“Hush!” Eyes still shut, Dareena tried again. She was unsuccessful the second time, but the third, she managed to snag a small tendril of power. Holding tight, she envisioned it going into Alistair’s hand, merging with his flesh and encouraging his skin to knit backtogether.
“By the gods,” Alistair said, and her eyes flew open. He stared down at their joined hands, an astonished look in his eyes. “You…you healed myhand!”
“It works!” Dareena squealed. “It was quite hard, which makes me think that air may not be my element…though it could just be that having only a tiny bit of elven blood makes it more difficult to use the magic. Still,” she said, marveling at his newly healed hand, “this is very encouraging.” What else could she do with this newfound power? Would she be able to draw more from the air withpractice?
“Indeed, it is,” Alistair said. He pulled Dareena back under him, his eyes gleaming with renewed vigor, and she gasped as he cupped her between her legs. “Now,” he said, leaning in to nibble on her earlobe, “where werewe?”
15
Drystan satat the dining table in the royal suite, scowling at the array of jewelry spread before him. Several rings, heavy gold cuffs, a silver torque, a variety of gems…it wasn’t even close to the ransom the elves had demanded, but perhaps he could use the profits to pay the wages of the castle staff. He had a set of jeweled daggers that might also fetch a nice price, though he was loath to give those up—they had been a coming-of-age present from his mother and had great sentimentalvalue.
What does it matter?Drystan thought gloomily, running a hand over his beard. He’d neglected to trim it the past few weeks, and it had grown longer, to the point that he could catch the thick strands and twirl them around his finger. If they didn’t find a way to get the elves to back off, there would be no staff left to pay. Even with their recovered numbers, the Elven Host could still annihilate them. Losing three of Drystan’s sisters had dealt a heavy blow—their bodies had been ruined beyond recognition, so the elves had burned them to ashes and returned them in urns. They would have a proper ceremony to mourn that loss once all of this was behindthem.
If such a day ever came when they had the luxury of time tomourn.
The door banged open, and Lucyan stormed in. Drystan sat up in alarm—his brother’s shirt was torn, his hair was disheveled, and his face and clothing were smudged withsoot.
“What the hell happened to you?” Drystandemanded.
“Fucking Black Cloaks,” he fumed, his teeth bared and eyes blazing. “A group of them ambushed me on the way back here, and I was forced to char them all.” His fists clenched and unclenched as he made his way to the liquor cabinet. “We’re out of whiskey,” he snapped, pulling out a bottle ofport.
“That’s because you keep drinking it all,” Drystan said as Lucyan brought the bottle over with two glasses. “Not that I have any room to talk, but with finances so tight, we should probably lay off thespirits.”
Lucyan snorted, eyeing the jewelry on the table as he poured a glass for each of them. “Is that why you have all your valuables out?” he asked. “You’re trying to replenish the alcoholfund?”
“More like I’m trying to figure out how to pay the staff wages,” Drystan said. They had spent a great deal of the petty cash fund on medical supplies to treat the wounded, and they needed to stretch their remaining funds until the taxes were broughtin.
“You’re not going to do it by selling off your belongings,” Lucyan said. He knocked back his drink in one go, then swiftly poured another. “That will ruin the notion that we are not destitute and scrambling for cash. I have an emergency fund stored away—I’ll fetch it for you so you can pay the staffwages.”
“Thank you.” Drystan sighed in relief, then took a sip of port. “Now would you mind telling me where the bloody hell you’ve been all day? And why I should steer clear of theoracle?”
“Shadley has informed me that the oracle has been spreading rumors that Dareena’s status as the Dragon’s Gift is not legitimate.” Lucyan’s eyes flashed. “I decided to pay him a visit and see if there was any truth tothat.”
“That’s absurd,” Drystan protested. “The oracle proclaimed her himself. Why would he go back on that now and risk damaging his ownreputation?”
“That is exactly what he said to me,” Lucyan said, taking the seat to Alistair’s right. “He said that of course Dareena is the Dragon’s Gift, but that the prophecy she found is bollocks. According to him, the dragon god has decreed that Dareena must mate with the strongest of us, and that the three of us must fight each other to the death to win herhand.”
“To the death?” Drystan recoiled, his blood turning to ice. He couldn’t imagine trying to kill his brothers over anything, even Dareena. “That’s impossible. The dragon god could not have decreed such athing.”
“He didn’t,” Lucyan said archly. “I went and spoke to himmyself.”
“Youwhat?”
“Apparently,” Lucyan went on, as if he hadn’t just dropped an anvil on Drystan’s head, “there is a sacred cave a half day’s journey from here that our ancestors used to commune with the dragon god. Our father knew about the cave, as did his father before him, but he never got around to telling us about it. Shadley discovered the information in an old tome in the library, and I followed the instructions and summoned thegod.”
Drystan stared at Lucyan. “That’s…how was it?” he asked faintly. He tried to wrap his mind around actually speaking to the dragon god face to face. He had no idea such a thing was even possible! “Did you actually gaze upon him? Or was his brilliance too great tobehold?”
“His brilliance was manageable,” Lucyan said dryly. “He seemed quite cross that nobody had come to visit him in so long. He also confirmed what I suspected—the oracle is an imposter. He said the man is really a warlock named Mathias Black, and that he killed the original oracle six years ago and took his position. He is a plant, and has been working to topple our kingdom fromwithin.”
“Unbelievable.” Drystan scrubbed a hand over his face. “And he is sitting comfortably in the temple right now, free as abird?”
“Yes,” Lucyan said darkly. “And that is not all. The dragon god said that Dareena is pregnant, and that we need to get her and Alistair out of Elvenhame before great danger befalls them. They are not safethere.”
“Pregnant?” Drystan cried. For a moment, he was giddy with happiness, but his mood plummeted as the rest of what Lucyan said caught up with him. “It seems that just when I think things can’t get any worse, they do.” Guilt swamped him at the thought of Dareena in harm’s way, and pregnant with their child… “Did the dragon god say anything about thebabe?”
“He confirmed that the child, as well as the four of us, are the keys to breaking the curse,” Lucyan said, “which makes it even more important for us to get Dareena and Alistair back. The dragon god said we should focus on coming up with a plan to get them to safety rather than scramble to come up with funds for the ransom. He seemed to insinuate that if we play our cards right, everything would turn in our favor…though of course he didn’t say exactly which cards toplay.”
Drystan sighed. “Of course not. That would be far too easy.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “It seems that we have two main tasks to focus on—eliminating the oracle, and rescuing our mate andbrother.”
