Page 5 of Dance with the Dragon Duke

When he reflected on his long life full of war and turmoil, he saw face after face, lost soul after lost soul, all the people hehadn’t been able to save. He’d been responsible for many. He’d been their leader. Their commander. Their duke.

He was the Duke of the Dead now. Mount Rasika had been razed. It was nothing but a tomb, just mud and rocks and salted earth.

But could this little woman be his redemption, his one chance at getting right what he’d always gotten so wrong? If he saved her, could he finally earn his peace? Perhaps then the turmoil that clung to him would release him at last.

“I’m different since they made me sick,” she pressed on, another tear sliding down her cheek and dripping off her chin. Dark’s heart fell with it. “The poison made my feet heavy, like my bones are full of cement. I’m clumsy and tired all the time. I used to love to dance, but I can hardly walk in a straight line now. They took it all from me—my hair, my grace, my peace, my strength. But I’m done with being taken from.” Her throat bobbed, and her jaw set. A bit of the Seelie fierceness he’d come to admire lit her copper eyes. “They won’t get one more thing that’s mine. The constables look at me like I’m too sickly and weak to be worthy of their belief. All I get is their pity, but damn it all, I deserve help when I ask for it!”

Unable to stand it, he trapped her next tear with his thumb, wiping the cold drop away. “Give me the night to think it over,” he said, anger clotting his voice. He knew the sort that took from the vulnerable. They were just like his father had been—brutes and tyrants that needed to be put down. They couldn’t be reasoned with, couldn’t be cured. Unredeemable. “I don’t like to make hasty decisions, and I won’t dishonor you now by agreeing out of blind sympathy. I’ll have your answer first thing in the morning.”

Her smile was sad. “I can’t really argue with that. Wish I could, though.” Briskly, she pointed to the brothel’s side entrance down the shadowed alleyway, and she hugged herselffor warmth. “I’m not a dragon, so I better get inside before I freeze to the pavers. I’ll see you in the morning.”

A drunk and his friend stumbled out of the brothel’s front entrance, and Tomorrow paused. Dark kept a sharp eye on the pair as they lumbered down the walkway and disappeared around the corner. Shuffling in closer to him, Tomorrow waited at his side until they were gone.

“Almost forgot your coat.” She started to shoulder out of it.

Dark stopped her, laying a hand on her arm. She was bone thin under the heavy wool. Tomorrow hid well the frailness of her prolonged illness. He wouldn’t know the history of her body’s struggle at just a glance, but now that he was looking for the signs, they were there, and they were stark.

Thinking again of tyrants and bullies, a muscle in his jaw jumped. “I’ll collect the coat from you when we talk in the morning.”

“If you insist.” She slid her arms back inside the long sleeves and parted from him, dwarfed by the massive garment. Her skirts dusted the ground. Her feet left dainty prints in the snow. The combination was so pitiful he could hardly stand it.

Fury on her behalf raised his body temperature. Thicker clouds of steam billowed from his tail and horns. He held his tongue as she navigated the alleyway, getting swallowed up by the night. The duke watched over her until he heard the door open and shut and he was satisfied she’d made it safely inside.

As he leaned his weight against the nearby lamppost, the metal groaned in protest. The last of the crowd filtered out of the theatre across the street, and a carriage pulled by four lean Lunar horses rumbled by. A constable walked his beat, eyeing the dragon duke with interest before turning down the next street.

Dark was about to go inside, but instinct kept him in place. His keen ears picked up the sound of nearing footsteps. Fourmen appeared from around the same corner the stumbling pair had disappeared behind moments ago. The first he recognized immediately as the drunk from before, except he wasn’t acting intoxicated any longer and he’d pulled the hood of his cloak up to shade parts of his face. The duke lowered his eyes and reached into his jacket lapel, acting as though he were searching for his tobacco and rolling papers, concealing his interest in the new group.

Two of the men were immortal: one horned Lunar fae with blue skin, the other with a ruddy tail like a fox. The remaining two, including the faux drunk, appeared to be human. They slowed as they came closer to the duke and his lamppost. He pretended not to notice them, and they did the same. Instead of making for the brothel entrance, they headed down the shadowed alley.

No, you fucking don’t.

Dark trailed the scoundrels at a distance. A trickster with the ability to magically change his shape, the duke’s finger morphed into the sharpened claw of his dragon form. He scratched open his forearm, accessing his magic. Bright black blood met winter’s chill and steamed. The smell of brimstone rent the air.

He covered himself in a glamour, making his broad body unnoticeable, sacrificing his life force for magic. Blood that seeped from the cut evaporated, feeding the spell.

The fae with a fox tail checked over his shoulder. He looked straight through Dark, then motioned his friends toward the side entrance. “This is where she usually comes and goes,” he told his companions.

“We should slip in now and grab the Seelie bitch, quick like,” the horned one said. “They’s busy as bees in there. Nobody’d notice a thing.”

“Not rutting likely.” The hooded human scoffed. “Someone might well notice, and I’m not getting paid enough to bring theblimming Bloody Queen of Night down on me. I vote we wait here in shifts till she steps out again. Then we stick her, dump her in a bin, and get our coin.”

Dark saw red. It seethed through him, hot as molten lava from the Hell Mountains. Fueled by it, his tail elongated. In one powerful swipe, he hit the faux drunk, knocking him to the ground. The mortal went limp against the stones and didn’t get back up again. With another whip of heavy scales, Dark pinned the ruffian with a fox tail to the brick side of the brothel.

The horned fae cried out before lunging at the duke. Dark blocked the blow, catching his fist against his forearm. He grappled with the blue-skinned fae, shoving his bulk against the wiry frame of his attacker.

Dark caught the gleam of metal in his peripheral as the fourth scoundrel pulled a blade from his cloak and stabbed at him. The duke attempted a block, shoving the blade down. The attacker drove the dagger into Dark’s thigh, cutting through wool and thick flesh. Searing pain radiated from the wound. The duke howled at the sky.

The Lunar fae wrapped his hands around Dark’s throat and squeezed. The duke brought his weight down against the bend of the attacker’s arms and broke the hold. He head-butted the scoundrel, the curve of his horns connecting with the attacker’s nose, and the Lunar fae stumbled back.

But Dark’s reprieve was short-lived. The human had another weapon at the ready. The duke smelled salt and iron, and his lungs hitched.

Iron was poisonous to immortals. He winced, ready for a burn like hellfire to consume him. The human brandished the blade, crouching into a fighter’s stance.

The window above Dark’s head flew open. Shrieking like a battle-hungry banshee, Tomorrow launched herself from the sill, bringing down the bladed attacker under her weight.Knocked loose, the dagger clattered against the pavers. Susan and Margot poured out the side entrance. The madam swung a fire-poker threateningly, while Margot waved a mop like it was a broadsword.

Together the women screamed like murderous harpies. Tomorrow swung her fists wildly, battering the human beneath her into the stone alleyway. Dark knew by the madness of her strikes that she hadn’t been in any fights before. But what she lacked in form, she made up for in enthusiasm.

Dark’s thigh oozed black blood around the blade. He limped forward and caught the horned fae by the throat, pinning him to the wall beside his co-conspirator.

---