Page 26 of Heart of Fire (Royal Ice Dragons #3)

HANNA

I woke up on the bed, my wrists and ankles bound together. I’d slept like the dead all night and felt very well-rested…and rather murdery. Next to me was a note from Dare:

Hanna—I’ll be back soon after you wake up. Our room is warded so no one should find you; please stay where I left you for once.

And wear your blades, please, even if you want to use them on me right now.

Enjoy your practice breaking free. I know how much you value your training, and I’m here to support you in every way I can.

Your supportive husband,

Dare

I was going to murder him.

I used my magic and fought my way out of the bonds he left on me. It took forever to use my magic to snake each rope through, loosening the ties on my wrists until I could yank my hands free.

That condescending prick, acting like he was doing me a favor by leaving me tied up so I could practice untying myself.

Once my hands were free, I could finally reach my blades. I cut the binds on my ankles and rolled out of bed.

I went to the window to see what time it was. A faint purple sheen of magic colored the street outside. He had warded the room so that people outside wouldn’t even see it, wouldn’t know it existed. His was powerful magic, the kind that would have exacted a significant amount of his strength. It still lingered around me, warm and oddly comforting and smelling like him. It had to, because it had to be active the entire time he was gone to protect me.

Of course, I wouldn’t need to be protected if he hadn’t left me drugged with magic and tied up. I was surprised he hadn’t rolled me under the bed for an extra layer of security.

He had left an assortment of bread, sausage, cheese, chocolate and apples on the side table, along with another note:

I know you’re thinking about it. Please don’t go out.

It was as if he wanted me to leave. He had to know how that would affect me.

But still, I hated to break the ward by opening the door. It felt nice having a bit of him here with me.

I found my way to a cute little bookstore where I found a little book on magical knotcraft.

The city was magical, and I stopped in a little cafe to get a hamper of delicious food.

Then I went back into hiding. I spent the rest of my day practicing some new skills that I couldn’t wait to show Dare.

Had he really left me tied up and just counted on my ability to get myself free?

As dusk fell, I stood in the lengthening shadows, weaving knots and bindings out of magic. The tendrils of magic kept getting confused and wrapping around my wrists or ankles instead of the bedposts. It was hard apparently to get them to work on a thing rather than a person. The magic was naturally drawn to life.

The door flew open.

Panic rose in my chest like a bird taking wing before hunting bows.

Two men entered swiftly.

The tendrils had wrapped around my ankles, so I was unsteady, pulling my daggers from my sheaths. At least I was wearing them. Their faces were a blur, the world was a blur, but once I had my blades in my hand it became steadier.

We faced off, and then I ducked and tried to cut the cords with one smooth move. One of them vaulted over the bed and slammed into me. I stabbed at his side, but he managed to block me.

Then the real struggle was on, a desperate fight against these two much larger men. I started to shift, gathering my fire, and then suddenly one of them threw a net over me. My magic faded, with the wings that had started to elongate suddenly snapping back into my body.

My fire died, filling my mouth with acrid smoke that made me cough.

Fuck. The net destroyed my magic. But how long would it last if I kept raising magic against it? I kept struggling, my magic sending waves through the net.

“Gotcha,” one of them said, with great satisfaction.

The other wrested the blade out of my hand. He looked at the jewel-studded hilt. “These are pretty little things.”

“She’s pretty too.”

The other one snorted. “Hopefully the blades aren’t both pretty and useless like she is.”

“Give them back to me and find out,” I said.

He took the other one out of my sheath. I struggled, but I couldn’t get free.

He passed one to the other man, so now they each had one of my beloved blades. He tucked the one he’d taken into his belt.

I expected Dare to walk in at any moment. I just had to stall them.

I was never going to fucking live this down. If I had just stayed in the room, they wouldn’t have been able to enter. And if I hadn’t tied myself up, we wouldn’t have had the ridiculous scene where I couldn’t fight back well.

“What should we do with you?” the one man asked.

“Kill me right away, definitely,” I said. “That is your best chance of surviving this encounter.”

He let out a laugh. “Mouthy thing, aren’t you? Pretty impressive, given the circumstances.”

He said it was impressive , but given the way he slapped me next, it didn’t seem as if he were actually impressed.

Coppery blood, slick and choking, filled my mouth. I spat before it could choke me. “My husband is going to be very unamused.”

“He certainly is,” the man agreed. “We’re going to send you back to him, piece by piece. How well do you think he’ll be able to focus on his war then? All he’s going to want to do is find your killer.”

“That’s stupid. If you really want to distract him, leave me alive so he’s worried about me,” I suggested.

He grabbed my hair and yanked my head to one side, putting his knife to my throat. “Sorry, girly. I already have my orders. I don’t need new ones from you.”

“It seems you do, because your boss is even stupider than you are.”

I wanted to get all the information I could from them, and the chit-chat was helping me to stave off some of my fear.

And I was afraid. I could feel this twisting knot in my gut, this sense of the world closing up around me while my vision narrowed.

I didn’t want to die like this. Pointlessly.

And I knew it would hurt my men, and somehow, I couldn’t help but think of them—how Dare would feel responsible for the rest of his life. How Kaelan really might never forgive him, and how Thorne would have to try to bring them back together and might, for the first time, fail. All of them would suffer.

I’d suffer the most, of course, since I’d be dead. But still. Their lives would be terrible without me.

Just as things looked as if it were the end, the blades suddenly sang back into the empty sheaths at my hips. Without hesitating, I plucked the blades out and drove them into the man in front of me. The second man started forward, and I threw the knife, and it went through his throat.

He stared at me with a horrified face as blood flowed down his chest.

I’d missed. I’d been aiming for center mass, where I had the best chance of striking true, and I planned to follow up. Right now, it looked impressive.

I was never going to tell anyone it had been a miss. I’d just pretend that I could throw that well.

As soon as the man who had netted me died, so did his magic. I felt the moment the net became nothing but fabric. I yanked it off hastily, throwing it across the room as if it were a poisonous snake that might come alive again.

Then I walked over to the other man and rescued my precious blade from his throat. He was still gurgling as he grabbed at my arm, trying to pull my hand toward him to help. I raised my eyebrows at him. “I can respect the optimism, but that’s taking it a little far.”

I used his shirt to clean the blood off the blade.

I was still in the middle of cleaning and he was still in the middle of dying when the door opened.

Dare walked into the room.

He stopped dead in shock.

I stood. The corpse at my feet was now entirely a corpse; the man had just breathed his last. I tucked my blades away. “This is your fault.”

He stepped into the room, and there was a girl following behind him.

Ginelle. She looked wide-eyed and horrified as she stared around the room.

“How so?” Dare asked evenly. “Because I left you unsupervised?”

“No, because you got me my magic blades. Otherwise, the room would still be nice and tidy. They’d have killed me or taken me with them.”

Dare’s lips curved up. “I’m glad you’re not dead.”

I grabbed the front of his tunic and tugged his mouth down to kiss him. The two of us shared a long heated kiss.

As he straightened up, he murmured, “Did you throw your knife into that man’s throat?”

“I did,” I whispered back.

“Gods, I adore you.”

The sound of Ginelle stumbling over something, then slamming into the wall, dragged both of our attention away from each other and to her. She looked distraught.

“I hope you remember me. I’m Hanna. We met at your father’s ball.” I would have offered her a hand in greeting, but my hands were covered in blood, and she didn’t look like she would appreciate the gesture.

“It’s too bad they are dead,” Dare said. “I assume they came from the assassin? And that you didn’t just kill some entirely new enemy while I was gone?”

“Yes, assassins of Edric’s, I assume. I didn’t kill anyone new today.”

“How unusual.”

“I did spend most of my day tied up.”

“Apparently, you should spend your whole day tied up.”

I shrugged unapologetically.

Though, I had been regretting it a few minutes before when I thought that my desire for a hot meal might have spelled my death sentence.

“I assume your sister can find someone to reanimate these corpses to ask them some questions?”

“If we get there in time.” I prodded the body with my foot. “It takes so much time sailing. I think their mind’s state is going to be dicey by the time we get there.”

“Well, let’s get on that ship before any more assassins find us.”

I stared at him, still not wanting to leave Kaelan.

But I didn’t want to have to fight Dare either.

Maybe the most good we could do was figuring out how we could deal with these assassins, so Kaelan didn’t have to worry about anything but dragging his father off the throne.