Page 37 of Heart of Fire (Royal Ice Dragons #3)

HANNA

It was only when I was out of Dare’s sight that the tears that had been building up fully spilled over onto my cheeks. They clung to my lashes, blurring my vision. A sob strangled my chest.

It had been the magic that had compelled me to say the things that would force him to stop looking at me as if he could puzzle out all my secrets. To hurt him so much that he would let me go. Magic had forced me to do what I needed to do in order to get away from him.

I didn’t understand what had happened between us, and when I had begun to care so much.

But worse was knowing that he had begun to care, too, that Dare had begun to expose that he cared, which was so unlike him…and I had hurt him. I didn’t know if I’d ever see that side of Dare again.

I choked down my tears to focus on my mission.

Now I would be bait.

My day was going so badly that being kidnapped didn’t sound so terrible.

I turned my feet toward the coral mansion. It was the childhood home where I had been raised, and it often felt like a refuge. But today, I was trying to give myself enough time to be kidnapped.

I had chosen to live in the castle with my sister and my brothers-in-law. Especially with the kids there, it had felt so full of life.

The coral mansion was where my mother had died, and then my father. It was where Honor and I had been bullied mercilessly by my stepmother. It was where I had lived when I failed Honor, when she was punished for my mistakes, and so it was where my life story had begun to be wound into complicated knots that I could never untie.

My life had been knotted-up with loyalty and duty that I felt ungrateful for even thinking of untying.

Unfortunately, no one kidnapped me before I reached the tall, wrought iron gates.

Beyond, the lights were blazing in the coral mansion, bright against the night.

I remembered walking up to this gate as a child with my hand in Honor’s when she came to bring me home from school after she had been away at the Posselbaum Academy. I had skipped alongside her, clinging to her hand, thinking she was so tall and so incredibly beautiful as she smiled down at me. Inside, my father had been waiting for us. Back then, the sight of this house waiting for me had been full of so much joy.

Could I stand to leave it behind and live in the Ice Kingdom forever? The thought brought another lump to my chest. I never cried so much.

But now I felt turned inside out.

I raised my hand, and the gates which had been locked swung open. The house knew me. Magic kept it running while I was gone.

I left the gates behind me open, wide and inviting. Someone might have thought I was hoping Dare would come after me. But I wasn’t. I’d hurt him so badly that I felt sick, worse than if he had said such things to me.

It was worse that he hadn’t said anything cruel back.

I walked under the trees that I used to climb. I hadn’t even really liked climbing trees. Sometimes the bark left splinters in my hands, and I’d always been afraid of falling. There were constantly these terrible moments when my grip came loose or a branch dipped beneath me more deeply than I expected, and my stomach swooped and I felt as if I were going to die.

But Honor and my father always cheered me on. They liked to see me as fearless, and I liked being seen that way more than I liked being safe on the ground.

Which had been stupid.

Would someone please kidnap me and save me from thinking through all my mistakes?

But instead, I reached the fountain, with its statue in the center and the lights twinkling under the water, turning the water bubbly pink. I trailed my fingertips through it, disrupting the water lilies that floated over the surface.

I wish Dare were here to see it.

I missed him so much suddenly that it felt like an ache through my body.

I reached the front door, and it opened before me as if there were a butler. I smiled as I stepped into the entryway, although I felt wistful too. This magic was a gift from Honor and her men, a bit of their power diverted so that I always felt like I had a home, my own inheritance. Even though I had run away to another kingdom.

In the enormous round entryway, my footsteps seemed to echo over the marble floors. Fresh flowers were blooming everywhere, and green leaves grew up the marble walls.

On one wall hung an enormous framed portrait of my parents, Honor and me—when I was just a baby—although my mother’s face had been painted after her death. Her gaze on the baby’s face was so loving and tender. I wondered if she had ever really looked at me like that.

Honor’s hand rested on her shoulder, and she looked down at me as if I were the best gift my mother had ever given to her.

Was that right? How could I have felt like a gift when Honor knew that those were not her real parents? Had she been afraid that she would lose her place in their hearts? Or had she been as fearless and fiercely loving as always?

How can you love people and know them so well and still have so many questions about them?

“It’s a nice place you have here.” The voice behind me was gruff, and even though I knew better, I turned half hoping it was Dare.

He was so smart. It would not have surprised me if he had seen through all the cruel things I said and known what purpose it was for.

But of course, there were just half a dozen thugs who had followed me inside. They filled the doorway, a motley crew of rough-looking men with hard eyes and calloused hands. Their leader, a burly man with a scar running down his left cheek, gestured, and they lunged toward me.

“I had hoped we would get to the enchanted kitchen.” I took a step back, then turned and ran. I didn’t want to make things too easy for them. “I really want a cream puff.”

Once I burst through the kitchen doors, the kitchen’s magic began to work.

As I ran around the long table, plates of food began to appear: a three tiered glass tray filled with cream puffs, pastries and truffles, enormous bowls of fresh fruit, and trays full of sandwiches.

The sweet scent of freshly baked pastries filled the air as one of the men lunged across the table and tried to grab my arm. He fell into a suddenly appearing cake instead.

The kitchen thought we were having a party.

Two of the men ran around the table one way, and two ran the other while the others hesitated, blocking the doorway we’d just come through.

I reared back and kicked the first man in the chest. He fell back into his companion. I grabbed for my daggers as I leapt on top of the table, trying to find a clear way out, and trying not to step in any of the suddenly appearing pies.

I raised my magic, but I couldn’t stand to risk burning down the coral mansion, especially when I was supposed to let myself be kidnapped so I could find the identity of the Lady. I wasn’t burning my childhood home down for the Guild.

Instead, I leapt off the table, daggers in hand, hurtling feet-first into the first man who blocked my way. He staggered back, the two of us landing heavily on the ground; the impact shook my teeth. I scrambled up, stepping mercilessly on his stomach as I launched myself toward the second man.

But there were so many of them, closing around me. The leader and a stocky man with tattoos covering his arms lunged forward, grabbing my wrists.

I kicked out, catching the tattooed man in the stomach, but two more were on me in an instant. One grabbed me around the waist and cursed as I thrashed, trying to head butt him.

“This little fucker is stronger than she looks!” he shouted, which could pretty much be my life motto.

“Keep her under control!” the leader shouted.

One of them finally managed to wrench the daggers out of my hands. For now.

He gave me a disgusting leer as he handed my daggers over to the wiry man. How helpful of them. Since he’d taken the daggers from me, I’d be sure to get them back.

“Not going to turn into a squirrel today?” he asked me.

Never.

“Let’s just make sure,” he said.

One of them swept my legs. Then they swarmed me, pressing me to the ground, forcing my face against the cold marble floor. They kicked and punched me mercilessly.

My magic flared against my will, the dragon inside determined to protect me, to stay with me.

As the dragon, I could destroy all of them.

But that wouldn’t help me destroy the House of Restoration.

I met the gaze of one of the men as he grabbed my throat and slammed my head back, mercilessly hard, on the floor. Starlight burst through my vision, blinding me.

The shift was going to take over to save me. My body arched, helpless now, my wings beginning to sprout.

Then my entire body collapsed, folding in on itself, my magic disappearing.

I landed heavily on the ground, pain worse than anything from the beating searing through me as my dragon retreated deep inside.

It is agony to be able to fly and to not let yourself. I had done to myself all these years, and now it felt like a punishment to feel the ability to shift wither within me–even though I’d been trying to block it.

Finally satisfied with themselves, they backed up and left me curled on the floor in the fetal position.

I could barely breathe; the pain stole away my conscious thought. Slowly, I came back to myself, though not entirely.

As much as I hid the dragon, I wasn’t entirely myself without her, either.

I was curled on my side, my face bloodied, my head a bright, blinding blur. Metal pinched my wrist.

A cuff.

To make me helpless.

Like the one Kalean had given me to mute my powers.

It was next to the one Thorne had given me, inscribed with all those runes, all that love.

I hadn’t been branded like Honor all those years ago. Relief flooded me. I’d find a way to fight. Though the cuff was painfully tight; I couldn’t get it off easily.

The wiry man examined my daggers with a mix of awe and disgust.

“Royal craftsmanship,” he spat. “Too pretty to be proper weapons.”

“Pretty and useless, just like her.”

“Well. I can imagine some uses.”

I looked up at the bright lights of the chandelier that had shone down on late night snacks with my father. He had loved candy as much as I did, which was pretty impressive given how much small children love candy. When I couldn’t sleep, he had scooped us both bowls of ice cream.

Slowly, I reached up and grabbed the edge of the table. The edge felt sharp against my palm as I heaved myself up, barely managing to get to my feet.

The kitchen recognized my wish, of course; a bowl of ice cream materialized on the table. It looked exactly the way my father used to make my desserts: a crystal bowl piled high with ice cream, strawberries and whipping cream, with completely unnecessary rainbow crystallized sugar transforming the ice cream into the most magical version of itself.

A second later, a spoon dropped next to my hand.

“Where are you taking me?” My fingers closed on the edge of the table, as if I were holding myself up.

“Nowhere.” One of the men said. “The Lady will see you here.”

Oh, how convenient. “What does she want?”

The men seemed awestruck by the magic around them, and less interested in answering my question than stuffing their faces.

Then one of them scoffed, putting down a sandwich. “Imagine having all this power, all this magic, and using it to enchant a fucking kitchen so you don’t have to cook yourself.”

“This power never should have been stolen from the gods,” another agreed. “The Royals only waste it.”

“The Royals use it to protect our kingdom,” I shot back.

“The Royals don’t protect this kingdom nearly as much as they take from it. We’ve never needed kings. We need to follow the gods.”

“Who’s to say the gods are any better?” I said. “Do you ever look around and think you could’ve done a better job? Maybe leave a few things out, so we don’t get kids dying and–”

“Heresy!” a wiry man with a patchy beard cried, his eyes wild with zealotry. His hand flashed out, his calloused palm connecting with my cheek.

The world burst red.

Pain exploded across my face, sharp and stinging. The force of the blow snapped my head to the side, and I tasted copper as my teeth cut into the inside of my cheek. My ear rang, a high-pitched whine drowning out the sudden silence that fell over the room.

Slowly, deliberately, I worked my jaw, feeling the ache where I’d bitten my cheek.

I always had a gift for pissing people off.

“How can I be guilty of heresy when I’m more guilty of ignorance?” I asked, my voice low and steady. “I’m listening. Tell me about these gods of yours.”

“You’ll see how much better the world can be when the gods reign, not the Royals,” one of the men promised me. His eyes glowed with religious fervor.

People like that always made me uncomfortable. I didn’t have anything against the gods. I just thought excessive degrees of enthusiasm about them tended to lead the world awry, even though in theory, it should have made people better.

“If her own people don’t execute her first,” another man said with a chuckle. His malicious gaze met mine. “Wouldn’t that be fun—dying at the hands of your own brothers-in-law?”

Yes , please keep talking , and tell me your plans .

“Shut up,” the leader growled at him. “Did you forget what she is? She wants you to tell her everything. Then she’ll find a way to get the info to the queen.”

Was I that transparent?

“We should gag her,” the wiry man growled, looking absolutely gleeful. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a dirty cloth, the fabric stained and frayed at the edges. Really? That disgusting old rag? They were just being rude to be rude.

The leader gripped my arms, his fingers digging into my flesh hard enough to bruise, as another man grabbed me from behind. I bucked to escape, starting the words of a spell that I barely began before a hand clamped down over my mouth, his skin rough and salty against my lips.

I bit down mercilessly on his palm, ignoring how disgusting he was. He let out a pained bark into my ear.

The wiry man approached, snapping the filthy cloth between his hands.

Someone slapped me hard across the face, and stars exploded. Before my vision cleared, they took the opportunity to shove the rag between my teeth.

I gagged when they yanked the gag tight, knotting it behind my head, capturing so much of my hair in the knot that it pulled painfully every time I moved my head.

Then Ginelle stepped into the room. She was dressed in a long, gauzy black gown that floated around her narrow body, but it was her aura that made it hard for me to recognize her at first; she carried herself completely differently now.

I let her see my shock, and she smiled in triumph. It’s so helpful to let people think they’ve won when they do exactly what you wish.

“Gagging that one is an excellent choice,” she said mockingly. “It seems she has an uncanny ability to charm people. Not me, of course. I was too boring for her to even bother.”

Her eyes lit with pride as they met mine. “Yes, I’m the one you’ve been looking for. The Lady. And we’ve met before…”

She blurred, shrank, and the child from the woods faced me.

Then she grew again, but this time she shaped into another person entirely.

It was like looking into a mirror. She had turned into me.

The gag turned my words to a mumble. She clearly understood enough, because she said, “You’ll be the one to go and get close to your sister. To go into the castle, into the children’s wing, and slit all their throats tonight.”

She looked delighted as she added, “And you’ll be the one they find standing over your sister’s body.”

Panic laced through every muscle as she went on, an arrogant smirk written across her face. Across my face.

“Only by then, that really will be you. Screaming. Crying. Grieving what you could not stop…and no one will believe you.”

I tried to say that that would never work, that my sister’s men would always see through anyone with a disguise.

“I needed you to come back to the Isle. And you were so eager to, to save me. But only because that would help Kaelan, of course. Not for my own sake.” Her voice was mocking. “You Royals only care about each other. Which is why tearing you all apart will be so satisfying.”

“You’re a noble,” I tried to say.

“I surrendered my title and the magic with it when I became a priestess of the House of Restoration,” she told me. “Nothing matters but serving the gods.”

I tried to speak, but all I managed was to taste more of the acrid gag against my tongue.

“Untie her a moment, but be ready to knock her unconscious if she misbehaves and tries to speak a spell.” She gave me a warning look.

The men exchanged uneasy looks—as if they knew what a threat I was—but they obeyed her. I winced as a chunk of my hair was torn out along with the knot.

Then I could ask, with a tongue that felt dry and heavy, “Does your father know?”

I needed to know if Kaelan’s allies were traitors too.

She shook her head. “He really believes that I am dying, and he is even a little bit sad about it.”

“You aren’t really dying?”

“It’s not the plague, but the magic of the goddess I serve burning through me.” Even now, she looked as sick as ever, her eyes glassy, her face damp with fever. Or maybe that was just the way fervent lunatics looked.

“Is that always where the plague comes from? From the gods?” Why the hell would anyone serve something that also sickened them?

“We created the plague,” she said, full of pride. “It mimics the symptoms that we experience as we serve the gods, as our magic is given over to them and their power transforms us. This way, no one knows who among us is stricken and who serves the gods. A clever plan, is it not?”

“My Lady,” one of them said, “I fear she is trying to get you to tell her information so that when she is rescued, she can pass it to the others.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ginelle said. “By the end of the night, there will be no others.”

She smiled at me. “And I do want her to understand how badly she is beaten.”

She reached out and traced her fingers gently over the curve of my cheek, as if she were memorizing my stricken expression. “Just before I kill her, ‘you’ are going to tell your sister that you were always jealous of her. You despised her and wanted her place. She will die thinking that you betrayed her, that you hated her. And she will die knowing the blood of her children is on your hands as you end her life.”

Sickness washed over me.

“With the queen and her heirs dead, and with the knowledge that the Royals are evil—that even their heroes ultimately fell, ruined by power—the people will realize that only the gods can save them.”

I shook my head.

“I know that you are still planning something,” she said. “You always think you have a plan, don’t you? I know that you let us hear. That you let us take you.”

She took a step back, and the kitchen behind her blurred. I frowned as she picked up something from the side, from a tabletop that wasn’t there at all, from the open air.

She wasn’t really in this room with me.

“The goddess gave me magic you’ve never seen before.” She held up the item in her hand.

It was a familiar stuffed animal.

She wasn’t in the kitchen with me at all. It was only an apparition. It was only a game to her.

She was already in the children’s wing.

Terror seized my chest.

“Dress her in blood and bring her to me,” Ginelle said. She offered me a cruel smile. “Your sister is waiting for you.”

She put the blade to the stuffed animal’s throat, and the last thing I saw was stuffing falling before they were seizing me, pouring blood onto my clothes and onto my hands.

I needed Dare.

I had to find my way out of this cuff that kept me from shifting, that kept me from reaching Dare through the bond.

From somewhere in the past, through my pain and panic, Thorne’s voice floated back to me. He’d been touching each charm, telling me why he’d given it to me.

“ You gave up your power once for the sake of those you love . But I hope you never do that again , Hanna . And if someone ever takes it from you again … use this spell . It will destroy all the magic in the room . No more vows . No more bonds .”

I touched the charm, digging my finger into it.

The magical food in the room melted away.

Silverware fell in the act of materializing.

The cuff on my wrist opened.

The men realized what was happening, and they raced for me.

Before they could reach me, I screamed for Dare.

But I didn’t know if he would hear me, and if he would go to the nursery—like I cried out—not to me.

I started to shift.

Then the men were tackling me with a net this time, like the ones that the guards had used to block our magic.