Page 11 of Prince of Blaze and Embers (Emberveil Empire #1)

U pon the dragon’s back, the world felt incomparably small compared to how it felt before.

I could go anywhere, see anything, become someone new.

My old world felt like a nightmare, left in the past to rot.

Brisk morning winds tore through my hair.

The smell of the soft clouds filled my nostrils, sending the hairs on the back of my neck straight.

The saddle’s horn between my legs was my anchor to the mighty Krakos, and I’d never let go.

Below, the forests looked oh so different than they did on the ground.

The tops of the trees danced in the cool breeze.

The sunlight cascaded off the canopy, making it look like a rippling sea of trees.

The plains rolled on endlessly, and the mountains and rivers broke up the vast world like a puzzle, perfectly fitted together over the millennia.

And to top it all off, the prince’s strong arm gripped me tightly around my waist, just under my breasts, and his muscly legs cradled me between them. He had his dark metal wolf mask back on, but the way he held me made me feel more like a prize than a possession.

Get that thought out of your head, Ash. He didn’t buy you to be his lover. He bought you because of the magic inside of you. That’s all he’s interested in… I mean, look at him… and look at me…

“You see that down there?” He pointed to a snaking river through an expansive grassland. “Do you know what that is?”

I shook my head.

“That’s the Salazan. As beautiful a river as they come. They say that’s where the Dydrus swims.”

“The Dydrus?” I scratched my cheek with one hand and rested my other on the arm that gripped me tight.

“The Great Water Spirit. A god of the old world.”

“An old god? A water spirit?” Amber sunlight glistened on the river below, causing it to look as though it was lit from underneath by a rock bed of pure gold, emanating from the fires of the Infernal Depths. “I’ve never heard of it.”

The prince didn’t answer but gave a curious groan behind his mask.

Because he didn’t answer, I shifted in the saddle, pressing back into him slightly.

Every ounce of me wanted to feel him get excited again, even though he never acknowledged the last time.

I wanted to feel him again. My dreams were filled with thoughts of him naked, and all I wanted to do was spin in the saddle, press my lips to his, and shove my hand down into his pants.

I hadn’t had a sex dream like that in a very long time, and the fantasy consumed me. It was driving me insane…

My hand on his arm forced his grip tighter around my rib cage. I dreamed of him putting his strong hand down my pants, sliding between my legs, and using me however he wanted.

“And that,” he pointed to a meandering set of hills past the huge snaking Salazan River, “that’s the Brakenstone Ridge. And beyond that is…”

“The Faewood,” I muttered.

“You know it?”

“I’ve heard the songs. We sang them often at night after supper. There was even an old painting on one of the walls of the forge. I’ve always dreamed of going there and seeing the creatures the songs talk about.”

“Well, I guess dreams can come true,” the prince laughed. Krakos let out a roar that echoed for miles. The dragon behind returned the roar.

I guess dreams do come true… I never once in my life believed that saying, but here, now… I’m beginning to see that they can. At least for now. And on the back of this dragon flying through the air… this is enough. I’ve never felt this alive!

“We’re going to the Faewood?” I asked, knowing the question probably wouldn’t get an answer from the dark, stoic prince. And I was right.

Twenty minutes later, though, I got my answer, as we flew over the glowing Salazan River, over the Brakenstone Ridge Mountains, and the dragon began its descent—straight for the sprawling forest that seemed to go on endlessly.

My heart hammered in my chest, and my palms sweated.

One hand on the leather horn, the other on the back of his metal gauntlet.

The moment Krakos angled his wings down, dipped his head, and his long black tail raised behind us, a sadness overtook me.

A heaviness settled in my chest, and my vision blurred.

I didn’t want that moment to end. I wanted to feel the wind gust in my hair, the rustle of my clothes, and the heat between my legs from the dragon’s internal furnace.

The feeling of flying made me want the man who took me riding even more.

The desire burst in me like the way Krakos blew the fire last night on the mountaintop, exploding the wood in an eruption of mind-whirling heat.

I dreamed of the prince taking me on my back, thrusting deep into me, taking me, but…

I didn’t trust him. I didn’t know him. And I sure as shit didn’t want him taking me and Bella to a secluded place in the forest to torture me.

I had to figure out how to escape. That was our only real chance.

Once we got to the forest and the men were asleep, I’d need to get Bella and me the hell out of there.

I knew if we stayed with them long enough, we wouldn’t like the end result.

Freedom was the dream I truly wished for.

And being a slave my entire life was not an option.

I’d rather die than be tormented like I was back in Bramblebash.

The taste of true freedom was far too sweet.

And it was a taste I’d never forget as long as I lived.

The world whirled as we sped through the clouds, feeling their moisture on my cheeks.

After we sped through the thick clouds, emerging beneath them, a glum haze overtook me.

As Krakos delivered us toward the never-ending forest, gliding over the treetops like the super predator it was, the Faewood seemed as vast as the South Cape Sea itself.

The branches flashed below us like the sea’s waves too, the dread of landing sinking in deep.

Krakos slowed. His wings spread wide, and the wind caught in their massive sails.

Ahead was a break in the tree line. It was a round clearing with a single, ancient tree poking out from the canopy like a tower as old as time itself.

The prince pulled back hard on the reins, angling Krakos’ neck back from the tug.

The mighty dragon tilted back, letting out a chaotic roar, and sent my weight back into the prince.

The pressure built between us as my back fell onto his sturdy chest, and I felt his biceps tense as he pulled me in even tighter.

I held on tight to the horn and his arm.

Turning my head slightly, a break in his armor at the neck showed, and his enchanting smell caught my nostrils.

My hair rippled at his neck as I breathed in deeply, smelling his musk.

It was enough to make me reach my lips up and kiss that bare spot of his skin.

His raw power was all over me—taming me, owning me, overpowering me.

The two dragons carried us into the clearing, landing below the enormous tree that rose three hundred feet from the ground.

Once down, the prince released me, but not before there was movement down in his pants, throbbing into my back again.

My mouth dried, and an inaudible moan pushed from my throat between my lips .

I didn’t want to get down. I wanted to savor the moment, but as the dragon angled its huge wings down to the ground, I resiliently got up from the saddle and walked down the ebony-scaled wing. The prince remained on the saddle, glaring out into the Faewood.

Bella slid down the other dragon’s wing and ran to me.

We stood together, side by side, watching the prince and Hunter scan the ancient forest. Both of them had their hands on the grips of their swords, and from the prince’s free hand, his golden staff with the fiery bird’s head emerged, wafting with wisps of magical smoke.

He stood and strode down the wing. I fought hard to not stare. But even the way he walked made my brain tingle and my tongue slide along my lips. Krakos and the other dragon sniffed the air, and both seemed calm as they stretched out their wings and stiffened their tails after the flight.

“Come,” the prince said, not looking at either of us but motioning with his golden staff west.

We both followed, with Hunter walking behind.

We were sandwiched between the two men, two of the most infamous riders in all of Allovan.

It filled me simultaneously with a sense of safety and terror.

There was no way out of this. Nowhere to run, only an endless forest that appeared as dense as a jungle coursing with vines and dense brush.

“It’s just up ahead.” The prince was at the tree line, and we were not only leaving the clearing behind but the two dragons as well.

I swallowed hard. But as the prince found a narrow trail that led out of the clearing, giving one last hard look around, he walked into the forest, and we both followed.

The world darkened instantly, and Bella’s hand found me, clasping on as if that single grip would save us from anything that came from the dense, deep woods.

“Don’t worry.” Hunter’s words from behind were indeed soothing, but we were two girls without weapons, so if anything came, it would be up to the two soldiers.

I had no idea how to call my magic unless an evil dragon started descending on us again.

And by the god, I did not want that again! “We’re almost there.”

“This is the Faewood,” Bella whispered into my ear. “They’re not taking us to Raven’s Bane Castle, or the queen…”

“We don’t know anything yet.” I scratched my cheek. “Just because we’re not there doesn’t mean we are out of danger.”

But we both knew the truth. The prince bought and owned us. We were legally his in every sense of the word. I’d been a slave as long as I could remember, and the lack of knowing what the prince was like was the scariest thing of all.

After fifteen minutes of walking along the path, following the prince and his cape that scraped along it, we approached another clearing.

What I saw made my jaw slack. Bella’s fingernails dug into my forearm as she gasped.

“It’s a house,” Bella gasped. “Or… a castle?”

In the middle of the clearing, a two-story building rose from the Faewood floor.

Built into a bulbous ancient tree, the building was comprised of piled stones, mortared together, embedded into the hollow tree.

The tree had died long ago, with withered branches and a cracked base, but the shell of the old tree harbored half the building.

The stonework looked hundreds of years old, possibly thousands.

As we approached, the front door opened wide, and an elderly woman walked out. She had curlers in her hair, a lace apron, and a crick in her back from her old age.

The four of us met the woman as the two dragons circled high in the sky.

“These two will be staying with us.” The prince took his mask off, holding it at his side under the crook of his arm. The musty smell of his hair bit at my nostrils, and the skin on my arms and legs tingled. “Make them comfortable.”

“Will you be staying, my prince?” The old woman’s crow’s feet deepened at the corners of her eyes as she scanned Bella and me. Even from a couple feet away, the smell of strong tobacco smoke wafted with her.

“We will be in and out,” the prince said.

“We have things that need attending, and questions that need answers.” He suddenly turned toward me.

“This is Rosa. She will tend to you while I am away. Treat her with respect, or you’ll have to answer to me.

And…” His enchanting eyes narrowed upon me.

“…Stay put. Do not wander off into these woods. There’s more than what you heard in songs roaming the Faewood.

The last thing I need is you getting yourself killed while I’m away.

Understand?” He raised a finger between my eyes. “Got it? Stay here!”

Locked in his gaze, seeing past the fiery speech, I was lost. I nodded, dumbfounded by his rugged handsomeness.

His strong jaw, his perfect nose, his dark eyebrows, and the long hair that swooshed along the sides of his face.

The muscles of his neck and the sharpness of his Adam’s apple—I’d never seen anyone so gorgeous in all my life.

“Good.” The prince took off his gauntlets. “Rosa, would you show them to their rooms, please?”

“Where—” The question left my mouth before my brain had recovered from his face so close to mine. “Where will you be?”

The prince scoffed, rubbing his nose and turning his back to me. My brow furrowed, and I picked at my fingernails behind my back.

“We will be here and away while we figure some things out,” Hunter said, also removing his gauntlets. They walked to the far side of the house, toward the half built into the tree.

“Come, my darlings,” the old woman opened the door wide for us. “You must be famished.”