Chapter Thirty-Nine
Dela
The pressure vanished as Paolo’s expression shifted to shocked surprise before he disappeared from my limited field of view. Blood and oxygen rushed to my brain as my body remembered how to function. It was too much for me, and I sank to the floor.
Nearby, I heard the sound of a struggle. Someone grunted, and then furniture shattered. I cried out, despite the pain in my throat, trying to get the fighting to stop, but it continued. There was the sound of more crashing. Then something snapped.
Paolo shrieked in pain, the sound piercing the cloud of fog in my brain, snapping me back to awareness.
I looked up at the commotion in my living room.
Calling it a fight would be too generous.
Pyre, not Ember, I realized, was holding Paolo in a chokehold, an arm around his neck, while his other hand was holding my ex’s left arm, which hung awkwardly below his grip.
“Stop it,” I said, although it hurt to speak. “Please. Enough. He’s on drugs. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. Just … just throw him out. Get rid of him. Don’t hurt him anymore.”
Pyre looked at me. “Fine,” he said and casually bumped Paolo toward the door.
My ex stumbled forward, caught his foot, and then fell. Right on his broken arm. More shrieks of pain filled the apartment. Pyre picked him up and dragged him by the leg down the stairs. Then he tossed him across the front lawn, driveway, and sidewalk like he was a bag of trash.
Paolo left most of his shirt and a good amount of skin behind as the concrete tore him to shreds. He shouted again and then rolled into the street. Pyre turned to me, looking up at where I stood at the top of the stairs. “Good enough?”
I nodded. “Yes. Thank you. For that and for saving my life. I owe you one.”
“Good,” he grunted. “Then you won’t put up a fight?”
My eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me? Put up a fight over what?”
“We have to go,” Pyre said, gesturing away from my house. “Ember wants you.”
Surprised, I licked my lips, trying to figure out the right words to say. “Ember wants me?”
Pyre nodded.
“So, why isn’t he here, then? Why not come himself? He just sent me away like a coward. Why on Earth, or wherever the fuck it is you’re from, would I go to him now? He just used me for sex.”
Pyre sighed.
“If he wants me that bad,” I said, standing my ground, “then he can come and tell me himself. Don’t send someone else to do the damn job for him. If he shows up, he can explain himself and answer my questions.”
I turned, stormed back inside, and slammed the door closed behind me.
The anger was so real I was shaking. How dare he just assume I would want to go back to him after the way he’d dismissed me?
He left me alone in the house while he went wherever he wanted.
He forced Ashe to locate me and drive me home.
Then he sent Pyre to try to bring me back? Who the hell did Ember think he was?
“He can’t come himself,” Pyre said, pushing open the door.
I cursed. I hadn’t fucking locked the thing! Idiot.
“Go away,” I said, pointing.
Pyre shook his head. “Ember sent you away for your protection,” he said stubbornly.
“Protection?” I shouted. “From what? Himself?”
“No,” Pyre said. “Nobody told you?”
“There was nobody left to tell me!” I cried.
“Albright attacked Fire Castle,” he said. “Ember had to go there as fast as he could. If Albright got to the throne, it’s all over. Ember literally could not afford to have come for you. He didn’t want to send you away. He’s crazy about you.”
The dragon shifter didn’t sound overly impressed by the idea, but he seemed to be telling the truth.
“Oh,” I said slowly.
“If Albright won, and you were still at Casa Infernum when he came through to claim the rest of his territory,” Pyre explained, “you would have been at his mercy.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know how to say anything else, apparently.
“Ember did what he had to do,” Pyre said. “He did what was best for the Throne. Just like I’m doing now.”
“That’s an awfully good excuse for Ember,” I said slowly. “But it still doesn’t explain why he lied, saying he thought I was his mate, then using me for sex.”
Pyre shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. He still thinks you’re his mate. That’s what he said to me, at least.”
“He does?”
Had I misinterpreted things? I’d tried to take him at face value as Chelsea had told me to. That was why I'd taken him at his word when he’d said emotion didn’t necessarily come with physical actions.
Unless that wasn’t what he’d meant …
So, what the hell did I do? I wasn’t sure. I needed more information.
“Did Albright lose, then? Is the coup attempt over?”
Pyre shrugged. “Ember was about to fight him when he sent me to get you.”
“Why did he send me?”
“Because, apparently, Albright had hatched a plan to come for you,” Pyre said. “I thought it was one of his men in here with you when I arrived. Not … whoever that was.”
“My ex,” I said softly, fighting back a shiver as fear coiled in my stomach, ready to latch its claws into me. Albright knew enough about me to come after me? That was scary. I wasn’t safe there, then. Not without other dragon protection.
“So, are you going to come with me?”
“What’s the plan?” I asked, still trying to decide, trying not to cling to the burgeoning piece of hope that sat heavily next to the fear. Hope that maybe Ember did care, and it had all been a mix-up. I didn’t want to let myself get too excited. Not until I could hear it from his mouth.
“We go to Casa Infernum. Ember will send word there. If it’s good, then I’ll take you to see him.
If not, I give you enough money to disappear and start your life over again, where Albright will never find you.
Of course, if Ember is out of the way, he won’t care about you. But better safe than sorry.”
“Start my life over?” I gasped, mortified. “How … Oh my god.”
The reality of the conflict I’d gotten involved in was beginning to sink home. Albright was a maniac. I couldn’t let his men get me. If they did, while Ember was still alive, I could only envision what they’d do to me to try to force Ember’s hand.
And if he did what was best for the princedom, as he so often said … he’d be forced to let Albright have free rein. He couldn’t afford to give in and surrender just for my safety.
“Okay,” I said hurriedly, decision made. “Let’s go.”
One thing was certain. I was safer with Pyre and the others who supported Ember than I was on my own.
We left my house and went down the stairs. Paolo had wandered off somewhere. I wasn’t sure where, nor did I really care. I had bigger fish to fry at the moment.
Pyre led me to his car and opened the back door for me like he was a chauffeur.
“Thank you,” I said, sliding in.
“No, thank you,” he said, closing it and hurrying around to the front to get in. “After all, the princedom needs this.”
I frowned. There was something about how he said those words …
The engine fired up. Panicking, fearing I’d made a horrible mistake, I went for the door. It was locked, and I couldn’t pry it open.
“Pyre?” I shouted, struggling. “Pyre, what’s going on?”
“As I said,” he said stonily. “For the good of the Fire Realm.”
“What about Ember?” I asked nervously.
Pyre smiled at me in the rearview mirror. It was a different, scary sort of smile. One I’d never seen on him before.
“I mean the princedom. Don’t you worry, though. Albright will take good care of you. He doesn’t need to hurt you. Not if Ember does as he’s told. No, all he needs is leverage. And now he has it.”
Pyre’s evil chuckle filled the car, and we drove into the night, me pounding on the doors and windows, trying to escape.