Page 38 of Heart of Fire (Royal Ice Dragons #3)

DARE

Trying to follow behind Hanna at such a distance that she wouldn’t realize she was being tailed had been difficult. I knew how good she was.

I kept trying to reach out to her in the mental link, but there was no answer. Maybe it was the vow. Maybe she really did just hate me.

I couldn’t blame her…after everything. The thought that maybe she would stay here tore at my heart at the same time as the protective, possessive side of me wanted her to stay. She had said she would rather lose us than have us die. I felt the same way.

No wonder the two of us pushed each other away.

I’d followed her at such a distance that I kept losing her, and every time, I felt this terrifying swoop of loss.

And eventually, of course, I realized I was being followed myself.

I stopped and turned back. I had been walking over the rooftops. I could feel that there was someone there, but I couldn’t see them.

And then, someone stepped out of the shadows.

Dark hair, tall, relaxed posture, hands in his pockets. His face was in shadow, and I didn’t recognize him until I caught the shape of his high cheekbones and the glint of the bone crown he wore in his black curls as he emerged from the darkness.

Zehr.

For a second, I felt a pulse of unexpected fear. They mocked him as a monster in my world, and I knew they mocked him here on the Isle too. But there was no denying the intensity of his power. His ability to walk through shadows made him a formidable enemy.

The next second, my fear was replaced with a rush of relief. He might be my enemy, but he loved Hanna as if she were his own sister.

“I was hoping that you were following me.”

He tilted his head. His faint smile seemed amused, and warmer than I had expected from the stories about the zombie king. “Well. You are surprising. And you are surprisingly confident that I’m not creeping up behind you in the shadows to slit your throat.”

“And why would I be afraid of that?”

“You might be afraid of the consequences for how you’ve treated her.”

“Why would you think that I’ve treated her poorly?” I knew Hanna. She wouldn’t have said anything to these men to endanger our mission here.

Later, I had no doubt that she would dime me out if she felt so inclined and make me pay for things I’ve said or done. But for now, I knew she didn’t want them involved and overprotective and interfering.

“I think you forget, Dare. I’ve known an awful lot of men like you.”

“Because you are one?”

He shook his head.

I shrugged off the accusation, deciding he wasn’t my enemy. He wouldn’t hate me if he knew how I loved Hanna. “She’s not responding to my call.”

Zehr’s brows arched, but he made no comment on the fact that we had a bond. After all, Honor and her men had found a way. They had never even depended on marriage.

“And it’s not just because you’ve pissed her off?”

“Hanna would—” I started to cut myself off, realizing that he obviously knew Hanna far better than I did. After all, he’d had years with her.

Just then, the bond rose.

Hanna screamed desperately into my mind. “ Help me ! The nursery—help ! The children are in danger !”

It was as if she had screamed into my ear, and my hands closed around nothingness, desperately wanting to reach out and grab her. All I wanted to do was go to her.

“ Hanna !” I screamed down the bond, but she wasn’t there. I looked frantically at Zehr, who had seen the look on my face; he’d leaped forward as if he were ready for a fight. “The nursery. At the mansion. Hanna said we have to get there.”

“It’s a good thing I’m the one who was following you,” Zehr said. Before I could ask any questions, he grabbed my shoulder.

I had wondered if he could shadow travel other people, or if those rumors were just based on his eerie supernatural ability to disappear into the shadows.

As the world went dark and cold and airless, I had my answer. I couldn’t breathe. My lungs were being squeezed out slowly, as if I were underwater. Panic rose at the sensation that I would never breathe again.

The next moment, we were stumbling in the dark hush of the nursery. The main room was an enormous play room and library, with cushions in the arched windows for reading; a tree rose in the center of the room, hung with several swings, and elaborate doll houses stood next to a small armory of wooden swords, staffs and bows.

I saw it in a blur, because beyond the playroom was a hallway, with doors to either side. One door stood ajar, and through it I could see an enormous bathtub, ringed with green hanging plants and a formidable amount of discarded bath toys.

It felt surreal to be here when all I wanted was to be at Hanna’s side. But she had sent me here to protect her family.

Zehr gestured at one door as he moved toward another. He drew two daggers as smoothly and silently as he had moved through the shadows.

I burst into the other room.

In a heartbeat, I took it in; the raging storm outside lit the room with a flash of lightning that made it too bright before it faded back to darkness.

The flash illuminated Hanna, standing over one of the beds.

I felt a jolt of relief before I realized that it wasn’t really Hanna. It couldn’t be. Not after hearing her scream in my mind…unless there was some way she had gotten here first.

“Hanna.” My mind raced.

“Thank the gods you’re here,” she told me.

I reached out with my mind, but I was met with the same wall I had been since she emerged from the pub.

When I reached out for her, she moved toward me swiftly. Her daggers were in their scabbards, and she was wearing the same clothes she’d been wearing when I left her.

“Are you still angry with me?” I asked her.

“I could never stay angry at you,” she told me.

This couldn’t really be Hanna.

In part, because her ability to be angry with me was limitless .

I glanced at the beds. Her tone was hushed, as if she were trying to keep from waking them. There were lumps under the covers. I didn’t see any blood.

“Are the children safe?” I asked.

“I need you to understand,” she told me.

“I’ll listen to anything you want to tell me,” I promised her.

I tried to reach out to her through our link. There was this deafening silence from her, as if there was a door closed between us.

“I’ve always looked up to Honor and thought she was so perfect.” Her eyes flooded with tears. “But what I learned tonight… She’s a monster.”

My upbringing had left me perpetually prepared to believe anyone was a monster. But still…

“What did you come here to do tonight, Hanna?”

“Tell me you’ll fight by my side,” she said softly. “Tell me?—”

“I would tear down kingdoms for you,” I promised her. “I would kill for you.”

She shook her head. “No. I know how easily Kaelan would kill for me. How Thorne would. But do you love me?—”

“I don’t give a fuck about anyone but you,” I told her bluntly.

Relief lit her eyes. “Good.”

My heart thundered in my chest. Not because I gave a damn about what happened to a bunch of spoiled royal kids when peasant kids were dying regularly in the mines, but because I knew how much Hanna loved those children.

“You will help me?” she asked. “Because my sister has taken the children in order to keep those men under her control. They are gone, and she has left changelings in their place, enchanted to persuade them, but you can see through them, can’t you?”

She peeled back the covers to reveal…a pile of pillows.

For a second, raw rage flashed across her face.

“Those are her changelings?” I tilted my head to one side. “Given everything I’ve heard about your sister’s magic, I expected more.”

She threw me a glare and bowed to look under the bed. So, had the children, knowing they were in danger, hidden?

I frowned, wondering why I hadn’t heard anything from any of the other rooms yet.

I’d been half expecting to hear Zehr’s scream of grief and rage.

“Who’s room is this?” I asked her.

She didn’t answer. As if she didn’t know. She was already moving, her steps quick and purposeful across the plush carpet. The room smelled of lavender and old wood, a stark contrast to the tension in the air. She crossed to the enormous, colorfully painted armoire, its intricate designs of flowers and vines seeming to writhe in the flickering candlelight.

With a swift, violent motion, she threw the door open. The hinges creaked in protest, and the scent of mothballs and musty fabric wafted out. Her hand shot into the darkness, emerging with a grip on a small, trembling arm. She pulled, and a child tumbled out between us, eyes wide with terror.

“Let me do it,” I said, my voice low and steady despite the hammering of my heart. “Let me show you that I would do anything for you.”

She was already reaching for the blade in her scabbard, the soft whisper of steel against leather barely audible over the child’s panicked breathing.

The child let out a terrified cry when they saw me, high-pitched and piercing. Small hands reached out desperately toward Hanna, seeking safety in the arms that were about to harm her.

I moved swiftly, my body reacting before my mind could fully process. I knocked the child out of the way, feeling the soft impact of their small limbs against my legs as I pretended to grab them.

Hanna looked up at me, her eyes alight with a fervor that sent chills down my spine.

As I pivoted, the knife in my hand flashed in the candlelight.

That familiar smirk was written across her beautiful lips.

I plunged the blade into Hanna’s stomach. The resistance of flesh and muscle traveled up my arm, in a sickening sensation that would haunt me. Those blue eyes widened in horror.

She let out a scream, raw and primal.

The sound tore through the room as she fell to her knees, her hands moving to the wound. Blood began to seep between her fingers, its coppery scent filling the air.

“How could you betray me,” she gasped.

I caught her, my arms wrapping around her familiar form. But even as I lowered her to the ground, my muscles remained tense, eyes fixed on her hands. I wouldn’t put it past her to try and stab me in retaliation.

Doubt gnawed at me, a cold pit in my stomach. What if it was really her? What if she’d had a plan, and I had just ruined everything?

“Take the magic off your face,” I demanded, my voice hoarse. I tried to work the spell to counter her enchantment, but my hands were slick with her blood, making it hard to form the proper gestures. The knife was still in my grip, its weight a grim reminder of what I’d just done.

“We need to get to Hanna.” Zehr’s voice was rough behind me, cutting through my spiraling thoughts. I could hear others moving into the room, the floorboards creaking under their weight.

“This isn’t her,” I said, the words tumbling out more for my own benefit than anyone else’s. I needed so badly for it to be true.

I stood abruptly, letting her fall to the floor with a dull thud.

She reached out, her blood-stained fingers grasping at the hem of my tunic. I felt the tug as she tried to pull herself up, leaving smears of red on the fabric. The room spun around me, the scents of blood and lavender mixing. Hanna’s blood. My stomach heaved as if I might puke.

I stood there, frozen, the knife dripping steadily onto the carpet as I stared down at the face of the woman I loved.

“Of course it isn’t,” Zehr said. “But someone opened the gates to the coral mansion. Talisyn!”

Talisyn moved toward him. Big, scarred Arren moved to scoop up the child, murmuring comforting words before he looked up and said, “We’ll keep her alive for questioning.”

His voice was chilling before he returned to cooing comforting words to the little girl.

Zehr grabbed me, and we were back in that airless void.

I stumbled on our way out, drawing a frantic gasp of air. The world was a blur, and I couldn’t remember how to breathe as we landed in the shadows of the courtyard.

It was lush and beautiful and there was no time to take in what was around me. I had to trust Zehr and Talisyn as they ran for the house, and I followed.

The enormous coral home rose in front of us, and the air was filled with the scent of night-blooming flowers as I finally dragged in big, ragged gasps of air.

I wasn’t sure if it was the shadow traveling or the sight of Hanna’s collapsing, bleeding body that had shaken me so completely, but I tried to push all those emotions away.

Two thugs ran out toward us, drawing swords, and I was so glad to see someone I could kill.

They paused, looking terrified as they took in Zehr and Talisyn. They spared no glance toward me.

Talisyn flashed them a deadly smile and tossed his knife in the air before he caught it by the blade and launched it toward them. The man he’d targeted ducked to one side, escaping it—and launched himself right into the shadows.

Where Zehr suddenly appeared. Zehr caught the man’s jaw in his hands and twisted, breaking his neck seamlessly.

The second man ran toward us, raising his sword and a desperate scream, launching himself with all his might.

I leapt out of the way and kicked him in the back, pushing him toward Talisyn.

Talisyn slashed his blade across his torso effortlessly. The man’s eyes went wide as he fell to his knees, and Talisyn kicked him in the back, completely unnecessarily. The man doubled over and sprawled to the ground, never to rise again.

“Do you want to stop playing around?” Zehr asked impatiently. He was already at the arched doors that led to the house.

Talisyn and I followed as he plunged into the house.

We entered an enormous anteroom as two more thugs skidded into the room.

“You take them,” Zehr said airily. “I’m going to find Hanna.”

He blurred into the shadows.

As the men charged at us, I met the first attack with a parry, searching for an opening. The wiry man in front of me seemed more skilled than the others, guarding himself carefully and looking for an opening.

Was Hanna behind him? All I wanted was to get to her; the need to see her face, to see her alive thrummed through me powerfully as I aimed one blow after another his way.

I was also pretty sure Talisyn was judging my combat skills as he fought the other man.

Talisyn’s height gave him an advantage, and he used it ruthlessly, bringing his elbow down hard on the man’s collarbone. The crack was audible even over the din of battle, and the thug crumpled with a howl of pain.

Between strikes, I managed to ask, “Are all the kids all right?” My voice was strained, breath coming in short gasps.

I feinted left, then spun right. My blade found the gap in the last thug’s armor, sliding between his ribs. Hot blood gushed over my hand as I withdrew the weapon, and the man collapsed with a gurgle.

Talisyn wiped his blade on his sleeve, leaving a dark smear. “I think so,” he said, his voice tight. “I didn’t see every one of them.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. “But the others are coming. We were the fastest to be able to get to Hanna.”

Zehr reappeared, walking out of the shadows. He held out his hands, and neither Talisyn nor I hesitated to grab them. I braced myself for the void.

* * *

HANNA

When I heard chaos erupt, joy sang through my heart. The sound of splintering wood and screams and chaos meant that I was not alone.

Dare, Talisyn, and Zehr appeared suddenly from the shadows.

The three of them moved together as if they had fought for years, watching each other’s backs as the thugs surged toward them.

They fought their way through the room, a trail of dying bodies and broken furniture in their wake. The air was thick with the sounds of combat: the clash of steel on steel, the dull thud of fists meeting flesh, and the cries of those who fell.

Dare was a whirlwind of controlled fury, his eyes found me over and over, even as he dispatched the thugs with ruthless efficiency.

If I had wondered if he hated me, now there was no question when he looked at me as if he needed to have his arms around me before he could breathe.

When he finally reached me, his blade flashed in the dim light, slicing through the net that had held me captive.

The moment the net fell away, it was as if a dam had broken.

My magic surged back to life, a warm, familiar energy flooding through my veins. I felt a sudden weight on my hips, as tangible as if someone had physically slid my blades back into their scabbards. Without hesitation, I pulled them out, the familiar grip bringing an overwhelming sense of relief.

The next second, I threw my arms around Dare’s shoulders, careful to keep the blades from grazing him. He squeezed me tightly, his warm, hard muscle enveloping me. It wasn’t like Dare to pause in the midst of all that bloodshed, but he gripped me as if he needed me.

“It’s you,” he whispered, his voice raw and broken. “You.”

“My niblings,” I choked out, my voice hoarse and barely above a whisper. The words scraped against my dry throat. “Are they all right?”

Dare glanced back at the men still fighting. His face was streaked with sweat and grime, his eyes wild with the heat of battle.

“They’re all right,” Dare assured me. “You warned me in time.”

“You went to them first, like I asked.” I could barely believe it.

His eyes narrowed slightly, the way they did before he said something sarcastic, then softened as if he had rejected the words. “Don’t tell anyone. Kae would kill me for not protecting you first, but I knew it was what you would want.”

“I love you,” I told him in a rush, as if I might never get the chance again.

He grinned at me, but he didn’t get the chance to say anything else. The last thug fell under Tal’s blade just as Branok and Lynx strode into the room.

Lynx had Ginelle with him; she was soaked in blood, and I let out a gasp when I saw her.

“It’s hers,” Lynx told me, holding out his hand. “All the kids are fine, Hanna. I promise.”

I dove toward her. I slammed her into the wall, raising my magic. I wouldn’t burn her alive when she was handcuffed. But I was willing to burn her a little .

“Is there anyone else going to try to kill my nieces and nephews?” I asked fiercely.

Hopefully she had been the only one who could get in, because she had worn my face. The thought that my nieces and nephews could have thought that I was the one attacking them, that they might have been reluctant to fight back because of that trust they had in me, that my presence on the Isle might have made them hesitate…struck me like a physical blow.

I expected Ginelle to say something.

Instead, a horrible smile touched her face, the second before I heard a crunch.

“The gods will welcome me for all I’ve done for them,” she said.

“Heal her,” Lynx said urgently, moving toward her, but she had already crumpled to the ground. She stared up at nothingness.

I looked at her body in shock.

She had just killed herself.

You can never trust the boring girls.