Chapter Eleven #2
One by one the others drop. Green-bronze hides and rust-red wings—all of them big enough to block out the sun.
The air buckles under their weight, thick with sulfur and smoke.
Soldiers who were brave two heartbeats ago suddenly remember who the fuck they don’t want a beef with.
They edge back, eyes down, weapons left in sheaths because steel won’t do shit against what just parked on the royal lawn.
Legend’s blue eyes move across the dragons like he’s trying to figure out what the fuck is happening.
Then they come back to me. Something shifts in his expression—the look of a man who has made several confident assumptions in the last five minutes and is currently watching every single one of them collapse.
Arabella’s mouth hangs open.
I keep my eyes on Legend. Thyrix’s heat soaks through my gear and still I don’t turn. Let Legend feel the dragon at my back the same way I felt his knife in it the second he fucking dismissed me.
I snarl.
“Now, now, Hellpet. Red isn’t his color.”
Thyrix lowers his head, grazing my shoulder in a deliberate nudge that leaves a scuff of black soot on my jacket. I reach up without looking to scratch the scales under his chin. A low rumble answers—amusement, not warning.
“Be nice, Thyrix. Remember, he’s my mate. Even if he is a fucking fool right now.”
Thyrix blows steam from his nose.
Legend’s jaw flexes.
“There’s a damn dragon ban!” Arabella’s annoying fucking voice interrupts. “How are they here?”
I grit my teeth. She did this. Took away their purpose and left them feeling lost. Tried to claim my mate. I’m not stupid enough to think she was smart enough to pull it off on her own, but that’s a whole different fight. One I will have—just not today.
My body begins to tremble as a tingling sensation spreads across my skin, like something is boiling just underneath.
The beast strokes my spine and my eyes snap wide.
I’m going to explode.
No, I’m going to ignite.
“Stop!” Another voice this time, and the urgency actually manages to draw me out of whatever heat was consuming me.
Creed. “Yay,” I fold my arms across my chest, fingers digging into the leather of my jacket sleeves. “My other favorite person.”
Creed steps forward.
He’s different. Where Legend seems better, this royal looks worse.
The clean boots are scuffed at the toe. The black shirt is wrinkled at the collar like it was slept in—if he slept at all. His jaw is tight the way it always is, sure, but the skin beneath his eyes looks hollow and dark. It’s not a look I’ve seen on him before.
And there’s something else sitting in the lines of his face. Something that twitches when his gaze lands on me and stays there a beat too long.
Guilt.
Well, what the fuck did you do, Oldest Royal?
“Mmmm…” The Nightkin rumbles. “The question should be what hasn’t he done?”
“I said take her away.” Legend shoves forward then, shaking Arabella’s hand off when she tries to go with him, but putting himself in front of her.
Like he’s protecting her.
My lip curls and suddenly Creed is there, blocking him from my view.
“You will surrender yourself,” he says loudly, but there’s a look in his eye.
“He knows.”
Right. He’s in my head.
I picture myself gliding a dagger across his throat, wondering if that’s how his magic works and he can see me daydreaming about taking his life.
“He’s protecting the crowns, Hellpet. We must listen.”
That has my brows snapping together. “What? No. Hell no. I came here to save you, not play nice with them.”
“I know, little mate, and we will figure out how to do that, but think. You were exiled, believed to have used forbidden magic to trick their king. Gifted are watching.”
My tongue rolls along my teeth. “And the Kings of Rathe can’t look weak.”
“It will only make things worse. Their hand will be forced and we will all fall in the end.”
That’s a bit dramatic, but I guess I’ll listen. For now.
I bite the inside of my cheek. “I think I have every right and reason to be here, don’t you?”
“Haide.” Creed’s expression doesn’t change but there is a softness in his expression that wasn’t there before. “Think.”
“I’m what keeps you up at night, ain’t I?”
“You are nothing!” Legend screams so suddenly I startle.
My knees threaten to buckle, but I keep them upright.
“She has tricked the dragons as she’s tricked you! End her!” Arabella shrieks.
I roll my eyes.
Creed comes closer. The movement creates a chorus of rumbles among the dragons and he halts midstep, raising his hands in a show of innocence.
It’s like warmth spread straight into my soul.
The dragons really are protecting me.
They’re standing with me, an exile. A no one.
“Turn yourself over.” Creed tries again. “Now.”
“And why would I do that?”
“Hellpet.”
I ignore him.
Creed drops his voice this time, speaking only for me to hear. “Because we have something you want. Something you lost that we have found.”
My nails dig into my palms. Zev.
“Yes,” he hisses. “The one I saw in your head. He’s here.”
“Where?”
“Underground.”
“Creed!” Legend booms from behind him. “Wrap her ass in bounds and be done with it.”
“Surrender,” he says for their ears, then adds for mine, “It’s the only way I can help you now.”
“Do it,” the beast agrees. “It will get us inside the castle without bloodshed. And once we are in his space, he won’t be able to stay away. Legend will come to us.”
My attention snaps back to my mate, and his eyes narrow further.
“Okay, royal.” I stick my wrists out. “Take me away.”
“I’m going to need the dragons to let me.”
I shrug. “I don’t control them.” The beast scoffs in my head. “Besides, Thyrix wants to eat Arabella for lunch. I say we let him and get this over with.”
“We can’t.”
“Why not?”
Creed’s jaw clenches “Because if she dies, Legend might die, too.”
I seethe, pushing forward with a growl. “What did you do?”
“Haide. Please. One step at a time.” His eyes glow white. I tense, waiting for him to dig into my mind again—but it’s the other way around. Like I’m the one in his head.
I see his sincerity as if it’s my own.
I shove my arms out again with a deep breath. “Hurry before I change my mind.”
With one swift move of his arms and a few muttered words, the hellhound leashes wrap around my wrists. They come to life, slithering around my forearms and back down.
The beast’s laugh echoes in my mind. “The hellhounds, they recognize your blood. They won’t hold you.”
“Why? How?”
“I don’t call you Hellpet for nothing, little mate.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“You will, but play along. They need to feel like they’re in control.”
The dragons grow uneasy, their shifting weight sending rocks falling from the edges of the buildings.
Instantly, I turn to Thyrix. He understands without me saying a single word. With a commanding roar, he draws the attention of his companions and they instantly understand the order, kicking off the ground and soaring into the air.
Thyrix is the last to leave, but not before sending a short line of fire that dies out at Arabella’s feet, earning a little shriek from the Argent bitch.
I chuckle and Creed lets out a deep sigh.
“You’re going to be an even bigger problem now, aren’t you?” he murmurs.
I scowl, studying the man before me. “Why does it sound like you want me to be?”
Creed’s lips twitch the slightest bit, but his brows crash a second later. “Because I do.”