Page 16

Chapter

Eight

Rumi

I knew something wasn’t right about Nikkos! As soon as we stepped through the doorway Emmerich had created into the Great Hall, Nikkos’s appearance changed entirely. He was still an omega and as such was short and slight, but this new appearance was more scrappy than lithe and definitely sharper.

“That’s Nazeing.”

I wasn’t half as shocked as some of my brothers and their mates, who had either gone through the doorway before us or rushed into the Great Hall when they sensed something was wrong.

I wasn’t even surprised. Mostly I was furious with myself and momentarily crippled by shame.

I’d known something wasn’t right with Nikkos, but with everything else going on, I’d been all too willing to dismiss my suspicions.

“ That’s Nazeing?” Diamant asked as our group rushed to form a circle around Nikkos—or rather, Nazeing—stopping him from going anywhere. Not that he looked like he had any intention of fleeing after being discovered.

“Impossible,” Gildur said. “I know this omega, although I don’t remember how or from where.” He narrowed his eyes as he studied Nazeing, looking so much like Selle for a moment that under other circumstances, I would have laughed.

“Yes, they know me,” Nazeing said, facing Emmerich with a sly grin. “And would you care to remind them how they know me, love?”

All eyes snapped to Emmerich for an explanation. I wanted to know, too. Then again, between what I’d wondered about earlier and the emotions of embarrassment and dread coming through the bond, I had more of less figured it out.

Emmerich cleared his throat and glanced at his brothers. “Nazeing and I were together once, a very long time ago.”

His last words were spoken directly to Nazeing in a tone that made it clear Emmerich didn’t have the slightest interest in the omega now. More than that, I sensed deep wariness that bordered on hatred for Nazeing.

“How?” Gildur asked on, even more baffled than before.

“Yes, all of us have lived long enough to have had lovers in the past, and forgive me for being callous, but even in the magical world, omegas who are not bonded to a dragon live out an ordinary lifespan. I remember you with this distasteful omega hundreds of years ago.”

I sucked in a breath and glanced at my mate with wide eyes. The dread I felt was partially through him, but it also came from the unsettling idea that my dragon had been, or perhaps still was, bonded with another omega .

“We were never bonded,” Emmerich said flatly, squeezing my hand, which he still held, but staring straight at Nazeing.

“He asked, but I refused. I’d already begun having my doubts that he was not my fated mate at that point.

Frankly, his behavior back then had already helped me decide to end things. ”

“My behavior?” Nazeing asked, clearly offended. “ My behavior? All I ever did was adore you. I worshiped the ground you walked on. I did things, depraved things, that I never would have dreamed of doing with anyone else.”

Emmerich’s face went pink with embarrassment.

I had the feeling that Nazeing was exaggerating whatever the two of them had done in the past, likely as some sort of an attack on me.

I wasn’t about to fall for it or step back from the alpha I loved and knew I was destined for just because he’d had a dalliance hundreds of years before I was born.

“You had already begun to dabble in dark magic,” Emmerich said, still not taking his eyes from Nazeing’s. “It’s what you used to give yourself such a long life.”

“Anti-aging spells are child’s play,” Nazeing said with a shrug of one shoulder, looking at his nails. “I am functionally immortal at this point.”

“You knew it was wrong,” Emmerich said, raising his voice. I warned you against it, but you didn’t listen to me.”

“And why would I listen to you when the nonsense you spouted was only driving us apart?” Nazeing said, stepping closer to Emmerich and lowering his voice to a seductive purr, as if I wasn’t even there.

“We were perfect together. You were and still are the most powerful dragon in the magical world. I was and still am the cleverest omega that ever walked the face of any world. We are perfect together. We could rule over everything.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Selle said from the other side of Nazeing. “Are you helping our father simply so you can take over this world and then take over the magical world?”

“Do villains not have original ideas anymore?” Tovey asked, rolling his eyes. “Saoirse tried the same thing.”

“Lady Saoirse is a weakling and a fool,” Nazeing snapped, yanking his attention away from Emmerich and glaring at my brother.

“Her goals were base and simple. I want much more than temporal rule.” He snapped back to gaze adoringly and possessively at Emmerich again.

“Yes, I will confess that ruling worlds has a certain appeal to it. Who wouldn’t want to sit on high in power, bending people to their will?

But my true prize is something far greater and more valuable. ”

“I don’t want you, Nazeing,” Emmerich said, shaking his head.

“If you’ve gone to all this effort to win me back, you’ve failed.

I’ve found my fated mate, and as soon as Freslik is defeated, the two of us will return to the magical world and live out the rest of our lives, raising a family together in peace. ”

I wasn’t certain what I expected from my dragon’s declaration, but it was not to have Nazeing laugh as if Emmerich had told a particularly ribald joke.

“And you think that’s what’s going to happen here?

” he asked, glancing around the Great Hall.

His absurd smile turned into a sneer when his gaze fell on me.

“You think you’re going to live happily ever after with this pathetic, mortal omega? ”

“Rumi is my mate,” Emmerich said firmly.

“ I am your mate,” Nazeing said, his face twisting into a vicious snarl.

“You will never?—”

Before Emmerich could finish speaking, Nazeing raised his hand like he was throwing something at Emmerich .

A second later, my mate sucked in a breath and dropped my hand to clutch his over his heart.

At the same time, the bond between us disappeared.

“Emmerich!” I cried out in panic. The only thing worse than feeling my mate’s fear or pain was not feeling him at all. “What have you done to him?” I shouted as I lunged toward Emmerich, grasping his arm and clinging to him.

Nazeing’s only answer was a vicious laugh.

He didn’t have to answer. Emmerich’s actions spoke louder than anything Nazeing could have said.

“Get off me,” he told me, sounding annoyed.

Confused, I tightened my grip on my mate’s arm. At least until he peeled my hands off and pushed me away.

“Emmerich?” I tried to grab him again, but with his eyes fixed on Nazeing, he shoved me so hard I stumbled and would have fallen over if Leo hadn’t been there to catch me. “Emmerich! What has he done to you?”

“He hasn’t done anything,” Emmerich said, smiling warmly and stepping close enough to Nazeing to take his hands.

“I give my heart to him willingly. I don’t know what I was thinking,” he spoke directly to Nazeing.

“I was a fool to cast you aside all those years ago. You are the one and only omega I’ve ever loved. ”

My heart sank into my nauseated stomach. Not because I was heartbroken at my mate rejecting me, but because I knew he had to have been caught in a net of extraordinarily powerful dark magic to have turned to Nazeing the way he was.

“Let him go!” I shouted, struggling to right myself so that I could lunge at Nazeing, ready to strangle him if I could.

Without taking his eyes from Emmerich, Nazeing held up a hand to me .

I flew back as if he’d taken a section of a brick wall and pounded me with it. This time, Leo wasn’t strong enough to catch me. I slammed into him, and we both fell backwards, crashing to the floor.

The pain of impact that racked through me was nothing to the fear that the magical blow might have hurt my baby in some way.

Instead of rushing to get up, as Leo did, I clutched my stomach, curling into a protective ball to shield the most important part of myself.

I firmly believed I had a chance of breaking whatever spell Nazeing had cast over Emmerich to get him back, but if anything happened to our egg, I didn’t know what I could do.

“All this for misplaced love?” Rufus demanded as the dragons tightened the circle around Nazeing and Emmerich, shielding their mates as they did. “You went to all this trouble to support a tyrant king just to use dark magic to win back an old lover who doesn’t want you anymore?”

Nazeing dragged his eyes away from Emmerich’s adoring gaze and turned to Rufus. “Yes?” he said with a shrug.

“This is madness,” Diamant shouted, grabbing Emmerich’s arm like he would yank him away. “You’re strong enough to break this spell.”

Emmerich was slow to drag his gaze away from Nazeing. He blinked at Diamant once before shoving him away as he’d done with me. “Nothing comes between me and my beloved,” he said in a strangely stiff voice, then reached for Nazeing again.

“We have to get him out of here,” Gildur said, stepping forward like he would pull Emmerich away from the dark omega.

“I think not,” Nazeing said, raising his hand again .

No one stumbled back or fell over, like I had.

Instead, something much worse happened. All of the other dragons suddenly grasped their heads, some of them bending double.

They moaned and cried out like someone was crushing their skulls.

My brothers shouted in sudden pain as well, likely feeling their mates’ pain through their bonds.

“And now, it’s just you and me, my love,” Nazeing said. He grasped the sides of Emmerich’s face and pushed up to his toes to kiss my mate. My heart sank as Emmerich kissed him back with passion.