Chapter 9 #2
Count the steps. Ja, ja. Focus on the performance.
Head up. I was used to being around tall, muscular men but ash and embers.
There was big, and then there was BIG. I’d heard of the physical changes a shifter went through but never witnessed it firsthand.
My role was to keep the masses calm and entertained during combat.
Speaking of… “No Gunnar?” The mountain of a man would’ve been a nice ace to have right about now.
“He isn’t needed. You have me.” Sebastian got us inside, heat giving way to chill. He paused to release my hand and snake his arm around my waist, pinning me to his side.
He dipped his head to press a slow, searing kiss into my throat, staking his claim.
Shivers careened through my body, every nerve pulled tight.
I felt his every action like a caress. The lifting of his head.
When he paused near my ear. As he whispered, “Whatever you see, whatever you hear, do not fear for even the briefest moment. At no time will you be in danger. That, Brownie Bites, I promise you.”
Took a moment for me to recover from his kiss. Longer to recover from his words and endearment. Those stayed with me. The forbidden nickname, deployed on purpose. And ash help me, it worked.
Courage washed over me, and I straightened my shoulders. My spine turned to steel. I was the woman chosen by King Sebastian of the Kraken to save his kingdom. A dragon princess with the smokewings to prove it.
Satisfaction pulsed from him as he guided me forward once again.
My confidence only amplified as the guards we passed paled and looked anywhere but at us. The giants were that afraid of Sebastian?
Only then did I realize I’d never seen him fight. What in all the worlds did he do on the battlefield to cause such a reaction in those who might be forced to meet him there?
Hanging industrial lamps lit a vast space, twining beams with long, jagged shadows across the concrete floor.
The echo of distant voices and shifting metal reverberated through the area.
Dripping water. Echoes. Stacked in towering rows waited crates, some sealed with heavy chains. All stamped with the same warning.
YOU’RE NEXT
Past a wall of shelves, we encountered a cluster of shifters, standing around a crate. One of the men stood out from the others. The tallest person I’d ever faced. He was double Sebastian’s body mass with too much muscle. A brute with a wide brow and a flat nose. Jon?
Aggression tinged the air; the dragon inside me no longer stirring but crouched, ready to pounce.
Brute motioned for everyone else to leave. They did, racing as fast as their feet would carry them, proving his identity.
Jon looked me over and snickered. “Snatched her up fast for a nine-fingered drullusokkur.”
Ugh. I’d known someone would mention the speed of our connection. And had he really just referred to King Sebastian as a nine-fingered toilet plunger? Ash-hole.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I first saw her at a meeting of royals. From that moment forward, I worked to get her here.” Sebastian shrugged, not the least bit fazed by the admission. “Now she’s here, and she’s mine.” His voice hardened at the end.
That… that had sounded suspiciously true, and the very idea hit like a punch. A delicious punch, yes. But still a punch.
I scrambled for purchase while my dragon preened. But wait. Sebastian had arranged nothing. I’d decided to travel here all on my own.
Hadn’t I?
I mean, I recalled overhearing a conversation between two dragons discussing ways to sneak into other factions to check out their men, and an ambassadorship was one of them.
I thought about the reason I’d fought to come here: the vote. I remembered Sebastian’s pause before delivering his. How he’d stared straight at me while overseeing the vote’s defeat.
I considered the manticore, who hadn’t shown up, though he’d been a certain yes. Sebastian absolutely could have put all this into motion, arranging the manticore’s absence, then voting nei to force me to buy his yes.
And if so, the wily kraken had put in the work.
Maybe he had, maybe he hadn’t. And perhaps I should have felt betrayal at even the thought of his manipulations.
But nein. I’d wanted to come, and I’d seized on the vote as an excuse.
And whatever he had or hadn’t done, I’d chosen to walk through that traveling stone.
But choosing the door he’d built for me wasn’t the same as him leaving the choice alone, and I wasn’t sure what to think about that.
Now get out of your own head.
Keep the beat. “She is done being spoken about as if she isn’t here,” I quipped. “I believe we’ve come for a reason, ja?”
My companion chuckled, as if my politely delivered rebuke delighted him. “Apologies, Brona.” He kissed my cheek and faced Jon, features icing. “Let’s get this done.”
Scorch my tail. Did he have to be so good at this besotted suitor game?
Jon watched our byplay with a toothy grin. “You make me wish I hadn’t killed my wife. But only a little.”
Okay, so, that was an alarming thing to say.
The shifter boomed a laugh at his own joke and motioned to the long crate. “Take a look at Jokull’s most recent gift. He carved a message for you.”
Sebastian’s fingers flexed on my hip, as if he was in the midst of an internal debate over whether to let me go or draw me forward. I wanted to see, needed to, and leaned into him, making the decision. Forward we walked.
Someone had already propped up the lid.
Bile rushed up my throat the second I spied the primordial’s victim.
Fresh from battle, mouth open in a silent scream.
Broken limbs. A gaping chest with missing organs.
One hand—missing its pinky—rested over his brow.
Along that arm were symbols drawn in blood I couldn’t decipher.
Not runes but words, perhaps. I thought I detected ancient Galdrastafir.
Sebastian’s nostrils flared. “The message says, I remember how good you taste.”
My dragon roared. “I will roast him alive, I swear it,” I announced before I even realized the words were brewing. The most startling fact? I meant them.
He petted my side, an act that soothed me and my dragon.
Jon smacked Sebastian’s shoulder. “Gotta admire the man’s style. It’s memorable. But no roasting is required, princess. I want to wear Jokull’s skull as a helmet and his ribs as a vest while I rip out the hearts of everyone who aided him.”
I mean, it wasn’t the worst visual. I’d heard more violent descriptions from Olyssa.
“Give me the rune now then,” Sebastian said.
“So you can break our truce and come after me before Jokull?” Jon scowled. “Not happening.”
“I’ll end him when the rune transfers. You will give me that rune the day before convergence, as agreed.” A tempest raged in his irises. “If you betray me, Jon, I will make what the primordial did look like the best days of your life.”
Having said his piece, he shifted me toward the exit.
And here was another reason he’d formed an alliance with Jon. The shifter king had possession of the stone. A little fact the kraken king left out when he explained the situation to me. But I understood. I’d been an unknown then, and he was as strategic as his grandmother.
“Your woman better complete her part at convergence.” Fury coated the shifter’s words. “Jokull is recruiting merkind, and their numbers grow daily. If you can’t kill the primordial, I’ll have no choice but to join him and end you.”
Sebastian’s arm tightened around me. He guided me from the area, through the warehouse.
I pressed my hands over my stomach. Everything hinged on me.