Page 48 of Heart of Fire (Royal Ice Dragons #3)

DARE

I hated the thought of working with Baelur in a way that felt like a betrayal of my own parents. But I knew we needed to be practical. I should have walked away, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do so.

“You know, it was you and your rebels who inspired me,” Baelur said with a twisted smile that he directed toward me. “Your parents’ defiance showed me how much the people yearned to overthrow their oppressors. And from that hatred, my vision for a new order was born.” He spread his arms wide. “Why be a mere king when one can ascend to godhood?”

“My parents? The ones you killed?” My voice came out too soft. “I’ve heard whispers that you might be my father.”

Baelur paused, his eyes narrowing. “And yet, here you are, wishing me dead. Even though I’m the reason you have your magic. You are clearly no mere peasant, boy.”

“So it’s true?”

He shrugged. “I don’t remember your mother.”

“You had her hung.” There was no hiding the pain in my voice.

“Did I?” He shrugged. “She was nothing to me. Perhaps I am your father.”

He didn’t even remember her. He’d hurt so many women like my mother that he didn’t even remember her.

Baelur’s calculating gaze shifted from me to Kaelan, dismissing me. “Kaelan, I can offer you the House of Restoration. With them under your command, the throne is yours for the taking. You could command the power of the gods.”

Kaelan’s eyes narrowed as he studied Baelur, but the man didn’t seem terrified like most who found themselves at the receiving end of Kaelan’s cold gaze.

Kaelan inclined his head slightly.

Bitterness burnt through me. I knew it made sense for Kaelan to take the offer, to do whatever he needed to get his ass on the throne so he could protect Hanna. But the way he looked so unaffected…I swallowed, trying to school my face so no one could see my rage.

I’d have my revenge.

Eventually.

“An enticing offer,” Kaelan murmured, the words hanging in the air like a baited hook. “And what would you ask in return?”

Baelur’s answering smile was like a serpent baring its fangs. “Together, we could?—”

Kaelan cut him off. “Dare, what do you want to do with him? Do we take the easy way to the throne? Do we sacrifice your parents’ memories one last time for practical reasons?”

My chest was tight. I knew what answer he wanted. “Nothing’s going to bring them back from the dead.”

“No,” Hanna began, her hand brushing mine as if to give me strength. But we both knew she was the most emotional, the softest and most reckless for our sake. She would always choose us above what was practical.

I loved her for it, of course.

Kaelan nodded.

“We should do whatever serves our purposes,” I told Hanna…and myself. “I only care about… us.” It was mostly true, and I wanted it to be true, but then I added a lie, “Baelur means nothing to me.”

Hanna’s gaze softened.

“Liar.” Kaelan’s voice was unexpectedly harsh.

Kaelan drew his concealed dagger. He moved so fast that Baelur never saw it; Baelur was still smiling when Kaelan thrust it deep into his side.

Baelur’s face shifted from arrogant to shocked and agonized. The rest of us stared at Kaelan, startled.

Kaelan was always pragmatic. What had he just done?

As Baelur staggered, the weapon buried in his flesh, triumph roared within me. This was the justice my parents had been denied all these years.

Now Baelur’s grand delusions of godhood were bleeding out onto the cold stone floor.

“Enough sacrificing, Dare,” Kaelan’s voice cut through the haze of my wild emotions. “You sacrifice for us and then you resent us, but that’s not what I want between us.” He gripped Baelur’s collar, shoving the wounded man toward me with a contemptuous ease. “Stab him. You’ll feel better.”

Kaelan pushed his own dagger into my palm. I looked down at Baelur, the monster of my nightmares, now feeble and gasping at my feet.

His eyes, once so commanding, flickered with fear.

I must have looked that afraid when he murdered my parents.

When Kaelan kicked Baelur, the man fell to his knees. He raised his hands in a flimsy shield from my revenge. “Please.”

“My mother begged,” I told him. “Did you have mercy?”

“Please. You’re my son?—”

I followed him to the ground, driving the blade into his body until he couldn’t make any more claims, until he lay on his side, his eyes staring lifelessly toward the sky.

“All right.” Thorne’s hand was on my shoulder. I wasn’t sure how long he’d been there. “It’s all right, Dare. Get up.”

When I staggered to my feet, Baelur’s blood was all over my tunic.

Kaelan was watching me with an expression I couldn’t read.

Thorne rubbed my shoulder, and I shook him off. “Stop touching me. That’s way fucking weirder than fighting a god, but thanks.”

I turned to meet Hanna’s gaze. She was wide-eyed, and she looked as if she were looking at something distant.

The way she was looking at nothing sent a rush of panic through my body.

* * *

HANNA

Dare’s bloody fingers released the hilt of the knife. It fell to the ground, alongside Baelur’s body. His eyes were open, staring up at the sky.

I could still feel the goddess inside me, curling around my brain like a snake coiling to strike. She’d tried to take me over in that moment of fear when it looked like I might fall to Baelur.

I didn’t trust her.

How rude . I saved you . Without my powers , Baelur would have killed you all .

I wasn’t sure if the words were my own thoughts…or hers.

I shook her off and realized Dare was staring at me with a stricken look on his face.

“Dare,” I said, unable to hide the urgency in my voice as I reached for him.

He took a step back, his face shuttering. He raised bloody hands in front of him, as if he were holding all three of us back.

Dare nodded to all of us. His voice was curt when he said, “Thank you.”

Thank you for what ? Murdering the asshole who killed my parents ? Choosing me over possible political alliances ?

He was still backing away. He nodded at us, one last time, and then walked away.

I turned to look for my brothers-in-law. Branok and Caldren were quietly conferring near the broken body of a dragon I didn’t recognize. The two dragons who had fallen were both guards I didn’t know. Relief choked me so that I could barely breathe because the people I loved were all up and moving. The feeling was followed by a rush of guilt.

“Hanna.” Thorne’s voice was deep and commanding and safety itself.

The next thing I knew, I was in his arms; I moved faster than conscious thought.

Thorne held me close, his arms closing around me, his solid, muscular body making me feel safe and grounded.

Then he ducked his head and brushed his lips against mine. He kissed me as if I were breath itself, as if he needed every second of my body against his to survive.

Kaelan’s hard body pressed against me from behind, and I relaxed into their muscular warmth and heat and comfort.

“You’re hurt.” Kaelan’s tone was stern, almost accusatory. But that was just Kaelan being Kaelan.

“I feel better now,” I murmured into Thorne’s chest. His hand moved up, cupping the back of my head through my hair.

“She’s mine too,” Kaelan said dryly, pulling me back from Thorne. That was honestly less possessive than I would’ve expected from him. It was damned near enlightened.

I turned in Thorne’s arms. Kaelan’s eyes were the same icy blue as always as he studied my face, but his fingers were gentle against my bruised cheek. His inscrutable, cruelly beautiful features didn’t hide how much he loved me, no matter how icy he seemed.

He started to lean in to kiss me, and I stopped him with a hand on his chest. He arched an eyebrow at me. I couldn’t deny him for long, I was dying to kiss him, but we had a discussion to have first.

“Did you manipulate me?”

He wasn’t the kind of man who would lie about it. “When specifically?”

Gods, I loved him so much and still wanted to slap him sometimes. “When you sent me off to Dare because he ‘needed’ me?”

“Did he not? I am quite sure he did.” Kaelan shrugged lazily. “But yes. I love you, and I was scared. You know I’d lock you up in a tower somewhere to keep you safe if I could.”

“If you could?”

“If I didn’t need you. We both know that I do.”

I kissed him then.

I looked for Dare, trying to pull him in. But he had separated himself from us, and it hurt my heart.

Arren strode up to me, and the three of us pulled apart—though barely. Kaelan still towered over me, ready to face any threat, and Thorne kept his big palm against my back as if he needed contact with me.

“Let’s head to the castle,” Arren told me. “Honor will want to see you.”

He was curt, even by Arren’s standards. But it had to be hard for him to be away from Honor and the children after their assassination attempt. He looked so big and fearsome and so miserable at the same time that I felt a strong urge to hug him.

“Dare,” I called.

He gave me a barely perceptible jerk of his head in response and made no move to cross the expanse of broken ground that he had put between us. Dragons began to shift and launch themselves upward, shaking the ground.

“What’s going on with him?” Kaelan muttered. “He stopped all of us from stopping you .”

I was grateful Dare had helped create the space for me to fight…but it killed me that now he seemed unwilling to even come near me.

* * *

We flew to the summer castle, where Honor and the children had been spirited away.

Everyone was fine. I had to tell myself that in a chant because I kept looking to see that Dare and Kaelan and Thorne and Branok and my other brothers-in-law were really there.

As soon as I looked away, I felt a pulse of fear, as if they might all disappear.

We arrived at the summer castle, where the children were playing on the green lawn—small figures, viewed from above, like little dolls. My heart stuttered with nervousness, even though they had Honor watching over them—along with many guards—and they were fine.

I didn’t understand how people had children of their own. Their lives were so fragile. Children were terrifying.

I landed lightly. Honor’s face lit with joy as she hurried toward me, and then she saw Kaelan shift at my side, and she visibly soured. I knew my sister as queen was more than capable of hiding her emotions, so she was choosing not to hide how she felt about Kaelan.

I glanced up at Kaelan, who was generally so stoic himself, as he arched one brow, his lips curving in disdainful amusement.

“Be nice,” I told him under my breath before Honor could reach us. “We need their help.”

He scoffed. “Do we? I believe a goddess stands at my side.”

I smiled up at him, though I felt anxiety twining around my chest just like the shadows coiled around my mind. I wasn’t sure what the goddess’ powers would cost me…and if I should get rid of her now, or if I should use her powers to help us destroy Edric.

That was a problem for another day.

“He’s not talking about the Shadow Weaver.” Thorne said from my other side, sounding irritated, as if he had debated whether or not to save Kaelan from himself. But he always did. “We just think you’re a goddess.”

I twined my fingers through Thorne’s. “I love you, do you know that?”

“I do.” Thorne’s smile was small, but brimmed with joy and contentment. It made my heart swell.

I had a wonderful first family with Honor and her men and with my father and mother, as distant as their lives felt now. They had taught me to love well and fiercely. Now, I just needed to take the final steps to put together my second family, the one I chose.

“My first family matters to me,” I told Kaelan softly, squeezing Thorne’s hand in mine. “If you love me, try to love them too.”

Kaelan’s brows arched further, but the disdainful smirk dropped off his face. He didn’t have time to answer; my sister was almost to us. He looked as if he had a smartass remark to make, but he inclined his head instead.

“You made it.” Honor squeezed me in her arms. I could feel her head swiveling over my shoulder, and I knew she was cataloguing her men—even though she would have already heard from them through the mental link.

I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t stop counting the living with a keen sense of relief.

“Of course,” I said breezily.

She pushed me away until she held me at arms length. Her fingers curled into my shoulders, and she blinked hard. My heart dropped as I realized she was fighting back tears.

“Honor, it’s all right, I’m fine.” My own nonchalance had fallen away.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded, shaking me just slightly. “I never wanted you to give up anything for me! I wanted to give you everything that I lost when we were young, to give you an easier life…and you threw it away to protect me.”

Her blue eyes were bright with unshed tears.

I stumbled over what to say. “We’re sisters.”

“Ugh!” she cried out loud, before she wrapped me in her arms and hugged me. “You make me crazy!”

I hugged her back, as hard as I could. “Well, again. We’re sisters.”

She held me tight, no matter how exasperated she was. Just like I held her.