The Shadow Heir: A Standalone Fantasy Romance (Secrets of the Fae), page 23
The pale-yellow dragon snorted and tossed its head, its wings spreading farther out as it balanced on its back legs. The second dragon, this one a dark color indistinguishable in the dim night, was howling as it circled above the platform, eager to repay me for its wound.
Ivy wept. At least she finally clutched a sword to her chest. She’d improved in her weapons training, but she wasn’t prepared for this. None of us was.
I stepped forward, sword at the ready, but my injured leg wouldn’t cooperate, so I shuffled out from the wall with a step-slide, step-slide. My heel clacked against the stones once more. The pale dragon turned one glassy eye down at me.
“I think it likes the sound,” I muttered to Tomas. Three quick times, I lifted and lowered my heel, grunting as my injured leg bore my weight briefly.
The dragon snuffled, then shifted its weight. It almost appeared excited. Or agitated. I was no expert in dragon body language. For two breaths, the one circling in the sky stopped howling.
I tried to clack both heels, but my burned leg buckled beneath me.
To keep from slicing myself, I dropped the sword. It clattered like a trumpet announcing my surrender.
From my hands and knees, I stared up at the beast, determined to keep from gagging on the spit I couldn’t swallow. My throat had stopped working.
“Not tonight,” I begged through clenched teeth. I’m going home. I’m leaving this place.
Casimiro’s husky voice as he’d commanded me not to get burned flitted through my mind, and I tried again to swallow. He wasn’t here. He hadn’t come.
“I didn’t steal from you,” I shouted at the dragon. My voice came out scratchy and weaker than I’d hoped.
The dragon dropped its snout closer to me and tucked its wings. I reached for my sword, but the animal trapped it with a massive, clawed foot. I clutched my hand back to my chest and attempted to scramble away from the enormous creature.
“What do you want?” I screamed. “I don’t have the stone. I don’t have anything!”
But the dragon wasn’t listening. It was filling its lungs with frigid air. I assumed by the depth of its inhale that its fire had replenished. I was too close. There was nowhere to go.
As it opened its mouth, Tomas hurled his sword, drawing the beast’s attention at the last second.
Flames burst from its mouth, and a scream tore from my throat. The fire blasted against the wall and arced over my head. The heat was so intense that I was thrown backward. My ribs ached from slapping the rock, but I tucked my hands over my head and curled my body into a ball where I’d fallen. The fire sputtered out and wingbeats signaled the animal was in flight. The smell of singed hair filled my nostrils, and the backs of my hands burned violently.
My mind slipped. I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t hold on.
The world eased out of my grip.
30
Casimiro
“Where is she?” I bellowed as my feet slammed down in front of Alba.
My sister stood among the crowd of mingling fae sipping from wine goblets beside the open windows of the old castle. Magic buzzed in my ears, in the faces of those present, in the wine, in the air. And nowhere in this palace could I sense Zara’s presence. My magic couldn’t feel her.
Alba looked up from her sparkling goblet but said nothing.
“Tell me what happened.”
Her eyes flashed with concern. “Not here.”
Leaning into her space, I growled at her ear, “Tell me now.”
Alba’s breathing quickened as all the eyes in the room watched us. I didn’t care. Didn’t want to waste a heartbeat on what they thought.
“She’s alive,” Alba whispered a second before she vanished.
I stormed through the crowd into the empty atrium of the castle, where Alba stood against the far wall. She was young, but she had inherited my father’s magic, which made her powerful and fast. A barrier surrounded her that only I could sense—a concealment spell.
My gaze snapped to my sister’s face. “Where?” In a breath, I crossed the distance, undeterred by the magic that would keep her unseen and unheard by the rest of my court—a perk of also inheriting our father’s abilities. “Where, Alba?” The fact that I couldn’t sense Zara’s presence meant only one thing—she’d been burned by dragon fire. A fire of my own kindled in my blood.
“Cas,” she hissed. “Look at your arms.”
“Tell me where she is!”
The curse tore through my veins, shredding me like a scalpel from the inside. Humans couldn’t survive dragon fire, even the smallest burns, if they were left untreated. The magic in the flames would eventually turn their blood toxic. I’d been a fool to leave—to trust I could return when someone here wanted to keep me away.
“Look at yourself! That’s why I closed the doorway,” Alba exclaimed, pointing at my hands. “Because you don’t have enough sense to keep yourself alive.”
Shock pulsed through me, dulling the pain for a brief moment. I clamped two quick hands around my sister’s shoulders. “You did this.”
I had known. I had sensed her betrayal in my room, hours ago, when Zara had stood there asking who would do this. When I’d pieced together that my sister was the only person who knew how I felt about Zara. The only person who would care about me enough to try to stop my feelings. And as I looked into my little sister’s face, the face of the one person I cared for more than anyone else in the world, the stab of pain split me in two.
She gripped my forearm, her eyes wide as my balance faltered. “I was trying to help. You know what happens if your curse brings him home before we’re ready.” Her voice was thick with worry.
“She might die because of what you did.”
“And you’ll die if you go to her now, Cas. We both will.”
Because if Father came home tonight, he’d kill us both. The antidote wasn’t ready yet. It wasn’t strong enough. We needed more time.
I shook my head. “I won’t let that happen, Alba. But I can’t let her die either.”
Alba’s mouth parted in quiet shock. “You really care for her.”
A moment of silence passed as I tried to master the pain that would render me useless to Zara if I let it. I had to take control.
My sister tucked her hair nervously behind her ears. Tonight, strands of tree moss hung among the loose curls she’d styled into her hair. “I thought…” She couldn’t seem to finish.
“You thought that if she died, I’d stop caring for her, and father would stay away longer.”
Alba nodded faintly, her eyes glistening brighter than before. In my words, she heard what I hadn’t said. That even death wouldn’t stop the way I felt about Zara. Admitting that shook something deep inside me.
“I’ve tried to show her that I’m not the monster she met a few weeks ago, but I’ve failed. All she can see is the danger I’ve put her in, especially after tonight. She hates me,” I said.
“Cas, I’m so sorry. I was only trying to keep you alive. I didn’t know it was…”
Love hung unsaid between us.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, willing the pain away. “All my life, I’ve been searching for…” My hand fell away. “I’ve been searching for her. Now tell me where she is.”
31
Zara
From a soft bed, I stared up at star-shaped chandeliers. Voices buzzed around me, but I recognized none of them. Pain danced down my leg and stabbed at the back of my hands. I was in a cave. Cool, moist air and knobby rock formations filled the chamber.
The palace of the Shadow Court. Nightsong. Cas’s palace.
Memories tapped against my mind like strangers seeking shelter. I couldn’t remember why I was here, or what had hurt me.
I recalled a woman’s freckled face and red hair. A white dress. A wide underground lake. Dragons.
My lungs sucked in air, and I tried to sit up.
A cool hand pressed me back down. “There now, she’s awake.” A man with pointed ears and long blond hair stared down at me. He wore an exquisite suit woven with golden threads, and a beaded headpiece adorned his brow. He was vaguely familiar, but my mind wasn’t filling in all the gaps yet.
“Leave me alone,” I said in a raspy voice.
He glanced up at another fae, a woman with honey-colored hair and amber skin. She was so beautiful that her skin faintly glowed. No—I reminded myself—that was magic.
Large cushions had been stacked under me, and several fae lounged against other pillows on the cavern floor. A woman played a piano a short distance away, filling the room with a calming sonata.
As I took in my surroundings, foggy memories floated in. Snippets of the trial returned to me. The pale dragon watching me. Dropping my sword. Hiding from the flames. I glanced at my hands. Red blisters bulged across my skin.
“Can you stop the pain?” I asked, desperate for one of Cas’s antidotes right about now. These fae had magic. They had the means to heal me, if they chose. I sensed several people watching me and heard a few giggles.
I propped myself on my elbows and took in the cavern and the fae sitting near me. A dark-haired fae still displaying shadowy wings grabbed my hand and pressed it to his lips. The pain in my wounds subsided with a wave. My stomach somersaulted, and my ears heated.
“You want to make the pain go away,” he said. “I have just the thing.” He reached for a goblet that a woman had extended toward him, and he brought it toward my mouth. “This will make all your pain go away.”
Finally, an antidote.
“Where is Cas?” I mumbled as I took the goblet.
The fae exchanged a glance. “The heir is away, tending to court business.”
“But he specifically asked that we take good care of you.”
“He did?”
One of the fae women pressed her lips together to hide a smile, and I distinctly heard a snort from someone behind me.
A stab of doubt prickled through me, but fae couldn’t lie, and I would do anything to stop this pain. If Cas had asked them to take care of me, I was safe. I lifted the goblet in my hands and inhaled deeply. It had a sharp scent, cinnamon and ginger and something stronger. This mulled wine had a lot more than simply grapes. I’d heard of the fae’s spiced wine, but I couldn’t remember exactly what else I’d heard about it. But if I’d heard of it, it must be famous. And famous must mean good. It smelled good.
The pain was making it hard to think straight. Maybe if the pain disappeared, I’d be able to remember more.
I brought the cup to my lips and took a small sip, afraid I wouldn’t like the flavor. But as soon as the liquid touched my tongue, it traveled all the way down to the depths of my body and warmed me. “Oh,” I said aloud, embarrassed at my exclamation but unable to contain myself. This was the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted. I took one more sip, a larger one. Several of the fae around me chuckled behind uplifted hands, but the man who had given me the cup smiled with such intensity, such desire that my entire body leaned toward him. I handed him back the goblet and he took it gently, careful to caress my fingers with his own as he passed the cup to the woman behind him.
I stared at my hands. The bulging blisters began to recede, and the skin across the back of my hands began to mend. I let out a small cry of relief, and then my head began to spin. I crashed back into the pillows as dizziness overtook me. The cavern spun as if someone had picked up one end of the floor and was going to flip it over, much like the dance floor I had been forced to perform on my first night here.
Ignoring the laughter all around me, I slammed my fist into the pillow by my head, willing the dizziness to go away.
“That’s only the magic of the dragon fire leaving your body,” one of the fae women said, suppressing a giggle.
A few people shifted their weight, and the pillows around me moved. Somebody was lying down next to me. My shoulders rocked back and forth.
“The dizziness will go away soon. Don’t worry.” A hand stroked my back.
And then a sound, different, louder, cut through the dizziness and mental chaos.
“Get your hands off her!” a deep voice boomed across the open space.
The hand that was stroking my back leaped from me like a frightened animal, and the people around me scrambled to get away. I still couldn’t open my eyes against the reeling sensation in my head. Even the piano had cased.
I tilted my chin to get a glimpse at whoever was coming, and the entire world began to revolve again. I pressed my mouth into the pillow and groaned. Then, strong hands were turning me over gently, slipping underneath me, pressing firmly under my shoulders and knees. I shook my head, but the movement tortured my dizzy mind.
“Hold on, little spark,” a familiar voice said. I knew this voice. I peeked one eye open as my face sagged against a man’s chest. Cas’s chest.
“You didn’t come,” I mumbled.
He coughed. “I tried. I was delayed. But close your eyes. I’ve got you now.”
My body bounced and clunked against Cas as he carried me. The gentle swaying of my body kept the dizziness at the forefront of my consciousness. I wasn’t aware of where he was taking me. My entire world was still tilting. But when we burst out into the sunlight, my eyes popped open, and I looked around.
Keeping one arm looped underneath my shoulders, he dropped my feet to the ground, where my shoes met tall grasses. I stumbled against him, pressing a hand to his chest as I gained my footing. He gripped my arm with his free hand, steadying me.
“You should sit down,” he said, guiding me to the warm grass. We were in the middle of a large field atop a small knoll. Horses grazed in the distance. A breeze tousled his hair and rippled over the ocean of green grass.
“Where…?” I was so dizzy, so confused, so cold, despite the warm air. My head hurt, and my body ached.
Cas sat beside me, squinting in the bright sun. “Rest for now. The sun will help.”
When I was settled on the ground, Cas’s arm slid off of my back, taking its warmth with him.
“Wait,” I mumbled, barely able to form the word properly. “I’m freez…” My loose lips couldn’t finish the sentence before I tipped sideways, my face smearing against his warm shoulder. For a second, he didn’t move, then he wrapped his arm around me once again. I tucked my face against his chest and breathed deeply into his crinkled white shirt. The comforting scent of cinnamon and cut wood washed over me, soothing me. My tired body melted against his.
With nothing to lean against, Cas rocked backward as my weight sagged against him. When we were lying on the grass, my face pressed against him, he shifted so that I fit in the crook of his arm and propped his other hand under his head.
“Cas,” I mumbled, trying to sort through the shuffled thoughts in my head and feeling a strange desire to express them all. “I have to go home. I have to make it back home. Can’t you take me home?”
His chest expanded underneath me. “I can’t do that, Zara. The bargain still has power over you.”
To my shock, he stroked gentle fingers down my back and a sudden, strange thought occurred to me. If I went back home, I’d never get to feel him do that again.
“I’m not what you think,” I said, exhaustion weighing heavy on me but still feeling the need to explain myself. The fact that I couldn’t see his face made this easier. Or maybe it was the wine. “You wanted me to break, but I’m already broken,” I muttered, thinking back over the mistakes I’d made over the years. “I’ve been broken for years, and I’m afraid that’s why I keep messing things up.”
His hand paused as it traced lines up my back.
“The sunlight will help,” he said again, his voice as firm as the muscles under my smushed cheek.
My body shook with chills and the strange dizziness rattling my mind. He pulled me in tighter, and I tipped against him. As my arm wrapped around his middle, it occurred to me how wonderful this felt, and how I’d never felt safer. Sleep overcame me, and I dropped from consciousness.
When I next opened my eyes, I groaned as my muscles moved from the awkward position of being draped against Cas as we lay on the ground. I glanced briefly around at the sunlit fields and noticed a manor house tucked way in the distance. Cas shifted, looking over at me. The sunlight struck his eyes in a way that made them look lighter.
I struggled to sit up, to pry myself off of him. What in all the worlds had I been thinking? He was the shadow heir, not a lounge chair.
And yet, he’d held me.
He sat up, raking a hand through his hair to rid it of the grass that clung to him. His cheekbones created shadowed ridges in his face, and I was struck by how handsome he was. I glanced at the back of my hands. The burn marks had vanished, leaving only a faint pinkish hue where they’d been.
“Sunlight helps the effects of the wine dissipate quicker,” he said, his voice rumbling through my bloodstream as panic set in. Ariana had warned me not to drink the wine, but in my confused state, I’d thought they were merely giving me something to ease the pain.
I’d slept against him. And he’d let me. My mind spun, and a dull headache pressed against my temples. Cas had carried me here. Carried my limp, inebriated body to a place I could sleep off whatever I’d just drank.
“Aren’t you weaker in the sunlight?”
His mouth pressed to a hard line. “I am. But it makes you stronger.”
I blinked at him, trying to make sense of his words, of why my heart was beating so fast. I couldn’t let myself feel this way around him. “And the burns?” I asked, examining my leg, which was a deep red, tinged with yellow in places.
Cas rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the ground between us. “The burns have only begun to heal. They won’t fully heal for weeks, and that’s only if you can get all the poison out of your bloodstream.” He glanced up at me. “I healed what I could, but you require magic I don’t have. I’m not an expert healer. When we leave here, I will take you to the infirmary, where you will rest until your wounds heal.”
Trying to look casual, I lifted my chin. “Where is here?”
