Page 17 of Heart of Fire (Royal Ice Dragons #3)

DARE

All night, I couldn’t stop thinking about the way Lord Kustav stared at Hanna. It was obvious he planned to take her at the festival.

I wished like hell that she had just stayed away or gotten out of here when I told her to.

The only way I could protect her here would cost these people. If I killed Kustav, Kaelan would understand. Gods, if Kaelan had seen the way Kustav looked at her, he’d already have frozen the man to ice and shattered him into a thousand perverted pieces.

But if the other lords learned a rebel from the village killed him, they would descend on the village and destroy it. They would burn every house to the ground. They would write their response to rebellion in blood.

And while as Dare, Kaelan’s right-hand man, I could kill him and take responsibility for it…Kaelan was in such a delicate position right now trying to gather allies that it might cost him the war with his father.

I rose up onto my elbow and stared at Hanna as she slept, contemplating my options. I could knock her out and get her to safety, but then Lord Kustav would take his displeasure out on the village. And in the end, I’d end up facing the same pair of poor choices: whether to kill him and if so, what face to wear. Should I kill him as a rebel peasant or kill him as Kaelan’s right-hand man?

It felt like there was no way out. But the first move I needed to make was to protect her.

Her lashes fluttered open, and those deep, crystal blue eyes met mine. “What exactly are you thinking of doing?” she asked.

Her voice was rough with sleep and somehow sexy as hell. Or maybe I was just turned on by the fact that she was so clever, so attuned to me.

“Nothing,” I told her. “I don’t have a clue how to begin to undo the trouble you’ve caused.”

Her brows arched. “I didn’t wake up just for you to insult me.”

“Then I don’t know why you’re awake.”

Of course, I would protect her from Kustav. Even he was bound by rules and by magic. That was why every woman he chose was tested, to make sure they were free to be claimed.

He didn’t want his dick to end up withered, since breaking magic vows came with consequences.

Kustav’s magician had revealed secrets before. I wouldn’t let him reveal her bond to Kaelan in front of all the village.

“It doesn’t make sense to me that he would harm his own mining operation in order to teach the miners a lesson,” she said, turning onto her stomach.

The movement sent the blanket sliding down her pale shoulder, and I pulled it back up before I could stop myself. “The first rule for nobility is to establish the consequences of disobedience.”

“Is that what Edric taught you?”

“No. It’s what Edric taught Kaelan. I was merely standing by, like a servant.” There was no hiding the bitterness in my voice. Surely, Hanna would judge me knowing that Kaelan had done so much for me.

She rolled back over onto her side, and somehow it felt like we were closer than ever. She put a sympathetic hand on my shoulder, looked into my face sincerely, and promised me, “We’re going to kill Edric.”

“We’d better. Or we’ll be dead ourselves.” Somehow though, her capacity for violence had made me feel slightly better.

“You can’t think Kaelan would rule like that.”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

Her eyes widened. “It’s not the only way to rule.”

“Is that what you think? I think, despite the fact you’re a very capable killer and a gifted spy, you’re still a little naive and innocent.”

Her eyes flashed. But a second later, she seemed to have mastered her temper. “Perhaps I am. But not for anyone else. I see people as they are, and I don’t expect much from them. It’s just…different, with Kaelan and Thorne and…”

“Maybe.” What did she think of me? The two of them were different with her. I couldn’t get over the way they had waited for her all these years.

I wanted to tell her that, but I never would. How could I ever be good enough for her like they were when they’d spent these years longing for her? Meanwhile, I had screwed my way across the Ice Kingdom. This girl was far too sweet for me.

“I want to go back to sleep,” she murmured, looking up at me. “Do you promise that you won’t tie me up or enchant me or otherwise try to protect me against my will?”

Her pink lips arched in a smile that made me want to lean over and kiss her smirk away.

“I will not. Not tonight.”

Her smirk broke into a full smile. “What a very Dare promise. You won’t kidnap me or enchant me or tie me up… tonight .”

“It’s the best I can offer.” There was an unexpected huskiness that betrayed me as I added, “Sometimes, you just beg to be tied up.”

When she laughed, the sound spread like warmth through my chest. Her laugh was the most gratifying sound I could imagine. “Maybe I’ll tie you up first.”

She nestled herself against my chest, sliding her head onto my shoulder. She didn’t give me a choice.

“I don’t cuddle,” I told her, my hands opening in a what-the-hell expression, not that she could see it since she had already buried her face against my chest.

“I’m not cuddling you. This is for body heat.” That playful smirk was on her lips again. “I’m being practical.”

There was nothing practical about the way my cock had just hardened.

“You are insufferable,” I told her, with my lips so close to her hair that it could practically be a kiss.

She was probably faking it to avoid answering, but she already seemed to be asleep, her chest rising and falling peacefully, her eyes closed.

She was snuggled against me as if she slept well when she was in my arms. The rogue thought warmed me.

“Spoiled princess. I can’t stand you,” I told her, even as my arms closed around her. I nestled my chin over the top of her head, feeling her breath soft against the base of my throat. The two of us fell asleep like that.

We were too close, in every sense of the word, and yet I couldn’t seem to stop myself.

* * *

In the morning, Hanna and I headed over to the pub for breakfast. Miners, weary from the shifts they’d just left, were eating dinner and drinking as the morning light came softly through the dim windows.

When we sat at one of the booths, it felt like we were too intimately close.

Hanna drummed her fingertips on the scarred wooden table. She was always so confident, but I could have sworn she didn’t know where to look either. Which was funny, given how brash she had been before.

There was so much I wanted to say to Hanna, and I didn’t dare say any of it. I’d always been silver tongued with women. So how come when I faced her, I had no idea what to say?

When the door opened in the distance behind Hanna, I was so focused on not meeting her eyes that I barely noticed the figure that came in.

Then I saw her. A tall, slender, broad-shouldered frame.

Greia.

Greia grasped her hood and pulled it down from her face, letting her brown curls spring free. She always had flaunted that mane. As her eyes scanned across the tavern, I had just seconds to get my wayward feelings under control.

Shit , shit , shit. I’d already felt as if I wasn’t worthy of Hanna. Having my last frequent—or at least most emotionally attached—dalliance walk into the pub felt like a little trick from the gods.

“Brace yourself,” I told Hanna, but I really meant the words for me, even as I raised my hand and gestured to Greia.

Greia’s face brightened when she saw me. Something twisted inside me knowing how much I was going to disappoint her. Shit, shit, shit, once again. I was the fucking worst, and I hadn’t realized it until today.

Greia came over to us looking cheerful.

“Don’t get too excited,” she greeted me. “I came to bring you a message. I can’t stay long.”

“Good morning to you as well,” I said. “Do you want to join us for breakfast?”

She was already sliding in next to me.

Hanna’s gaze rose and met mine. I expected anger, but she looked amused. For now. We’d see how long that lasted.

“I will join you for breakfast,” Greia said. “And who is our new friend?”

Her brows arched at me. She knew how I entertained myself at court, and she didn’t mind. But now we were in her territory.

Well, she’d have to buckle up. My betrayal felt far more vast than she could possibly realize. Maybe she wouldn’t mind me fucking another woman, but she certainly would mind me fucking a Royal.

She’d probably also feel betrayed by the part where any feelings I had for her had melted away as Hanna slowly took over my heart.

“Who is our new friend?” Hanna prompted me herself, since I had apparently forgotten to speak.

“Hanna, this is Greia. Greia, Hanna.”

“Names are great, Dare, but I think you know that’s not what I’m really asking,” Greia said.

She hadn’t deigned to look at Hanna’s way.

Hanna grinned. “Oh, I like you. You’re direct. It’s good for Dare to be around a lot of people who don’t take his shit. He’s far too charismatic for his own good…or ours.”

There was a part of me that couldn’t help but fixate on Hanna’s compliment. I knew I was charismatic, drawing in other people. It was probably why I wasn’t buried in a shallow grave near my parents.

But it meant something to me to know that she felt a pull toward me too.

“She’s a friend. We’re both working to support Kaelan,” I explained.

Greia finally looked at Hanna, giving her a long once over. Hanna clearly saw what she was doing, and she raked her hair back from her face with one hand, turning her face in different directions and fixing a smile as if she were posing for Greia’s examination.

“I need to talk to you,” Greia said to me, and her mood seemed far more subdued than it had been a minute before.

I glanced around. “Go ahead. There’s no one around us eavesdropping.”

“She’s near us.” Greia had returned to not looking at her.

“You can talk in front of her.”

Hanna’s lips quirked in amusement. I was impressed that she was so cool in response.

Greia shook her head. “People could get in trouble for the information I’ve got. I wouldn’t risk that.”

“You’re not risking anything.” My voice came out hotter than I’d expected. “I would trust my life to Hanna and anyone else’s too. You can speak as if she’s one of us.”

Greia turned tense as if she were shocked. But it was Hanna who stole my attention, her lips parting slightly as if she had forgotten to keep her confident mask up. She looked surprised, just as much as Greia.

“Fine,” Greia said, each word harsh and punctuated. “Our old lord-and-asshole is mustering troops. Which one would expect, given the coming war…except…”

“You’re not sure those troops are for supporting Kaelan?” I could already imagine the other reason they could be mustering troops. Kustav and Baelur obviously had an alliance, and given the miners’ unrest, maybe those troops were to put down any potential rebellion here.

I didn’t like the idea of being amidst even more troops.

The pub’s heavy wooden door crashed open, slamming against the wall with a thunderous bang that made the glasses on our table rattle. I leapt to my feet, ready for a fight.

But it was a miner, his face ghost-white and streaked with dust, who stumbled in. His chest heaved as he gasped for breath, eyes wild with panic.

“There’s been a landslide at the mine!” he bellowed, his voice cracking with urgency.

My heart leaped into my throat. Without a word, Hanna and I locked eyes, silent agreement passing between us. We scrambled to our feet, the scrape of our chairs against the floor lost in the sudden commotion. Greia was right behind us as we bolted for the door.

The frosty morning air hit us like a slap as we burst outside. My lungs burned as we sprinted toward the mine entrance. The usual bustle of the village had transformed into chaos, with people running in all directions, shouting and calling for help.

As we neared the mine, the acrid smell of dust and fear hung thick in the air. A crowd had already gathered at the entrance, their faces etched with worry and desperation. We pushed our way through, the press of bodies hot and suffocating.

At the mine’s gaping maw, a burly miner with a salt-and-pepper beard grabbed my arm. His grip was like iron, his calloused hand trembling slightly. “The cave-in’s deep inside,” he said, his voice gruff but tinged with hope as he looked at me. “Maybe with your magic…”

The word ’magic’ hung in the air, and both desperation and distrust warred in the faces around us.

The weight of their expectations settled on my shoulders, heavy as the mountain itself. Beside me, Hanna tensed, her fingers brushing against mine.

My mouth was as dry as the dust that hung in the air around us. “Of course, I’ll do whatever I can.”

The darkness of the mine loomed before us. With a deep breath, I steeled myself and stepped forward.

They didn’t trust magic, and yet at some moments, they still longed for it.

We descended deep into the mine, the darkness pressing in around us like a living thing. Our footsteps echoed off the damp stone walls, the sound swallowed by the gloom. The air grew thicker with each step, a metallic taste coating my tongue. I could feel the magic thrumming through the rock, an unsettling vibration that set my teeth on edge.

I glanced at Hanna, her face pale in the flickering light of the miners’ lamps. Her eyes were wide, darting nervously from shadow to shadow. Her breath came in short, sharp gasps.

“You can go back,” I told her softly, touching her arm.

She shook her head stubbornly. “I’m fine,” she insisted, but the tremor in her voice betrayed her.

I remembered my own childhood fears of the mine, the terrifying vastness of the underground world that had both fascinated and frightened me.

The tunnel narrowed abruptly, forcing us to squeeze through single file. The rough stone scraped against my shoulders, and Hanna’s breathing quickened behind me.

A wall of fallen rock blocking our path. Miners frantically clawed at the debris, their faces streaked with sweat and grime.

“Come on, men!” a grizzled old miner shouted. “Let’s get these kids out of there and get out ourselves before there’s another cave-in.”

Kids . Fuck. The cave-in had taken out the narrow tunnels where Kustav had been sending children.

“We’ll keep the ceiling from collapsing,” I promised, raising my magic. I could only secure the immediate area around us, though. We were deep under the mountain, and we might well end up sealed in ourselves.

Once I had steadied the area, Hanna and I joined the line, hefting rocks and passing them back. The work was backbreaking, and the air grew even thicker with dust. I longed to use my magic to move the stones, but the risk of bringing the whole tunnel down on us was too great.

After what felt like hours, we managed to create a small opening. A chorus of voices rang out, calling into the darkness beyond.

“Hello? Are you in there?”

One of the miners called in a choked, desperate voice, “Maizi?”

Silence answered, broken only by the sound of shifting rock and labored breathing. My heart sank. They were probably all dead.

Then, miraculously, a faint voice called back. “We’re here! We’re here, don’t leave us!”

A collective gasp of relief rippled through the group. As we widened the hole, a small, dirt-smeared face appeared, eyes wide with terror and hope.

“There are others,” the child gasped. “I don’t know if…I felt one of them. They weren’t moving.”

The child tried to climb up to the hole, but she was weak, her hands bleeding, and she kept falling back.

Hanna stepped forward. “I can fit,” she said, her voice steadier than I’d heard it since we entered the mine.

“No,” I said. “It’s still unstable?—”

“You’re unstable, but that hasn’t scared me off yet,” she returned quickly.

She palmed her light, and I saw the villagers startle, as if some were just now realizing how much of an outsider she was. She was a noble, and they might be grateful for her magic, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t resent that magic.

“What good does that do,” one of the miners started to say.

She turned to me and put her hand on my shoulder. “Boost me up.”

“You shouldn’t do this. It’s stupid. Reckless.”

She managed one of those bright smiles that somehow broke my heart and made it new all at the same time. “Do you know I like when you scold me, Dare? It makes it seem as if you care.”

Of course I cared. That was the biggest fucking problem.

She had one hand on my shoulder and the other hand on the opening. Then she looked up at me, terrified and brave all at once. Softly, she said, “Please.”

I groaned with frustration and worry, but I still boosted her up. She wriggled through the opening, then lifted the child so they could fit through. The child’s father caught the child in his arms, stifling a gasping sob.

“Wait,” I called, already knowing she was gone. She wouldn’t stay in safety when she could help. I raked my hands through my hair, feeling as if my skin could barely contain my body, as if I were about to fly into pieces.

The seconds stretched into an eternity as I waited, every muscle in my body taut with tension. The air grew thicker, the dust settling on my skin like a fine powder. My ears strained for any sound from beyond the opening, but all I could hear was the ragged breathing of the miners around me and the occasional ominous creak of shifting rock.

Beside me, a burly miner with a thick beard and haunted eyes paced back and forth. “Maizi,” he muttered, his voice hoarse. “My little Maizi.”

Just as I was about to throw caution to the wind and widen the opening to squeeze through myself, Hanna’s dirt-streaked face appeared.

“I’ve got one,” she gasped, her voice strained. “Help me.”

I reached into the gap, my hands meeting the small, limp form she was pushing through. As I pulled the child out, my stomach clenched. The little girl was barely breathing, her skin ashen beneath the coal dust that covered her. Her limbs hung lifeless, like a broken doll’s.

“Maizi!” The bearded miner surged forward, gathering the child into his massive arms. “Oh, gods, Maizi, my girl.”

He cradled her gently, his large hands trembling as he brushed matted hair from her face. “Breathe,” he pleaded, his voice cracking. “Please breathe.”

As if in response to his voice, the girl’s eyelids fluttered weakly. A collective sigh of relief rippled through the gathered miners. The father pressed his forehead to his daughter’s, tears cutting clean tracks through the grime on his cheeks.

I turned back to the opening, reaching out to help Hanna through. Her wide eyes met mine, filled with a mixture of determination and fear. She made no move to reach toward my arms or the comparative safety on the other side of the narrow opening.

She hesitated, pushing strands of hair back from her sweat-soaked face; blood from her skinned-open knuckles smeared her cheek. She must’ve been badly cut by the rocks.

“I don’t see anyone else,” she told me. “I’ll have to go in further.”

She was being so brave, but she was a bit wild-eyed. I knew that no matter how much she played it off, and she would never admit it, she was terrified.

I didn’t want her to look weak in front of them. She was the strongest person I knew, and even though I didn’t want anyone to know her true identity, I did want them to see her. To admire her the way I had come to.

If I had said something comforting, she would have looked weak.

The other way I knew to help Hanna was to piss her off. That seemed like a natural talent of mine.

“Can you even fit further back?” I asked. “You’re not that thin.”

Hanna’s face was dirt streaked and blood was trickling from a scrape across her high cheekbone. Her mouth fell open as she stared at me in absolute disbelief.

“You are the biggest asshole I have ever met in my entire life,” she told me, right before she spun around. I caught a last glimpse of her shining blonde hair as she headed off into the darkness.

As she disappeared once more into the darkness, my heart constricted. The sounds of the rescued child’s weak coughs and her father’s soothing murmurs softened as he moved away, carrying her back up into the light.

“Hopefully those aren’t the last words between you and your new girl,” Greia said next to me. There was no hiding the bitterness in her tone.

She stood there with her arms crossed. I’d forgotten she was with us. But of course she would’ve run into the mine as well.

I raised my brows, trying to hide my surprise. She’d be so offended to know I had forgotten her. “Do you really think I’d be so nasty to her if she were my girl?”

“Absolutely,” Greia said. “I’ve never seen you anything but polished and silver tongued with a woman. There’s something different with that one. You turn stupid.”

I lifted another rock away from the crumbled down wall, trying to make this space a little bigger. I handed it to Greia, our fingertips brushing. She stared up at me, hope sparking in her eyes, as if she had felt a spark between us.

But I had felt nothing.

“You knew that we were never together,” I reminded her. “There’s no reason for you to be jealous.”

“Sure,” she agreed. But the way she looked at me said that even if there was no reason, she still was.

The next thing I knew, Hanna was passing the last missing child over the broken wall to me. She barely had the strength left in her arms to climb back out herself. Her arms collapsed beneath her when her stomach was on the wall, and she winced. I grabbed her under the armpits, and I had never been so keenly aware of how close my body was to anyone else’s when I was touching them for a purely practical purpose. Her breasts pressed against my inner forearm.

She looked up at me, her eyes flashing. “I don’t need your help.”

“Don’t be stupid.” I pulled her the rest of the way out, and she winced as she brushed over the rocks, until I had her free and could gather her into my arms. Low, into her ear, I murmured, “You know you always need me.”

The words felt like a confession—she had to know I needed her; that was why she was there. But she lay her head on my shoulder, and my heart lurched.

Carrying her in my arms made me feel powerful, hopeful, as if I actually had a chance in hell of fixing things…and keeping her.

We were surrounded by subdued voices—to prevent causing another cave-in—but the miners were celebrating. They led the way out through all the long, steep, uneven dark tracks. I stumbled slightly, and Hanna’s hand grabbed my neck, holding herself close to me. When Greia flashed a look over her shoulder at us, I felt a stirring of worry. Her jealousy was going to cause trouble.

“Let’s get you back home,” I told Hanna quietly.

“No one can sleep with all that adrenaline,” Greia said. “You know there’ll be a party at the pubs.”

“A party to celebrate…a problem that will still be there in the morning? There are going to be more cave-ins,” I said.

“That’s exactly why we’re going to party tonight,” Greia said. “Have you forgotten how this works, Dare?”

Her words stung, but then, she meant them to.

Her gaze met Hanna’s. “Are you up for it? Or are you spent from stumbling around in the dark?”

“I’ll go wherever he goes,” Hanna said, sweet and poisonous. “I know he needs me.”