Page 78 of Fated for his Flame

“You love her,” he said softly.

I blinked. I hadn’t considered it before. Cared, yes, of course. But the big word? That was a first. Even as he said it, however, I knew it was true. There was no denying it. My dragon roared its answer.

“Yes,” I said in just as low a tone. “I suppose I do. I know it’s not what you wanted. It’s not what I expected either. But I love her. She might be a spy, condemned to sit in prison for her life. But I love her, Father, and I have to get her back alive. I need to hear what she has to say about it all. I never let her have that chance. I never listened to her. She deserved that much at least. So, yes, I love her. And I am going to get her back. Are you coming with me?”

He was torn. It was easy to see on his face. His hatred of humans and desire to run the house his way was fighting with the emotion his son was showing and what it was doing to himself. I couldn’t push him any further. I’d come halfway. He had to come the rest.

If he didn’t, I would just have to accept I no longer had a father. Just a head of house. The final severing of any connection between us. He would be dead to me.

There was a lingering silence as he struggled to make up his mind. Just the fact he was taking so long spurred a moment of hope in me.

Caleb, meanwhile, shuffled to my side. His decision was clear. Shi came and took his hand.

Azarel glanced at them, then back at me. He exhaled slowly, obviously wrestling with himself. I just stared and waited. There was no more sense in pushing him. He had to decide on his own.

“I will help you retrieve the human spy,” he said at long last. “So that she may be given back into proper custody.”

“Thank you,” I said, meaning it.

Just that much was a huge step for him. He’d found a loophole that allowed him to help while not outright giving in. To anyone else, it wouldn’t seem like much. To me, it meant everything. Perhaps our relationship could be repaired after all. But that was for later.

“This won’t be easy,” he added. “We will be going into their house. Their lair. Even if we call the rest of our family that can be here on short notice, they will have the advantage. They will have everyone ready to defend. They’ve made their move. They can’t afford to fail now. There will be no surrender from any of them. We’ll be vastly outnumbered.”

“No, you won’t.”

For the first time, the sovereign intervened in our conversation. Until then, she’d sat and patiently waited, despite our argument interrupting the report from her guard.

“They attacked the palace,” she said coldly. “They attacked my men. My guards. I will not stand idly by and suffer that insult. Vicek!”

The heir to the dragon kingdom stepped forward sharply. “Yes, my Sovereign?”

“We have been attacked. We no longer have to stand on the sidelines. Assemble your men.”

“Of course. Our mission?”

The sovereign’s eyes gleamed with cold hard green light. “Bring me Seth’s head.”

I grinned, though there wasn’t an ounce of joy in it.

I’m coming for you, Chloe. I’m coming. Just hold on a bit longer.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chloe

Seth and his men laughed and joked, slapping each other’s backs as they hauled me into their house, congratulating one another. Hands rose and fell with the vivid retelling of the raid on the sovereign’s palace as one after another detailed their part in the escapade and how they’d attacked this guard or helped with another.

I stayed quiet throughout. Listening. Absorbing. My eyes were covered by a hood, preventing me from seeing where we were going. I had to wonder why they bothered though, because none of them had filters. Within minutes of being bodily yanked from my cell in the middle of sleep, I’d ascertained who’d taken me, what they’d done, and where they were taking me.

It was child’s play. All I had to do was listen because the overconfident idiots had no idea what they’d done.

Assuming any sort of royalty works the same here as it does in my world, they’re in for a world of hurt.

The sovereign did not strike me as someone to stand by and do nothing. I wasn’t so naïve to think she would come after them just to save me, but she would send men to teach Seth and his friends a lesson. Of that much, I was reasonably certain. The key would be to survive the crossfire and hope they brought me back to the palace in one piece.

Escaping in the confusion was another option. I started my mind down that path as I was tossed unceremoniously into a chair. My hands were yanked roughly behind my back and tied firmly with confident, expert motions.

That would make slipping away when the inevitable attack came more difficult. I could slip from most bonds, given enough time, but whoever did them knew what he was doing. I wasn’t going anywhere without help. Perhaps in the middle of things I could find something sharp and cut them.

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