Page 21

Chapter

Eleven

Obi

S tomping away from Argus after we’d bonded because I was having a temper tantrum ended up being painful enough, but being wrenched away from him by my father’s guards while Argus’s magic was snuffed by whatever my father had done was complete agony.

“No!” I shouted, writhing and squirming and doing everything I could to break away from the guard who held me. “Let go of me! Argus! He’s my mate. You can’t take me away from him!”

I was slippery enough to get out of the hold of the guard who carried me, but I misjudged how far I was from the floor and fell over completely once I had nothing holding me up. The pain of hitting the cold stone was nothing compared to the feeling of being stretched impossibly thin within my soul.

Worse still, I had fallen just as Rottum caught up with us. He walked fast around the closest corner, then stopped to assess the situation, a wicked grin splitting his face.

The guard who had been carrying me stooped to lift me again, but Rottum stepped forward, thrusting out a hand to hold him back. “No,” he said, a diabolical flash in his eyes. “Let me take care of him.”

I swallowed hard and backed away from him, scrambling to get up. Rottum was faster and bigger than me, though, and when he planted a boot in the middle of my chest, I was pinned to the floor.

“I’ve always wanted a taste of one of the omega princes,” Rottum said in an oily voice, stroking his short, pointed beard. “This may be the only chance I get.”

I shuddered in horror at the prospect of any alpha other than my mate touching me. I’d always suspected that the bastard was as bad as my father and would embrace the same sort of cruelty. I’d always had my brothers by my side in dealing with him before, but now I was completely on my own.

“You cannot touch me!” I shouted, trying to push his foot off my chest to no avail. “I am the mate of a dragon.”

“You’ll be the mate of whatever alpha has you,” Rottum told me with a sick sneer.

The guards grinned and laughed with him, as if they believed Rottum would give them a piece of me when he was done.

“Get away from me!” I growled, thrashing helplessly.

“This will be a delight,” Rottum growled, reaching for the ornate belt over his tunic.

Panic pulsed through me, but I fought to keep my wits about me.

Argus had just shown me that cleverness was as effective a weapon against evil as strength.

I had to figure out a way to outsmart Rottum and the guards.

I had to break free so I could rescue my mate from whatever doom my father had in mind for him.

“I am a dragon’s mate!” I shouted, trying to think and execute my plan simultaneously. “If you so much as touch me, he will know about it and he will seek vengeance!”

“Lies,” Rottum said, finishing with his belt and throwing it aside. “I happen to know for a fact that Freslik cut your dragon’s power off with the magic chain Nazeing gave him.”

“Nazeing?” I blinked, thrown off for a second. I’d never heard the name before, but suspected whoever that was, they came from the magical world. My father must have had more contact with the magical world than any of us had suspected.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Whatever Rottum said, I had to concentrate on tricking him to save myself and Argus.

“The mate bond is too powerful,” I said, praying Rottum would believe me. “Not even black magic can sever it. I can feel him. I can feel him right now. He’s about to overpower my father and come for me.”

Rottum paused in the middle of lifting his tunic and unfastening his trousers. Whether he believed me entirely or not, my words had given him pause. “You’re lying,” he said, eyeing me suspiciously.

“You’re welcome to continue with what you’re doing and to find out,” I said, attempting to push his foot off me again.

This time, Rottum was so caught up in his thoughts that I was able to wriggle to the side and push myself to stand with my back against the corridor wall.

“The chain is supposed to cut of all magical power,” Rottum said, ignoring his trousers and marching up to me. I wasn’t quick enough to avoid him and he clamped a hand over my throat, pinning me to the wall. “It is supposed to render even the strongest dragon helpless.”

“Not my mate,” I said in a choked voice, trying to push Rottum away. “I can already feel that he’s overpowered my father. Even without magic, my father is no match for an alpha as powerful as Argus. They battled and Father lost. My dragon is coming for me.”

Doubt and uncertainty pinched Rottum’s face, like he wasn’t certain whether he could believe me or not. But by a stroke of pure luck, footsteps suddenly rang out from the other end of the corridor.

“It’s him!” one of the guards shouted. “The dragon is coming for his mate!”

The two guards panicked and bolted.

“Where do the two of you think you’re going?” Rottum demanded, turning his head toward them.

He still had my neck in a vise-grip, but turning away was a mistake. I summoned all the courage I had and brought my knee crashing up into his groin.

Rottum wasn’t ready for the blow and I managed to place it perfectly. With a sharp cry, the bastard doubled over, clutching at his bruised balls. He was nearly breathless with pain, which was exactly what I needed to escape.

I didn’t waste a second. I pushed off the wall and ran back the way we’d come.

My father had my mate, and I knew where he would take him.

He could try all he liked, but he wouldn’t hurt the man I love the way he’d hurt me and my brothers for so long.

The time had come to give my father exactly what he deserved.

Argus

I knew what brand of devilry Freslik had caught me with as soon as the heavy weight of the chain settled around my shoulders.

Such chains had been created hundreds of years ago by dark sorcerers, and although the black magic needed to make them now was rare, there were a few outliers in the magical world who still possessed the dubious skill.

Knowing that did nothing to help me as Freslik himself dragged me down the castle hallways and into a private chamber with a window that overlooked the expanse of the kingdom.

The chain not only cut me off from my magic, it sapped my physical strength as well.

On top of that, Freslik had bound my hands behind me with tight rope.

“You will not get away with this,” I growled at Freslik as he threw me into the center of his chamber and slammed the door behind us. “This chain weakens me, but it doesn’t come anywhere close to neutralizing me.”

Freslik laughed, the sound as sharp and sickening as a whip crack. “I know more about you than you think you know about me, old man,” he said stalking closer to me. “And I have more of a grudge against you than anyone, even my useless whores of sons. You deceived me for all these years.”

“It was a simple thing to do,” I said, standing taller and shrugging as best I could with my hands bound behind my back. “You are easily deceived.”

My words were bold and they earned me a hard slap across the face from Freslik.

“How dare you?” he hissed. “I am the king! I am the most powerful man in this land and every other. My conquest and my reign have only just begun.”

“They will end before you conquer so much as a blade of grass,” I fired back at him. “You have no idea of the forces that are set against you.”

“And you have no idea of how powerful I really am.”

The two of us stood locked in our face-off, fury boiling in each of us, the air in the room crackling with tension.

There wasn’t any point in continuing the verbal joust, though.

Freslik wasn’t going to back down an inch.

He was the master of throwing words together in endless, circular arguments.

The only thing that would happen if I kept engaging him was that I would grow frustrated.

I couldn’t afford frustration. I needed to find a way out of the rope and chain that bound me. I needed to get back to Obi and rescue him before Rottum threw him in a hidden dungeon, or worse.

That wasn’t an easy thing to do when I’d been taken by surprise and had magic used against me.

“It is only a matter of time before you’re defeated,” I growled as Freslik walked to a cabinet at the side of the room and began searching through its drawers. “The people of your kingdom are protected by forces much higher than you.”

“There are no forces higher than me,” Freslik spat in return without even looking at me. “I am all-powerful. Soon, everyone will know that. They will bow down to me and grovel at my feet.”

I pinched my face tight in frustration. I’d just told myself that I wouldn’t bother swapping brags and insults with Freslik, but I needed to buy time so I could find a way to wriggle out of my bonds.

“Is that all you want?” I demanded, opening my eyes and glaring at him. “A kingdom where your own people hate and fear you? You would rather punish your own subjects and reduce them to beggars than work for the betterment of your kingdom and prosperity for all?”

“They don’t need prosperity,” Freslik said, finding whatever he’d been looking for in his cabinet, closing the drawer, and turning back to me. “They just need to do as they’re told and keep my coffers filled.”

He strode closer to me, holding up the small, ornate knife he’d taken from his cabinet and playing with it, like he wanted me to be afraid of how he might use it.

I ignored the unspoken threat and pulled myself to my full height, eyes narrowed.

“No kingdom can survive if its people are constantly downtrodden,” I told him.

“The people are the foundation of any kingdom. They are the kingdom. The king or queen is merely the first servant, whose job it is to look out for the benefit of all.”

Freslik snorted. “And here I was given to believe dragons were intelligent. I’ve never heard anything so stupid in my life.”