with dried flowers sticking out of the top like a godsdamned bouquet stared back at her.
It took approximately three seconds before she screamed and tossed the box at him. Amos caught it, brows bent as he looked down at the heart. “You don’t like it?” He pulled it out and examined it.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” she yelled. “You’re holding a person’s heart in your hands. Why are there flowers?”
Disappointment trickled down the bond. He lowered the gift. “It’s Merrick Hammond’s heart, and I put flowers because I wanted it to look nice for you.”
Clover’s ears rang, trying to process. “Merrick Hammond?” The man who killed her mother.
Amos nodded slowly. “I took your father and sister to kill him, and since you couldn’t be there, I saved his heart for you.” He held it up like a trophy. “I dried the flowers myself.”
Her lips parted. “You brought me Merrick’s heart?” she whispered, unsure how his gift had gone from grotesque to the best thing she’d ever received.