Page 16 of Heart of Fire (Royal Ice Dragons #3)

HANNA

Dare sank into the chair in our little cottage, pulling off his bloodied tunic; the lean muscle in his arms and taut torso rippled with the movement, though I was more concerned with cataloging the nasty bruises across his body.

“Let me get you healed,” I told Dare. “Or can you do it yourself?”

“I can do it myself. I don’t need you fussing over me.” He pushed my hands away.

I crossed my arms over my chest…to keep from smacking him. “I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it so we don’t get caught.”

“Well, Hanna, I think they’re going to notice the roasted bodies you left behind.”

“I’m sorry, I’m not quite wrapping my mind around your tone.” I didn’t look up at him as I pulled the last healing poultice out of my bag. When I threw it at him, he winced as he caught it. “Because it sounded…accusatory. When it should sound grateful.”

“I had things under control.”

I tapped a particularly ugly bruise, hard enough that he couldn’t hide how he grimaced. “It very much looks like you had things under control.”

Dare’s brow furrowed in concentration, a faint blue glow emanating from his trembling hands as he attempted to heal himself.

The bruises on his chest faded slightly, but the process was agonizingly slow. I watched, my impatience growing with each passing moment. No matter how much I told myself he deserved to suffer, I felt his labored breathing and winces of pain in my own body.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I muttered, shaking my head. Without warning, I swung my leg over his thighs, settling onto his lap. Dare’s eyes widened in surprise, and his hands fell to my hips before he had time to think. Then he crossed his arms back over his bare, tattooed chest. “You’re incompetent. You might not be able to admit you need me, but you do. Hold still.”

My touch was as tender as my tone was irritated, as I gently cupped his face in my hands. My fingers traced the contours of his battered features, leaving trails of warmth in their wake. The split in his lip sealed itself, the angry purple around his eye faded to a sickly yellow.

Dare’s breath hitched as I worked, our faces mere inches apart. I could feel the heat of his skin, smell the metallic tang of blood mixed with something uniquely him.

As the last of his visible wounds vanished under my touch, Dare’s beautiful green eyes met mine. I found myself reluctant to pull away, lost in the intensity of his gaze.

Our lips were suddenly very close together.

“You infuriate me,” I reminded us both. “What were you doing in that castle?”

He didn’t answer, and I went on, “It wouldn’t be very useful to attack the lord that’s supposed to be one of Kaelan’s allies. I thought that you’d be rallying the peasants in the places where their lords didn’t intend to help Kaelan.”

“Not everything is about Kaelan.”

“Isn’t it? We are literally trying to overthrow Edric and put Kaelan on the throne.”

“Maybe I’m not wildly excited about watching these peasants fight to put another Royal on the throne. They’re certainly not enchanted by the idea. They don’t believe there’s going to be a real difference.”

“Of course there would be.” I swept my arm to encompass this terrible little mining village. “Kaelan could fix this.”

His brows arched. “Kaelan could what…do away with the mines that we depend on for bonesteel? Do away with the entire structure of our society, with corrupt lords ruling over hopeless peasants?”

“Yes!”

He scoffed. “And have you asked Kaelan if he intends to do so?”

I stared at him. “He is like a brother to you. You really don’t think he would do the right thing?”

“I don’t think anyone is inclined to do the right thing at the cost of their own power.” He sounded bitter. “Don’t get me wrong, I think he’ll be a far better king than Edric. I’ll do everything I can to help him. But I don’t know that these people should suffer and die for him.”

“But you have been rallying them to his cause.”

He looked away from me, his Adam’s apple working. “I have. I didn’t say I wouldn’t sacrifice them. To see Kaelan on the throne and you safe beside him, I would do anything.”

“But you said?—”

“I said, I don’t think these people should die for him. I didn’t say they wouldn’t.”

His hopelessness wrenched at my heart.

He went on, “Do you really think Kaelan is going to stop the mining? Since only nobility have magic, the bonesteel allows the common people to access magic. It’s not going to stop.”

It had to, but I chewed my lower lip. “Tell me more about Baelur and Kustav. And about the nobility having magic, since Kustav didn’t?—”

“Kustav’s relied on Baelur for years. Baelur’s got powerful magic; Kustav’s got the mines. They need each other.” His hands slid across my hips absently. “I have a dream I can make these two villains kill each other…once Kaelan won’t be inconvenienced.”

There was a bitter edge to his voice.

“Kaelan wouldn’t want this,” I said.

He scoffed. “You don’t have to defend him to me. Kae would’ve murdered Baelur for my sake, but Edric would’ve blamed me. I know, intellectually, Kae has always acted to protect me. He’s just…so fucking pragmatic and unemotional. I could never talk to him about what it’s like…”

He fell silent, his jaw bunching with tension.

“He’s an unemotional prick,” I agreed. “But things will be different with Kaelan as king. You’ll see.”

He didn’t seem to share my optimism, but the gaze he gave me was fond. “Maybe. Kaelan would do anything to be a good man in your eyes, I’m sure.”

I wasn’t sure he was really talking about Kaelan anymore.

“Well, you’ll be there to guide him.” My heart was beating rapidly in my chest, like we were coming closer and closer to something terrible.

“I’m not going to be there, Hanna.”

The terrible thing I had feared suddenly took shape, pulsing between us, although he spoke lightly as if it were nothing.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m not going to be there. I want to go back to living the life I was born into.”

“A life like…this?”

He scoffed. “In the end, you’re a Royal, and you always will be.”

“What the hell do you want from me, Dare? I can’t change where I come from any more than you can, not that either of us would want to.”

“I don’t want anything from you. I want you to have what you want.” He gripped my wrists, stopping me from where I had been healing the last marks on his shoulders. “I want you on the throne. Between Kaelan and Thorne. And isn’t that what you wanted?”

I shook my head. “You know it’s more complicated than that.”

“How so?”

“Dare, I want you there with us.”

His eyebrows arched. “Is that so, Princess? What exactly do I offer you?”

His tone was so glib, but the question pulsed between us, and something flickered in his gaze. Need? Longing?

Before I could answer, he went on, but he had transformed back into his usual maddening, distant self. “Someone who will never stop seeing through you, who’ll never be as impressed by you as you are with yourself? No one needs that.”

“That’s not who you are. That’s pretend. You say mean things all the time because you’re not strong enough to say nice ones.”

He let out an exhale of disbelief. “You might have noticed this, but where I come from, we don’t choose our words as nicely as you nobles.”

“You keep trying to put distance between us.”

His green eyes flickered with emotions that I couldn’t read, and I felt my chest close up, as if I were going to close myself off, too, as if I couldn’t even speak.

Then I pushed through the impulse to pull away. My words spilled out. “When I need you, you’re always right there. There’s no distance then. I need you because you’re the one who pulls me back from panic. You’re the one that I feel safe with. Gods fucking know why.”

My words sounded panicked. They were too much for him, I knew they would be, and yet I couldn’t stop one final confession. “I need you, Dare.”

We were far too close together, my chest heaving.

He was still for a long moment. “You do know you’re too good for me, don’t you, Hanna?”

Before I could react, Dare closed the minuscule gap between us. His lips brushed against mine with a gentleness that didn’t match the intensity in his eyes. The initial contact was soft, tentative, as if he feared I might pull away.

But when I leaned into him, a dam broke. His hands tangled in my hair, drawing me closer as the kiss deepened. His stubble rasped against my skin, sending shivers down my spine.

His heart hammered against my palm as I braced myself against his chest, matching the frantic rhythm of my own.

When the two of us finally pulled away from each other, I was breathless. His chest rose and fell, and he looked at me with a look of such longing I couldn’t believe I was seeing emotion so raw on his handsome face.

But whatever he was going to say next was lost.

There was chaos outside.

The sound of horse hooves rocketed down the streets.

I rose quickly and grabbed the bloody poultices, before flinging them into the fire to remove any evidence that he had been healing his wounds. The burning herbs filled the cottage with an acrid scent.

“Someone’s looking for you,” I said.

He shook his head. “Someone’s looking for you . You left evidence of the Isle.”

“Well forgive me. I had to save you.”

“No, you didn’t. You don’t need to think of me at all!”

A heavy fist banged on the door.

Dare opened the door with his drawn sword. The two of us were ready for anything, but the messengers were already moving down the street.

“Lord Kustav wants to see everyone now. Down at the mines so we can get both shifts.” The miner who had just banged on our door called as he moved to the next house.

Meanwhile, the soldiers on their horses pranced at the end of every street, watching carefully to make sure that every door opened.

People dressed in their coats and nightclothes stumbled out of the houses, carrying children in their arms. Dare and I traded a look and then followed them, trudging through the snow with our heads down like any of the peasants.

My fingers brushed his as we walked. He reached out and took my hand in his.

Something in my chest fluttered. His grip was warm and firm and comforting. Holding Dare’s hand felt right .

Then reality spread through me, cold and unpleasant. We were pretending to be husband and wife. It didn’t mean anything when he gripped my hand.

Lord Kustav strutted back and forth in front of the gathering. As the miners filed out, I caught glimpses of the claustrophobic-looking tunnels beyond. My chest tightened as I imagined what it must be like in the darkness, especially knowing one was chipping poison out of the rock.

Dare glanced down at me as the two of us were pressed from each side by the crowd. Miners, still coated in dust and grime from their shifts, stood shoulder to shoulder, their faces etched with a mixture of fear and exhaustion and barely contained rage. Women jiggled sleeping babies or comforted roused, grouchy toddlers, and everyone stamped their feet against the nighttime cold.

Lord Kustav paced across the stage in front of the mines, his ornate robes swishing with each turn. His face was a mask of cold fury.

“You ungrateful wretches,” he spat, his voice enhanced by magic to boom out across the dark night. “I provide you with work, with purpose, and this is how you repay me?” He paused, his eyes sweeping across the crowd. “Someone among you has betrayed us all. Someone has dared to steal from me, to attempt to burn down this very castle.”

A ripple of unease passed through the crowd. Beside me, Dare tensed, his fingers tightening around mine.

“Whatever happens, keep your mouth shut,” he whispered urgently. “Pretend to be useless.”

I nodded almost imperceptibly as Kustav continued his tirade.

“As punishment for this treachery, this disrespect of my magic and my protection,” Kustav announced, his voice dripping with malice, “I am removing all magical protections from the mines. No more safeguards against cave-ins, no more wards against the poison in the rocks.” He smiled, a cruel twist of his lips. “These gifts of mine will remain absent until the culprits are turned in.”

A collective gasp rose from the crowd, followed by angry mutters. In front of us, a burly miner with a shock of gray hair growled, “We should’ve let this place burn to the ground. We still could.”

His words were quickly hushed by those around him, but not before a nearby guard moved swiftly toward him. People surged away from him, but luckily the guard stopped, giving him a disgusted look as the man fell into silence.

“The festival begins in two days,” Kustav continued, his gaze sweeping the crowd once more. This time, his eyes lingered on me, a predatory glint in their depths. “I hope that whoever betrayed us all has been turned in by then…so we can all enjoy the celebrations in our usual way.”

The threat in his words was unmistakable. The crowd shifted uneasily, parents pulling children closer, friends exchanging worried glances.

I noticed a young girl in front of us, her eyes wide with fear as she kept glancing at her father. The man reached out, gripping her shoulder. “It’s all right, Linia,” he murmured, though his own face was tight with worry.

Throughout his speech, I could feel Kustav’s gaze returning to me again and again. Each time his eyes found mine, a chill ran down my spine. Beside me, Dare was coiled with tension that seemed to grow every time Kustav’s gaze sought mine.

Dare looked as if he might murder Kustav in front of the crowd.

I squeezed his hand, trying to calm him, to remind him of the need for caution. He turned to me, our eyes locking. For a moment, the world around us seemed to fade away, the angry voices and Kustav’s threats fading to a distant hum.

By the time I finally tore my gaze from Dare’s, Kustav had moved on, mounting his horse to ride back up to the castle. But as he passed us, he glanced back over his shoulder. The look on his face—a mixture of suspicion, desire, and undisguised jealousy—made my blood run cold.

Dare and I were in trouble, and the whole village with us.