Page 10 of Prince of Blaze and Embers (Emberveil Empire #1)

W hen I say this was the coolest fucking way I’d ever seen a fire made, I mean… the coolest!

The rider in copper threw the logs in the center of the clearing on the mountaintop. No kindling, no starter, no cotton. Just a pile of broken limbs, wind-worn and battered.

Krakos approached at the command of its rider. It arched its neck, angling its huge head down at the pile of wood.

“Firas.” The prince’s voice was firm but had a hint of friendship in it as well.

As the dragon’s chest expanded, the inner flames glowed between the flexed scales, casting a golden light all around the mountaintop.

Krakos’ maw erupted with flames, and the searing dragonfire burst onto the logs, incinerating them in the hellish fire.

We were twenty feet away, and both of us had to throw up our arms to shield the heat from our skin.

To my side, I saw the prince and his rider both stand motionless, stoic like statues, their wild hair whipping behind them madly.

In the intense light of the dragonfire, the prince looked even more devilishly handsome.

The angles of his jaw, his perfectly straight nose, and his strong chin made the blood in my veins rush like a river.

My nipples hardened and scratched against the frayed shirt that gusted from the flames.

The fires receded back to Krakos, and the great ebony dragon stared into his work, the fire below reflecting in his savage, primal eyes. The slits in them reminded me of a serpent’s, yet much wiser. Krakos seemed fiercely intelligent for such a monstrous beast.

Krakos turned and lay beside the other dragon at the edge of the mountain.

Bella and I both waited for the two men to give instruction. After all, we were the prince’s property. Dreams of escape would have to wait. And from there, there was nowhere to run anyway.

“Go on.” The prince pointed to the fire. “Get warm.”

“What about you?” I blurted the words before my stupid brain could catch up with what I should have said, not what I wanted to ask.

“We have things to discuss.” The prince grabbed his rider by the arm and led him away to the opposite edge of the mountain, both with their backs turned to us.

Bella and I sat by the fire, and the warmth felt incredible on my hands and shins. I didn’t know if the dragons instinctually did it or not, but they seemed perfectly placed to block the fierce mountain winds. Maybe they didn’t do it for us, but the fire they created?

We sat side by side with our arms touching, huddling under the blankets the prince had given us.

“What do you think they’re gonna end up doing with us?” Bella’s gaze was hard upon the burning flames.

“I don’t know. I really don’t.” My certainty of being flown off to Emberveil was fizzling.

“Everything’s so different. So fast. I don’t know what to think of it.

” Bella, with her elbows on her thighs, cradled her face in her palms. “Yesterday we were stuck in our lives, dreaming of something like this, but I never, ever, would have imagined we’d be sitting here right here, right now.

I mean, look at that view. I couldn’t dream of something so beautiful.

And it’s all because of you, Ash. I always knew there was something special about you, but I never could have guessed like this. ”

She thought I was different? I thought I was the most boring, obnoxious girl in existence.

“You did?”

She released her face and tucked her chin onto her shoulder, staring at me. “You never felt anything? Maybe not everyone noticed you, but I sure as shit did.”

“What do you mean?”

“By Odiun, you’re daft. Why do you think we’re so close?

You’re different, Ash. The way you look at things.

Your slyness, your cunning, your imagination.

There’s no one in Bramblebash even close to you.

Even the way you look is so different from everyone.

As soon as I saw you years ago for the first time, I knew there was something different in you.

And here you sit now, using magic to protect me from a mad dragon breathing fire. Was I ever right!”

“Can I tell you something?” I didn’t know if I should bring it up to her, as it might make it that much more real in my mind, but the voice I heard, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

“I—I heard a voice after I used my magic. I would’ve thought it was myself talking to me, but it was so different than any voice I’d ever heard. It sounded old, manly, and… beastly?”

“Beastly? Something said something in your head? You must have been making it up. But on second thought…” She scratched her chin. “Maybe it was real? If you heard it right after that magic cast through you, maybe someone or something helped you. To save us both? I don’t know… what did it say?”

The words were etched like stone in me, as if permanently marked on a gravestone. It said, “It is time. You must free me. You’ve awoken to your true self, and so, must you awaken me…”

Bella didn’t respond. She pulled into herself, recoiling, and rubbed her arms, glaring at the firelight. Krakos groaned as he stretched his enormous wings.

“I know… sounds crazy…” I huffed.

“Nothing sounds crazy anymore…”

So deep in thought, I didn’t notice the prince until he entered the side of my vision.

He and the rider in copper both walked over and stood on the other side of the fire.

Both sets of their armor shimmered in the golden light, capped with moonlight reflecting off their backs.

The prince’s cape wafted at his heels, tickling the hard ground.

“Did you figure out what to do with me?” I mustered the words as bravely as I could. I feared what the answer would be, but I figured it was better to know than not.

“We fly in the morning.” The prince flapped his cape back with his hands and sat on a log; the other rider did the same.

“Where?” I pressed.

“None of your concern,” the prince growled. His gaze never returned mine.

“I beg to differ.” God, I really needed to learn to keep my mouth closed.

But years of being whipped for saying the wrong things had the opposite reaction my masters intended.

I cared so much less about lashings than they expected.

Pain was temporary, wounds healed, but those fragments of freedom stacked up one by one, building the wall that protected me, kept me safe, and kept me sane.

“Watch your tone with your prince.” The rider in copper waved his hand out at me.

“It’s all right, Hunter,” the prince said.

Hunter? That only made me more curious about the prince. What was his name? Where was he born? What was his relationship with the Blaze Queen like? What was the capital like? Where did he learn his magic?

So many questions, and I knew getting answers from him was going to be like running through a field of prickly cacti .

“Let her talk back like that.” The prince gave me a nasty scowl. “I like it. It’s just going to make all the rest that much easier.”

All strength left my body, gushing out beneath me, seeping into the mountain. This was the Blaze Prince, the most murderous man in all of Allovan. He could do a whole hell of a lot worse pain to me than cuts in my back.

“I’ll grab some food.” Hunter rose and walked over to his dragon, rummaging through one of the leather packs.

That just left the three of us. I got tired of the silence, so I broke it. “How did you start riding your dragon?”

He laughed and shook his head, letting his long black hair drift before his eyes and brow.

“Be careful,” Bella whispered.

“When did you know you had magic?” I pressed. “And how did you learn to use it?”

He stopped laughing, rubbing his knuckles.

When he spoke, his voice was dark, sinister, twisted. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been looking for you? How long the Blaze Queen has sought the Gold-Marked?”

His question deflated me like squashing a cockroach under a thick boot. I was in so far over my head. I was so curious about the handsome prince; I forgot the stakes.

“I—I’ve never heard that term, and I never saw that thing on my neck before. I swear. I didn’t mean anything by it… I’ll never do it again if you don’t hurt Bella. I’ll try to do whatever you ask.”

Hunter returned with food in hand but paused at the current conversation.

“You have no clue how happy this is going to make my stepmother,” the prince said. I gasped at the term stepmother. I had always assumed it was his real mother. “You are important to her mission of saving this world, ending the war, and creating a new, bright future.”

There was something different in the prince’s demeanor then.

He wasn’t all-knowing, all-powerful, and the top predator.

There was the slightest hint of apprehension in his voice and in the tiniest twitch of his eye.

He was scared. He was scared of the queen.

I knew the look of fear all too well in Bramblebash.

It lurked around every corner, waiting for its moment to consume.

“What are you going to do with us?” Bella’s fingers dug into his knees as she asked that.

Hunter approached her, his armor glowing an even more brilliant shade of golden copper. He handed her two sticks of dried meat, crackers, and hard white cheese. “For slaves, you two ask an awful lot of questions.”

We didn’t have a response for that. After all, he was right. We were nothing more than slaves. Always had been, and had no reason to believe we’d be anything different, ever.

“You’ll find out tomorrow.” Hunter then handed me the same food, and I snatched it eagerly, my stomach rumbling at the smell of the smoked meat.

“Just relax and rest.” The rider looked deep into my eyes, raising an eyebrow at something he saw.

He sighed. “Don’t worry. Cade and I aren’t going to harm you as long as you do what we say.

We’ll be back on the dragons tomorrow, and we’re going to somewhere safe. Trust that.”

The prince laughed and cracked his knuckles. “Just don’t make me throw you off the side of this cliff tonight. Keep all the questions to yourself. I’m not here to do what you say. It’s the opposite. I own you now. And you’ll behave.”

Cade? The prince’s name is Cade? Even when he’s threatening my life, I can’t help but remember his rock-hard dick stabbing into my back.

My mouth watered, I smacked my lips slightly, and touched my inner thigh with my bare fingers.

“Yes, sir.” The words slid out of my mouth like I’d do anything if he’d only let me touch him. My mind swirled and as I stared at his perfect face, I felt Bella’s elbow jab me in my ribs. “What? I wasn’t being sarcastic this time! ”

“You two are going to be a handful,” Hunter laughed, shaking his head. “I can already tell.”

“Just eat and go to sleep,” the prince said, accepting the handful of food from his rider. “We’ve got a long flight ahead of us tomorrow.”

Adrenaline spiked through my core, up my arms and into the follicles of the hairs on my head.

We were going to ride the dragons through the sky again.

That was the new drug I knew I’d chase the rest of my life, no matter its length.

I’d forgo mead, pipe tobacco, even wine for another taste of that freedom!

Not only did logic overcome my urge to attack the prince with my endless list of questions, but my heavy eyelids tugged as well. As the food hit my stomach, a deep fatigue washed over me like a warm, soft blanket after a cold dip in the frigid sea.

I slunk into the front of the log, rested my head against the blanket I had wrapped around me, and fell into a deep, dream-filled slumber.