Page 15 of Heart of Fire (Royal Ice Dragons #3)

HANNA

I’d woken once in the middle of the night to find I’d moved closer to Dare, or maybe he had moved into me. The two of us were twined together. His big hand cupped the back of my head, which was pillowed by his shoulder, and I’d breathed in the clean scent of him.

Being held by Dare felt cozy and right, and I fell back asleep with a sense of relief, because for once I’d woken at night and not jolted into panic.

Then I woke up again later, and the bed was cold.

I sat up, my heart jolting in my chest. The firelight illuminated enough of the room to see that he wasn’t beside me. I flopped across the bed, hoping to see him lying on the floor.

The floor was empty.

I scrambled up, feeling a surge of fear, then realized he had probably headed to the toilet. I tucked my blankets back around myself carefully and leaned against the cold wall. Once he walked in that door, I was going to flop down and pretend I had never woken, never worried.

But the moments ticked by.

He didn’t return.

I got up and threw on my clothes, my coat. My hands were shaking as I concealed my knives.

He had left a sweater behind, tossed over the back of the chair. When I picked it up, the cool, clean scent he carried washed over me. I focused on raising my spell to search for him as I plucked a strand of yarn out of his sweater. When I threw the strand into the air and muttered the last word of my spell, it transformed into a bead of light.

The bead of light, visible only to me, moved toward the door and bumped against it.

Where had the secretive bastard gone now?

As I trekked across the ice, miners spilled out of the tunnels in the distance like ants from a scalded hill. The wind claimed all sound, but it looked as if they were shouting; it made the silence surrounding me eerie.

Part of me wanted to go and help, to find out what was wrong, but I had to find Dare. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was in trouble.

I pushed on until the castle loomed ahead of me. It was a massive structure, all dark stone and jagged edges, as if carved from the mountain itself.

The wind howled around me, carrying flecks of ice that stung my face. Even the trees that lined the path up to the castle seemed to shiver in the harsh wind.

More trees clustered around the castle, growing in the protection it offered the sparse branches from the wind, and their presence gave me an idea.

I closed my eyes, summoning my magic. With a flick of my wrist, I sent a burst of energy toward the nearby forest. The trees erupted in a dazzling display of flames, casting an orange glow across the snowy landscape.

Shouts of alarm echoed from the castle walls. Guards rushed to investigate, their attention drawn away from the main gates. I seized my chance, darting toward a small service entrance left unguarded in the chaos.

Just as I reached for the door, it swung open. I froze, coming face-to-face with a startled kitchen maid. We stared at each other for a heartbeat before I made a split-second decision.

“Fire!” I gasped, pointing toward the forest. “They need help at the east wall!”

The maid’s eyes widened. She nodded before rushing past me without a second glance. When I slipped inside, the door slammed shut behind me, sealing out the chaos.

Hopefully I didn’t burn down the castle, only to find out that Dare was drinking and bitching about the trouble I brought to his life.

The castle’s interior near the servants’ entrance was a maze of shadowy, smoky corridors. I crept along, pausing at the clatter of armored footsteps ahead.

The little bead of light bobbed ahead of me, taking me down one hall after another with no respect for my need to hide.

I climbed a narrow staircase, following the bead. As I rounded a corner, I almost came face-to-face with a guard rushing toward me. Luckily, he hadn’t seen me yet, and I threw myself into an alcove to my side.

I ducked behind a tapestry, holding my breath as a guard ran past, his face etched with urgency.

The little bauble of light followed him.

I followed both the light and the guard as they led me deeper into the castle, down a spiraling staircase.

I crept down the spiraling staircase, my footsteps muffled by the damp stone. The air grew colder, heavy with the scent of mildew and despair. Ahead, the guard’s bobbing lantern cast long, dancing shadows on the walls.

The distant sound of harsh, demanding voices echoed off the stone.

Dare’s voice jolted me.

He sounded strained. Not cocky.

As I peered around the final curve of the staircase, the dungeon sprawled before me, a maze of iron bars and flickering torchlight.

Dare was staked up to the wall.

The wave of protectiveness that rushed through me was bright and blinding and made me want to rush forward to save him. I barely held myself back in the shadows.

He hung limply from the wall by his wrists, which were anchored by chains. His face was a mess of purple bruises and crusted blood, one eye swollen shut.

Two guards loomed over him, their muscled forms taut.

One guard grabbed Dare by the hair, yanking his head back. “What are you up to, traitor?”

Traitor? Who the hell did they think Dare was…and who did they think he was betraying? I hesitated, even though my magic heated my fingers. I could barely control the impulse to destroy anyone who hurt Dare.

“I told you,” he gasped, blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth, “I serve Lord Baelur. Always have.”

The second guard, lean and wiry, barked a harsh laugh. “That’s rich, coming from Kustav’s spy.”

The first guard kept his hand in Dare’s hair as he buried his other fist in Dare’s lean torso. Dare let out a grunt that he couldn’t hold back, and I realized I’d taken a step forward involuntarily, ready to fight for him.

If Dare and the guards weren’t so focused, they would’ve seen me. I hesitated.

Then Dare let out a laugh, thin and shaky. “If you knew who I was…if you knew the stories about how I must be Baelur’s son…”

The words shocked me to my core.

Lord Baelur. The man who had murdered Dare’s parents. The father of Mattias, who had tormented Dare until the magic chasing me claimed his life too.

How the hell had Dare never mentioned the rumors he was Baelur’s son?

“Is that so?” the second guard mocked. “Well, since you volunteered…tell me who you are.”

I wanted to hear how Dare answered.

But he didn’t, and his strangled gasp as a fist connected with his ribs shattered my indecision. I could sort out the truth later; right now, he needed me.

I stepped from the shadows, magic crackling along my skin. Flames danced between my fingers, casting an eerie glow across the dungeon floor.

“Get away from my husband.”

The guards whirled, shock etched across their faces. The scarred one recovered first, reaching for his sword. “Who the hell?—”

He never finished. I unleashed my fire.

He ignited in an instant and let out a desperate scream. The sound died as he crumpled, smoke rising from his charred form.

The second guard lunged, desperation in his eyes as he realized that despite being twice my size, he was deeply outmatched. I sidestepped, my palm connecting with his chest. A sizzling sound split the air, and he stared at me in shock for a second before he collapsed,with a smoldering hole where his heart had been.

The acrid smell of burnt flesh filled the air as I rushed to Dare. His eyes, glazed with pain, widened in recognition. “Hanna?”

“I’m here,” I murmured, cupping his face gently.

For a long heartbeat, his gaze met mine. “Hanna,” he said again, the word reverent as a prayer.

I stared up at his handsome, battered face for a second longer than I should have. Then I released him and rushed to pull the keys from the pocket of the still-smoldering guard. I released one of his wrists, then the other.

Dare lurched forward, unsteady on his legs.

I caught him, lowering him to the ground until I cradled him with his head on my shoulder.

He shuddered in my arms, each labored breath sending a spike of worry through me. I cradled him close, my mind racing.

“I should’ve known you’d come,” he murmured, and when I put my hand on his cheek, he turned his face into my palm.

I ran my thumb over his wounded cheekbone, wanting to heal him and knowing we needed to get to safety. “Can you walk?”

He scoffed.

A return to his natural Dare-like state, then. Somehow, the two of us staggered to our feet. He took a step without me, then another, before his knees buckled, and I caught him with my shoulder under his arm.

I wrapped my arm around his waist, beginning to hobble with him toward the entrance; his leanly muscled body was heavier than he looked, and my knees ached with his weight. But I bore up to help him. I was ready to fight with everything I had to protect him.

“Why did you come?” he asked, his voice a raspy whisper. Even now, with blood dripping from his split lip, he managed to sound insolent.

I stared at him in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

He looked at me, his eyes searching mine. For a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of emotion, of gratitude. But then it was gone, replaced by his usual mask of indifference.

“You shouldn’t have come.” He sounded so sure of himself as we limped back up the stairs.

When we reached the main level, I caught a glimpse of the fire still raging; it was strange they didn’t use magic to end it, unless Kustav really didn’t have much power at all. But it was a good distraction; otherwise there would have been more people blocking our way to the door.

“I should’ve left you to die, huh?” I let out my own sardonic laugh, echoing Dare’s version. I barely recognized that laugh. It was something only he brought out of me.

He went on, “You could have been killed. I didn’t ask you to come.”

“And I didn’t ask you to be a raging dick, but here we are. We both have to be who we are. You’re a dick. And I’m the one who saves your ungrateful ass.”

I shook my head, anger and hurt welling up inside me. I felt haunted by the thoughts of what could have happened to him. I wanted to shout at him: You could have died . Do you think I could have lived with myself , knowing I was asleep while you crept around with your secrets and got yourself murdered ?

He didn’t answer. He just looked at me, his expression unreadable. I wanted to scream at him, to shake him until he understood.

But there was no time for that now. We had to get out of here, before more guards came. The same door I’d come through stood in front of us, filling me with a frantic surge of need to be back out in the icy night.

“Come on. Let’s go…”

I’d started to say home, but neither of us had a home.