Mikhail found some strength in his bones and shook the bars. “Then free me. Free me, and I will destroyhim.”
Elizabeth’s eyes hardened. “No. I will destroy him. Slowly. In the way I had at first devised for you. You do not realize the depths of this man’s treason. It goes far beyond driving a wedge between us. He wanted to use me, to rule this kingdom, and drive away all opposition, starting with your friends, theBelishaws.”
Mikhail’s eyes widened upon hearing thename.
“In a way, I must thank you,” Elizabeth continued. “It was because you sought to woo me that this man was forced to change his plans and turn his eye toward you. Because of that, I became suspicious of him later when he sent whispers my way about the Belishaws and how he felt they should be dealtwith.
“That was when I learned the truth, all of it, both about your people and the evil schemes laid against me. Despite his words of praise and flattery, I believe he always felt I was a weak and feeble woman. He knows now that this is not thecase.”
Mikhail tried to smile, tried to hold on to some hope. “Then you know my feelings for you were true. That you are my truemate.”
Elizabeth looked away but nodded. “I do. And I feel the same for you. But not even love can be greater than the needs of a country and its people. If your family were to learn of what I did to you…” She played with his father’s ring on her finger. “If I killed you, they would have no reason not to declare open war upon me. But as a hostage, their hand isstayed.”
“My queen, please,” he begged as he never had before. “It does not have to be this way. Set me free.I—”
“And have you burn London to the ground?” She shook her head. “Or return to your family to plan revenge? I know what you are, Mikhail, what you can do. And as much as I wish I could believe you, trust you, my own betrayals have doomed me to this path. It is far too dangerous to let you out. You will remain here, but your comfort will be looked to. You have my word. I only wish I could do more for you. Goodbye, my love.” She turned away and left him in thedark.
“Elizabeth!” He roared her name, and the walls of the prison rumbled, but he couldn’t get past the iron bars. Iron, the one metal his people held no power over. Combined with the elixir they always mixed with his food, he was as close to mortal as he might everbe.
She was true to her word. He remained imprisoned but was moved to better quarters, with a comfortable bed, a library, and whatever he asked for, within reason. The elixir dosage was reduced, for the walls, floor, and ceiling were all reinforced withiron.
Of the man behind his woes, he never learned his name and never clearly saw his face. They met only once, as he was being moved to his improved accommodations in a different part of the castle. It seemed the villain was to take his place chained and shackled in the darkness, bound by iron,forever.
Elizabeth never came to see him again, nor wrote to him, but whatever he asked for, short of his freedom, the staff did their best to provide. In time he came to understand the impossible position she had been put in, and he felt only pity for her. When it came to personal matters, it seemed the most powerful person in England had absolutely no power atall.
Forty-four years later, he’d heard the church bells tolling. The virgin queen had died. His dragon had keened inside his head, mourning the woman who could have been its mate. The pain had been strong enough that he’d felt his life hanging by a thread. Would the mate-grief kill him as it would a fully mated dragon? Or would he lie there suffering in the darkness on the edge ofdeath?
An hour after the bells had stopped ringing, a man had come into the dungeons and set him free, handing him a handkerchief with the queen’s emblem embroidered in red and gold. Mikhail had taken the small bit of cloth and unfolded it. There tucked safely at the handkerchief’s center was his serpentring.
“It was her last wish to give you this and your freedom. She also had a message she wished to pass on toyou.”
Mikhail put the ring on his finger and folded the cloth back up. “What did shesay?”
“She said she knows she will see you soon and hopes you can forgive her when you do.” The man left. Mikhail wandered from the prison, which had almost felt like a home at times, feeling even weaker thanbefore.
So Elizabeth had known about the mate-grief. That was why she had released him. She believed he would soon die, but she’d wished for him to die with his freedom. It was her last gift. The only gift left she had the power togive.
He had watched from the shore as Elizabeth’s coffin was carried downriver to Whitehall. The barge was lit by torches, the fiery glow the only source of light on such a blacknight.
Even then, broken and defeated as he was, his heart grieved the loss of his once-intended mate. For a dragon’s heart is the strongest thing about him. His love and his loyalty could last centuries, even beyond death. Only the fact that they had not fully bonded saved him now, though in the centuries to come he would question whether or not that was ablessing.
He watched the barge vanish out of sight and twisted the ouroboros ring on his finger, then turned his back on his once-belovedGloriana.
I can forgive you, my love, but I will not joinyou.
Mikhail buried the memories, now bitter in his heart. The past was the past, and he should not dwell on those dark days and forget to live. He looked out to the sea. Beneath the mist-covered cliffs, the white froth of the ocean churned against the rocky beaches, forming tiny inlets that had once hosted a place for the men and women of Cornwall to catch fish or raid the shoreline for the flotsam and jetsam of shipwrecks, provided by unfortunate captains who’d underestimated the dangers of thecoast.
His dragon paced in the prison of his mind, demanding to be set free, even for a few hours. The weight of his sorrow at Elizabeth and now Piper left Mikhail weak. With a sigh, he allowed the dragon to come soaring to thesurface.
Mikhail stripped out of his clothes and leapt off the cliff. He flung his arms wide, and for a moment he dove like an Olympic athlete. Then the transformation roared through him like a riptide. His muscles stretched, his skin hardened into dark moss-green scales, and his fingers became clawed tips on his webbed wings. Fire burned through his blood and he exhaled, causing flames to hiss from his jaws, turning the mist to steam, warming him as he flew higher and higher. He climbed the clouds, scaling the air with a series of strongflaps.
At last he broke through the stormy cloud bank and rose toward the sun. The bright rays hit his scales, brightened them to an emerald-like sheen. The beast was in control now. The human side of him faded to the background. The pain of spending half a century trapped in a dungeon had vanished, and he was free to fly and forget. But the dragon couldn’t shake the image of Piper from its mind. The way her eyes had filled with tears, or how she’d locked him out and wouldn’t let him comforther.
A roar escaped the dragon, and more fire escaped from his jaws. He allowed his frustration and depression to rule him. He dove back down through the clouds, letting the storm surge around him as he plummeted into the raging seas. The cold water would have tested even the strongest of dragons, but he was used to the punishing feel of the icy waves. He used his powerful back legs to swim to shore, the movement difficult, then almost impossible as his muscles seized and he struggled tobreathe.
He embraced this torture, part of him wishing he could sink beneath the surface and never come up. A dragon’s grief could be overpowering. What little part of Mikhail that still had power inside the beast urged him onward until he was clawing onto the rock-strewn shore. Jagged stones and tide-softened pebbles stirred beneath him as he writhed on the beach. Minutes later, his body shook violently as he shrank and transformed back into aman.
Teeth chattering, he struggled toward the small cave by the shore where he kept extra clothing in a waterproof gym bag, and he jerkily dressed. The jeans and shirt clung to his damp skin, and the sand still felt gritty against his palms, but he didn’t care. His bones almost cracked against one another as shivers began to rackhim.
