Page 25

The pause which followed stilled the wind in the trees, birdsong falling away and even the crickets silencing their cries while neither of us moved, each assessing the other, predators weighing our odds.

Demands stalled on my lips before they could coil themselves around my tongue.

There was no point in telling this man that he had no choice but to come with me.

There was no point in demanding he do as I bid.

Everything in the ferocious gaze he kept me pinned within made it more than clear that the only way I would obtain his compliance was by force.

Not that I was a stranger to such methods.

I reached out with my gifts, straining towards his desires, hoping to tug them into my grasp and use them against him, but I only caught a taste of his desperate longing for freedom before the tension between us snapped.

The Dragon shifter lunged for me, his huge body devouring the distance which divided us in one powerful move.

I twisted to the side, my boot swinging for the square line of his jaw as he threw his arms out to tackle me.

My blow landed, his head jerking aside from the impact but instead of falling back, he caught my ankle in his grasp and tugged.

I cursed as he yanked me off of my feet, my back hitting the gravel hard enough to strike the breath from my lungs before he was upon me far faster than any man his size should have been able to move.

I swung my dagger for his side, my hand twisting at the last moment to take the potency from the strike, my need to take him alive forcing me to pull the blow. My blade sliced across his ribs instead of sinking between them, but he didn’t so much as flinch at the pain.

He caught my wrist in his hand, his fingers banding around my flesh before slamming it into the grit above my head. I let him knock the dagger from my grip, his huge, naked body pinning me to the dirt beneath him.

I struck with my free hand, punching him in the throat and forcing a bellow of fury from his lungs which rivalled the roars of his Dragon form.

I kicked and bucked beneath him while he fought to immobilise me, using his size to keep me pinned under him and barely flinching beneath the barrage of my strikes despite the force of my attacks.

I jerked my knee up, aiming for his balls but he caught my knee with his free hand, forcing my leg aside and pressing his weight down between my thighs to stop me from doing it again.

I bared my teeth at him, locking my ankles behind his back and throwing my weight up to try and roll us over but he only pushed his weight down harder, snarling at me with smoke slipping between his teeth.

He fought to take hold of my free hand between my ferocious blows before finally closing his fist around mine and slamming it down into the ground with the other.

Adrenaline surged through me as I was immobilised, my breaths coming sharp and ragged, stands of pink hair fluttering across my eyes as I glared up at him before swinging my forehead for the bridge of his nose.

He reared back just in time to avoid the blow, those silver cut eyes boring into me while I glared right back at him in turn.

I wasn’t entirely sure of what I had been expecting the Dragon I’d been hunting to look like in its Fae form, but it certainly wasn’t this. He was…breathtaking.

The man who loomed over me wasn’t in his later years, despite the evidence I had seen in that cavern where he’d been held which had made me think he’d been there for a hell of a long time.

His hair wasn’t greying and though his brow was furrowed in fury, his face wasn’t lined with the passage of time.

He couldn’t have held more than ten years over me, though the darkness in his silver eyes suggested he’d been witness to far more than that.

His jaw was razor sharp, lined with a dark stubble which hid the beginnings of two scars that extended down to his throat and into the tattoos he had inked there like the talons of some beast had once ripped into his flesh.

Just another stain upon his skin, marking the many trials he’d survived on his journey to this point in time.

“What now?” he asked, his voice low and deadly, the certainty of his victory over me clear in the way the tension was falling from his posture. He wasn’t fool enough to loosen his hold on me, but the way he expelled a harsh breath told me that he thought the battle between us was won.

I blew the tangles of pink hair from my face and let my eyes roam over his features before tracking the column of his neck which was painted in an intricate tattoo which blended into the ink on his chest and shoulders.

I watched the rise and fall of his throat as he swallowed and eyed the still-bleeding wounds where the crystals had been lodged in his skin.

The corners of my lips twitched and his gaze tracked the movement, the faintest stirring of desire corrupting the air between us.

I parted my mouth so that my tongue could grace my bottom lip just as a drop of blood rolled from the wound on his neck, up the line of his throat and spilled from his chin.

The iron taste of his blood filled my mouth and I grinned as I took ownership of it, the dark power within me rising to the surface as I called out to the ether and placed cold shackles around his soul.

“Now, you’re going to help me up,” I told him in my most seductive voice and my smile only grew as I pushed my will against his and forced him to release his hold on my arms.

The Dragon snarled as he felt the tightness of my grip on his soul, that cocky arrogance which had been growing in his expression falling to pure hatred as he realised what I’d done.

He fought me, his fingers biting into my flesh as he resisted the weight of my power and my own smile faltered at the force it took to maintain my hold on him.

I’d only stolen a drop of blood. My grasp was limited and even as I fought to take hold of his body, I could feel my grip on his soul slipping.

I gritted my teeth as I pushed harder, darkness swimming on the edges of my vision as the power of the magic I was commanding demanded a price from me in turn.

I gave it, knowing too well that I wouldn’t receive another chance, that his next move would be deadly if I slipped for so much as a moment.

His hold on my wrist slackened and I ripped it free, my hand flying to his throat where my fingers smeared through more of his blood and my grip on him tightened once more.

I released a shuddering breath as the heat of his flesh danced against my palm, the furnace inside of him blazing fiercely as he fought against my control. But I had what I needed now and even the venomous fury in his expression couldn’t stand against the might of ether.

He stood abruptly, taking my hand and hauling me up with him so that we stood mere inches apart, each of us glaring at the other though now it was my victory which danced between us.

He towered over me even more than most Fae did, probably closer to seven feet in height than six, the enormity of his body clearly in line with the sheer mass of the beast he became when shifted.

His body was stacked in muscle, endless ink and scars decorating his chest, arms, thighs, though I couldn’t spare the tattoos any real attention while I refused to look any lower than his eyes.

“Give me your name,” I hissed between my teeth, my focus on the magic I was wielding over him, my hold on it tested with every second as he fought body and soul to break free of it.

“Bastian Carderrin,” he ground out, though clearly he didn’t want to comply and the weight of his name fell over me as I stole it from his lips.

I backed up, my fingertips starting to tremble as I fought to keep hold of him with the ether.

I didn’t have long and the look he was giving me made it all too clear that our next fight would end only in death.

But I needed him alive if I was going to be set loose on the hunt for Cayde and I refused to let my sisters down again.

I crooked a finger, beckoning him to follow me as I retreated towards my pack, my eyes falling over his naked body despite myself as I moved though I refused to give my full attention to his cock.

I had known all manner of men and warriors in my life.

I’d taken lovers and lived in barracks and I’d seen more than enough naked bodies between life on deployment and watching countless Fae shift in and out of their Order forms, but Bastian Carderrin was in a league all of his own.

He was the type of man who made all others appear as little more than boys, a man built for the ruin of virtue and destruction of morality in all the best ways.

No doubt it was a pity I’d sworn off black hearted bastards because he looked like a ruin worth damning myself for.

My boot knocked against my pack and I dropped down beside it, tightening my grip on the ether which held Bastian and quickly tugging the straps open before dumping the contents on the ground.

I rifled between my belongings with my head spinning, hunting for the supplies Moya had given me before grabbing the jar of dill seeds and tearing a scrap of parchment free from the journal I’d brought too.

I hadn’t ever cast this magic before, the price of it never having seemed worth the results but I no longer cared about losing a few days from my lifespan. I had no intention of holding onto this paltry excuse for an existence for a single moment longer than it took to destroy Cayde anyway.

I slit the tip of my finger open with my dagger and painted Bastian’s name onto the parchment in my own blood followed by the runes Laguz for life force and Nauthiz for endurance before scattering the dill on top of it.

“What is that?” Bastian snarled, his muscles bunched with tension and the clear desire to tear my head from my body as I took my flint from the heap of my supplies and struck it against my blade.

Sparks flew then guttered out, forcing me to try again while my hands shook with the effort of keep my grip on the ether restraining my captive.

“A curse,” I gritted out, the darkness closing in around me even more as I fought to maintain my focus.

It took me four more attempts to spark a fire and I exhaled heavily as the parchment finally caught, burning it along with my blood and the seeds in a deep blue flame until only a smear of ash stained the gravel where they’d been.

“If I die, Bastian Carderrin, then an ill wind will haunt you through all of your days and nights bringing nothing but misery and pain to every moment you possess,” I panted through gritted teeth.

“I will release you from this curse upon our entry to Stormfell and not a moment sooner. So let’s see if my death means more to you than that.

And let us not forget that I can still take command of your blood if you force me to do so again.

I’d rather not have to hog-tie and drag you along behind me but I’ll do what I must.”

Bastian narrowed his eyes at me, a deep growl rolling up the back of his throat which betrayed the monster in him but he said nothing.

I grabbed the coil of rope from my pack and stalked over to him, taking his wrists and swiftly binding them with my shaking hands before staggering back again as my hold on the ether and my control over him shattered.

Bastian released another low, violent growl, smoke spilling between his teeth but made no move towards me as I stumbled back to my pack, the end of the rope in my grasp.

“I see you aren’t as stupid as you look,” I panted while shoving my belongings away again, though I kept my eyes on him as I did it.

“But you’re clearly far more vicious than you appear,” he replied, his voice deadly cold.

“A mistake most men don’t get the luxury of recovering from making,” I agreed, tossing him the thin blanket from my pack so that he could at least attempt to cover himself.

Bastian caught it in his bound hands though clearly he couldn’t wrap it around himself with the way they were tied.

I grunted in frustration, hauling my pack onto my back before approaching him the way one might close in on a wild animal.

He made no move to attack me as I reached for the blanket and I made quick work of tying it around his waist.

“There,” I purred, regaining a little of my poise as my hands finally stopped shaking. “Now you almost look civilised.”

“No chance of that,” he countered, holding my gaze with an acidic kind of hatred which I couldn’t even blame him for. He’d gotten a taste of freedom and here I was stealing it from him before he’d so much as been able to swallow it.

I looked away from the molten silver in his eyes, my heart sinking as I took in the powerfully lethal barrier dividing us from the wastes and Stormfell beyond them. I had no magic to propel us over it and nowhere near enough supplies to see us through the journey back either.

With a heaviness in my chest, I turned my attention towards Pyros instead, a distant coil of smoke on the horizon catching my gaze.

Where there was fire, there was Fae. And where there was Fae, there would be supplies, shelter, and hopefully some magic for me to steal before I was forced to dress myself in bloodshed once again.

“Come on,” I grunted, turning towards the distant smoke and tugging on the rope between us.

And whether it was because he was as hungry as he looked, or because he was biding his time in his plot to end me, or simply because he was as tired of this hunt as I was, Bastian didn’t argue as we began to walk into the heart of enemy lands.

I just wasn’t certain that was a good thing.