Page 24 of Heart of Fire (Royal Ice Dragons #3)

HANNA

Dare let out a long, shaky breath. The enchantment he’d raised shimmered and fell away, revealing his true face once more. Without warning, he stopped and began tearing at Kustav’s tunic, his movements frantic and agitated.

“Dare, what are you—” I started, but he cut me off.

“Can’t stand it anymore. Feels like his skin on mine.” He flung the garment aside, standing bare-chested in the dim hallway. I couldn’t help but notice the fresh bruises blooming across his torso.

He took a limping step forward, wincing. “Damn boots,” he muttered, leaning against the wall to pull them off. “Vain bastard had feet like a child.”

I moved closer, placing a hand on his arm. “Are you all right?”

Dare gave a hollow laugh. “I’m not sure he would have recognized me anyway,” he said, his voice low and bitter. “Funny how the man who destroyed your life can forget your face.”

I took his hand, squeezing it gently. “He’ll recognize you at the moment before you gut him,” I promised, my voice fierce with conviction. “I’ll make sure of it.”

Dare’s eyes met mine, and slowly, like the sun breaking through storm clouds, a smile spread across his face. He leaned in, pressing his lips to mine in a kiss that was equal parts gratitude and promise.

Our moment was shattered by the sound of running footsteps. Dare yanked away, muttering a word against my lips that transformed his face back into Kustav’s. I pulled away, horrified at the sight.

We broke apart just as a guard skidded around the corner, his face pale with terror.

He took in Dare’s state of half-dress, his eyes darting between the discarded tunic and the fine pants Dare still wore.

“My lord,” the guard stammered, clearly confused but too frightened to question what he was seeing. “Lord Baelur sent me. The miners are rioting! They’re coming toward the castle with torches, and he wants to know if you’ve reconsidered his offer of assistance.”

Dare straightened, adopting a commanding posture despite his disheveled appearance. “No need,” he said, his voice firm. “I’ll stop the castle from burning.”

The guard’s relief was palpable. He nodded frantically and turned to flee, clearly glad for any excuse to escape the chaos.

As his footsteps faded, I turned to Dare, one eyebrow raised. “Stop the castle from burning? That’s quite a promise.”

Dare’s eyes sparkled with mischief as he raised my hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to my knuckles. “I know you like to burn things down, but that’s not what we’re doing today.”

Before I could retort, a commotion from outside caught our attention. We moved to a window, and my stomach dropped at the sight. Part of the mine had collapsed, and a sea of angry miners was surging toward the castle, their torches like a river of fire in the gathering dusk.

“Gods,” I breathed. “They have every reason to riot.”

Dare swore colorfully, pulling me away from the window and into a side hall just as the first sounds of breaking glass echoed through the castle.

The corridors erupted into chaos. Servants ran in all directions, some fleeing in terror while others seemed caught up in the fervor of destruction. We pressed ourselves against a wall as a group rushed past, smashing lamps and tearing down tapestries.

The enchantment fell from Dare’s face. Relief swelled in my chest, a feeling like coming home. It was good to see his face again.

“I don’t suppose you’d consider getting the hell out of here while I stay here and calm things down?” Dare asked me.

As if calming had ever been Dare’s gift.

“I go where you go, husband.”

He shook his head. “Don’t call me husband . That’s not my kink. And you’re not going to calm things down. You have many strengths, but they are more related to starting fires than dousing them.”

“I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” I told him, before I stepped into the chaos, trying to raise my voice to be heard. Villagers were brandishing torches and hurling them at drapes, at furniture, at anything that would burn. “Stop! Kustav is gone! And you need the castle standing!”

No one was hearing me.

“Stop!” Dare’s voice rolled over the crowd, magnified by his magic. “Leave the castle untouched.”

We had to stop the castle from burning, because if there was obvious damage done to their territory, there was no hope of keeping other lords from coming across the borders to take revenge for Kustav and to take their lands. They would want to send a message to the villagers that there would always be reprisals for killing the nobles.

Some of the villagers stopped, but not to listen to him. They sneered at him, and I had the sense that to try to stop this chaos was to put our own lives at risk.

“Look at you,” one of them spat, his face smeared with soot and contempt. “Groveling for your master’s sake once again?”

“Kustav has never been my master,” Dare said, his voice slow and steady. “I’m trying to stop this chaos for your own sake. Listen.”

But no matter how much he raised his voice with magic, it was obvious they were too lost in their rage and their frenzy to destroy to listen.

Dare’s jaw was tight, the rejection stinging as these people who had once worshipped him ignored him, but he moved like an arrow through the crowd looking for anyone who wasn’t frenzied by blood lust and madness.

Across the room, I saw Greia, her eyes cold and calculating. She was moving stealthily through the commotion.

Dare hadn’t seen her yet, but I feared what he would do once he did.

As I wove through the rioters, ducking and moving to the side to evade the lamps and the crystals that were thrown, glass crunched under my feet.

Greia’s eyes widened when she saw me. There was a flash of fear there before she hid it.

Good . Be afraid .

It was bad enough she had betrayed me, but I had thought we both cared for Dare, and then she had hurt him.

“Stay away from Dare,” I warned.

Her gaze flickered over my shoulder, searching for him, and I realized, despite everything, she still desired him. Maybe part of her even still loved him, in some clutching, desperate way, not that anything would excuse her betrayal.

I stepped closer, blocking her view.

“If you think there’s bloodshed and chaos now, wait until Dare sees you playing a part in this madness,” I said harshly. “You need to help us stop them. Kustav is dead. We can seal the borders, tell the world that the plague has reached this little village. Your people can have peace.”

She looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language. “Peace?”

Her eyes were sharp and calculating. She didn’t look as if she wanted peace.

Then Dare’s towering form emerged from the tumult, and when his gaze found her, cold fury swept over his features.

“Easy, Dare,” I stepped between him and Greia, feeling his anger like a cold wind at my back.

Greia put her hand on my shoulder as if she would push me aside, with no respect for her own limbs, because I was tempted to cut her arm off myself. I stared for a second at her fingers resting so familiarly on my shoulder.

She was entirely fixated on him. “Dare…are you angry with me? I couldn’t convince them to understand what happened outside the temple. They believed in you; they thought you represented something that was greater than Kustav and that you could bend him to your will. They’ve turned on you when once they worshipped you. But I’m still on your side, Dare.”

The stone floor beneath us quivered with the force of the boots storming through the castle. But it felt as if the three of us were alone. Dare’s eyes, which so often burned with fury when he looked at me, settled into cold stillness as he studied Greia. “Angry? You aren’t worth my anger, Greia.”

She flinched before she recovered, covering her shock with a smile. “Dare…we’ve been friends all our lives. Our mothers were pregnant together?—”

“Don’t talk about my mother.” His voice was so harsh that I put my hand on his chest in case he moved forward. His heart thundered against my palm, but he didn’t move toward Greia.

“We still need you,” she said softly. “You can win them back over. We can burn this place to the ground and start fresh?—”

“Playing both sides, Greia? I know that you betrayed Hanna to Kustav. And he can’t do you any favors now. He’s dead.”

Sparks carried through the air set one of the frames near us on fire. The heat beat against my face as the haughty face of the Royal staring down from the portrait began to burn.

“Good,” Greia shot back, her eyes sparkling with defiance. But I was sure I could see shadows of desperation behind them. She had thought she could play both Dare and Kustav. And I had the feeling that she always thought she would win Dare in the end. She didn’t think she would actually lose him.

“Hanna,” Dare said, his voice low and tender. I didn’t think that voice was meant just for me. Dare was making it clear that he was mine, only mine.

He took my hand and together the two of us moved past her.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Dare said. “I can douse the fire from outside with ice and cover the village as well, so they can’t destroy anything more. But I need you safe first. We need a clear path to exit because once I ice them out, they might very well turn their rage on us.”

We edged toward the massive doors. Dare paused, casting a glance over his shoulder. “Take Kustav’s place, Greia. It’s yours for all I care. Maybe you can protect these people from the wrath that will unfold if anyone learns what happened here before Kaelan takes the throne.”

His words were heavy with judgment. “But one day, I will return to kill the lord that used to rule us. And when I do, pray that our paths don’t cross.”

Greia stared after us, shocked and horrified, but Dare didn’t look back to see her expression. When we stepped outside, the air carried the smell of burning timber. Flames licked the edges of the castle walls, greedily consuming the aged wood alongside the stone. I glanced back to see orange and red dancing in the windows as the glass melted.

“Look,” I whispered, as Dare and I reached the center of the bridge between the village and the castle.

He didn’t answer with words as he turned back. Instead, his hand lifted, palm facing the inferno.

Cold swept over me as his power surged forth. The air itself seemed to shiver, the bridge below us quaking. Ice blossomed across the stone facade like frost spreading over a window. It crept over the flames, smothering them under cold so intense it doused the fire. The first layer of ice melted away, but he was still focusing, and ice continued to creep over the surface of the castle.

“Stop!” the villagers nearby screamed. Their shouts echoed through the courtyard as Dare’s magic rolled outward, reaching for their homes, too, until it encased everything it touched in a protective layer of ice.

The ice-coated village and castle glimmered under the sun, shining so brightly it hurt to look directly at almost anything around us. I shielded my eyes with my hand, blinking, and found myself staring only at Dare.

His chest rose and fell, breathing heavily from the effort—but also, I thought, from the emotion of seeing all these people turn their rage on him.

If they tried to set the flames again, they might reach back to the village and set their own homes on fire accidentally. But they didn’t realize Dare’s intentions to protect. All they saw was an attack.

Dare turned to me, his eyes steady. “We can’t let them be found out. The other nobles would slaughter them.”

I knew he was right. The other nobles would show no mercy. But the villagers clearly didn’t understand, and now they were churning angrily with all the terrifying force of a mob, slowly spinning our way. They hadn’t yet satisfied their need to burn.

“Let’s go,” he ordered, moving swiftly. His fingers flexed at his side, ready to call more magic if required for us to fight our way out of here.

I matched his pace. The last thing I wanted was for Dare to have to fight his own people.

As the two of us strode away from the village, my heart clenched. This was Dare’s home. Would he ever be able to return?

His fingers brushed against my inner wrist tenderly. I turned my palm into his, and our hands linked. His touch was still ice-cold, but he squeezed my hand hard as if he were clinging to me. “I got what I came for. That’s all that matters.”

“It’s not all that matters. You came here to help them, and you have.” I thought of the solutions I’d been working on for the mines. “You still will.”

“Even if they despise me?”

“Even so. Even if they don’t deserve you.” I squeezed my hand in his. “On my way in to find you, I kept seeing ward stones…old ones. I think Baelur and Kustav had once used them to protect the miners before they decided they weren’t worth the effort.”

He hesitated. “In order to keep anyone from interfering…”

“They’ll need to keep producing bonesteel,” I finished the thought.

“So let’s go fix it,” he said, frowning at the half-collapsed mine. “Even though it’s not safe.”

“I don’t need things to be safe,” I promised him. “I just need to be with you.”

He scoffed, and I waited for a withering comment. But he just looked down at me and winked.

The mine was abandoned, the miners all busy breaking things inside the castle.

Once we had set the ward stones, the two of us were running, fleeing the place that had once meant so much to Dare.

His magic lingered behind us, a final act of protection for his people, no matter how much they scorned him.