Page 14 of Ink Sworn (Greatdrakes #3 | The Fae Universe #24)

V alentine walked through the halls to the healers' wing where Yelena and Avallach had been recovering. Her room was empty except for a healer cleaning it.

"Where is she?" he demanded.

"Lady Yelena is no longer staying in our care," the healer said, stripping the sheets from the bed. Her scent hit Valentine hard, and he wanted to bury his nose in it.

"Do you have any idea where she could be?" he asked.

The healer's brow furrowed. "I imagine she has gone back to her own apartments. I don't see why..."

Valentine didn't let them finish before he was stalking back out into the halls. He had no idea where to go, so he stopped and tried to think clearly. It was next to impossible with his dragon snarling at him.

Valentine didn't know where Yelena's apartments were. He didn't want to ask the others. He would find her another way.

He hadn't checked for the silvery string of light since he had rescued her. He had believed it was the power of his vision that led him to her. Maybe he could find it again.

Valentine closed his eyes and reached for his magic. The part of him that had tracked her was his dragon, so he nudged it.

I know you are raging, but we can't shift here in the mountain. We must be careful hunters, treading softly , he tried to soothe it. It was the tempestuous part of himself that always needed to be coaxed into patience.

A rush of heat burned through him, and when Valentine opened his eyes, it was with the vision of the dragon. He looked down, and the thread of silver was now attached to his wrist.

Thank you, Valentine said. He didn't know how long its patience would last, so he all but ran through the palace, following the flickering light up twisting staircases, moving higher and higher.

His ears popped as he passed viewing platforms for people studying astronomy. Where the hell was she hiding?

Valentine came to the top of another set of stairs that stopped in front of a large wooden door. It was painted blue with a silvery gray dragon design on it.

Valentine swallowed hard, recognizing it at once. He had been drawing that same dragon design for weeks, right down to the two curling horns. He thought it was a new tattoo design.

What the fuck is happening? He didn't know, but he sure as hell was going to find out.

Valentine banged on the door. "Yelena. Open up."

"Go away," came the sharp reply through the wood. It was a pissed off tone that he had never heard her use before that night. He liked how it cut into the numb part of himself a little too much.

"No. I'm not moving until you talk to me. We need to work this out, and if you leave it up to me, I'm just going to jump to the wrong conclusions," Valentine replied. He placed his burning forehead against the wood. "Please, Caelan." He bit his tongue, hating that the name slipped out like a plea.

The door opened. Yelena was dressed in a dark sapphire blue robe, and seeing such a rich color on her was a shock to his system. She usually wore pale creams and soft blues, which made her seem sweet and…as unthreatening as possible.

Facts started to connect in Valentine's brain—the way Taranis had found her a wild thing, Quinn's comments about false innocence, Charlotte trying to tell him that Taranis's court was afraid of her, Lord Afon's snide comments about taking in another feral creature, and finally the personality from the letters they had exchanged.

Yelena really was hiding her strength just the way Valentine always had. Where he had made his armour so sharp that if anyone got too close, they would bleed, she had gone the opposite way and tried to make herself seem as meek and sweet as possible.

Valentine blinked rapidly, trying to bring his mind back on course. "No pastels?" his mouth said, and he winced.

Yelena's eyes turned to a blue so dark, they were almost black. "If that's all you have to say to me, go away."

Valentine grabbed the edge of the door to keep her from closing it in his face.

"Sorry, I'm just a little stunned. Is anything about you real?" he asked and stepped into the chambers, forcing her to step back. He shut the door and locked it.

Yelena's lips lifted into a sneer. "I'm sorry, is a girl dressing how she likes in her own rooms too much for your little boy brain to comprehend?"

"And you've been hiding that sassy mouth too." Valentine grinned. "You have got them all fooled, don't you?"

"I had you fooled, too. Perhaps too well," Yelena said, matching his snide grin. "Speak, Valentine. Or get out. I am tired and want to sleep in my own bed for the first time in weeks."

Valentine tried not to get distracted by the shelves upon shelves of books around them, the tables covered with notes, sigils, and artifice.

The paintings on the walls depicted strange, barren landscapes and lush forests, as well as standing stones carved in alluring patterns.

The couches were in deep jewel tones of blue and green, arranged around the large, open fireplace. Everything was burning into his senses.

Valentine dragged his eyes away from the power of the room and back to the most intriguing thing in it.

"I'm not sorry for what I said at dinner. You should have written to me. You seemed to be okay doing that for months, but when it came to something as important as a vision that concerned me, you decided I wasn't worth telling. Why?" he demanded, folding his arms.

This wasn't the way he had wanted this conversation to go, but he couldn't think straight, and his mouth seemed determined to bring up the part that hurt the most.

Yelena's left arm hugged her waist, with her other tied up in its sling, her version of crossing her arms. She mirrored the arrogance in his stance in a challenge, and his hackles rose. He wanted to pounce on her and sink his teeth into any soft place he could reach.

"I don't know, Valentine, it might have something to do with the fact that I got your last letter right before I had the vision. You thought I had deceived you. You wouldn't have listened to me about the vision even if I did tell you."

"Of the two of us, I have been the least deceptive, Caelan ," he pointed out.

The snarl that came out of her had all the hairs on the back of his neck rising. The burst of lust that came with it surprised him into stepping back. He had thought her beautiful before, but it was nothing compared to when she showed her fangs and claws. Breathtaking .

"It wouldn't have mattered if I had told you. I didn't have the time to get your 'permission' to do what was right," Yelena said sarcastically. "I had to protect this city from Midir. You are so safe and clueless in your little human world."

"You could have trusted me…"

Yelena threw her hand up in the air in frustration.

"It's not about whether or not I trusted you not to turn on all of us.

If Midir has a chance to be in the same room as you, he will take hold of your mind, and that will be it.

He will hollow out all your feelings, thoughts, and bonds with family.

There would be nothing left of what makes you who you are.

Why he sees you as his ultimate tool has everything to do with the power you refuse to acknowledge.

It makes him even more dangerous because you don't know how to use what you have to fight back. "

Valentine wet his lips, his mouth too dry in the face of her anger and his own raging hunger to bathe in all that fury.

"You still didn't write back to me. You didn't try to make me understand why you would make up Caelan.

You didn't even try to make me understand all of this about Midir at dinner just now.

You just walked away and let me assume the worst both times. Of course I'm going to overreact!"

Yelena's eyes flashed with that deep fury again. "You didn't give me a choice but to create Caelan," she hissed. "I was in England for months, and you wouldn't talk to me at all."

"You didn't try to talk to me! You acted like I was an evil, dark mage the whole time. Fuck, Yelena, you almost cut my throat the first time we met!" Valentine shouted. He pulled the collar of his shirt down to reveal the scar. "I still have the mark to prove it."

Yelena's eyes dropped to the scar, and something shifted in them. Her rage disappeared into something dark and... hungry. A thrill swept through him. He wanted to provoke her just to see what she would do. He had always had a death wish in that way.

"Your blood tasted good," she admitted in a whisper. "Like magic and…"

Valentine's breath caught as she took a step forward. He thought she was going to bite him, and his whole body was suddenly very much on board with that idea. Gods, what was happening right now?

Yelena stopped herself before she got too close to him.

"When we met, I didn't know who you were, and your power confused me, Valentine.

Once I realized what you were doing to your dragon, it made more sense.

That was when I wanted to talk to you, but every time I tried, you had a look of such disgust on your face, I didn't know how to approach you. You wouldn't even look at me."

Valentine ran his hands through his hair. "Because it hurts to look at you. You were always so perfect, and you have all this..." he gestured helplessly at her. "I don't know…light about you. You were so innocent and sweet-looking and..."

"And like a Baby Girl Galadriel?" she said, the snarl back in her voice.

Valentine flushed. "I'll have you know, Galadriel is a very powerful queen."

"I know she is. Layla showed me." Yelena hugged her hand around her waist again. "She was all light but had a dark power in her. When I found that out, I thought maybe you could see me. Not what I have been forced to show everyone else since Taranis found me. But me ."

She shook her head, a frustrated sigh breaking free from her lips.

"I was wrong. You didn't see me until I became Caelan, and you thought I could help you with your dragon and perfect your other spells.

You used me far more than I ever used you.

You hate that, so you pretend I hurt your feelings.

" Yelena stepped forward again, the predator rising. "But we both know the truth, don't we?"

"And what is that?" Valentine replied, getting further into her space.

Yelena tilted her head and whispered mockingly, "You are losing control of your magic and your dragon.

The magic is fighting all those pretty sigils you have bound it with, using ink, blood, and pain.

You don't know what to do about it. It's why you are really here, trying to get me to be your friend again.

You're doing a terrible job of it, but I see this for what it is.

I see you , even if you have never really seen me. "

Valentine fought the urge to touch the braid draped over her shoulder, to wrap it around his hand and tug hard enough to force her to bare her throat to him. His mouth watered, and his dick hardened just thinking about making her submit.

"I'm seeing you now, aren't I? You haven't exactly revealed who you are to me until now. You are just as manipulative as I am with your sweetness and light bullshit," he sneered.

She asked, "You want to know the truth?"

"If you're capable of it."

Yelena leaned in until her breath burned against his lips. "You can't even handle facing what is inside yourself. There's no way you will ever be able to handle what's inside me, Valentine Greatdrakes."

Silvery power hit him like a punch, and Valentine flew backward, through the now open door, and hit the brick wall out in the hall. Her eyes were burning white with magic as she made a backward wave with her hand, and the door slammed shut and bolted.

Valentine rested his head against the cold stone and laughed softly in the darkness.

His dragon was puffed up and eager to make the female submit.

Valentine's body hummed with a lust that he thought himself incapable of feeling.

And didn't that make her even more intriguing?

He knew a challenge when one was thrown down in front of him, and he had seen the gleam of desire in her eyes.

Valentine rested his hand on the dragon painted on the door. "Challenge accepted, baby girl."