Page 50 of Wings of Frost and Fury (Merciless Dragons #4)

It takes us a few hours to get from the coastline to Ouroskelle, and another couple of hours to reach the Ashmount, a volcanic island that lies farther east. Its surface bristles with tall, spiky black rocks.

As Thelise points out, the presence of glowing blue ash-roses indicates that the volcano beneath the island is hollow, empty, and silent.

It is a safe and isolated place to imprison Vohrain’s former king.

A stone fortress rises from a rocky peak at the center of the island, and to that derelict stronghold we fly, landing on the broad expanse of the lower parapet.

After Thelise slides off my back, I transform into human shape.

Serylla and Kyreagan both eye me appraisingly, taking in my features and form as I pull on the pants Thelise tosses me.

Kyreagan shifts as well. He’s tall and beautiful, with light brown skin, a sheet of long black hair, and a regal cast to his features. I notice Thelise eyeing him and winking at Serylla, who smirks in return .

A moment too late, I realize we’ve all been distracted in a moment when we should have kept an eye on Rahzien.

With the speed of the Mordvorren’s lightning, he rips off his gag with his manacled hands and barrels toward Kyreagan.

The prince has barely gotten his pants on, and the sudden attack throws him to the ground.

Rahzien stamps viciously at his face, but Kyreagan rolls aside.

“Fucking wretch,” I yell, launching myself onto Rahzien’s back and wrapping my arms around his neck. I have no experience fighting in this form, but I’ve witnessed a Vohrainian soldier placing another in a headlock. Choking off Rahzien’s breath seems like a good way to quell him.

I’ve only been this close to the King of Vohrain in dragon form.

Gripping him like this, with his red hair in my face, his throat under my arm, and the acrid smell of his sweat in my nostrils is startling.

I can feel the raw muscular power of his body, and I know by instinct that his strength is greater than mine.

He proves it the next instant by backing up to the wall of the parapet and slamming my body against it with all the violence he can manage. The breath leaves my lungs in a hollow huff, and pain explodes through my ribs and spine.

Over Rahzien’s head, I see Kyreagan and Serylla rushing forward, but Thelise reaches us first. She splays her hand over Rahzien’s heart, purple lightning crackling against his skin. There’s death in her brown eyes, rage at the king who dared to hurt me.

“Enough,” she hisses.

Rahzien laughs. “You can’t kill me without killing Serylla.”

“Oh, I don’t need to kill you. I know how to put a beast down for a while.” Teeth gritted, she makes a twisting motion. Rahzien’s body stiffens, then crashes onto the stone.

Thelise’s eyes meet mine. “You alright, pet? ”

I step away from the wall, inhaling, testing the sensations in my body. There is pain, but I don’t think I’m broken anywhere. “Never better,” I rasp.

“Poor thing,” she croons, running her fingers through my hair. “I’ll give you a treat later.” She gives me a final pat on the cheek, then says briskly, “Time to dispose of the garbage, dragons. I assume you want him in the tower?”

Kyreagan and I glance at each other, then nod. It’s as good a plan as any.

“Good boys.” Thelise snaps her fingers in the direction of the steps leading inside. “Off you go.”

The two women follow us up the circular stairway to a room with a wooden cot and a couple of buckets.

We place Rahzien’s insensate body on the cot.

His hands are still shackled, although there’s a decent length of chain between them, enough to facilitate most normal functions should Kyreagan decide not to unshackle him.

I notice a few rusted weapons nearby, so I gather them up and toss them out the window.

They clatter all the way down the tower and smash into pieces on the hardened lava far below.

While I prowl the room to ensure there’s nothing else Rahzien shouldn’t have, Thelise and Serylla discuss the nature of the life-link between her and the King. Thelise is brilliant and resourceful, but with this particular type of magic, she seems to have met her match.

“Some magic simply cannot be undone, or it can only be unraveled in specific ways,” she explains to Serylla.

“There’s no way around this, unfortunately, so we must keep him here.

The good news is that his condition won’t affect you in any other way.

If he breaks a bone, you’ll be fine. If he’s ill, you won’t feel it. ”

“So we don’t have to keep him comfortable,” Kyreagan says. “We just have to keep him alive. ”

“Yes… except he might grow tired of this existence and leap from the tower, killing both Serylla and himself.” Thelise purses her lips, walks over to Rahzien’s recumbent form, and plucks a few hairs from his head. “Give me some time and space, while I devise an appropriate spell to prevent that.”

Kyreagan and Serylla leave the room and descend the tower stairs, but I linger, certain that the dismissal did not apply to me.

Thelise mutters to herself, paces the room, then glares down at Rahzien for a while.

“How did you do that?” I ask. “How did you render him unconscious?”

“I messed with his heart a little,” she says absently. “Only a little, not enough to kill him. I wouldn’t endanger Serylla. Hush now, there’s a darling.”

“So you could stop my heart. Render me unconscious or dead in an instant.”

She glances at me, one eyebrow raised. “You’ve always known I could kill you easily, pet. That isn’t new information.”

I walk toward her slowly, my tongue tracing my lips.

“I suppose I realized it afresh, how much power truly resides in this luscious body of yours.” I cup her shoulder, my thumb stroking her skin.

Today she is wearing a blue dress with sleeves that hug her upper arms and leave her shoulders bare. “I like this dress on you.”

She smirks, her fingers trailing over the bulge between my legs. “You also like knowing that I could stop your heart.”

“I like feeling your power,” I whisper. “I like how you saved me from Rahzien.”

“You have saved me, too.” Her tone is soft, and there’s a sincere light in her brown eyes—love, gratitude, and a hint of sadness.

My hands clasp her waist, sweeping upward along her ribs to her breasts. She sucks in a swift breath and gently removes my hands from her body .

“Silly, insatiable dragon,” she says, her tone warm with affection. “I can’t play with you just now. I have a very important job to do.”

“I know. But later…”

“Later.” She kisses my mouth. “It’s a promise.”

It’s all I can do to refrain from touching her or myself, but I manage to expend the pent-up energy by climbing and descending the stairs several times.

She asks me to engrave a spell for her on the underside of a loose paving stone in the floor.

Once the spell is cast, we replace the stone, and Thelise artfully scatters dirt and dust in the cracks and over the surface so Rahzien won’t be able to tell it’s been dislodged.

“He’ll wake soon,” Thelise says. “I’d rather not be here when he does. Let’s go find Serylla and Kyreagan. I’m not sure they’ll be incredibly thrilled about what I’ve done, but it was the only way, I swear.”

“I listened to the spell as you were casting,” I reply. “It sounds as though you made him impervious to mortal harm.”

“Exactly. He can’t be killed, which means he can’t cause mortal harm to himself and thereby end Serylla’s life. It was the best solution.”

As she suspected, Serylla and Kyreagan are less than pleased when she explains the spell to them. They have no choice but to trust her judgment, though, and they both seem too exhausted to argue the point.

To my surprise, Kyreagan appoints me as Rahzien’s first guard. I am to watch over the Ashmount until he sends another dragon to replace me, while Thelise returns to Ouroskelle with Serylla.

There’s no question of Thelise staying with me. There is nothing for her here. Serylla brought some food and a few necessities for Rahzien, but it’s not enough to keep two humans comfortable, nor would Thelise want to share the tower room with the King of Vohrain .

Neither of us protest Kyreagan’s arrangement, but before they leave, Thelise comes over to me, places her mouth against my ear, and whispers, “When you return, I am going to make you come in my mouth and my pussy a dozen times. And then, if you like, you can squeeze that pretty cock into my ass and come there, too.”

Heat roars into my face, and I swallow, unable to respond as she climbs onto Kyreagan and flies away, clinging to Serylla’s waist.

Left alone, I wander the parapet in human form until I hear footsteps descending the tower stairs. I strip off my pants, transform into a dragon, and wait until Rahzien appears at the foot of the steps, looking pale and disoriented.

“What did she do to me?” he says. And then, as I spread my wings and take off, panic floods his face. “Wait… wait, damn you! I need to know—”

But I’m already too high above him. His voice cannot reach me.

I do a few passes around the fortress. There’s only one exit, and it’s partially collapsed, but I pile more volcanic rock over it just to be sure that Rahzien can’t get out.

This place is an effective trap for him.

He is weaponless and alone. There is no one for him to command or convince, and even if he manages to get out of the fortress, he can’t get off the Ashmount.

There is nothing with which to build a boat, certainly not one that could survive the dangerous rocks protruding from the waters around the island.

Watching over the Ashmount is dull work.

After several hours of flight, I descend to the lava plain and revert to human form for a while, walking among the ash-roses and inspecting the various rock formations.

Prowling the island in my bare skin at night is chilly and unsettling, not to mention eerie, with the ghostly blue light of the flowers .

After some debate with myself, I decide to leave Rahzien alone on the Ashmount for a while.

It’s safe to do so, since no one besides me, Kyreagan, Serylla, and Thelise know where he is.

I promised Varex and Jessiva that I would bring them news after our conflict with Rahzien was resolved.

Abandoning my post goes against Kyreagan’s direct order, but over the past weeks, I have learned to rely more firmly on my own wisdom and judgment than on the word of a prince, no matter how much I may respect him.

I owe Varex for the life of my darling enchantress. I need to let him know that his brother is alright. Perhaps the joy of the news can pull him out of the Mordvorren’s grip.

I shift back to dragon form and head to the Twin Fangs, reaching East Fang in the pre-dawn hours.

Varex seems cheered by the news of his brother and declares that he’s ready to return to Ouroskelle.

I can tell that he still isn’t right, and there seems to be a rift between him and Jessiva.

She asks me to take her back to Ouroskelle, refusing to ride on Varex.

I make a mild attempt to help them negotiate their quarrel, but when they both reject my efforts, I carry Jessiva to Ouroskelle, flying alongside Varex. After dropping off Jessiva in the care of Hinarax, I leave immediately from Ouroskelle to return to my post.

When I return, Rahzien is pacing along the battlements. Even though I knew he couldn’t leave, it’s a relief to see him there, and to know that my departure didn’t cause any unforeseen harm.

Around noon, Aidrek comes to relieve me from my duties.

He’s carrying a dyre-stone and a bag of supplies for when Rahzien’s guards have to take human form.

We set up a makeshift camp in a flat space between three towering spikes of rock, in a place that’s only accessible from the air.

The guards will be able to fly to that spot, transform into human shape, and enjoy food, blankets, and warmth until they revert to dragon form again.

The spot is safe from Rahzien, so a guard could even sleep there if he wished.

“Kyreagan told me I should keep an eye on him, but not approach him or speak to him,” Aidrek says.

“Wise advice. Rahzien is clever with words. Do not give him a chance to charm, convince, or threaten you. Speaking to him isn’t worth the risk, especially now that you have offspring and a mate to protect.”

Aidrek bows his head in agreement. I leave him to his duties, performing one last sweep over the fortress before I head toward Ouroskelle.

Rahzien is sitting on the battlement, shirtless, his legs dangling and his face turned up to the warm sun. The breeze tosses his red-gold hair.

I don’t know the full story of his crimes against Serylla and Kyreagan, though I expect to learn it when I return.

But I do know his crime against my clan, and it unsettles me that he looks so peaceful, sitting there in the sunshine, after everything he has done.

He started the war by invading Elekstan.

He persuaded the Bone-King to forge an alliance with him.

He gave us poisoned prey. He considered us a threat and decided he had the right to end us as a species.

It seems deeply unjust that we cannot kill him. But the life of Kyreagan’s mate is linked to his. Serylla is the shield that keeps me from incinerating the bastard as he sits there on his sunny perch.

I cannot spare him any more of my thoughts or my time.

I need to return to Thelise and make sure she is well.

Then I must take a few dragons with me to the Resting Cliffs to retrieve the bone-tribute we gathered.

The sight of those precious bones will be a joy to every member of the clan.

We will write the names of our dead upon them, and they shall be enshrined in our caves for ages to come .

As I wheel away and head west toward Ouroskelle, I keep telling myself that the former king is contained, that he is helpless and harmless. But I cannot shake the deep unease in my soul—the feeling that we have not yet seen the worst of what Rahzien can do.