CHAPTER 9
Jakob
After a sleepless night with nothing more than thoughts of Mallory, Jakob was in his chamber room the next morning doing “king stuff” as she would say when he felt it.
That sharp, tearing sensation that almost stopped his heart.
Fear, searing and unmistakably hers, slammed into him without warning like a white-hot blade driven straight between his ribs. His breath caught. His heart stuttered.
Mallory.
“Your Majesty?"
Dozens of eyes stared at him as he suddenly launched himself off his throne.
He ignored them and spun toward the sensation. Without a word, he ran outside just as the sound reached him.
A scream that tore through the thin mountain air.
“Mallory!” Jakob shouted, already moving.
Snow crunched under his boots as he broke into a sprint and the world narrowed to the sound of her fear and the jagged line of trees ahead. Her scream came from the direction they had taken the day before.
He should never have taken her to the spring, but he never thought she’d try to go alone.
The thought lashed through him even as he ran. He’d warned her that some places weren’t meant to be found twice. He hadn’t told her that some places were only acceptable with dragon blood. He hadn’t been able to tell her that.
He had told her that he would be tied up for the morning, and she had expressed the desire for a quick hike and promised that she wouldn’t go far. She had said nothing about attempting to find the sacred areas again that he had shown her.
The springs didn’t allow that.
He found her with her back up against a cliff and sheer terror written across her features.
“Are you hurt?”
She pointed. “There’s a…a…”
The trees exploded before she could get the words out.
The mountain cat burst from the brush in a blur of tawny muscle and flashing teeth. Its snarl reverberated off the cliffs in a sound that raised every hair on Jakob’s body.
Recognition hit him as hard as fear.
The cat was a guardian of ancient secrets. It circled them with deadly intent.
“Mallory, go back toward the resort!” he yelled though he knew it was already too late. He had broken the rules and now the penalties must be paid. Mallory had made things worse.
All the cat knew was that an imposter had invaded sacred territory.
Before Jakob could move, the cat launched itself at her and she stumbled as she tried to retreat.
Her boots slid on loose snow and ice as the cat reached her.
Her fall caused it to miscalculate its leap and the full weight of the cat slammed into her chest. Jakob watched helplessly as her foot skidded out from under her.
This time he couldn’t catch her and she went down hard with a cry.
Her head snapped back as it struck something solid beneath the snow.
“No!”
The cat circled around and lunged at her fallen form as Jakob’s world went red with fury.
With dragon speed, he crossed the distance in a heartbeat and reached Mallory just as claws raked across his shoulder.
Pain detonated along his back, hot and wet, but it barely registered beneath the inferno roaring through his chest. He hooked an arm around Mallory’s waist and dragged her behind him, planting himself between her and the animal.
“Stay down,” he snarled over his shoulder, unsure if she even heard him. “Don’t move.”
The sound that tore from his own throat wasn’t human.
The mountain cat skidded to a halt with flattened ears as Jakob turned fully toward it. He felt his teeth bare, felt something ancient and violent surge up from deep inside his bones.
The guardian knew him and its golden eyes locked on his, not with rage, but warning. It knew that Jakob had broken the rules.
Enough.
The word wasn’t spoken aloud, but it thundered through the air all the same. Jakob felt it echo in his chest and in his blood. All it did was incite the fury he already felt at Mallory being attacked.
The cat hesitated, just for a moment, but just long enough.
Jakob struck.
The air filled with the sharp stink of blood, both his and the cat’s before the guardian finally broke and fled back into the trees. Jakob barely felt the gash on his shoulder and the tremor in his hands when it was over.
The guardian had been trying to stop her because of him.
Silence fell like a blow as the mountains watched.
“Mallory?” His voice cracked as he dropped to his knees and hovered over her. “Mallory, talk to me.”
She lay unnaturally still, half-curled in the snow. Blood spread dark and terrible beneath her head and stained the white ground like spilled ink.
“No,” he whispered as the word tore out of him. “No, no, no. Gods, please no.”
He gathered her into his arms, careful and frantic all at once. Her head lolled against his chest. Her skin felt too cold and her breaths were shallow and uneven.
“Hey,” he said hoarsely, brushing snow from her hair with shaking fingers. “Hey, I’m here. You’re okay. You’re okay.”
The lie tasted like ash.
His dragon surged forward, no longer restrained.
She will die if you don’t act.
“I know,” Jakob whispered and bowed his head until his forehead rested against hers. His hands trembled violently now. “I know. I’ve got you. I won’t let you go.”
Take her to our healers.
The words hit like a thunderclap and Jakob froze.
“That’s forbidden,” he breathed. “You know it is.”
The springs are forbidden. Loving her is forbidden. And yet here we are.
His jaw clenched. “If the elders find out…”
Let them. Human healers will not save her. The guardian’s strike was effective. Her skull is fractured. She needs dragon magic.
Jakob’s chest ached with the weight of it. Every rule he’d been raised with pressed down on him at once. Dragons did not reveal themselves. Dragons did not take humans beyond the veil. Dragons did not bring outsiders to their sanctuaries.
But dragons also did not leave what was theirs to die in the snow.
Mine, the dragon growled. Ours.
Jakob forced himself to his feet and cradled her against his chest. The forest felt suddenly exposed, with every shadow a threat and every open space a risk.
Too many eyes. Too many rules.
Panic overruled his common sense that no one else was around as he pushed deeper into the wilderness until the branches grew thick and tangled enough to hide what he was about to do. When he finally stopped, his breath came out in ragged clouds.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured to Mallory, unsure whether it was for the pain, the fear, or the truth she was about to see if she woke too soon. “Just… hold on.”
He laid her on the ground and then he let go. The change ripped through him like lightning.
Bones shifted and power surged, wild and blinding. White light exploded outward as his human form disappeared and a pearl-white dragon stood where Jakob had been. His gleaming wings unfurled with a thunderous snap that sent snow cascading from the trees.
Frosted feathers shimmered along his neck and wings and sparkled in the winter sunlight like tiny shards of ice.
Carefully he gathered up Mallory and curled his massive body around her. His wings folded protectively to shield her from the cold as if she were made of something impossibly fragile.
“Hold on,” he rumbled, his voice a deep echo in the clearing. He lowered his head and nudged her gently with his snout. “I’ve got you. I promise.”
He launched into the sky.
The wind tore past them as he flew and clouds ripped apart around his wings. The mountains fell away beneath him, reduced to nothing more than jagged shadows. His muscles burned with the effort, but he pushed harder, faster, with every beat of his wings fueled by fear and fury alike.
Mallory stirred against his chest.
His heart lurched.
Her fingers twitched and brushed against the warm scales beneath her cheek.
“Jakob…” she whispered, the sound so faint it almost vanished into the wind.
He rumbled softly, lowering his head so she could feel the vibration. “I’m here,” he said, desperate for her to hear it. “I’ve got you.”
Her hand slid weakly along his chest before it fell weakly back to her side.
Mine.
The word wasn’t a whisper now. It was a vow.
Lights flared ahead as the healers’ enclave came into view. He descended in a rush of wind and snow and landed heavily but carefully. He lowered Mallory to the ground just as voices shouted and footsteps pounded toward them.
Healers swarmed with hands glowing and urgent voices. They didn’t ask questions. They assessed and went into action.
“She’s bleeding…”
“Head wound…move…”
“Get her inside now!”
Jakob took a step back and his chest heaved. He would face the consequences of his actions later.
Mallory stirred more fully and her lashes fluttered.
Panic seized him. If she woke up like this, if she saw him, he couldn’t bear the rejection.
He couldn’t.
With one last, aching look at her pale face, Jakob backed away and his wings spread wide. Snow whipped up as he launched himself into the sky, the healers’ shouts fading beneath the roar of the wind.
He didn’t stop flying until the clouds swallowed him whole.