Warriors of Wind and Ash (Merciless Dragons #2)

“Then you know about him?” I lower my voice. “What he is?”

“Fuck, love, who do you think taught him how to behave decently while in a palace? He was plain feral when I found him, wasn’t he? And now look at him. Acting like a true gentleman.”

“Where is he?” I step forward, my heart beating frantically. “I need to see him. There are things he should know—”

“Easy, Princess. I’m here to take you to him.”

I take an eager step forward, and then I recall that Parma’s life is on the line if I don’t obey the King tonight. “If I’m not in that bedroom when Lord Harlowe arrives, the King will kill my maid, Parma. She’s more than a maid—she’s a friend. I have to be docile, he said, or she dies.”

The red-haired man tilts his head, eyeing me soberly. “You were going to sacrifice your body for her life.”

“Yes, and that’s why I can’t go with you. Harlowe will be here any minute.” I wince, tapping the cage around my hips. “He has the key to this.”

“Does he now?” The stranger purses his lips. “What’s this then?”

With a flourish and a twinkle of silver, he produces the very same key Rahzien used to lock my belt and my mask.

I gasp. “How did you—”

“Magic. Not the spellcasting kind, but some might say this sort of magic is better.” With a twirl of his hand, the key vanishes, then reappears again. “Lord Harlowe will be hunting for this key for quite some time, wondering where he dropped it. And I’ve arranged for him to be plied with strong drinks during his search—drinks with a little special powder in them—so eventually he will simply topple over. He’ll be put in his carriage by an ally of mine, and when he wakes up, he won’t remember a thing about what he did or didn’t do tonight. So you can come with me, love, and rest assured that your maid will be in no danger. But we should go quickly.”

I don’t hesitate for another moment. True, I just saw this man murder two Vohrainians right in front of me, so I should probably be scared of him—but he’s allied with Kyreagan, and right now that’s enough.

We hurry along the next hall, and then the man pushes open a door to one of the standby rooms, where the maid on night duty could remain close by in case I needed her. It’s a simple chamber, plainly furnished with a bed and a dresser. There’s a small privy closet at the back.

In the center of the room stand two men. I don’t even care about the other man—I leap for Kyreagan, throwing my arms around his neck, gripping him with all the force in my body.

“You,” I sob out, kissing his cheek, his mouth, anywhere I can reach. “You came after me.”

His fingers tangle in my hair as he tilts my face back to look at me. “Fuck yes, I did,” he says fiercely. “When I found out Fortunix took you, I had no choice. How could I live, knowing you were in pain, knowing what Rahzien would do…” His gaze darkens. “Did he breed you by force?”

“No.” I shake my head, but I can’t repress the shudder that travels my skin. “It was almost… worse.”

“Worse how?”

“I’ll tell you sometime. I can’t now.” I hunch my shoulders against the echo of Rahzien’s voice in my mind. “He told me you were dead. He said the same sorcerer who designed the poison that keeps me from running away created another kind of poison, too. They gave it to the flocks and herds on the Middenwold Isles—contaminated them, somehow. The poison is activated by dragon saliva, and he said every dragon who eats prey from the Isles will die.”

“That can’t be true.” Kyreagan pulls back, his handsome face stricken with horror.

“I didn’t believe him at first. But then I tried to escape, and I got so sick, Ky. I nearly died. If he was right about the poison inside my body, could he be right about the other poison, too? When you left the clan, were they safe and healthy? Had they eaten any prey from the Middenwold?”

The man behind him says, “Oh shit,” in a faint, terrified voice. He’s tall and gorgeous like Kyreagan, but with broader, softer features, brown skin, and long coppery locs.

“This is Hinarax,” says Kyreagan. “He and I left Ouroskelle four or five hours after you were taken. When we departed, no hunting parties had yet gone to the Middenwold Isles. By now they must have hunted there, and eaten the prey…”

“We have to find out. We need to know,” Hinarax interrupts, his voice breaking.

“Go,” Kyreagan tells him. “Find the tallest tower of this palace and take off from there. It’s dark—perhaps no one will see you. Either way, we must know what has happened.”

“Wait.” The red-haired man has been waiting by the closed door of the room, with his left ear pressed to the wood, listening for footsteps. But he comes forward now, his brows bent, his scarred lips pinched with worry. One of his eyes appears to be made of glass, but the other holds tumultuous emotion as he looks at Hinarax. “You’ll come back? Because if I fucked a dragon that well, only to never see him again, it would be—”

“Tragic?” I offer.

He gives me a twisted, pained smile. “Exactly. The Princess understands.”

“All too well,” I murmur.

“I’ll return when I can,” says Hinarax. “In the meantime, Meridian—take care of my prince and his life-mate.”