“And yet you brought me here.”
Without a word, he stalked off, vanishing into the tunnel.
Scowling, Ash untied her parka from her waist, tossed it on the cushion, and paced the cavern. They were all bloody madmen!
First, Race had hauled her into some abbey. Now a muscle-bound lunatic had carted her into a terrifying world and discarded her in a sky-high cave like abandoned luggage.
How the hell did I get caught up in this crap?
Race.
That man! She would give him a piece of her mind when she saw him. If he’d just left her alone, she wouldn’t be in this mess…
She’d likely still be fighting off those sodding lunatic villagers.
“All I wanted was to find one hard-to-pin-down woman for answers, and now I’m stuck in some dragon cult’s panic room.” She kicked a pebble. It skittered across the floor, pinging off something.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, she swiped her damp face on her sleeve again. Damn it, she was boiling inside out.
Ash fumbled off her two shirts, tossing the thermal aside. She dragged the Henley back on over her sweat-dampened body, and as she pushed up her sleeves, her gaze lifted to the soaring ceiling. Worn carvings coiled in the granite overhead, but despite the fading daylight, she could still make out the flames, wings, and eyes. Not human. Slitted. Reptilian.
She shuddered. “Lovely! Just what I needed, to be scared out of my mind with décor by Hellraiser.”
A shadow passed over the balcony’s opening, and her breath caught as an enormous emerald dragon swept past. Its massive wingspan stretched far beyond the cave’s mouth, each beat of those powerful extremities sending a wave of blasted hot air into the cavern. Ash stumbled farther inside until her back hit the warm granite. The creature bellowed and soared off into the clouds and darkening sky.
A hand pressed to her tight chest, she sagged against the rugged wall. When she could feel her legs again and wasn’t about to collapse, she finally registered the faint voices echoing from deeper in the cavern.
Skaldr? With more of his cohorts?
She crept toward the tunnel, pressed against the wall, determined to find out what he was up to with his pals, and if there was more danger she needed to hide from.
Hide? More like jump from the platform to my death! There is nowhere to hide in this infernal place.
Exhaling roughly, she listened…
“Damn it, Skaldr! What were you thinking?” a strange, gruff voice demanded. “Did you even think this through? You brought her here? Brax will have a fit.”
“She was with Eracier,” Skaldr said, his voice so low that Ash had to strain to hear him. “That’s all I know.”
“And that’s enough reason to risk bringing a human into the mix?” the other man growled.
“To get him here, the incentive must carry weight. He’s a damn hardhead most times.”
The stranger snapped, “You know what happened the last time a human woman crossed into this realm unmarked.”
“Like I said, she was with Eracier.”
Eracier? Did he meanRace?
Had to be.
The stranger’s low growl sent ice down Ash’s spine. “That’s what makes this dangerous. The she-dragons will scent her. They will come.”
She-dragons?
“They’ll do what they always do,” Skaldr’s voice grew tight. “But not on my watch.”
“Let’s hope your guess works in our favor,” the stranger growled. “Be careful. If the capital gets word of what’s happening—if Malcarion hears about her, and who she’s with—they’ll burn the cliffs to get her.”
