Chapter Thirty-Five
Ember
I stared at the bathroom door, waiting for Dela to come back out.
Part of me wanted to break down the door and force her to talk.
It would be easy. I could do it, of course, and she couldn’t stop me.
However, I didn’t because I wanted to respect her.
What if she was on the toilet when I got in there as shards of wood went everywhere?
For once, my strength felt like it would be a hindrance, not a help.
At least you’re a good fuckboy.
Was that all she saw me as? A hard cock to ride and nothing more?
I’d never had issues with that before. As I’d told Dela, I’d never been in a long-term relationship either.
Dragons tended not to do relationships until they found their mates.
Until then, it was nothing but sexual partnerships designed to keep one’s hormones in check.
And that was what Dela had used me as. I clenched a fist but couldn’t stop the fire from curling out of my palm.
I was nothing but a thing to fuck. A good fuck, at least, but the slight salve to my ego did nothing to help the rest of me from hurting at her rejection.
I’d thought that opening up to her and telling her that I thought she was maybe my mate—as wild as it sounded—would show her I wasn’t just doing it for the sex.
I’d been wrong, of course. As always. Fuck.
My other palm began to leak fire, a sign I was on the edge of losing my cool.
I needed to bleed off some anger and stress.
It was the first time I’d confessed my emotions to a woman, and I hadn’t expected to be blown off like that.
It … hurt. I was hurt. Was that even a proper thing to feel?
Was a prince allowed to feel emotional pain like that? Or should I cut it out and leave?
Maybe I should have listened to Ari …
I knew I didn’t agree with it even as I thought it. She was not my eternal mate, end of story. That would be a partnership of convenience and not a strong enough bond to pass the God-King’s test. I needed a woman whom I loved, through and through, and Ari was not it, that was for sure.
I’d thought that maybe it was Dela, but I wasn’t so sure anymore. Not if she saw me as merely someone to fuck. She’d made that pretty clear, at least.
Fuck!
Fire had coiled up my arms by the time I finally strode from the room, leaving her alone. It didn’t matter that it was my quarters. I had to go, be somewhere else, somewhere away from her, so that the ache in my chest lessened.
I was perhaps ten feet down the hallway before my self-directed anger exploded.
“Argh!” I roared, fire pouring from my body.
It burned the carpet to ashes in seconds, licking up the walls, igniting ancient tapestries, and shattering a large mirror.
The heat intensified, and stone mortar began to melt.
The very air itself seemed about ready to combust as I let loose with my anger.
It felt good to let go, to lose control and release the tension I’d been holding in.
The stone underfoot started to melt, and my boots sunk into it even as they bled away, leaving my feet exposed, covered in scarlet scales.
My uniform went next as the flames covered my entire body, shredding the outfit into tiny pieces of ash that floated on the superheated air.
Then I exploded. Flame rushed down the hallway in both directions, moving too fast to do much more than scorch or singe everything in its path before it faded.
I bent over, resting one hand on the wall. Scales covered my fingers as they sunk into the stone an inch before hitting stone that hadn’t melted yet. My chest rose and fell swiftly, sweat pouring from every pore on my body.
“Damn it!” I snarled at the empty air. “God-King take emotions! Useless fucking things.”
A clatter of footsteps announced someone running up the corridor from the nearest intersection. I didn’t blame them. I would have come running too. It wasn’t every day one of us lost control indoors like that. The thing was, though, I didn’t want to deal with anyone at that moment.
I was too embarrassed over my loss of control. I turned to start moving away, taking my naked ass down the hallway in the opposite direction.
“Ember!”
It was Pyre. Of course it was Pyre.
“Not now,” I growled, not stopping.
He jogged after me.
“Don’t ask,” I snapped before he could open his mouth. “I don’t want to talk about it, so just leave me alone.”
“Ember,” he said. “Stop.”
“I said I don’t want to fucking talk about it!” I roared. “Do you respect the throne or not?”
To his credit, Pyre stood his ground, despite the fresh flames in my eyes and flickering across my chest, signs of a frayed temper I could barely control. He met my eyes, and his own flickered with yellow-red firelight.
“Get over yourself,” he snapped. “First, you aren’t the throne. Not yet. Secondly, that’s why I’m here.”
“Technicality,” I shrugged grumpily to the first. “What is it?”
“It’s Albright.”
“Of course, it’s fucking Albright,” I growled. “God-King take that man. Who the fuck else would it be right now?”
Pyre glanced behind us to the charred section of the stone hallway, but he wisely didn’t say anything.
I took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. Some of the flames dancing across my skin went out as I did. “Okay, tell me,” I said, steeling myself for whatever ridiculous thing Albright wanted now.
“He’s making his move,” Pyre said hurriedly.
For a moment, I stared, not believing it. Then I shook my head. “He’s attacking us here? Why the fuck didn’t you say so right away? We’ve got to get to the Rift. Let’s go!”
Pyre grabbed my shoulder as I went to pass. “Not here,” he said. “But we do need to get going.”
“Going?” Then it hit me. “He’s going for Fire Castle. Isn’t he? We’re here, and that fucker is trying for a God-King damned coup!”
Pyre nodded urgently. “Yes, we have to go before he secures the place!”
My mind was already shifting gears into full-on combat mode. “Have you summoned everyone already?”
“Yes, they’re already heading for the Rift. We’ll probably be the last ones there.”
“Good,” I said, moving swiftly now. “We’re going back together.
He’ll have left a blocking force, I’m sure, but we’ll have to punch through it.
You and I have to get back to Fire Castle before that evil bastard kills too many others.
I swear, if he plunks his ass down on my throne, I’m going to shove my fist up his ass and burn him from the inside out, family or not. This ends now!”
Pyre stayed at my side as we went, but he kept looking back.
“What is it?”
“Well, what about …” he jerked his head toward my quarters.
Dela. Fuck. She was still there, in the bathroom, hiding from me.
“Call Ashe,” I said. “Have him come and get her.”
I hated leaving Dela’s safety to someone else. It burned at me in the worst of ways. However, if she didn’t want me around, what else was I supposed to do? With Albright choosing to make his move then, of all the fucking times, I was strapped for options.
“On it,” Pyre said, pulling out his phone.
Mine had gone up in flames with my outburst, so until I got a fresh one, Pyre would have to play secretary, too. Thankfully, I knew he wouldn’t mind. He was one of the good ones. He’d ensure Dela was kept safe.
I longed to go and do it myself, but I couldn’t. I had to leave with the others. The dragons at Fire Castle were counting on us to come to their aid and stop Albright from killing them. That was my duty to my people, and it had to trump anything else, including telling Dela that I was leaving.
However, once it was over, I swore to myself then and there that I would return, and I would find out what the fuck I did wrong. Dela and I were going to have a talk and figure everything out. I wasn’t letting it end, not like that.
Though as we ran on, I couldn’t help but be aware of one fact from my conversation with her. The one thing I’d wanted to know that she’d never answered.
She’d never said whether she wanted her ex back or not.
And that was telling.